Here is a top 10 list for the first day of the Great Texas by Steve Piche (skipper of Team Great Texas 300):
1. Quiksilver Loves the Beach: The first day of the Great Texas is always the most strategic. Do you go off shore or hang close to the beach? The boat that makes the right call can have a big day and Team Quiksilver (Philippe Bettler and Michael Beuerlein) made the right call. They hung closer to the beach and reaped big benefits coming in a half hour ahead of the rest of the fleet.
2. What a Great Ride! What an unbelievable fun downwind ride we had today. I have a speed puck on the boat and we were running 15-18 knots most of the day (a little lighter the first hour). I work the sails hard trying to stay above 18 knots as much as possible. The wind was just really nice and it was another classic downwind high speed seven hour ride.
3. The Rookies: Team Blackburn Marin, Nick Maudlin and Casey Lambert, are doing the Great Texas for the first time. In a tough fleet, they did very well. They were all smiles when they came ashore. How can't you smile when you just had the greatest ride of you life.
4. 100 miles of sailing and two boats collide at the finish line: You want to talk about a tough fleet, how about sailing 100 miles and being so close that you collide in the surf - it happen to Teams 2 Wire Sailing, John Tomko and Ian Billings, and TCDYC, Chris Green and Aaron McCulley. Both boats were 30 feet from the finish with spins up and rudders up - yes, little control. John's boat got holed pretty bad. Fortunately, John is the C2 dealer and had a spare boat (hull) available. They will be back on the line tomorrow.
5. Triple Threat Q! Andrew and Stephanie served the holy trinity of Texas BBQ, brisket, ribs and sausage, to the hungry sailors on the beach at Mustang Island. They topped it off with some banana pudding. Man, it tasted soooo good!
6. Can Quiksilver hold on to Win? Thirty minutes is a pretty big lead but can they hold on. John Tomko has won this race 7 times - Philippe and Mike have taken a number of seconds. It may look like they have a big lead but big leads are hard to hold on to in this crazy race. They have a solid chance to win but can they? Time will tell.
7. Thanks to Billy and Terri: We at the Great Texas owe so much to the hard work of our PRO and Commodore. They do a great job and make it all possible.
8. Tomorrow: It always blows in Corpus (and we are just 10 miles east of Corpus - btw, where we are having F18 Nationals in October.) Every year, we all the lover the high speed beach launch and spin reach on the second day of the GT. The forecast looks good for another great run.
9. Numb Hand: Sorry for any typos but my left hand is numb from holding on to the tiller all day. Riding one of these boats downwind is like being on a bucking bronco for 7 hours. You hands go numb from the vibration and pull.
10. My Goals: My goals for the race are the following: 1) Finish, 2) Beat Quiksilver, and 3) Win the race. Hmm, losing 30 minutes to team Quiksilver was pretty tough. We have a very friendly rivalry. Team Quiksilver fell behind early. In fact, they were so far behind that we could barely see them when they headed back in to the beach. We decided to go with the fleet and not cover. It did not work. Good job to Team Quiksilver!
