Velocity Sailing

First things first.

My apologies for not getting any updates yesterday.  It was quite a stressful time on the beach waiting for the boats to arrive while standing in torential downpours and lightning striking all around me.  Once Tybee came in, I started getting real nervous since Velocity hadn’t been but a couple of minutes either behind or in front of Tybee all race except for the legs where we had mechanical failures.

Apparently, according to Kenny Pierce, Tybee caught the front end of a nice squall about 30 miles into the race.  When they came out of the squall, no other teams could be found.  Velocity and Marley’s Yellow came in an hour later after Tybee, literally on top of each other (But Velocity in front!)

This put Velocity overall in 3rd place behind Tybee and Marley’s Yellow.  Overall it was a great week for Velocity.  We clearly had boat speed on the rest of the fleet but we were plagued by just bad luck mechanical failures.  Next year is our year.  Two boats will at least be present for Team Velocity.

Velocity would like to thank all of its sponsors for supporting us this year – particularly DryUV for allowing us to get exposure on SailingAnarchy.com.  We hope to continue our success next year with all our sponsors on board!

The final chapter has begun. Anything can and will happen on this leg so the boys brought spare gudgeons with them this time. We got a great push from Ryan and Velocity was first through the surf. Our buddies on Accelerated Chaos broke their casting in the surf but Team Seacats volunteered their rudder system since they elected to not race today. See you in Tybee

Storms are predicted along the coast of Georgia today, and some powerful storms are predicted late tonight in Tybee Island.  The race committee has decided to go ahead and push the start up by an hour so that the teams have extra time to get into the beach and unrig their boats before the storms get truely nasty.  As it is, the SSE breeze at 15-20 knots with higher gusts won’t be fun.  “Damaging Winds” is what the weather service describes it as.  Not fun for lightweight, high-powered catamarans riding swells.  Here is the link to the current Tybee Island Conditions so you can follow along with the action.  St. Simons Island is the last place on this leg where the ground crew can render assistance to the team which is about 50 miles away from the finish.  There’s nothing between there and Tybee thats habitable, developed or accessible

Below is a picture of the eyebolt that let go yesterday and caused all the problems on the beach.  Pity that such a small yet vital part caused our boys to not come in first.

About 10 miles north of the Daytona checkpoint, Velocity broke a rudder gudgeon. The shore team rondeavous’d withe the boat and lgot the guys the tools to get it fixed. Trey said that at the time the rudder broke they had just pulled ahead of Team Tybee. They are back on the water now hopefully hauling ass.

Velocity got a great push from Ryan Boyle and was the first boat to pop their chute.

Go get em boys!

Here’s a picture by James Boicourt of the Jupiter start.  Of course we’re not on the pole position here because of the tiller crossbar fiasco but its still a beautiful picture.  Some of you might recognize James as a ground crew member from years past.  He got a new camera and has decided to come take lots of pictures for us along the way.  He only gives me a couple every once in a while and internet access has been spotty at best.

Team Velocity followed up its bullet yesterday with a strong second place finish today in morw challenging conditions rounding Cape Canaveral.  Velocity lead for most of the race but had to turn back with 2 miles left to race when Alan Stewart fell off the boat.  Trey had to douse the chute and return to Alan who was more than a quarter mile offshore.
The front runners separated themselves from the rest of the fleet today.  There was a little bit of everything as the teams had to respect a 3 mile boundary going around the shuttle on the pad at Cape Canaveral.  One boat lost its mast and had to be towed into Port Canaveral while the above average surf coming into Daytona.  The F18 broke its daggerboard, spin pole and tore its spinnaker up while Marley’s White manged to avoid a capsize in the surf but the rudder system was damaged.
Tomorrow’s leg features the rounding of the Jacksonville Jetty which can cause troubles for the teams if not properly navigated.

Cocoa Beach Florida-
Strong northeast breeze challenged all the teams today, but Team Velocity overcame a 9th place pole position early and extended its lead all day.
After 20 miles, team velocity had taken their Nacra 20 to second place, trading tacks with seasoned veterans Kenny Pierce and Jamie Livingston on Team Tybee. At the next spotting they were clear ahead and had extended their lead by 5 minutes a mere 15 miles later at Fort Pierce Inlet.
Team Velocity finished around 830 PM putting the team on the water, beating against the wind, double-trapped for ten and a half hours. Trey and Alan are exhausted but in great spirits and looking forward to rounding Cape Canaveral tomorrow with an easterly breeze It will be another beat around the restricted waterspace bouys then a tight spin reach to the finish.

Team Velocity is pround to supported by DryUV. They keep us dry and keep us fast.

(pics to follow in morning….got some goos lowlight beach landing shots)
Tad out.

Eta seems to be correct.