The Fat Lady has Sung
[Day One] [Day Two] [Day Three] [GT300 Site] [Day Four]

Congratulations to Team Ruff Riders who was able to beat Team Nauti
Gear to the finish by 9 minutes and 30 seconds to win the Great Texas
by a total elapsed time of 7 minutes and 33 seconds.

John and Ian were able to gain a big lead in light, sloppy
conditions. By the time the wind filled in for a double trapped ride
to the finish, it was too late for us to make up for lost time.

We had very similar conditions to yesterday when John and Ian were
able to make a big move. They are definitely the kings of light air,
weed clearing, downwind conditions.

The awards ceremony is tonight. Results:

2007 GREAT TEXAS CATAMARAN RACE FINAL RESULTS - CORRECTED TIME
	Team Name	Crew	Boat Type	Leg 1 Corrected	Leg 2 Corrected	Leg 3 Corrected	Leg 4 Corrected	Total Corrected Time	Delta
1	TEAM RUFF RIDERS	Tomko / Billings	Nacra F18	14:08:29	13:39:38	4:35:06	4:58:03	37:21:16
2	TEAM NAUTI GEAR	Piche / McCulley	Hobie F18	13:34:06	13:42:05	5:03:59	5:13:12	37:33:22	0:12:06
3	TEAM SAILBOAT SHOP	Rohrer / Holt	Hobie 20 SP	14:13:35	14:41:31	5:19:41	5:21:16	39:36:03	2:02:41
4	TEAM TYBOK RACING	Tyrone / Beuerlein	Nacra F18	14:24:13	14:23:55	5:18:48	5:30:57	39:37:53	0:01:50
5	TEAM CHUMS	Wicklund / Aquila	Nacra 20	14:52:10	15:27:51	5:33:12	5:29:44	41:22:57	1:45:04
6	TEAM SOFA KING FAST	Yost / Wodash	Nacra 20	14:50:06	15:21:44	5:41:24	5:47:55	41:41:09	0:18:12
7	TEAM CORPUS CHRISTI	Harding / Bouton	Nacra F18	14:57:26	15:30:57	6:00:11	5:53:41	42:22:15	0:41:06
8	TEAM DALLAS	Webster / Foxall	Nacra 20	15:45:32	16:26:37	7:06:59	6:13:58	45:33:06	3:10:51
9	TEAM FLY BOYS	Rehege / Nelson	Nacra 20	15:43:52	16:45:04	6:42:10	6:23:29	45:34:35	0:01:29
10	TEAM POISON GIRL	Niggli / Baker	Nacra 20	16:51:55	16:33:42	10:53:56	6:16:34	50:36:07	5:01:32

 

Pictures by Sean Stevens:

Last Day of Racing
[Day One] [Day Two] [Day Three] [GT300 Site] [Day Four]

We got this from Steve Piche:

Well, it comes down to today's final sail between Team Nauti Gear and
Team Ruff Riders. We are separated by a razor thin 1:54 elapsed
time. We have the slightest of leads in the race. Here is some
insights into my thoughts as we head into this show down.

However, first, I need to apologized for not being on line the last
couple of days. Sailing the race and organzing the race has taken
away my time from doing updates. After Thursday's sail, I was
physically spent. My gas tank was empty 15 miles from the finish but
I had to keep push. After I got off the boat, I had to basically head
straight to bed. Yesterday was a bit intense because we had a missing
boat (Poison Girl which was eventually found and finished).

Also, it need to be pointed out that there are very close races for
3rd and 5th spot. Tybok has a seven minute lead over Team Sailboat
Shop and Yost and Chums are a mere 1 second apart for 5th. The top 6
boats can all move around so it will be an exciting day on the course.

Let me talk about the battle for first. From my perspective, if you
are going to win this race, it is going to come down to the last day.
I knew that a 20 minute lead on John Tomko was not enough to relax and
prepare my acceptance speech. John is too good of sailor not to make
a significant move. Yesterday, John just plain out sail me. He did a
horizon job on me and the rest of the fleet in some very challenging
sailing conditions.

We headed out yesterday and it was pretty lumpy. John got away from
us when we got caught in some waves in the surf line. He continued to
put time on us when we jib reached out. We both put up our spinnakers
and sailed downwind in some challenging waves. I immediately hit
something and my one rudder went up - the cam on the Tiger stayed down
and I lost more time. We struggled to keep up with John. After 10
miles we hit a nasty weed line. It last for about two miles. It felt
like the boat stopped. We sat there clearing the rudders watching
John literally sail away from us. We got out of the line and finally
got the boat moving properly. We kept up with John and started to put
distance on the rest of the fleet.

As we got towards Bryan Pt about 35 NM into the race, we started to
get monster puffs. We were trying to reach up to the point. Suddenly
the bow went down and we pitchpoled. (Lots of boats flipped yesterday
in the challenging conditions.) We got the boats up in less than 3
minutes. We headed around the point which was full of logs and sticks
adding another challenge. As we headed for home the wind started to
fill in at Mach 90. The boat was barely under control as we tried to
make the jetties at Freeport. We ended up short and had to drop the
chute which was a good thing because in the outlet the waves were very
large. Around the jetties and into the finish.

Whew, what a day. I felt like mother nature had thrown every
challenge known at us. In the end, John put on a clinic in these
challenging conditions. We did well against the rest of the fleet but
could not keep up with John.

Unfortanately for us, conditions look very similar today. It looks
like John's conditions. He likes the downwinds - I like the hard
reaches. It looks more downwind today.

But we are not ready to concede the race. We are going out there
today and we are going to fight as hard as we can. We are going to
try to win the leg. If John makes a mistake, we are going to be there
to take advantage.

I really compare this to going into the final round of a golf
tournament with a 1 stroke lead over Tiger Woods. You know 1 stroke
is not good enough but at least you are there and in the final
pairing. I have a shot and that is all that matters. Win or lose, at
least I was there and had a shot. It doesn't get any better than
that!
Game on. As my good friend Michael would say, "We're goin' sailing."
Steve Piche, Team Nauti Gear