For those of you that followed the T500 this year, you might have seen an interview with Alli on the beach at Jupiter. She was the one that Trey and I put in charge of the Velocity circus while he and I were off on the high seas.

She managed to make the whole thing work like a well oiled machine.

At the initial skippers meeting, Judy was asking the teams about how many boats, personnel, chase vehicles and RV's each team had. Team Royal had 20 people, 3 cars or so... Seacats had 9 people, 2 cars... TVS: 6 boats, 27 people, 4 cars and an RV.

I'm not trying to brag about the size of our involvement this year - I'm just trying to relate to the general public just how much responsibilty we put on Allison's shoulders, and she handled it like a seasoned veteran. Not only that but she did it with a smile, she did it with an air of authority that the ground crew respected yet didn't resent, and she made it come in at and just under budget. It was the ultimate "herding cats" scenario.

I wanted EVERYONE TO SEE how much Trey and I appreciate her doing this for us (un-paid, at that!) and if your business needs a no-nonsense manager who gets things done before they're due, takes it on herself to pickup extra duties when available, and makes sure that things get done - then Allison is your woman.

I'd also be lynched by Derek if I didn't thank him and the rest of the ground crew. Derek's now 4 years of ground crew experience surely shined through this year for us. Every morning the boat was rigged when I walked out to the beach, and every night it was washed down, re-taped and re-stocked with supplies. Perfect. Ryan Boyle also proved his prowess on the ground crew for TVS1/Anarchy Challenge. "Freight Train Ryan" is simply one of the best pushers out there (The son of Naked Santa, aka Evinrude?) James Boicourt also came along and offered his inspirational advice to all the racers, and provided our much needed fiberglass expertise. Kirk Spicer, newcomer to the ground crew thing, handled the blue wombat for Brad and Don, and managed to keep the boat together all the way up the coast so they could finish (even ahead of me the last day, grrr!)

Mario Noya did the ground crew responsibilities for JC and Carrie - and I'll tell you what, this kid is the next Darryl in the making. I was worried about putting him with our marquis team - as a newcomer he possibly wouldn't have the expertise to support them. However, Mario's hard work and enthusiasm outshined any lack of experience he might have had. Everytime I spoke to JC about whether or not Mario was doing well or not, JC simply said "dude he's great!"

The girls, oh my where do I start with the girls... Jen, Annie, Stef, Dana, Erin and my lovely wife Kate. They were the "team Moms" (I know I'm going to get kicked in the shin for that one - but its the best description) They lugged all our stinky, wet, sweaty crap from the boats, washed it, refilled the powerbars, refilled the hydration packs and basically any other task that needed to get done. Kate was our resident medical expert - making sure all the sailors stayed together, stayed hydrated. She says next year that she's going to bring IV bags along. Love you sweetheart.

I just wanted to heap praise on the people behind the scenes who made this crazy week happen for us. A lot of these guys are students who JUST graduated and are looking for jobs. If they conduct themselves in the professional world as they did this past week, they will have no problems being successful in life.

Thank You so much Guys and Gals

(feel free to use this thread to heap praise on your ground crew!)