Okay, recent arrivals at Cocoa Beach are:
3rd -- Semp Toshiba
4th -- Key Sailing
5th -- Howard's Pub
6th -- Oz
7th -- Morada

One more boat is in sight, and then a big empty horizon.

We're down to 13 boats now, with Weathermark, Team Loewen and Team Brevard all retired.

Now on the beach:
8th -- Outer Banks
9th -- Jaypro
10th -- Mezzo
11th -- Windy Hill

Space coast is about 15 minutes out and will be finishing in 12th place. They broke a rudder casting right after the start and had to return to the beach to replace it, which is why they are late.

Seacats is still on their way and will be 13th. They broke their spinnaker pole and trashed their spinnaker earlier in the day.

Check out Rick's first story of the day on catsailor's Tybee 500 race page -- interesting loophole in the rules that could have made a big difference for Team SeaCats.

The major evolution of this ruling from the W1K was made on the fly at an impromptu skippers meeting in a hotel room.

It came about as a result of the carnage on this very same leg...in 2001.

Only five teams made it from Jensen to Cocoa - the rest of the fleet was given a two hour penalty.

Matt
Team Outer Banks
One of the Five!

Back onto this thread since it's linked to the news page.

Already 15 at 120 on the beach and forecast to build. The weather guessers last night predicted the breeze would lay down a bit, and a few teams powered up their rigs in anticipation. But the diamonds have been re-tightened and the masts re-raked, as the hoped-for 10-15 evaporated overnight, leaving the fleet with another day of 15-20 in moderate seas. They'll likely finish in Ormond with something less than 15, but that's 80 miles north and a few hours away... little consolation when you're sore, tired, your hands hurt, and the gear is getting strapped on again.

As reported by Rick, the fleet will have an on-the-water escort for a few miles as they approach and exit the Cape. The last military-designated waypoint is nearly ten miles north of the point, keeping them off the beach for the first 20 miles of the leg.

Watch for another fast leg today - the start is in 20 minutes. Good luck, Tybee fleet!

OBXGator,
That Worrell 1000 ruling was a bandage to fix a unique problem, save the race, and save boats and sailors. In that case it was the race organizer who decreed that no more boats would be allowed to try to leave the beach at Jensen and told them to trailer to the next stop. The only question was how much of a penalty to give them, to be fair to the five boats that sailed the leg.

It's an entirely different situation when a team fails to complete a leg in time or pulls out during the leg for whatever reason.

Good Point Mary...

It was indeed a mess that day.

Having been heart broken for the gang from Michigan (Big Brothers Little Sisters...) in 1998 when they had to drop out completely and having been one of the first teams (If not the first) to take advantage of the newly instituted "get out of jail free card" in 99 ourselves (The Edisto Island Nightmare)...I was just trying to point out an illustration of what Rick was talking about with the evolution of the rules in the W1K.

I don't recall what our time penalty was for using the card - but it sure was nice to still be able to FINISH the event!

The fleet is off and reaching for the Cape, certainly accompanied by a military escort by now as the first of the waypoints imposed on the fleet was only 5 or 6 miles from the start line. The first boat could be rounding any moment (10:40 local).

The start went off quickly and without incident - Key Sailing sailed through the break ahead on Semp Toshiba, but continued off-shore as Semp Toshiba bore off for the course, taking advantage of the longshore current. Will Key Sailing be able to take advantage of the extra height? We'll see!

Seeking a replacement crew that can continue to the finish, Howard's Pub enlisted Performance Sail and Sport's Scott Hubel to replace Jamie Livingston for the remainder of the regatta. They will incur another 30 minute penalty today as a result, but they're now assured that the team can continue.

2:00 p.m. sighting by Rick Loewen.

The boats were passing Ponce Inlet, about 20 miles south of the Ormond Beach finish line.

Castrol is in 1st, closely followed by Tybee.
3rd place is Semp Toshiba
4th is Key Sailing.

Rest of the fleet is quite a ways back. All are sailing along the shoreline except for Space Coast which is about 5 miles offshore.

All using spinnakers. Wind is southeast 15-20. The first boats should be finishing by 3:00 p.m.

Spectators in Ormond Beach are reporting the first boat in sight!!! Apears to be Castrol!! More to come.

Castrol coming in now 14:49 local time. Tybee coming in 2nd from off shore only two or three min. behind!! Semp Toshibia 3rd. Bliss 4th, Howard's Pub 5th, Space Coast 6th. Newkirk 7th. HP had a tough time getting in - held on to stay upright!!

Castrol first to the beach, followed by Tybee about a minute later. Looks like Semp Toshiba is going to be 3rd -- about 3 minutes away.

Okay, Semp Toshiba is 3rd to the beach.
4th is OZ
5th -- Howard's Pub
6th -- Space Coast
7th -- Key Sailing
8th -- Morada
9th -- Jaypro

Three more boats on the horizon, so the last boat is still not in sight.

Hi John and all race fans -

interesting side story on CapeCanaveral"s private security force .--Back in the 87 race we were forced to beach there in an area called mosquito bch ,-unknown to us a restricted area ,-we were greeted by 2 jeeps of security officers armed with what looked like oozies and assorted side arms .

Some resent years of the race we went right along the Cape beach ,-other years when there were scheduled shuttle takeoffs or landings we were chased far offshore by small military craft with loudspeakers .-

Hope all kept their distance today ,-thats always a fun leg of the race being able to see the many Mercury mission launchpads and what was the largest building by volume that housed the Lunar missle projects inside .

Wishing all a fast safe journey
-Go Rick !

10th is Outer Banks
11th -- SeaCats
12th -- Mezzo
13th will be Windy Hill, but they are not in yet.

SeaCats lost control of their boat at the finish and ran over the flag holders -- one of them took a pretty good beating but is still on the scene. Says, "I've felt better." Some speculation that SeaCats had to swerve to avoid a photographer who was out in the water right in the path to get to the finish line.

Since we KNOW it wasn't Rick...

Get out of the way WALTER!

No, actually, it was a member of one of the teams -- just being a little overzealous about getting a great picture, I guess.

Lighter winds for today (around 15 now, straight down the beach) with even less forecast for the finish (10-12). This 96 mile run will make for a longer day than the fleet is used to, but spinnaker work all the way. Hope they watch out for the Mayport Jetty, which extends two miles out to sea from the mouth of the St. John's River.

Rick's posted a great pictorial this morning - be sure to check the news page ! For those of you that I advised to plan for a 3 PM arrival in Tybee to hang out with the ground crews - you may want to get there sooner!



No wonder Kirk can't concentrate - that's his ground crew!

Good luck Tybee Fleet! You're almost there!

Does anyone know which team is using the new rudders?

Dave