I don't know about that $30,000 figure - I suppose if you are paying a team doctor, paying your ground crew, and/or considering boat and sail costs that you could reach that high. Realistically though, you could make a comfortable run 1000 miles up the coast for about $5000 to $6000 for fuel, hotel, food, and some boat costs. We did our food, hotel, and fuel for around $2000 for the Tybee500 but we had spent a good deal more on equipment and sails before hand (I paused for half a minute until David repeatedly told me to cast away the brand new, but shredded, spinnaker on Day #3 and it wasn't even mine!). We were definitely blessed with a hard working fully volunteer ground crew. At this expense level, we weren't uncomfortable but we weren't in the lap of luxury either. When we do this again, we will try to have at least three people on our ground crew, at least two hotel rooms at every stop, and probably forgo the RV and replace it with a van and a truck. The RV was tough to get in and out of some of these places and sometimes had to park far away (with our supplies) and really put a burden on the ground crew.

Regarding sportsmanship...it was incredible. When we broke our rudder, we had at least three offers for replacement rudders and castings (we did have complete backups for this though). During the nukin' weather when we broken our pole and cut away what was left of our spinnaker, we came back to the beach and Richard (Team Manager) had already had at least 5 offers of loaner poles, spinnakers, and rigging. Everyone out there was in this together whether they were running out front or in the back - there's no better sport or better display of sportsmanship that I have ever witnessed.