Tybee 500

By Kirk Jockell

On an absolutely gorgeous Saturday afternoon a bright pop of yellow appeared, streaking and growing against the horizon, then there was white, then another splash of white, and a little further down the coast, well-camouflaged against a deep blue sky, a burst of bright blue came into view. Spinnakers! From behind, somebody beat me to the punch. I heard a yell: “Here they come! They’re coming in!”

On this 15th of May, what began as a 500-mile catamaran race was about to come to an end. The eighth running of the Tybee 500 was about to be history. But, let’s backtrack a little.

Their journey began the previous Monday off the shores of Islamorada, Fla., and for the next six days, 15 two-man, high-performance beach cats would fight their way up the east coast of Florida until making their finishing landfall on Tybee Island, Ga. The sailing is extreme. The course is challenging and demanding, made up of six finishing legs. Florida stops were made on the beaches of Hollywood, Jupiter, Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach, and Fernandina.

Two classes of boat would make up the fleet, the Nacra 20 and the F-18. These are not your typical beach cats one might normally see awaiting some tourist to rent. No, these cats are light, high-tech, and designed for outright performance, capable of hitting speeds in the 20s. The sailors who race them are not your typical weekend warriors. They’re speed junkies willing to push their specialized boats, and their bodies, to the limits in pursuit of victory.

If everything goes well on the water, ground support personnel would only have to spend part of each night piecing boats back together in preparation for the next day’s racing. But the fact is, on a race like this, things break regularly and must be repaired. After each leg, a team must be prepared to spend plenty of afternoon and evening hours making sure their boat is ready to continue. Keeping plenty of replacement parts is an absolute necessity. Often, if one boat doesn’t have a necessary part or piece of equipment, one of the other teams will come to the rescue to get their competition back on the water the next day.

Unfortunately for one cat, Team Seacats’ White, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, couldn’t put ... well, you get the idea. The damage was too extensive and the boat simply couldn’t continue; they retired from the race unable to finish the third leg.

So, on a bright Saturday morning, 14 boats started off the beach in Fernandina in pursuit of a Georgia beach and a cold beer, or two, or three, at the local watering hole, Sting Ray’s. After the start, ground support would, for one last time, pack up all the gear and sprint up the interstate to receive their teams at the next location. If there isn’t good coordination by all stakeholders, the entire event could turn into a real logistics nightmare, and it often does, despite the best planning.

On the beach at Tybee, race officials were on station and prepared to land the fleets between the bright orange flags that marked the finish. Ground crews were prepared to get the boats off the line as soon as possible to make way for other finishing boats; they would have to work fast. Even though legs could exceed 100 miles, the racing can be close. On one occasion, the lead boats finished within three seconds of each other, and on another, within 15 seconds. That is incredibly close one-design racing given the distances traveled. Exciting stuff!

As expected, the first yellow spinnaker, powered by Team Royal and skippered by Steve Lohmayer, landed first. Firmly in second place, they needed to finish over eight minutes in front of the Team Velocity (TVS1), skippered by Trey Brown, to overtake the top position. It didn’t happen. Inside of two minutes, TVS1 skidded to a halt, securing their first place position within the Nacra 20 class. However, it would be the next boat, finishing a mere 47 seconds later in an F-18, that would take overall top honors. Team Bugaboo, skippered by world-class sailor Mischa Heemskerk, from the Netherlands, would beat all other boats, sailing the entire race in 38 hours, nine minutes, and 51-seconds, only four minutes and two seconds ahead of Team Velocity.

In less than an hour and a half, the remaining 10 boats finished safely and without incident. All hands could breathe a bit easier as the long week came to an end. All that was left was stowing of gear, loading up of boats, and the long drive home, but not before a great meal, plenty of rum, and a well-deserved night’s rest.

At dinner, several hours would be spent talking about the past six days and the events on the water. However, slowly but surely, the conversations turned to next year and the 2011 Tybee 500. The crews will tell you: the race is addictive.

To learn more about the race and see all the final results, visit the official race website at www.tybee500.com.

 Photos by Kirk Jockell