Cape Hatteras, NC
5/18/2000, 5:30 PM
By Zack Leonard
The Race, Part 1
Brett Dryland and Rod Waterhouse of Rudee's Restaurant edged out Randy Smyth and Matt Struble of
Blockade Runner to win Leg 10 of the Worrell 1000 by 51 seconds. Smyth and Struble seem content
to protect their 32 minute overall lead by staying close to Dryland and Waterhouse on each leg.
The leg started in a 10 knot Southerly and the fleet reached down the beach to Cape Lookout.
The reach was tight, but the Aussies and Dutch managed to carry the chute while the rest of the
fleet chose to sail with 2 sails. Rudee's led Smyth and the Dutch by a short margin at the cape,
but Smyth ducked inside Dryland and Waterhouse at the point and took the lead. After Cape Lookout
the shore turned left about 40 degrees and the leg turned into a run. Smyth and Dryland gybed into
the shore while the Dutch split yet again and sailed off-shore looking for a big gain. After 4 or 5
gybes into the shore the breeze strengthened to 18 knots and shifted to the right. The added velocity
allowed the fleet to lay the finish at Hatteras. The Aussied outspeeded Smyth on the long fetch to
the finish to win the leg. Smyth felt that Dryland and Waterhouse locked into the fast settings for
the stronger breeze quicker than he did, but the Aussies thought it was all positioning. "It got
tighter and windier and we were above them, it's that simple," said Waterhouse.
Loos and Heemskerk of Team Holland edged out William Sunnucks and Mark Self for third place on the
leg. The Dutch finished 13 minutes out of the money. Alexander's on the Bay sailed by Brian Lambert
and Jamie Livingston were 5th, followed by Kevin Smith and Glenn Holmes of First Response.
The complex currents and shallow water of this region produced a short, steep chop that was tough
sledding in the small beach cats. The Dutch team felt that they were too heavy to be fast in today's
conditions. "There was big surf today, but we needed it to be windier to be fast," said Heemskerk.
The leaders all felt that the fastest running set-up was with the skipper on the hull at the rear beam,
and the crew on the trapeze behind the skipper. It took careful helming to keep the bows up today, but
the fleet registered fewer capsizes than they did on earlier legs, showing an improvement in the new
boats.
The surf break at the finish was the most rugged we have seen yet. The sand bar was close to shore and
confused whitewater harried the boats for the final 150 feet to the beach. The result was a return to
the glory capsizes at the finish line that we saw on some of the earlier legs. Team Guidand overstood
the finish and flipped under spinnaker on the sand. Team California came in looking good, but a
whitewater bump bounced Scott Klodowski off the tramp ass-over-teakettle and his boat capsized onto
the beach.
At this morning's start there was a bad collision that disabled two boats. Premier Shutters, sailed
by the husband/wife team of Scott and Dior Hubel, got sideways to the waves directly in the path of
P Yacht, sailed by Weaver and Deppe. Weaver and Deppe were unable to avoid a collision and the bow
pole of their catamaran went right through Hubels' hull and out the other side. Both boats returned
to the beach for repairs. P Yacht installed a new poll and pushed off while Premier Shutters made
temporary repairs to their hulls. Both teams rejoined the race.
Premier Shutter's is still out on the course. They called in from Ocracoke Island, 8 miles south of
the finish, where they beached their boat to make repairs. They reported a hole or several holes in
their boat that required repair before they could complete the leg. It is unclear whether the holes
in need of repair were the result of the incident at the start, or if subsequent damage has further
handicapped their boat.
