Steeplechase conditions today!

Ran the Steeplechase for our first time today and what a hoot! The morning kicked off with an I20 getting pushed into the Jewfish Creek draw bridge by the current before it opened! They wisely capsized the boat, floated under, and righted without damage!

The start of the race was in a light-moderate breeze but opened up to a tight spinnaker run in 5-10 after going under the Card Sound bridge.

On "Plays With Matches", we had a horid start where we thought we were in clear, conservative, air at the starboard end of the start line at the gun - but it turned out to be that the huge gaggle of 35 boats that were on top of us, but considerably far away, were still bending the air leaving us in a consistent header! At the time, we thought it was simply a different wind line that we would eventually recieve but it never came (That one goes on my "what I learned this year" list). We passed through the Card Sound Bridge in a frustratingly healthy last place by 8 to 10 minutes.

Angel Fish creek was easily navigated under sail dead downwind until we opened out into the Atlantic. We had caught several teams by now by running risky hard and high with the spinnaker. We entered the Atlantic with a 10-15 that eventually built to a 15-18knot breeze and took another chance by crossing the shallows at the exit of Angel Fish Creek with the boards pretty high. A gust got the best of us and we capsized while trying to maintain a high angle with the chute. We managed to right the boat and get back underway within 2 minutes (no kidding) and left the kite snuffed for a reach to the south in flat (but shallow!) water. However, during the capsize, my trapeze line had come loose from it's bunji and gone around the forestay to the other side. So we were stuck with one trapeze wire for a while.

We kept the hammer down hard and were determined to make up for the terrible start. Chris Zander controled the mainsheet like an animal while I hiked as best as I could, steered, and managed the traveler. We were making great speed and catching boats so we didn't bother to slow down to fix the trapeze problem. Man, the spray was flying! At one time we stuffed so hard that the bottom of the jib was underwater - but we saved it and kept on trucking.

As the land curved away from us, it started getting harder and harder to keep a line parallel to shore and we started getting further out. The waves would quickly build to a 1-2 foot, high frequency, chop that would give us fits and occasionally stall the forward motion of the boat. We finally gave up and tacked for shore finding much flatter water and the ability to kick in the afterburners again.

With hands aching and downhaul about maxed out, the wind was now at about 18knots with gusts. The finish line was visible on the horizon and the fleet of I20s could be seen - but something looked a little strange - it looked like 20 of them were stalled out short of the finish line - what?. There was one 6.0 that had been within our grasp for the last 30 minutes and I thought we might be able to get them before the finish. With the beach and finish line in site, we made our last tack and passed the 6.0! But WAIT! pop...one rudder up....pop....second rudder up....grind, grind....boards are diggin! We're 100 yards from the finish line! CRAP. We're in 8 inches of water and it's this shallow the rest of the way in. We hop off the boat to sink thigh deep in silt and try to pull it in but the wind is howling and we can barely move! THIS is why all the I20's looked like they were stalled. We tried to sail it again but it's no use - our weight is too much and the wind too high to sail this angle with no boards or rudders. We try to furl the jib but it's not happy while it's floggin so badly. We eventually slog the rest of the way in and had the 6.0 "out run us" in the muck to the finish line by 20 seconds. What a day, what a race! We're looking forward to tomorrow - the forecasts are all over the place. We're going to keep the boards high and sail hard regardless.

Bout damn time someone filled us in with the action!!! WOW what a read! thought I was in the action along with you. Its getting chilly here in South FL. Hope you fellers have some good-ol cold water gear!

Hope to hear from you again Jake, and better luck tomorow. GO get em!!

It is called the "Steeplechase" because of the obstacles encountered along the way, but Rick said this is the lowest tide he has ever seen for the finish at Anne's Beach.

I wonder how you would handicap sailors pulling boats through deep, soft mud. A light person would not sink in as far as a heavy person, but the heavy person may have more strength than the light person. On the other hand, fat legs might not sink in as much as skinny legs. I would think a strong, light person with very big feet would be the best combination. On the other hand (or foot), if you have big feet and they do submerge too deep into the silt, it can be very hard to pull them back out. It's easy to lose a bootie. The silt has characteristics similar to quicksand. As you try to pull one foot out of the mud, the other leg goes deeper. If you are not holding onto a boat or other large object, you start to feel as though you are in one of those old Tarzan movies where the more the bad guy struggles, the faster he gets sucked down and disappears below the surface of the muck.

