GT 300 Live coverage

Live coverage of the Great Texas 300 this week on JustinTV an Sailing Anarchy.

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=102616&st=25

First Four boats in:
Ruff Rider
Team Velocitek
Team TCDYC
Team Jost

Storm rolled in after the first two and Team TCDYC capsized three times on their way in. Team Jost Lost their main and came in with just their jib and Spin.

Sailing Anarchy Video Feed >>> Sailing Anarchy Video Feed >>>

Seems two boats had to set off their 'pirbs last night. 35 knot squalls hit the fleet.

From GT300.com
Wednesday, June 16th – Day One – South Padre Island to Mustang Island

The day started off with a 9 AM Skippers’ Meeting at a 10 AM start from the beach. The winds and the surf were light, so chutes popped open on most of the boats before they even left the beach. Most teams had very little difficulty making it through the surf, but TCDYC were slower getting out into it. By 10:15 all teams were out and on their ways to Mustang Island.

All seemed to be going well, until a storm was spotted on the radar, and those of us on the beach were concerned about the number of teams that would be caught in it. As we patiently waited, the first team was sighted around the Corpus Christi Jetties between 5:30 and 6:00 PM. Team RuffRider hit the beach first, followed by Team Velocitek about 8 minutes later and Team TCDYC about 30 minutes later.

The storm we saw on the radar finally hit us on Mustang Island and brought with it heavy winds and quite a bit of rain. The temperature also cooled off and after the storm passed, the wind died down significantly. Team Yost limped their way across the finish line with no boom or main sail and a hole in their spinnaker, followed a little over 30 minutes later by Team Salva Vida Vela. Team Poison Girl came in about 20 minutes after that. Team Rudderless made it in around 9 PM, with you guessed it, one rudder. Steve Piche said that they came up on the back side of the storm and that’s when things got nasty. Team Chums hit the darkened beach about an hour and half later and Team Jack Flash finally arrived about 35 minutes after that.

During the early evening, the Race Committee and some team managers also received phone calls and text messages speaking of trouble and difficulties out on the water. Per their team manager, Team Corpus had some torn sails and made it into the beach on the other side of the Jetties. Fortunately, they were safely picked up there by their team manager.

Unfortunately, Team Pacmen and Team Quiksilver both turtled their boats and required Coast Guard rescue. But the main thing is that both these teams are safe and sound on dry land.

This morning we are headed out to the beach to see what damage the daylight reveals.

Thanks for the updates Craig. Most importantly....its good to hear that all are safe. Hopefully boats can be recovered now.

You know me Karl...I love endurance catamaran racing!

I have done/worked many forms of racing and this by far is my favorite. My wife claims I sail for the stories.

Isn't that why we all do it?

Really surprised that only two boats started properly this morning!

From Songcat on SA.
Team Quiksilver have gone on to Matagorda with no luck finding their boat after 5 hours of searching.

If the condition of the boat and sea state does not put the coast guard vessel in harms way, get all non necessary people off of your boat and look the coast guard skipper right in the eye and tell him with authority in your voice:

"I am the skipper of this vessel. If you want to save me you have to save the vessel."

I would not have abandoned my boat. Sea Tow is cheaper than a boat. I have been in similar situations in the Atlantic Ocean and it has worked for me. Also be prepared to back up your statement.

Right. Maybe it'll work with a 60 footer, and I have doubts, but with a beach cat? The coast guard skipper is more likely to "inadvertently" drive over one of your hull before plucking you out of the water. Apologizing for the damage of course. Not to mention that you are assuming that a boat came out for them, from what I heard an helicopter was involved, it's hard to tow a boat from an heli (Alinghi did it, I know).

Depending where you are, if what's left of the boat could be a danger to navigation the coast guard also have the authority to sink the rescued vessel. And they'll do it.

What about scrambling a chase boat and looking for Mike's boat?

j

I have had two similar situations with coast guard and it is their job to save lives. If in order to save the life, they have to save the vessel... In both instances they helped me save the boat.

