Mike Worrell pass away yesterday, Saturday, June 6th of pancreatic cancer. Mike was with family and friends at the time of his passing. Mike wished to be very private about his illness and many in the sailing community did not learn about his illness until a few days ago.

Please take the time to share some of your thoughts and memories of Mike. He made so many major contributions to the sport of catamaran sailing. It is appropriate that we should honor him with a few words...

Here is my contribution:

Mike Worrell pushed the boundaries of catamaran sailing into a new frontier. In the process, he pushed many sailors into that new frontier with him.

I missed the early years of the Worrell but I heard the stories. The stories of sailing on Hobie 16's up the coast with no stops or GPS's. Just get on the boat, keep the coast on the left and go! (I always enjoy hearing the old stories and I hope a few people can add some here.)

By the time I came along, we were in the "modern" era of the Worrell. Gone was continuous racing replaced by 14 legs. The Hobie 16's had been replaced by Nacra 6.0's with gigantic spinnakers (later replaced by I20's).

However, the race was nonetheless a difficult challenge. My first attempt in '98 was going well until we ran into a 40 knot gale and our mast went down off of Cape Lookout. Almost anyone else would have cancelled the race that day but Mike Worrell was about pushing the limits of sailing and it was our duty to respect his vision so off we went.

Here is one of my favorite stories about that day. It was a truly nasty, terrible day - the worst seas I have ever been in. 13 boats started the day and only 7 made it to the finish. One of the other skippers who shall remain nameless told me that he had to abondon the race because he had to go ashore to fix something on the boat. As soon as they got ashore, his crew took off running never to be seen again. That is how nasty it was!

Having sailed the race once, the desire to come back and finish the race was in my blood. Like almost all Worrell sailors, once the race gets in your blood, it is very difficult to shake it. Mike Worrell had created the Mt. Everest of catamaran sailing and it need to be scaled. Why? Because it was there!

So, I came back in '01 and '02 and sailed the race and finished it! It was an absolute thrill to finish the race. Each time it was tough and pushed us to the extreme. But because Mike never compromised on the race, when you finished, you knew you had done something truly unique.

In 2003, with the support of Mike Worrell, we started the Great Texas, a 300 mile race up the coast of Texas in the style of the Worrell. I wrote the following on the Great Texas website last week when I learned of Mike's illness: "Everyone that has sailed the Great Texas owes Mike Worrell a great deal of gratitude. If it were not for Mike, the Great Texas simply would not exist."

The Worrell 1000 was the absolute pennacle of extreme sailing in the sport of catamaran sailing. It tested your sailing skills, endurance, toughness, organization skills, and guts. For anyone that is in the brotherhood of sailing
the Worrell 1000, they will never ever forget the feeling of
accomplishment when finishing this race. There is only one Worrell 1000 and it was the vision and driving force of Mike Worrell that made it happen!

Please share some of your thoughts and memories...