Perfect Answer for Steeplechase crew: 4 male Hobbits per boat! Light, but strong and really big feet to yank heavy cats thru the mud to the finish line!

Sounds like I could actually sell snowshoes in FL! Did anybody try poling?

Could have done what Trey and I do, hop in, grab the dolphin striker and kick like hell.

Of course we got two sets of size 15 feet acting as paddles, that could help.

Five boats dropped out Saturday for various reasons, one boat did not start today (Sunday), one boat came back right after today's start with a broken rudder. And one boat was very late starting today because the sailors were stopped by the gendarmes and given tickets for various offenses on the way to the beach.

Rick will be posting results either tonight or tomorrow and a story tomorrow.

One interesting note is that Eric Arbogast on his new ARC 21 dismasted shortly before the first-day finish. Because it was an offshore wind, he was drifting out to sea. He was about six miles offshore when he called me on his cell phone and gave me his coordinates. I called Boat U.S. Towing, and they retrieved him with no problems. I'm sure he will have a story for us about his latest misadventure.

wwwhhhoooooaaaaa, good thing he had a portable gps (I assume) If not that would have been a SAR case for the Coast Guard.

He wasn't the only boat that was at risk. The SC20 was also capsized and headed out to sea when Team Tommy Bahama diverted course and circled them four or five times, talking to them to make sure they were alright. The crew responded, saying "stay with us," as they repeatedly tried to right the boat. They finally got it back up and both teams continued in the race.

One thing that has been stressed within US SAILING race management is to grant redress to anyone who renders assistance. Teams rendering assistance are not often looking at their watch to see how long they are doing so (from the time they alter course, to the time they're back on course). Race officials are enjoined to interview witnesses and err on the side of more time rather than less when they are in doubt. Nobody wants a team to ever think twice about rendering assistance; not the team in trouble, not the team helping, not the race management, and, as Robi points out, certainly not the CG!

Kudos, TB - wonder if anyone saw Eric in trouble, or if the dismast made them too hard to see.

Offshore wind is always scary in a race like this. It's good that there are now private operations like Sea Tow and Boat U.S. Towing to take care of the relatively minor problems on the water.

John,
You are right, and the Tommy Bahama team was given 3 minutes off their time on Saturday for standing by with the Supercat. This was based primarily on the estimate the Tommy Bahama team gave for how much time they spent.

Wow

6 miles off shore and a cell phone worked!!! They were lucky. Do you know if his hand held radio did not work out there?

Thanks
Mark

Sorry, Mark, I guess when you are drifting out in the Gulf Stream you don't want to run down your cell phone battery on chit-chat. He just gave me his coordinates and his cell phone number, and that was it.

It's still hard for me to believe he was six miles offshore, so maybe it will turn out that is wrong. But at least his cell phone worked out on the water -- on shore in that area of the Keys most cell phones don't work at all.

Mark, Mary,
Slight correction on the position where we dismasted. We were about a mile or less offshore and about six miles north of the finish and pinching hard trying to get out of the short, steep chop and doing a fairly good job of it when
the grommet at the head of the mainsail failed. We rolled up the sail and it seemed that we could make excellent headway under jib alone. Less than a minute later, ping!!!! the windward shroud "blowed up" as we were calculating our approach angle to the finish. CRAP!, mast down, no one injured, no problem. Gathered the mast in and my crew Nick called Mary with our coodinates. Seatow was there within 30 minutes and had us back at Holiday Isle where Nick, as any (good) crew would, went immediatly to the bar and oredered two whiskies and two beers.
No major damage, no injuries, except that we fought that front as it blew across for about two hours and it got the best of us in the end, it was not for lack of heart or effort.

We'll be back, with new rigging.

Eric,
It was Boat U.S. The Sea Tow captain was temporarily indisposed -- ran aground while towing a boat and had to wait for the tide to come up.
I'm glad to hear you weren't six miles out. That seemed strange.

Eric, I think you've had your share of mishaps this year! I sure hope you are done, and that you enjoy many years to come of happy trouble free sailing!