Mr. Casey aboard one of our outsourced teams – AHPC – sailed to a second place in the F18 class and second overall. He gives his account of his race and shares some great pictures. Check out his story at:
http://www.johncaseyworldwide.com/?p=1793
After a long week treking up the coasts of Florida and Georgia, the teams pulled into Tybee Island yesterday. The ground crew was eating lunch, thinking we had a little time to eat according to the SPOT tracker. We looked out on the horizon and saw two spinnakers, so we hauled down to the finish. Royal Yellow hit the beach first, followed by TVS one minute later. Trey and Bailey needed to finish within 8 minutes of them for first place in the I20 class.
Bugaboo was next ashore, followed by Seacats Orange. JC and Dalton came in hot and dazzled spectators with their stylish finish.
The next Velocity boat in was TVS 4. Ryan and Don made it in after breaking their spinnaker tack line block. They had to beach it down the coast to fix earlier in the afternoon. Brett and Alan broke an upper rudder casting and punctured one hull during one of their capsizes yesterday. Sandbars and jellyfish reaked havock on our guys! Cat in the Hat rounded out the day.
There were many proud parents, family members, and happy ground crew on the beach yesterday! Thanks to Don’s dad for the rum punch for everyone!
Thanks also to all of our sponsors who made this year’s Tybee 500 campaign a sucess! We appreciate your support!
The boats shoved off at 8am this morning for the last leg. The water was pretty much glass, and they carried their kites off the beach. Today includes a tour of the Georgia coast. Ryan was looking at the
charts this morning and noticed one place they will pass is called The Hole… Just north of Cumberland Island. They will see lots of jellyfish and other wildlife today.
Wildlife? No, it's Tad emerging from the surf after pushing TVS 2 off the beach
One notable quote from Don last night, after many battles with jellies the last few days…”I wish my boat was a jellyfish. And then it would poop out little jelly fish and make other people’s rudders pop up like mine have been.” I think they are getting a little delusional….good thing we only have one more day!
All of the boats made it in before dark once again yesterday. The ground crews were very relieved! We only had one repair to make, replace the dagger board well carpet on Kirk and Sam’s boat.James displayed his talents for repairs.
Don and Ryan finally realized that they had a red ball taped to their spinnaker pole, courtesy of Seacats White. They were wondering why Chris was asking what their reindeer names were yesterday….
Zesty the Reindeer
Everyone got to bed for the early 8am start this morning. More from after the start!
Another smooth morning at Daytona. The boats were set off from the beach with their spinnakers up and flew out of the pushers’ hands once they caught some wind. Don and Ryan had a last minute replacement of their rudder spring, caught by Chris Zander of Seacats White.
Don is thinking "Glad we caught this now!"
All of the ground crews stopped in Flagler at High Tides and had a great lunch overlooking the water. We got there a little late to see everyone breeze by the shack.
We are driving through St Augustine right now. Shuttle launch at 2:20pm. We were able to see it!!!!
Hard to make out the shuttle, but it was hauling!
The boats have all landed, and it is not dark yet! Yeah! We just had a wonderful dinner by the daytona Hobie fleet! Thanks guys!!!
Trey had a fight to the finish with Royal Yellow. Yellow won out by seconds at the finish. Next in was the Wildcat, then JC, then Cat in the hat, Brett and Alan, Sam and Kirk, then Don and Ryan.
The water is not working in the hotel , so we have some salty sailors.
A calm set of rollers greeted the boats at the start this morning. Many if the boats used paddles to help get past the breakers. Alan of TVS 3 climbed out on the bow and used his massive wingspan to paddle out. Their boat was the only one that had an issue. As they were going through the breakers, their main slipped off the ring and slouched on them. They waited I
until the were clear of the breakers, they were able to hoist it.
Mischa and Eduard had more daggerboards overnighted that arrived yesterday. From reports, it appears that they are moving a little slower than the front of the pack, maybe another one broke on them.
Thanks to Seacats White for helping out with spare parts for our Velocity boats! We were sad to see them pull out yesterday due to that rear beam splitting on them. The boat has been retired from ocean racing under current management.
Ground crew is heading up the coast now to grab some BBQ. Hopefully it will not be late night in Daytona!
Don and Ryan of TVS 2 at the finish at Cocoa Beach
That’s a phrase coined by our team manager, Allie, today while on the beach waiting for the last few boats. They were all in before sundown, which has not been an obtainable goal in years past. The only boat that didn’t make this entire leg was our dear friends Chris and Dave of Seacats white. They pulled in around Jensen Beach. Haven’t heard the entire story, but will tomorrow.
The happiest crew this afternoon was Brett and Alan, whose only major issue was some guy from the caribean slammed into the boom out on the water. Has a non-natural curve now.
Kirk and Sam had some definite skills maneuvering in with one rudder (the other was broken), and their mainsheet shackle thing ( I can’t remember what it’s technically called) broke too so there was a free floating boom aboard.
There was some swimming today, as almost everyone that I talked to flipped at least once. They wanted to maintain their skills today since they had such copious amounts of water time yesterday. After everyone was ashore, they tested their PFD’s in the pool and swam some more. Are these guys fish or dolphins or something?
Early night to bed for some of the sailors and a later night for the ground crew who just went to eat dinner. Lots to fix tonight!
The boats took off from Jupiter this morning in the midst of some steep breakers and wind at 15 from the east. They started on a starbird tack this morning and had some rocks up the beach with which to contend. The two on the pin for the start, JC/Dalton and Frank/Jake appeared to have a little bit of difficulty clearing the breakers, but were able to ride past them. There were no flips or broken anythings as a result of this start. The water was much tamer than yesterday. The pushers said there was a quick drop off after a few steps, but the boats were flying out of their hands pretty fast.
Seacats White (Chris and Dave) were a little delayed getting off the beach, as they were finishing repairs on their rear beam. Home Depot isn’t open 24 h… They had to make a run for a big drill bit this morning. They did get off with what appeared to be no problem from what we could make out from our balcony.
Brett and Alan met with the race comittee this morning and they were on the line this morning. Brett might have some flares stuffed in his PFD today.
The ground crew made a unanimous decision while we were refreshing ourselves in the pool after the start that the race should just go north-south everyday centered from Jupiter. We love the Jupiter Beach Resort so much! Nice pool, spa, and bar.
More when we get up the road.
Unrig, rig. Seems like the story of the day. TVS 2 is re-rigging the Blue Wombat here at Jupiter. All boats are in. We made it up here in time to see Alan and Brett come ashore, followed shortly by Sam and Kirk.
Brett and Alan safely back on the beach
Kirk and Sam heading to the finish at Jupiter
We were very relieved that Brett was reunited with the boat. The hook in for his harness on the trap wire sheared off and he went flying into the water. There were giant swells and by the time Alan could get the boat under control and depower, it was difficult to spot Brett. He circled around to look for him, but couldn’t lay eyes on him. A very scary situation! I think both were very shook up over the ordeal.
Alan taking a breather with his fiance Cristina
Brett happy there are no sharks on land
After we get things sorted here, time for a good night’s sleep!
Ryan and Don are ready to try out their new hats tomorrow