Katie Pettibone, of Port Huron, MI and Lisa Charles McDonald of the UK make up the first all-female team.
They are formidable competitors, having competed in two America's Cup races, Sydney Hobart races, and the Whitbread
Around the World Race.
Latest Press Release from Michael Worrell
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. April 23, 2001 -In an era of "reality" television and
extreme sports one of America's wildest but least recognized races is
finally getting noticed in all the right places. The Worrell 1000 started
as a bar room bet -- Hobie Cats racing up the beach for 1000 miles from
Florida to Virginia. For twenty years it has been the amateur catamaran
sailor's dream, a race so tough you have to convince Mike Worrell to let
you in -- a race so demanding that only half the competitors finish.
Imagine averaging 20 knots over a 1000-mile open-ocean course in a 20-foot
plastic boat.
Last year two big-time round-the-world racers, Rick Deppe and Tom Weaver,
entered the Worrell 1000 and reported it for Quokka.com, a leading sports
Internet site. They thought it was a lark. They finished last, exhausted,
amazed, embarrassed, and determined to do better. They are back. They
brought their friends. The field has almost doubled. And what has been a
little regional race for catamaran aficionados is going to hit the
international sailing charts for the first time.
Now that perennial race winner Randy Smyth has dropped out (family
obligations) the field is wide open for the newcomers. Nigel Pitt, racing
with Alex Shafer, is the current Inter 20 North American titleholder. He
has been North American champion in the Hobie 18, Hobie 20 Nacra 6.0 and
Nacra 18². Pitt has a theory. "I wouldn't attempt this race and skipper
the whole thing… I've found a person I like and respect enough to sail with
for a thousand miles." Alex Shafer and Nigel Pitt traded the helm in the
Inter 20 nationals and won. They'll try it again in this race.
They are formidable competitors, having competed in two America's Cup
races, Sydney Hobart races, and the Whitbread Around the World Race.
Anthony Priest is a professional sailor, captain of a 133-ft sloop out of
Ft. Lauderdale. He won the Maxi-Worlds in an 80-ft. monohull, competed in
the Sydney to Hobart race seven times, and was helmsman for the winning
Tour de France sailboat in 2000. He bought a Hobie 18 and has been
practicing for the race off Ft. Lauderdale. His crew is Tony Minebaugh a
professional sailor and racer from South Africa. 
Reigh North and Scott MacDonald will be competing for the first time. North
has logged over 20,000 offshore miles and was Hobie 18 North American
Continental champion. He is a perennial contender for top honors.
There's never been a stronger group of first-time sailors. But newcomers
have a tough time with this race. There is no protection from the elements
on these boats. There is no cabin or "below" to seek refuge. Storms, raging
surf, crews lost at sea, whales, freighters, Coast Guard rescues and
lightning strikes are all part of the game as racers drop out or are forced
out by the vagaries of the sea. Wives and friends line the shore each
evening waiting for their crews to return from the sea and tell their
stories.
Half the field won't make it. Captain and crew will fight. Their boats will
break - along with their spirit. Their wives or husbands or mothers will be
frozen with fear and undermine performance. Along the sunny Atlantic
beaches, in front of pleasant resort hotels, even before reach the
Graveyard of the Atlantic, along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, they
will drop out, one by one. For most the honor will be simply in finishing
the ordeal.
Sound like "Survivor?" Well it is, but it's happening not on some remote
island, but right here on the Atlantic beaches of the USA for two weeks in
May. Maybe next year Mike Worrell will offer prize money. Then everyone
will be able to explain why on earth they do this horrible, magnificent race.
