The Tybee 500 Race Coverage

Team Tybee Island Wins the Tybee 500
For Awards Pictures and Story, Click Here!

Anxiously the spectators on the beach waited and watched for boats on the horizon in winds that seemed to be dying. Finally, a lone boat appeared on the horizon. The boat was Coconut Grove Sails crewed by Carla Schiefer and Clive Mayo. They hit the beach with a bravado from the crowd.

And there was not another boat in sight. This team enter the last leg of the race about 45 minutes behind the leader. If the other boats were slower than that time, they would win. But, the clock ticked too slow and the other boats were coming too fast.

Second boat to finish was Rod Waterhouse and Rob Remmer on Team Pirates. They as well needed to make up over 40 minutes to overtake the leaders.

And the leaders were Team Tybee Island. Sure enough, enough ticks could not take place and Tybee hit the beach in 3rd spot for the leg, but took the overall victory easily, with lots of room to spare.

For Official Results, click here!

As it was just about dark, it was difficult to get much in the way of photography, but here is what we did capture:

Team Coconut Grove Sails aproaches the beach for the final finish

Just a few hundred feet to go.

Rod Waterhouse and Rob Remmer of Team Pirates won the battle against Tybee Island, but lost the war. They could not make up the 40+ minutes they were behind. This team sailed a great second half of the race. Had their ealier legs been better, they would have been in great shape to take the overall victory.

Right behind Team Pirates was John Casey and Kenny Pierce of Team Tybee Island. At this point they knew they had the overall victory. As sort of a victory lap, they were the only team that popped the spinnaker and finished with a flurry. The 2005 Champions of the Tybee 500 are Team Tybee Island. Here is their last hurrah as they come to the beach:

And here is a jubilant Kenny Pierce of Team Tybee Island

Team Sailmax I has been a contender the entire race. They often led Tybee Island but just could not cut into the time lead their opponent had. A great job by Mike Krantz and Dave Lennard.

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Beside the usual videographers, Robert and Jeanine Feldman, being on the beach, we could not help but notice two others that were right in there filming. I finally had a chance to ask and the answer was a great surprise.

C & H Productions of New Mexico were here filming the entire race for TV. It will be aired twice in June on the Outdoor Life Network, or OLN. By the way, this is a great network to tune into often. They have some really great programs.

The director offered to send some footage of the race to www.catsailor.com and we will post it as soon as we get it – should be in 4-6 weeks. The production is sponsored by Coca Cola and Powerade. So, now that we know who is trying to help out sailors, we now know which sodas and drinks to buy, don’t we?

This is Michelle, producer for C&H

And this is the camerman, Ray

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Robert Feldman dropped off a copy of the 2004 Tybee 500 Video Highlights for review. And I must say he did a great job of capturing the dramatic finish of the race. Featured was the exciting last minute crash by Team Castrol, thereby almost losing the race overall. Very nicely done by Feldman. To get a copy you can go to our Classified Ads page and get the information.

 

Awards Time

Jim and Roxy Stone through their usual steak breakfast on Saturday after the races. Then they were surprised to hear the awards also were going to be presented at their house. They graciously set things up and the presentations went splendidly.

The first presentation was for the Annual Lee Queensbury Award which was presented to Neil Wilson. For years Wilson was Queensbury's right-hand man on the beach and has fallen into the major task of filling those rather large shoes.

Wilson tried to say something, but he had a hard time choking back tears.

Here are the sailors in order of their finish, from 10th to 1st.

10th Place was Team Velocity, Trey Brown and Tad Pecorak

9th place was Team Spacecoast, Charles Tomeo and Mark Herendeen

8th place was St Louis Catsailors missed awards. They are Mike Hill and John MacDonald

7th place is Sailmax.biz II, Carl Roberts and Jake Kohl

6th place was Frank Moore and Mike Ferrara

5th place is Keys Sailing, Harry Newkirk and Charlie Trinque

4th place was Sailmax.biz I, Mike Krantz and Dave Lennard

3rd place was Pirates of the Tybeean, Rod Waterhouse and Rob Remmer

2nd place was Coconut Grove Sails with Carla Schiefer and Clive Mayo

and the Winners were Team Tybee Island, John Casey and Kenny Pierce

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Pretty Easy Start for a Long Day
The winds stayed at around 5 mph out of the northeast as the fleet went through some very small waves on the way for the journey from Fernandina Beach, Florida to Tybee Island, Georgia.

It was obvious from the start that Team Tybee will be sticking to both Sailmax I and Team Pirates like glue. Tybee has a pretty comfortable lead going into this last leg, but they dare not take any chance by going off somewhere by themselves. It doesn’t take much of an error to lose an hour or so.

All the teams started on port tack to clear the surf. Sailmax II was the first to tack to starboard and head down the beach. The rest followed soon thereafter.

There will probably be no beach scouts today letting us know positions during the race -- to get to the beaches for viewing is quite a task and would entail a tremendous amount of extra driving. Sometimes when the air gets lighter the teams cell phone to their ground crew and we often can get information that way, but if the winds build to 15 mph today, don't count on it.

Here are pictures of the start:

This was just as the gun went off

Photographers and videographers work hard at capturing the moment

The surf was pretty small and none of the teams had trouble navigating through it.

Team Sailmax I (blue stripe on hull) had some troubles with the daggerboards which allowed Team Tybee and Pirates to slip into a bit of a lead

Tybee (r) and Pirates (l) begin a 100+ mile match race. Here Tybee maintains a good enough lead that when they tacked to starboard, they crossed ahead.

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Team Pirates and Spacecoast Get Back Their Time Penalty

Last night the PRO (Principal Race Officer) of the event rescinded his decision to penalize Team Pirates and Spacecoast 20 minutes for not passing the proper marks of the course. The reason given is the protesting boat did not fly a protest flag and therefore the protest was disallowed.
When the judicial committee found that the Inter 20 Class Rules require a protest flag to be flown, that new evidence was enough to review the case.
Sean Ferrell said, “It is too bad the teams did not voluntarily start 15 or 20 minutes late on one of the legs.., it would have ended there..”
It seems strange to me that if these teams committed the problem by not sailing the proper course, they should still be penalized whether or not another team protests them. Both teams in question admitted they did the wrong thing. But the Judges said they were not there and did not see the error and therefore could not just assess penalties or disqualifications.., even though most of the teams did witness it and both Pirates and Spacecoast admitted it.
It appears that next years race rules will probably multiply by several pages. Too bad!

Today's Weather
Widespread dense fog early in the morning with visibility one quarter mile or less at times...then becoming mostly sunny and breezy. Highs in the lower 80s near the coast...mid 80s inland. Northeast winds 5 mph increasing to east 15 mph by afternoon.

Partly cloudy. Patchy dense fog this morning. Highs in the upper 70s. Light and variable winds...becoming east 10 to 15 mph.

OK, reality check! Right now there is a light wind of around 5 mph from the North Northeast. It looks as if the seabreeze will enhance the present breeze and indeed fill in at around 15 mph from the east.

Rhumb line or shore line is always the question each team asks themselves at this time. Usually the shore line is longer, but also faster. There is simply more wind speed closer to shore due to the seabreeze effect. There have been times when the rhumb line has payed off, but not as often as staying near the shore.

Stay tuned for reports of the start.

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