Tuesday, May 18, 1999
By Thatcher Drew
Pomodoro Wins, Rudees Rest. Regains Lead - Atlantic Beach, NC
9:00 PM
Pomodoro won the day. It was their first win in this race. The crowd on the beach cheered as she tacked to cover Rudee’s Restaurant near the beach and beat her across the finish by 14 seconds. "This was a regatta day, not a Worrell 1000 day," said Hans Meijer of Pomodoro. "It was a great beach sailing day and a match race to boot."
The sailors were slicing hands in the air, re-playing the tacks and wind shifts as the sun set behind them. A team member asked for a photo. Rudee’s sailors and supporters dutifully lined up. Randy Smyth was spotted. By the time he had finished he had lost about 23 seconds to Rudee’s Rest. According to our unofficial calculation that put Brett Dryland and Rod Waterhouse back in the lead by about seven minutes after over 800 miles of hard sailing.
"Well, I can tell you where every hole is from Wrightsville to Atlantic Beach," said Keith Notary of Chick’s Beach. Randy was philosophical. "This is more like the race. Most of this race has been two minute – one minute finishes. That’s not how the Worrell 1000 usually is."
Tybee Island finished fourth. As of 9:00 there are no other boats on the beach. The night is clear, the wind moderate. As boats finish we will post their times on the home page.
