Hogsbreath - Keys 100 Becomes a True "Survivor" Race

Nineteen boats registered for this annual 100-mile trip down through the beautiful water of the Florida Keys. The course runs down the Bay Side of the Keys for about 40 miles and then the fleet heads to Hawk Channel (deep water channel between the islands and the reef) on the Ocean Side.

Normally the race is a downwind sleight ride in winds of 12-15 knots. But that was not to be this year. The race started in winds that were predictably right on the nose. And the forecast said that would be the case all the way. But five minutes after the start a very cold blast of air from the north and from behind the fleet hit with gusts of over 45 knots. Seven boats went over immediately. Three of those were out of the race from that moment on.

Eric and Bill Roberts on a Supercat 20 broke a rudder and had to retire; JR Fowler and Amanda Comunate on a Bimare Javelin 2 ripped their sail and dropped out; Jay and Mike Roth on an Inter 20 had troubles and ended their trek; and Frank Dimeo and Adam Szepesi on a Nacra 6.0 were also forced out of the race.

The wind and rains continued to howl all day long and the fleet showed even more attrition -- they were dropping out all along the shore.

But, surviving it all was Marc Newlyn and Jim Barrett on a stock Nacra 6.0NA (sans spinnaker). They hit the finish line on Sombrero Beach in Marathon with no other boats in sight. And most of the boats owed them time on the handicap basis. They had flipped the boat several times and said their object was to just stay upright.

24 minutes later Team Tybee Island (Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce) landed with all but on batten in their mainsail broken. The boat and the sailors looked broken and beaten. Following by only seven minutes was Hans Barth and Jamie Livingston on the a Tornado.

Pete Melvin flew in from California to helm an Inter 20 with Dave Woolsey. This team was the next boat in, followed by Scott and Dior Hubel on a Hobie Tiger.

By 4:30 PM all of the surviving boats had finished -- nine in total. All of the other boats were accounted for. A beer bash and dinner party was attended by the sailors, both survivors and non-survivors. They all told their horror stories and licked their wounds.

The Second Day -- Much More Sane

Winds were much lighter on the second leg from Marathon to Key West. Hans Barth and Jamie Livingston motored their Tornado to line honors at Smathers Beach, edging out Tybee Island by six minutes. Tom and Erik Worthmann sailed their Inter 20 across the line 3rd just minutes ahead of Pete Melvin and Dave Woolsey, also on an Inter 20

Marc Newlynn and Jim Barrett on a Nacra 6.0NA without spinnaker just coasted the last leg after having such a huge lead on the first day, and finished with the best overall time of six hours, seventeen minutes, still ten minutes ahead of Tybee Island. On handicap they won by nearly an hour.

Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce of Tybee Island took second on corrected time, followed by Hans Barth and Jamie Livingston.

Hogsbreath Saloon is throwing a big party for the awards.

This Account of the Race is by Jim Barrett

The first story is from Jim Barrett. He was the crew on board Marc Newlyn's Nacra 6.0. He reports:

What a hoot. That was the ride of a lifetime. I have never gone that
fast on a beach cat.

The race started on time at 10:00. The forecast was for 15 knots out of the south moving southwest later in the day. We were prepared. Marc had
just installed a downhaul for the jib and at the start of the race it
worked great. We were high and 2nd behind Tom and Eric Worthmann on their
I-20. We had a perfect line for Baker Cut when we got hit with a 30
degree drop in temperature. I looked over my right shoulder and saw a
sky of black that only moments ago was just slightly gray. I saw the
gust screaming towards us across the water and mumbled some 4 letter
expletives and at some point said, "HOLD ON." The boat jerked up and out
of the water, Marc headed up, popped the main sheet, and yelled in futility
for me to pop the jib sheet. I couldn't because I was already
heading for the top of the mast.

We went over, I grabbed the starboard shroud and hung there until I
saw Marc hit the sail and then I too fell, only into the mast. I looked
to my right and the Worthmann's were on their side. I looked further
downwind and saw both of the Javelin 2s and one of the Super Cat 20's on their side . We tried to spin the boat to right it, but the wind was so stong the tramp was sailing the boat faster than either of us could swim. Marc yelled at me to not let go of the boat. I later found out he had
been separated from his Super Cat 17 a few years earlier in a similar
scenario. My spray jacket and our paddle were floating away. I grabbed
both and pulled myself to the hulls and we righted the boat. Much to our
dismay we were heading back to the starting line.

The sheets and trapeze wires were a tangled mess and we finally
got turned around sheeted in and ....just about came to a stop. We then
realized the wind was now behind us and blowing at a cold 30 knots. It
was then that we realized that we were in last place, another few 4
letter words. We were the last ones, who were able to continue, to get our boat
up. We saw one of the Javelin 2s limping back with a shredded main. Frank
Dimeo's Nacra 6.0 stalled. We later found out that he broke his rudder bar and
couldn't steer. The Roberts' were struggling to gain control of their
Super Cat-20 which also had some sort of steering problem.

