Cocoa Beach start goes off in diminishing surf and 12 knot East/Northeasterly breeze.
The start of Leg 4, which will take the fleet 69 miles from Cocoa Beach to Daytona Beach, Fl., went off with little damage this morning. Sixteen of the remaining 19 boats in the fleet are beating North on starboard tack towards the stoic gantries of Cape Canaveral Space Center. The surf was still extremely rugged, but the wind angle and diminished velocity allowed the sailors to reach out perpendicular to the breaking surf. Waves were overhead, but they didn't approach the spreader high monsters that faced the fleet in Jensen Beach yesterday. Team Guidant, sailed by Rod Waterhouse and Katie Pettibone, maneuvered through the surf fastest to claim an early lead on overall race leaders Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston of Alexander's on the Bay. Most of the fleet got off the beach clean, but there were several problems. Team Castrol, piloted by Jay Sonnenklar and John Casey were flipped over violently only feet from the beach by a large patch of whitewater. They righted the boat on the beach and pushed back out minutes later only to be greeted by another large breaker that sent them packing again. In the second capsize they broke a number of battens and are working to fix them now. Team Bay Wind made it through the surf-line without incident, but they were forced to return to the beach when a diamond wire popped out of the outer end of the spreader, risking the integrity of their light-weight, carbon-fibre spar. They surfed into the beach, fixed the problem and headed back out. Team Redhook Ale sailed by Worrell veteran Brad Cavanaugh and diminutive crew Suzette Cruz were late pushing off due to last minute re-rigging, but looked ready to make the sail to Daytona.
Cavanaugh tips the scale at close to 250 lbs and Cruz weighs in at just 106, but the affable pair makes a cohesive team. "We met at Club Cameo in Miami Beach," said Cruz, "Brad and his friends pushed me in the mosh pit and I was really mad."
"She came out of the club after the show and wanted to beat us up, but we ended up sailing a Mumm 30 around all night instead." recalls Cavanaugh, "Eventually I had a Worrell crew."
Cavanaugh, Cruz and their shore crew were still making repairs when the gun went off at 10 AM for the start. Many of the crews spent much of the night fitting new masts to boats, repairing rudders and fixing other ancillary damage. One competitor noted that competition for spare parts has become fierce, as the dealers following the race up the coast have run dry. The competitor noted dryly that it was like an auction in the wee hours of the morning with buyers and sellers getting heated about access to crucial components.
Race Director Mike Worrell addressed the issue of limited spare parts and the financial cost of the breakage to date at a competitors meeting this morning. Some competitors urged Worrell to cancel the racing on days that appeared as rough as yesterday, thus preserving equipment and ensuring that the most possible boats can stay in the race to the finish.
Rick Deppe of Pyacht Men disagreed. "It's the responsibility of the competitor to decide if they can go," pleaded Deppe, "if we dumb down the event you risk losing what it's all about, seeing who can sail from one place to another regardless of the obstacles."
While Worrell agreed that the event was built on the spirit that Deppe highlighted, he expressed concern for the plight of the teams who had spent so much effort and money preparing for the race. Worrell promised to be sensitive to both sides of the issue in making his decisions.
2 Hour Penalty for DNS Announced
Last night at 7 PM race officials announced their intention to add 4 hours to the scores of all boats that were not able to complete the leg from Jensen Beach to Cocoa Beach. During the competitors meeting representatives of two of the five teams that completed the course yesterday argued persuasively for a smaller penalty that would keep the competition tighter. Both Guidant and Alexander's, two of the leading teams, argued for a 2-hour penalty instead of the 4 hours that Worrell had proposed. They felt that even if they broke a mast later in the race, good work by the shore crew should limit their losses to two hours. In effect they were given a "one mast" lead for completing the leg. It was agreed that the penalty would be limited to 2 hours.
Team Guidant was assessed a 30 minute penalty this morning as skipper Rod Waterhouse and Pyacht Women's skipper Katie Pettibone agreed to join forces and continue together after their crews both elected not to continue. Each team is allowed one free crew replacement, but subsequent crew replacements are subject to a mandatory 30-minute penalty. Guidant had already made one replacement when Sandra Tartaglino broke her leg in Ft. Lauderdale.
Shore crews are earning their keep on this edition of the Worrell 1000. Many tired teams spent much of the night rebuilding boats, but that's just part of the chore these volunteers must tackle. Modern communications technology allows the racers to keep in constant communication with their shore-side support teams. Cell phones in watertight bags allow the racers to call for the shore crew to meet them on remote stretches of beach to replace broken parts in the middle of a leg. The phone also allows the shore team to transmit crucial weather and surf information to their racers. More than one shore crew phoned racers with instructions on how to best negotiate the shore break at the finish last night. The enhanced communications have also allowed teams to update their own websites with real-time race reports from the sailors.
The racers should make good time on this short leg today. Yesterday's leg was extremely rough with puffs over 30 knots and huge waves, today should be much more moderate and the Inter 20 class catamarans should sail close to their potential most of the way.
