Well this was my first attempt at the Steeplechase and while I did not finish, I had a great time and here is a rundown of my trouble on days 1 and 2. Coming out of Anglefish Creek, we cut the corner a little too sharp and tapped bottom, not hard, but hard enough to jam the starboard daggerboard about 3/4 of the way down. We continued to sail knowing that at some point we'd have to stop and make more of an effort to get the board up before the finish. As we approached the finish, we struggled with the board and could not get it to budge at all. We sailed onto the flats and flipped the boat to try from underneath to free the board. Still no luck so we dragged the boat on its side across the flats to finish. Let me tell you, on each step we'd sink in the muck to about our thighs as we trudged across the flats. It took us about 30 minutes to drag the boat across the finish, but we made it. With a significant amount of banging on the board, we managed to free it and prepped the boat for day 2. Day 2 started great, we were having a great sail with a group of about 3 or 4 other boats when, just past the mark at the Sheraton, the port side rudder casting broke and broke the gudgeon when it failed. We gathered the rudder back on board and were forced to sail back to the beach. Fortunatly, the Shereton was the easiest place to get to. Here's where things get fun.....1st call was to Rick to let him know we had to drop out and were both ok. I then tried to reach my Dad who was my ground crew for the race to bring my truck and trailer down. I got only voice mail, but that was no big deal as we had lots to do to get the boat out of the water. About an hour later, we had finished de-rigging the boat, and still no word from Dad, so we went to the Tiki Bar (what would you do?). We had no cash, no credit cards, no ID, nothing. I explained our situation to Lionel, the bar tender, and he agreed to run us a tab until my wallet arrived with the truck. A couple of beers and sandwiches later, still no word from Dad, and the jet ski concession guys were getting antsy as my boat was in the way and they could not get the skis out of the water and were waiting to close up shop for the day. Again, Lionel comes to the rescue. He gives us the keys to his car, and we leave with an open tab and Lionel's car to pick up my truck and trailer. Lionel came through and really help us out of a pinch (and got a really healthy tip). Already looking forward to giving the race another shot next year, hopefully with better results.