As we passed through Baker's Cut, an I-20 and the Hobie Tiger
went over. Two down 11 to go. We pulled the boards up and headed for the
east side of Pigeon Key. We had the main traveled all the way out. We
watched as 2 more boats went over and the rest headed for the west side
of Pigeon Key. We skidded across the skinny, with rudders kicked up and
passed 4 more boats.

As we approached the Ramshorn Shoal, we could see all the boats
in front of us round up into the wind. Then we could see the rain
blowing horizontally and hard. It looked as if hell had opened and
unleashed its fury on us plastic boat people. Again we looked at each
other and said, "uh oh" or something synonymously clever and we headed
up and sheeted in bracing for the worst, and then it came. I have never
heaved to in a beach cat, but now I know you can and how to do
it. I was lying down as far forward as I could with the jib sheeted in
hard and the mast snap rotating back and forth. I had both feet planted
on the mast trying to get it to stop rotating so hard. I thought the
main would blow apart at any minute. Marc had both hands on the helm
just trying to keep us into the wind. We found out later that it was blowing at 46 knots offshore at the reef. It was at least that much where we were.

After an eternity (read 3-5 minutes) we decided to go for it. We
fell off the wind and took off leaving a rooster tail of spray behind
us. We passed the remaining boats including Jamie and Hans on the
Tornado as we passed through the Cross Bank and then through Steamboat
Channel. Jamie and Hans were right behind us for the next 45 minutes. I
believe they had a rudder problem and we started to pull away ever so
slightly. This ride was barely controllable, we were traveled and
sheeted completely out with the main and I was controlling our speed
with the jib sheet. The bows would occasionally bury and we would both
be thrown forward and recover only by letting the jib sheet fly. We
turned dead downwind and were actually able to wing and wing the boat
across the thin water from Bowlegs Cut to the Channel 5 Bridge. We saw
the Tornado go over shortly after the Cut. After we went under the
bridge we saw no one for the rest of the ride to Sombrero Beach. Much to
our surprise and pleasure we finished 24 minutes ahead on Kenny and
Steve.

The start on Sunday was off the beach through a couple of marks.
This was way better than the Le Mans start that was proposed on Saturday
night. Sombrero Beach is tight at the north end and there would have
been some damage done had we all started there. The start was uneventful.
The entire leg was a choppy close reach almost the whole way to Key West.
We took turns doing pirouettes on the wire due to the 3-5 ft seas and
the occasional rogue wave that knocked our feet out from under us. My
hat was completely off to Marc. He did the mainsheet and steered the
boat without booties on a freshly waxed hull. We were 6th across the
line. We had lost a place to the Hobie Tiger but gained it back after the seas
laid down a little and we finally got the boat dialed in.

We had a 24 minute lead uncorrected on Saturday. With the I-20
owing us almost 4 minutes an hour, so we thought we might not have held on to
the lead as we watched them finish and watched the clock. We manage to
hold on to win on total elapsed time as well as corrected time.

Jim Barrett

Tom Worthmann's Account of the Race

This next account comes from Tom Worthmann. He sailed his Inter 20 with his son Erik.

Those were the highest winds we have ever encountered. Erik and I would have been first through the channel right after the start and we were the first to get hit with a microburst that flipped us violently. When we finally got the boat back up we were sailing back to the start line at a high speed. We turned around and what had been a beat turned into a downwind sleigh ride with everything depowered and still way too much wind.
I just let the sheet and traveler go and held on to the hiking strap and tiller. 30 minutes later got hit with another violent burst of wind. The boom hit me on the top of the head and Erik catapulted from the boat. Since there was mud on the end of the spinnaker pole, we figured the boat cartwheeled and left me hanging on my wire with the bungee cord broken. When I turned around in the water I saw Erik about 10 feet behind me with nothing attached to the boat. Suddenly the boat started dragging at about 5 plus knots downwind. I reached my hand out for Erik and as powerful as he is, he swam to my fingers and pulled himself past me and the right up the wire to the mast which he held on to because he thought the wind would get under the sail and flip us again.
I just kept my head up out of the water and washed the blood off my head and glasses. I figured as fast as we were dragging, I really didn't have to worry about sharks. About 20 minute later the wind abated and I climbed on the hull behind the tramp and sat in the lee with Erik shivering in the rain.
We watched the approaching mangroves wondering what to do. And then we saw an opening (Community Harbor, I think) just large enough to fit the boat thru on its side. We pulled the boat into the lee of the mangroves and ate some granola bars and relaxed. An hour later we peeked around the entrance and decided to sail on, just thankful that we were still alive.
We sailed close to one area we thought might have been a cat but it was 2 house boats or some weird arrangement. We saw another boat just thru channel 5 bridge but it was beached on its side. We made it to Sombrero Beach . Maybe an EPIRB would be nice ?

Tom Worthmann

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