(I'm really sorry that so many posts have to be from "mary," but this is where all the e-mails come into, so I just keep passing them on to keep people informed. The magazine doesn't come out frequently enough to keep up with the breaking news. This e-mail is from Steve Piche, organizer of The Great Texas.)
From: "Steve Piche"
Subject: Great Texas Update
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 10:06:22 -0500
To all Racers,
We have been working on several issues for the Great Texas Catamaran Race. (For more information on the race, see pisailing.com.) Here is an update…
Great Texas Meeting: There will be a meeting on the Great Texas race on Sunday morning of Hill Country Regatta at 8 am. We will be covering rules, logistics and any other items. Please attend if you are at Hill Country.
Site Locations: The sites are now selected for the Great Texas. Here are the sites. (We will provide maps and exact GPS in a booklet that will be available in early May on the PI Sailing web site.)
Start: Country Park, South Padre (Camping on the beach available. No facilities)
First Stop: North Padre National Seashore, North most part of Malaquite Beach (Camping on the beach, showers, bathrooms available)
Second Stop: J-Hook on Matagorda. Boats will transport ground crew, volunteers and spectators from Port O’Connor Docks (Camping on remote beach)
Third Stop: Stalhman Park, Surfside, (Camping on the beach with facilities and showers)
Final Stop: Cat Alley, Galveston.
Hotels: We have hotels for the following sites. (Please make reservations as soon as possible. Web rates are cheaper than group rates so I have not set up a block of rooms):
SPI: You can stay on the beach or you can stay at the Travel Lodge South Padre (we recommend a hotel because you will probably spend the next two nights on the beach) – Rooms available at $45 on the web (www.travelodge.com) or call directly for $49 at 956-761-4744
North Padre: Recommend camping on the beach. Hotel rooms available about 15 miles from site. May have to go back into Corpus to find a cheaper room. We are not designating a group hotel because we expect most teams will stay on the beach.
Matagorda: No hotel will be available. Sailing teams will sleep on the beach.
Surfside: After two nights on the beach, we think people may be ready for a hotel. Therefore, we have designated a regatta hotel for your convenience. This is a busy weekend for Surfside, therefore, no hotels have one night stays. Instead, we have found a hotel in Clute (10 miles from the regatta site), that has availability for one night reservations, the Days Inn of Clute. Once again, it is cheaper ($39 per night) to make a reservation via the web at http://www.daysinn.com or call directly at 979-265-3301 for $49 rate.
Rules: We had a final review with race committee on the rules. We have made minor changes since I released the first draft in early March. I am going to update the rules and put them on the PI Sailing site in the next couple of days. We will finalize the rules after the Hill Country meeting. I am trying to give everyone a chance to make comments. Getting the rules right is very important.
Party: Team Austin, Beuerlein and Davis, will be sponsoring a party at the North Padre site. Are any other teams or groups interested in sponsoring any parties?
T-shirts Available: T-shirts are now available for race participants and sponsors. I will have some at Longneck and Hill Country. Thanks to Patric at Horizon Sportswear.
Volunteers: I am still looking for volunteers. Also, would like more boats for the J-hook. We currently have 2, but I would like more.
Registered: We have nine boats registered. However, Dave McDaniel, who is registered, is out due to a broken leg. I continue to get more inquiries. We may pick up a couple of more boats. Expect 8-10 boats.
PI Sailing Site: I have updated the PI Sailing site. http://www.pisailing.com/. It has a graphic showing the course.
Steve Piche
PI Sailing