The first situation was a typical dismast. In the second situation, we broke a Supercat 20 in half. In 15-25mph winds, 4'-6'-8' seas the dolphin striker broke and the boat folded into itself and both crossbars broke in two. We had five people aboard and by the time the coast guard reached us we just about had everything as secure as we could get it. I stayed on the supercat until we approached the inlet so I could minimize damages. The boat was trying to poke holes into itself. I told them that I would get on their boat to go through the inlet as long as they did not release my boat unless it put their boat in jeapardy. They agreed and the boat was safely recovered.

They used to try to save property until they got sued too many times. Chances are high that there was no damage or minimal damage to the catamaran. If Sea Tow or Tow Boat 1 works the area, you are better off calling these guys and paying them than to abandon the vessel. The coast guards can also hail them. It would take a lot to get me to abandon my boat.

Wasn't there a video floating around about two guys getting picked up by a helicopter and they just left the catamaran there still turtled.

Here we go again... What's the point of a chase boat?

Chase and watch the action??? I don't think so.

What you are actually implying is that you want a race Crash boat to pick up the pieces for someone's personal crisis.

Chase boats and Safety boats are extremely problematic raising all sorts of expectations or implications for all involved. (How many safety boats... what training for people on a safety boat, What if they failed to observe a crash and a disaster then occurs? Is clueless newbie counting on the crash boat to save his butt so he will push the envelope on the OA's dime?)

IMO, J is a good Samaritan on a power boat who will try to assist in events he is attending...
Fantastic... but no competitor should ever entertain the notion that J will save their butt.

There is always a tradeoff for an organizing authority for beach cats and big mono's or multihulls... when they allow beach cats to race... What is the chance that one of their non catamaran competitors will have to drop out or request redress for assisting the beach cat in the middle of his personal crisis... If beach cats get the rep that we just count on the slow monohulls to bail us out... that is just not fair and we won't be invited to play again.

Our form of racing is inherently a bit riskier and we need to make sure the culture of self rescue and sufficiency is well known. Responsibility is always on the captain. Now a days we do a pretty good job of communicating the culture to the world at large and our sailors ... We hail Mayday when life is a risk.. We handle property issues on our own. Since the GT300 sailors triggered the epurb's.... they felt that life was at risk.... the property is replaceable or just lost.

Years ago a competitor fired off a flare in a C100.. The CG scrambled a helicopter...and were not able to find the shooters... Lots of bitching to the RC about where was the emergency... eventually the offenders sailed in under their own power. The crisis... well it was very dark and they were being separated from a tow in the distance. Bottom line.... Our mistake for not educating the sailor.... His mistake for not educating himself.

I have noticed that the west coast sailors seem to have chase boats on their distance courses. It may actually be required by the OA to allow the beach cat class to enter. This is very different then the other coasts. I don't think it's a real solution and designating "chase boats" is a bad idea all around.

Having chase boats on hand reduces the chance of a bad situation getting worse. It will not prevent an accident to happen, but by providing quick relief it avoids the risk of additional injury happening.

Look at how it's done in the Solent (UK). The dots are chase boats. They follow the competitors around to keep the race team informed of what's happening and to communicate to the competitors any change in the course (there was a shorten course in that particular event).

The sailing instructions however make clear that they are here eventually to help people but that they cannot be held responsible if they do not act. And if they act it's to save people and not boats. There is a huge disclaimer in the NOR:



And BTW, the people manning club chase boats in the UK have three certificates: At a minimum level 2 powerboat, first aid and safety boat.

Dude, Mark, Take a deep breath big fella. What I was saying is scramble a f-ing chase boat and go get the cats that were left out there.(fixed it) Save some $$ for the owners. Every time cat sailors get rescued here in CA the bill is at least a couple of grand to get them back from Vessel Assist. Oftentimes it's not worth it because they're so trashed from being towed upside down at 15 knots for however far.

And since you opened up that can of whoopass, you can ask anyone that has been pulled from the water, or righted, or assisted in any other way how they felt about having a chase boat on course.

Your rant is politically motivated in some way and really doesn't dignify a thorough response. From me anyway...

You guys have at it. I'm enjoying the coverage and info of the GT300 on this and other threads.

