Velocity Sailing

ikoniиконописFinally got around to making the music video for Gilligan’s Run. Hope you enjoy.

Crank up the speakers.

икони на светциHello there,

Long time, no update.  Things have slowed down considerably around here.  The mid summer weather doesn’t give us very exciting sailing conditions so there’s always a lull between June and August where the boats stay on the trailers and everyone stays in the air conditioning.

This past weekend we knocked the cobwebs off of ole Undecided and took her over to Gilligan’s Run over in Daytona Beach – hosted by the awesome people at Hobie Fleet 80.  The race is basically a sprint up and down the beach for a grand total of about 26 miles.  I haven’t actually downloaded the GPS data yet but I think thats about correct based on some very unscientific measurements on Google Maps.

We had 2 GoPro HD’s running on the boat and got some great footage.  I’ll be making a music video here soon enough but in the meantime, here are some stills to show you some of the action:

иконографияКартиниAs you very well may have heard if you are informed on Catamaran racing in North America – the 2011 iteration of the Tybee 500 is not going to happen due to a lack of entries.  While Team Velocity was prepared to enter five boats, and possibly more, the race cannot survive based on only two syndicates putting boats on the starting line.

Chuck Bargeron has done a wonderful job being the financial steward of this race over the years.  Unfortunately the balance sheet just wouldn’t add up for 2011 with only nine entries.  We respect his decision to wait until 2012 to run the race but we are also disappointed that we will not get to spend a week with our fellow competitors and friends.

Team Velocity Sailing was created in 2005 with the sole purpose of entering the Tybee 500.  Since then, we have participated in every iteration.  In 2009 we entered an unprecedented five teams plus performed logistics for another team in an effort to promote interest in the race.  We remain committed to participating in the 2012 running of the Tybee 500 and will have boats on the starting line.

2009 Tybee 500 TVS Sailors

секцииMr. 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

I figured I might as well give my thoughts regarding the weather forecasts for the race this year.  At this point, the only reliable forecasts I can really credit with speculation are for the first two legs.

From Islamorada, the boats have to travel North East to get around the gentle curve of the Florida Keys.  As they get around North Key Largo – the land mass all of a sudden leaves their port side and sights of Miami’s skyline can be see off the port bow.  This is also when you can start heading almost zero degrees due north if the wind allows it.

As the forecast models have been refined over the past week, the direction and the speed have expectedly changed.  However the breeze has tacked to the ENE and increased in velocity to 15 to 20 knots for Monday.  This could mean that the sailors might have to do some short tacking to fetch around the barrier islands.  Once they get to Miami, they should not have to tack anymore – and it will be a race between the N20′s and and the F18′s as to who can carry their chutes the highest  - again – for a second year in a row.  I think even the F18′s would be hard pressed to carry their spinnakers that high and in that much wind.  Comments are welcome to impart more F18 knowledge upon me.

Tuesday is about as typical beachcat reaching weather as you can get.  Wind out of the East at 18 to 20 knots.  The wave buildup will give swells from a meter and a half to two meters from the ENE so there might be an interesting launch out of Hollywood.  The hotel we are launching from this year however, has more of a sand bar off the beach than the hotel of past years and could very well block a lot of the bigger swells from reaching the beach.  Remember to watch it all on our Live Streaming page!

I can’t say that I’m altogether comfortable with two legs where there will be a lot of reaching.  The boats are pretty highly loaded on a reach, specifically the rudders and rudder castings and if the skipper isn’t careful to keep his rudders clean of seagrass then he could find himself in a situation where the castings might fail.  The venerable Todd Hart once broke a rudder casting on the leg from Hollywood to Jupiter in 2008 when he was sailing with Karl.  After cursing the manufacturer of said part for many many hours – he imparted some wisdom to the me, which he is apt to do oftentimes.  He said that you can’t push the boat to 100% of its performance 100% of the time.  It will break.  The good sailors know when to let the pedal off so the boat stays together.  Broken boats are slow.

Last week I announced that we would be streaming live video from the starts.  I with-held more information so I could legitimately test the system before I put it to the ultimate trial on the beaches of Florida.

My Verizon Droid is running a program called “Ustream Broadcaster”.  It will stream low quality but LIVE video over its 3g connection to a server where you, the consuming masses can view it in real time.  All videos will also be uploaded to our youtube channel upon successful broadcast.  We’ll link to that when the first videos are uploaded and available.

Every morning, we should begin the live broadcast at just before 9:55AM.  Since I am pushing TVS 2 (Tad), my lovely wife has agreed to hold the camera and catch as much action as possible during the actual starts.  When we go live, an update to our twitter account @velocitysailing will be made.  A couple of disclaimers I have to make:

1) Even though I’m using Verizon, I cannot guarantee that I’ll have adequate data coverage to provide this at every stop.  I cannot guarantee that Ustream will be a good connection for you.  In other words, the whole thing could fall apart on a technical level – but I’m giving it the college try.  Any complaints will be refunded their money.

2)  The work will be completely amateur.  Please do not complain about a shaky camera or wind noise blowing into the microphone because there’s likely nothing that I can do to fix it.

3) I’m doing this because, as far as I know, no other videography is taking place for the race and this event requires that someone capture the drama on the beach as it happens.

To view the live feed – you can click the LIVE FEED tab at the top of the main page – or click here.

And so it begins… another year, another round…

As I type this, caravans of vehicles from Raleigh NC – laden with sailors and their vessels are headed south to the picturesque venue of Islamorada Florida for the start of the Tybee 500.  They will arrive Friday afternoon – and begin to put together their steeds for their grueling gauntlet of a marathon race ahead of them.

Be safe drivers – you have a long drive ahead of you and remember that you’re leaving early so you can take your time getting there! That goes for all teams making their voyage south.

Lollipops and moonshine

Exciting news. The era of the live Tybee 500 coverage is upon us. It wont be cinema quality – but we are planning on offering FREE LIVE video streaming of the starts and as many finishes as possible during the race.

Check back in this space for more information soon! Broadcasting will be announced live via our twitter at @velocitysailing

Look forward to providing you this service!

While Bailey was in St. Thomas, he had the opportunity to sit down in the radio studio with Alan and spin a few records. They talked a bit about Bailey and Trey’s finish at Spring Fever, and the upcoming Tybee 500. Check it out!

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Friendship and hard work are a big part of Team Velocity.  Last week Bailey White was able to work with Alan Friedman at his home port of St Thomas.  On a day with gusts into the mid-twenties, Alan’s high end Hobie 16 was the perfect tool to practice tacks and jibes and working steep chop.  The following pictures show the small plane airlines service, Cape Air, that provides several trips a day to St Thomas from Puerto Rico.  Bailey arrived at 10:00 PM on Tuesday evening.

Alan is VP of the 104.3, the Buzz, and runs the nightly radio show there.  He spent Tuesday evening discussing the Tybee 500, Team Velocity, and in particular TVS 1 with Trey Brown and Bailey White.  Bailey gave a nice interview at the station.

Driving down from the radio station to the harbor shows incredible views at every turn.  St Thomas is incredibly mountainous and steep roads are typical.  Here you can see the spin pole mounted on the roof as we drive down to the beach where Alan keeps his Hobie ready to go.  Tuesday morning the two spent time getting crisp new white sails sponsored by del Sol beer bent on.

Even though our team is disbursed geographically, we make every effort to work together.  In fact, Alan had just traveled to Atlanta the prior week to compete in Spring Fever, the largest multihull regatta in the US.