Kill Devil Hills, NC
5/20/2000, 10 AM
By Zack Leonard
The final leg of the Worrell 1000 is upon us. The weather will be hard to predict today. Most of the weather guessers are calling for a light to moderate, sea-breeze influenced, off-shore wind. But that leaves a lot of wiggle room. At the start the wind was on-shore, blowing 8 knots from West - Southwest. The fleet pushed off with spinnakers flying and Dryland and Waterhouse of Rudee's Restaurant got a great start at the pole. Smyth and Struble of Blockade Runner bounced in the surf and stalled off the beach, but they gybed as soon as they cleared the surf-line and caught a puff off the shore. Dryland tried to gybe into a safe leeward position, but Smyth rolled him immediately and took the lead. The fleet quickly realized that the wind off the land was solid and fell into a long line, reaching along the shore with spinnakers flying. Only Weaver and Deppe of P Yacht and Sunnucks and Self headed out to sea looking for stronger wind.
Smyth and Struble plan to cover Dryland the whole way today. "They're going to get tired of seeing us today," predicted Smyth.
Dryland and Waterhouse are hoping that some tuning changes will help them to shake Smyth and breakaway for a big win. "We took all the extra stuff off the boat, reduced clothing (no boots!), reduced our mast rake and spreader rake and tightened our diamonds," said Dryland, "We'll see what happens." Dryland and Waterhouse need to put 29 minutes and 12 seconds on Smyth to win the race.
If the fleet makes good time today the overall course record could fall. Smyth and Struble, need to complete the leg in 5 hours 16 minutes and 11 seconds to carve out a new record. Dryland and Waterhouse also have a good shot at the mark, needing a time of 4 hrs 46 min 59 sec. Both the Dutch team of Loos and Heemskerk and Alexander's on the Bay have an outside chance at besting the record as well. The Dutch need to finish in 3 hrs 26 min 18 sec and Alexander's must sail a 3 hrs 10 min 33 sec.
