The 2010 Tybee 500 Race Coverage

Bugaboo First to Finish

The Dutch team on a Hobie Wildcat were first to the finish line in Hollywood with a five minute lead over Velocity 1, and then another F18, AHCP, skippered by John Casey.

Seacats Orange was fourth, followed in by Royal Yellow, Royal Orange, Pepod, Seacats Adrenalin, Velocity 4, Seacats White, Royal Blue, Velocity 5, Velocity 3 and Velocity 2

They are Off on the Tybee 500 Bound for Hollywood

It was a deepwater start about 1/4 mile offshore. The host hotel, The Islander, does not have the facilities for a beach start that is normal for this race. The boats can only launch one or two at a time. So, the teams casually lumbered into the water and made their way to the starting line.

While excited about the race, most of the sailors were dreading the long beat to Hollywood. The wind was right on the nose. An old sailor’s description of a “course” is “the direction you want to go and the direction from which the wind is blowing.”
And the wind was blowing. Winds were 15-20 coming straight down Hawks Channel, the expansive area between the Florida Keys and the reef running parallel to the Keys about 3 miles out.
One team was talking about going out into the Gulf Stream, outside the reefs. However, that would not be a good idea. While the Gulf Stream normally runs about 3.5 knots in a northerly direction, the strong NE winds would not only slow the stream down, but would cause huge, square waves to battle against.
Once the fleet nears Miami, they might be sailing on a close reach, rather than beating into the wind. Then a good game plan would be to stay near the beach. The reason is a NE wind when blowing across a water/land junction likes to cross at 90-degrees, or as close to it as possible.
So, if you are close to the beach the wind will be shifting more to the east, rather than northeast, and you will be sailing on a reach, not a beat.
Farther out, you would not get that shift and would be sailing more of a beat.

Race Commitee held a Skipper's Meeting an hour before the start.

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The boats launched into the water one and two at a time, heading out to a deepwater start

Please Patronize our sponsors for the coverage of this event. It is costly to make this jouney and to give you the coverage we do.

This year there are 16 teams -- 12 Nacra20s and 4 F18s.

Here are the teams and their names for easier ID on the Tracking

And Tad Pecorak of Velocity Sailing will be bringing you LIVE STREAMING VIDEO. No, it is not professional quality, but no other videography is taking place for the race and this event requires that someone capture the drama on the beach as it happens.

When you go to his website at http://www.velocitysailing.com/?page_id=866 you need to just scroll down and select the video you want to see. You will have to put up with some advertising introductions (loud and raucous to some of us), and then it will finally get into Tad's recordings. He will be there getting video of the finishes, so stay on top of it. And he will be there for what promises to be a very exciting start tomorrow morning in winds of 20-25 mph and big surf.

Please Patronize our sponsors for the coverage of this event. It is costly to make this jouney and to give you the coverage we do.

Team Royal has some links of interest:

http://tybeeteamroyal.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117388114948968

Also, Check out Velocity Sailing:

http://www.velocitysailing.com/

and they have Live Streaming Video (so you can watch the finishes and starts live)

http://www.velocitysailing.com/?page_id=866

Stay tuned here for more!