Kelly,

I think the rules concerning the ability to change sailors between these events was pretty clear, and was known well in advance by any and all teams that would compete.

In some of the 'original' discussions of partnering the Outer Banks 500 with the Tybee 500 - it was discussed that the organizers would make sailor changes between the two events possible - with no penalty - regardless of injury.

One of the beauties of this event being split into two separate events with an overall 'flavor' and 'foot print' of the Worrell - allows for teams to have a much greater set of options (concerning Sailors and Ground Crew) to participate over the course of two weeks and 1000 miles.

Good points, John. I actually didnt remember that you got a free skipper change due to injury. This rule obviously depends on the honesty and good sportsmanship of the team(s) so no absuse would result.

As for the sharing of parts and great sportsmanship you mention, that is DEFINITELY a major plus and something that usually goes on in the cat sailing community (or sailing in general). It is refreshing to see this type of dealing in a race as well. I do remember the Worrell getting rather heated in this area - with teams going with 30k budgets, things were bound to get less friendly. Good to see the sportsmanship aspect return with the new venue.

BTW, I sure miss Tommy Bahama! What a great site you guys had - the tracking and updates were first rate! Any chance of Tommy Bahama coming back for more in the Atlantic 1000?

kh

OBXGATOR: I guess the rules were clear. But you have to hand it to a team that DOES make it through the whole 1000 with the same skipper/crew/support. I think this should be rewarded in some way, perhaps in the future.

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.

At today's start, the fastest the boats went was by pusher and by paddle. Once they got out beyond the surf line, they put up their spinnakers and proceeded to sit there for at least 25 minutes, which was when Rick left the beach. It was too painful to watch. And it is 113 miles to Surfside Beach.

See Rick's story and pictures on our race coverage page.

Jake, I'm pretty sure that the $30k figure included the cost of a brand new Inter20 or 18HT.

Hey Kelly -

Thanks for the compliments to the team. We plan to be back for next year, although the debate over the second half continues. As cited by others, missing over two weeks of work is tough. Both of our sailors run their own businesses. And I don't mean that they make a couple of calls to employees and foremen from a desk - when I spoke to them yesterday they were both on tractors moving dirt. In the past, it has been a struggle to keep them focused on the event without losing them to a series of protracted work sessions in the evening when I thought they should be resting. I think they were both relieved that they could still participate with a lesser investment of time.

Jake - I've managed teams on both ends of the spectrum now. From me and two sailors in a motorhome to me and two sailors, 9 ground crew, a motorhome, a truck, two trailers (one huge), three hotel rooms all the way, live internet updates and GPS tracking, coordinating interviews and a photographer. More people does not mean less work. The more hands you have, the more you want to do, and the day fills up quick. Over the three years, my role has become one of "floating" from task to task to make sure stuff is rolling along ok. Its been pretty easy with the team I'm on now - they're all really fun people that aren't on vacation. "Floating," though, has greatly diminished my sense of accomplishment and contribution. It's tough to maintain the sense of family, and with more and more going on, you risk seeing less and less of the event. If you're lucky, like I've been, just about everything seems to get done by itself, keeping the sponsor happy and making it appear that you're completely in control and cool. That's not really what's going on though. I've been in the middle of a team meltdown (not with TB) and it was really a drag.

The best thing you can do is bring together a team that gets along well - if you've got some good chemistry and can eliminate feelings of resentment ("How come I have to rinse out the gear while THEY'RE in the pool with drinks??") the rest will come together just fine.

Ok, I'll put the pom-poms down now.

Finally had to join into the fray after lurking around for tha past couple years (yeah, I'm slow )

One other item that I thought needed addressed with the skipper change...You mention Brian's Worrell experience. Don't forget, Steve & Kenny have both been doing this for a lot of years also. I believe this is Steve's 6th or 7th.

Just hate to see them not given the credit... okay, one of 'em is my brother, so I have to stand up for him

Heck, I love watching for the results and love this race coverage. Thanks Mary.

Annual Averages for Expenses for our Team: 1999-2001

Hotels = $6,000
Parts/Gear = $5,000
*Other = $6,500
Total w/o Boat = $17,500

*Other = Airfare, Meals, Insurance, Sponsor Logos/Decals/Stuff, Entry Fees, Fuel

Matt
Team Outer Banks

What is the average price for a hotel room, and how many rooms does a team need, and for how many nights total? This race is always during a low-season time for the resorts, so I would think rates would be pretty reasonable.

Mary,

The Rooms in Florida are not bad at all...you are correct in that it is a really good time 'seasonally' to obtain rooms.

We typically took three rooms per location. (One year we split the trip up between the management and one couple went for week one and the other for week two - which saved us a one hotel room for the entire trip! But like John has indicated - you work a little harder that way!!)

We would spend a little more time at the first stop (preperation) and Tybee & Myrtle Beach (switch over to night legs/Layover days) and those three places have the highest hotel costs.

In 2000 we had a total of 48 separate Nights/Hotel Rooms for an average of $148 per room/night.

I surely didnt mean for my post to read as if Team Tybee skipper Steve Lohmayer is undervalued in any way. Steve is obviously an EXCELLENT driver and his finish in the race this year proves as much (as do his past accomplishments in Cat sailing, including the Worrell).