The CG also responded to a powerboat which set off it's EPIRB. Gusting to 40 in a squall with launching and landing points a good distance away,(This place is desolate) you'd have had to have a pretty substantial chase boat with a good range and high speed. Don't see it happening on a beachcat budget.I think it was handled properly.It sucks about Mike's boat, but it still may turn up.

It's too bad nobody had a buddy with a boat that could have gone and looked last night after it calmed down. I don't know how far to the nearest inlet with a ramp but my guess is it would be pretty far.

I guess I just assumed that there was a power boat there to help out with the event. Woops, didn't mean to get anyone's panties in a bunch.

j

politically motivated???

Everyone loves a chase boat support.... much better then Sea Tow for all the reasons that you state... All I am saying is that you shouldn't include it in the official race or expect the OA to provide it..

Scramble WHO's chase boat... the Organizing Authorities? That is what I thought you were suggesting.... My solution.. 1 800 Sea Tow.... negotiate salvage before you go out.

Take a look at pepin's description of the Brit's Chase boats... They have three levels of certifications for all of the personnel.. in addition to the same general liability waiver. I think they have requirements for safety boats to even run a regatta as well.

The USSA does not have any of these training programs, certifications, or requirements to run races.... We have the liability waiver and Good Samaritan law... it's a huge cultural difference and probably different legal consequences as well.

the advice we have followed from legal and insurance people is... the OA has RC and mark boats. Period. Distance races...just race committee. Everything else is on the sailors... Good Samaritan Law then comes into play when your power boat people render what assistance they can.

The problems arise when the OA doesn't make it clear to all involved what the respective responsibilities and expectations are.... Sailors then expect rescue of them and their boats. But some mark boats and personnel are not equipped or able to rescue boats.... What they can do is take sailors on board to safety.... after that... anything else they can do is gravy.

Chase and Crash boat titles deliver a different message and expectation (very much like the Brit's provide) .... check with your regatta insurance and your personal lawyer before you agree to serve as a CHASE or CRASH boat.

Any word on Team Pacman (Tom Sutton and his son)?

Justin TV just went live in TX for the Friday start! Check it out at http://www.justin.tv/onthewateranarchy

Guess they found the infusion washed up on the beach. Sails, boom, rudders, ect are trashed. Hopefully they will have an update later.

Boat HelmName CrewName Fleet Class Rating Elapsed Corrected BCE
Ruff Rider John Tomko Ian Billings F18 F18 Wildcat 0.624 22:24:10 1:11:54:07 0:00:00
Velocitek Aaron McCulley Clay Cassard F18 F18 Infusion 0.624 22:48:30 1:12:33:07 0:24:20
TCDYC Chris Green Jim Kondziela F18 F18 Tiger 0.624 1:0:00:27 1:14:28:25 1:36:17
Salva Vida Vela Drew Carlyle Bo Kersey F18 F18 Capricorn 0.624 1:1:38:04 1:17:04:51 3:13:54
Rudderless Steve Piche Juke Ball F18 F18 Tiger 0.624 1:1:57:56 1:17:36:41 3:33:46
Yost Auto Michael Yost Ryan Verret Open I20 0.593 1:0:52:14 1:17:56:25 3:34:51
Poison Girl Michael Niggli Todd Bouton Open I20 0.593 1:2:20:14 1:20:24:49 5:02:51
Jack Flash Collin Casey Jonathon Atwood Open TheMightyHobie18 SX 0.668 1:6:02:08 1:20:57:48 6:03:11
Chums Lee Wicklund Carl Theyssier Open I20 0.593 1:3:45:10 1:22:48:02 6:27:47
Corpus Corey Harding Pete Meyer F18 F18 Infusion 0.624 1:8:49:43 2:4:36:36 10:25:33
Pacmen Tom Sutton Cote Sutton Open I20 0.593 1:12:35:15 2:13:41:56 15:17:52
Quiksilver Mike Beuerlein Dave Yoder F18 F18 Infusion 0.624 1:14:30:02 2:13:41:59 16:05:52

As an armchair sailor, I want to thank all those involved with this race. what a great event! I have been following it since Lee(Chums)started traveling from Cali to do it. That was back in the old "Hobie List" email days. Major kudos to Mr. Clean and JC for their coverage. I watched the awards this A.M., and found myself LOL and clapping at Chums first award. Yahoo! How cool is it that you have a 300 mile race, and boats finish seconds apart? It sure was exciting to watch! Way to go Great Texas 300!

