Cocoa Beach, FL
5/9/2000, 4:50 PM
By Zack Leonard
Worrell 1000 race officer Davey Crocket said it best, "some days you're gonna get the bear, and some days the bear's gonna get you." Davey's famous ancestor once uttered those words and they proved prescient today as most of the fleet capsized at least once while sailing a hairy, three-sail, double-trap reach to the finish at Cocoa Beach. The fleet finished another leg in record time today as an 18 knot Southeasterly powered the Inter 20s up the Florida coast with spinnakers flying and spray shooting off the bows. Once again Randy Smyth and Matt Struble surfed onto the beach in first place, again edging the Dutch team of Gerard Loos and Mischa Heemskerk by a scant 14 seconds on the 79 Mile Leg. The Dutch team led for most of the race, but the layline to the finish undid them. Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce finished third, two minutes off the pace, followed by Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston of Alexander's on the Bay and Brett Dryland and Rod Waterhouse of Rudee's Restaurant.
The day began with a protest ruling by Race Chairman Mike Worrell. Worrell handed a 1 second per mile penalty to the Dutch team after reviewing evidence that gear on the Dutch boat was not in line with class rules. The Dutch quickly acknowledged their error, made changes to right the situation, and took the penalty in stride. In fact, it seemed to strengthen their resolve as they rolled over Smyth at the start of the leg. Smyth's flailing start pushed him back to fourth, a position that he held until late in the race. The boats in front of him either flipped or over stood the finish line, forcing them to douse the spinnaker and jib-reach to the finish on a slower point of sail. Smyth played the coastline perfectly. A look at a Florida map will reveal the trap that many of the sailors fell for. The coastline runs a bit west of due North for a long while, but approaching Cocoa Beach it flares out to the Northeast. The cats were reaching fully powered under spinnaker parallel to the shore for most of the leg. As they approached the finish, the land turned right, and they were forced to sail a higher angle to parallel the beach, causing major problems. Boats that tried to carry the spinnaker tight shook violently as the spinnaker luffed, sometimes flipping over to leeward. While other teams pitch poled when bad waves submerged their bows.
Flipping was the order of the day. At least 4 teams flipped over the finish line. The easiest way to flip was to sail past the layline. Several boats came in with spinnakers flogging, trying to carry the chute through the finish, rather than dousing in the surf. The strategy generally failed. The tight reach became difficult to maintain when the crew had to come off the trapeze to pull the centerboards up for the beach landing. With the boards up the boats slipped sideways, further weakening their chance of laying the finish. Most times the result was a boat sailing upwind over the sand, with a spinnaker up and two sailors holding on to the high flying hull as the mast softly touched down on the sand.. Luckily most of these teams managed to capsize through the finish line, so the mistake didn't cost as much as it could have.
Richard Deppe and Tom Weaver looked a lot stronger off the line today, but they lost pace quickly as the race progressed. They scratched their heads as boats passed by them and felt an awful sick feeling when they realized they had forgotten their stern plugs. The course was clear, they had to beach the boat and drain it or risk sinking. Weaver said "we just landed at a random beach to drain the boat and we ended up in the middle of a fashion shoot, surrounded by some confused models." Weaver shook his head, bemoaning their second rookie mistake.
Before the start Jamie Livingston showed off the latest in crew safety gear. Livingston's lifejacket has been modified with a Velcro compartment on the back that conceals his camelback water container. His front pockets have been augmented with large Mesh pouches for EPIRB and medication. A piece of webbing tethers his waterproof GPS bag to the jacket, and a diving knife in a locking plastic sheath is sewn on to the shoulder. Knives come in handy for cutting yourself free in a tangled capsize. His secret weapon? A sheepish grin crosses his face when he admits - Imodium AD. "You've got to be able to close the flaps when you need to", he grinned. The whole crowd laughed, but more than one sailor hastily asked his ground grew to pick up a box for the next leg.
Look for a report on the start tomorrow morning. Leg three will begin in Cocoa Beach and finish at Daytona Beach. If the weather holds the fleet should post another record time.