Tybee's Steve Lohmayer preparing for Leg 10 after win at Wrightsville in 2001 Worrell 1000

My only comment is it's very rare for a team, even of Tybee stature, to have a backup sailor they can pull in of the quality of a Brian Lambert, a past winner of the Worrell and very gifted in the rough section that encompasses the Outer Banks 500 portion. However, I have no doubt that Steve could have done an EXCELLENT job here as well.

I guess it was part in selfishness, too. I sure would love to see an hour and a half taken off so Tybee and Semp-Toshiba are neck and neck! Heh... Actually, I would have REALLY liked to see Team Castrol and OZ continue on, making the overall race as tight and competetive as the Tybee 500 shaped up to be. As is, the boats ARE very close, but the 1000 seems a safe bet unless something drastic happens.

No one could bug Castrol into going the whole route? heh.

kh
Off the coast of Wrightsville Beach

Yikes! Why don't you guys go back to the original Worrell format of sailing straight through, night and day. No motel room costs and a lot less time off from work. A lot more people could afford to do it -- but do you think anybody WOULD do it?

Rick is at Surfside Beach. Wind is out of the east-southeast at 7-8 mph.

Seems there was a typo on the Outer Banks site re: the leg distance. It is not 113 miles as printed -- it is 75-80 miles.

If the wind picks up, they could be in around 7:00 p.m. -- if not, could be 8:00 or 9:00.

Mary,

I dunno, some people around here apparently think I'm crazy enough to do it.

You should have seen Rick's expression when I walked up to him before the finish on saturday.

"Oh no its that guy!!"

I think bringing back some or all of the original format would be a very cool thing Mary...it would put a ton of strategy back into the event(s)!

What happens or has it ever occurred where the winds just do not fill in. What if even the leaders can not make it to the next checkpoint in time for the next start?
It could happen? Are there rules for that?

I remember it happenning on one last leg of a worrell where they just cancelled the last leg all together.

Thanks for the great coverage catsailor.

I'll need to get home tonight and dust off an old set of rules from the Worrell for that one - I just do not recall.

In the four years we ran - we were fortunate enough to sail the whole course - every year!

I know that I would love to see the event be 1000 miles ala the w1000. From a media standpoint, it just seems to build and build to a climax.

The Tybee 500 managed to do that this year with the battle for first and the battle for 3rd building to a climax. And the climax of Castrol winning by a couple of minutes and Oz winning by a couple of seconds was pretty outstanding.

But, going into the Outer Banks event.., and with only 5 boats seemed anticlimactic. It is still exciting, but after you build to that great finish.., and then.., oof! the wind went out of the sails.

Not to belittle the Outer Banks 500, but that was a hard act to follow.

In checking my log files of this event compared to the Worrell 1000, it seems that we are getting about half the hits that we once did, despite the fact that the site's normal traffic is close to 4 million hits per month. On a projected forecast from the days we were running reports on the Tybee 500, we would only jump to 6 million hits for May.
While that sounds pretty high, during the Worrell 1000 our numbers doubled and started to ge near tripling.
This tells me that interest for a two week tends to build and hits tend to build as people that at first watch, tell others, and the story grows, and the numbers grow.
But, with a week long event, followed by another week long event doesn't seem to get that same reaction.

I know folks are pretty upset with Mike Worrell, as am I. Every year we covered the race we made huge improvements.
Mary and I were quite instrumental in getting the race going again and really helped promote it.

The first year we had some pretty so-so coverage. The following year we added a couple of reporters and got different views of sujects.., big improvement.

We worked up to the point where we had several reporters, several photo takers, and then added video that we could upload within an hour or so.

So, we decided to go all out for the W1000 that was canceled. We acquired a better RV and added satellite internet at a cost of around $6000, plus monthly service fees. All just so we could quickly upload pix and video to the site for all to see.
However, we also planned on doing live feed of the starts, finishes and interviews by have a wireless camcorder broadcast to the RV which would then feed the data to the website so you could see these events "live."

But, another problem arose.., we needed our server to give us a lot more bandwidth and dedicated boxes to handle the traffic. More huge expenses.

And all to cover the Worrell 1000 that was canceled.

Luckily, Mike Worrell announced the cancelation just before another big expense. We had made arrangements to place gps position broadcasters on each boat that would transmit location every 1/2 hour and leave cookie crumbs (so you would know where each boat went, where they tacked, etc.)
The total would have been another $10,000.

We were able to defray some of our expenses with adbanners, but that was not even a drop in the bucket.

There is only one way we could have afforded all this -- if we got enough traffic to come to our site.., and hopefully just take a look at our OnLine Marine Store at www.onlinemarinestore.com

But, with the traffic so far, nothing is really being paid for.
The good news is that I am on my way to Put-in-Bay, Ohio anyway and really Love to follow these races.

Almost 5PM and hope the boats are getting nearer. Gotta go look.
Thanks for listening,
Rick

As of 5:15 PM there are still no boats in sight. The good news is the wind has built and gone more to the south -- should be under chutes in winds close to 15 mph.

Maybe between 6 - 7 pm

Rick

Tybee and Semp Toshiba have finished -- Tybee had about a 10-minute lead over Toshiba. The rest of the boats are in sight.