Thanks Brian. I'll put some of the day one speculation to rest. When the teams that got rescued actually got rescued, the boat was the last thing on thier minds. Pac Men were out there turtled for 6 hours before the Coasties found them. Not sure of the time frame on Quicksilver but this squall may have been only 30 knots onshore but when it hit us it was blowing 50 plus and we had the spin up. I guess I had dillusions of out running it. We were pretty far off shore when we got donkey punched by it. It pushed us turtle immediately then back up again causing the boat to do a complete rollover and we actually had to hold the boat down from righting itself. We were blowing parralell to the shore at 3.5 knots! After an hour of this we decided to lower the main and roll it up to stow it on the tramp and sail to shore with just the jib. We rode out the rest of it then raised the torn main and continued on to finish at around 10:20 pm. This was the worst storm I've ever encountered on the water. It was blowing water spray off the top of the water making a white mist on the leading edge of it when it hit us. I'm glad now that I've been ultra anal about making sure my mast was sealed. I'm still amazed that I found my dagger board poking though the mainsail when the boat was on it's side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_squall

This was not a white squall - it was a nasty 'ole thunderstorm. We got caught 3 miles from the finish after nervously watching it for some time. We got the rapid air temperature drop which was our cue to drop the kite. We then got nailed by a burst from a different direction. When it hit us it was not as bad - perhaps 30-35 knots. The rain was freezing cold and the chop picked up rapidly. Once it backed off a little we righted the boat, but flipped a further two times (once on turndown, once on a gybe). We sat the boat on it's side and rode it out for 10 minutes.

Our final flip of the day was death reaching through the surf line with our weigh too far forward - captured on the front page of SA...

All part of the distance racing game.

Chris.

It sounds rather wet n wild and hairy! great matelot stories.
Sitting in my armchair looking at the wife's broken foot here it rather does the old head in to think of being on a beach cat in a white squall or whatever it was. I have dropped the main on a Cat once in daylight in the Solent in 45Kts and lashed it. Not easy but at night? eegads!
Kudos

This storm was the first time I've been rounded up on a catamaran.

We felt the temperature drop too and I knew we were in trouble. We didn't get the kite down in time and capsized when the wind hit. We were a bit optimistic in our hopes that we could outrun the storm. However, I must say that I was felt much more comfortable in this storm than the one that beached us on Lake Travis in January. The nice thing about sailing in the gulf is that there aren't so many hard things to hit and you have time to think as you are being pushed along with the boat on the side. At least the storm was pushing us in the right direction.

So after the first capsize, we righted the boat and tried to head down. Talk about pucker factor. I was at the back beam holding on to the hiking straps and Drew was doing his best to get up some speed before turning down. During the first turn down, the main was traveled down and we were sheeted out (big mistake) and when the first gust hit us the rudders came out of the water and we were rounded right back up to head to wind. On the second attempt to turn down we did the same thing again except we did the most perfect pitch pole I've ever seen. We were going fast, still sheeted out and traveled down, and a gust hit us. I don't think the bows really stuffed, the stern just lifted up went over our heads. Both of us were sitting on the back beam when this happened. After this capsize, we stayed down and rode the storm towards the finish line on the capsized boat while we considered our options. It seemed to calm down a bit after about 30 minutes and we righted the boat and got back on (which is really easy in the big waves if you time it right). This time when we turned down, we centered the traveler and sheeted the main in hard. With the leach of the main facing into the wind to depower, we found that we could handle the 25 to 30kts without difficulty. If we had only had the presence of mind to think of this on the first turn down we would have done much better on this leg.

I'm thankful that no one was lost or seriously hurt. I'm thinking that next time we need some longer safety lines and that we should actually wear them. I'm just glad we were on such a well built boat and we made it through with only a broken batten.