Saturday, May 15, 1999
By Thatcher Drew
Uncharted Shoals Strand Racers
"We were sailing along on a broad reach and then we were aground," said Keith Notary. "We were right on the rhumb line and there was no shoal marked and here we were on dry land."
Sitting in the coffee shop this morning Jamie Livingston of Worrell Bros. overheard the comment. "You hit that? I hit it, too. Right on the rhumb line, right?" Worrell Bros. snapped onto the other tack and got around the shoal without beaching.
"Well, that’s a relief. I’m not the only one. I don’t feel so bad now." Keith Notary was not the only one, nor was that the only shoal. "We came across breakers. We were heading straight for this bar that was like a big triangle jutting out of the water."
Team Pomodoro was sailing along when they were suddenly in breakers. A big one washed right over them from leeward. Pomodoro also broke things in the 6-foot swells off shore. "We were on the other tack when suddenly we hear a noise and the trapeze wire on the starboard side has just fallen off the mast. There was no strain. It just came down." The cleat that holds the roller reefing suddenly broke so they could no longer furl the jib. That line and some others were trailing behind or causing confusion on the trampoline for Hans and Brian on Pomodoro. "He would say, ‘give me a little downhaul’, and there were so many lines, I’d have to take a minute to sort things out, and before I could act the gust would have past and he was asking me to let it out again."
Big Bros./Big Sisters hit an unexpected shoal and stopped on the sand for a minute to take a breather and figure out where they were. By the time they were ready to go, the tide had stranded them so far up the sand they couldn’t push the boat all the way to the water. Guy Selsmeyer and Tom Powers wrapped themselves in the sail and the spinnaker and got six hours sleep. They arrived on the shore at about 10:00.
Selsmeyer commented, "Rick Bliss told me there were sand bars off shore. Back in Wisconsin we call those things peninsulas."
Team Outer Banks in Sight
The last boat is in sight as of 1:00 in the afternoon, about nine hours after Brett Dryland’s first-place finish.
Sailors and race officials on the deck of the Windjammer bar, overlooking the starting line, watched Team Outer Banks sail right past the finish a mile off shore. It looks like the exhausted crew has spotted their mistake and have now tacked for shore.
Team Taipan Withdraws
Peter Cogan of Team Taipan called in from Hunting Island near Beaufort where he put in during some particularly heavy winds. Cogan informed his ground crew he was going to withdraw. They are leaving now to pick him up with a trailer.
Tybee Island Comes in Second
Inspired by this morning’s send-off by hundreds of boosters, Tybee Island posted its best finish of the race today by coming in second, three minutes behind Brett Dryland in Rudee’s Rest. Randy Smyth in Chick’s Beach was third by about four minutes.
The race officials and ground crews have been waiting on the beach for about three hours in the dark. Race officials had just beat the ground crews in a soccer match by two points when the first boat scraped onto the shore out of the gloom. No warning, no sound, just the big white wing arriving like a ghost on the strand. "It’s kind of spooky," said one crewmember.
The wind is from the north north east at about eighteen with gusts to 25 knots. It is chilly. Randy Smyth was visibly shivering as he left the boat.
Brett Dryland said that before sunset they were in close second behind Randy Smyth. As night fell the wind shifted to the north and increased in velocity. Brett was able to pass Randy upwind. Brett had an advantage. Randy has a green glow stick on his starboard foil that allowed Brett to trace him in the dark, and ultimately pass him going up wind.
