Tybee 500 - Recent News

The Wrap Party...

Reeling in the Fleet – the RC prepares to finish boats for the last leg of the regatta. It is always hard to know how to feel at the end of this event. Teams have been through the wringer this year, even though the weather was pretty mild and took far less toll than other years. Ground crews are equally exhausted and emotions ran high for several days concurrently. There is a sense of relief visible on many faces as the boats rolled up the beach, trailered for the drive home. There is gratitude on loved-ones’ faces as they embrace their sailors, ashore at last and the regatta completed. There’s a hint of regret as the race flags are carefully rolled and stowed for the last time. The entire Cat in the Hat team hitches a ride as their boat is pulled from the beach following their completion of the 2009 event. At the awards ceremony on Sunday morning, sailors were given an idea about the organization’s plans for the future of the race. It was stated that the current fleet would be welcomed back next year – Nacra 20s and Formula 18s will again share the startline in 2010. This dispelled some rumours that the N20 was being phased out – Race Director Chuck Bargeron made it very clear that the 20 will have a place in the Tybee 500 for the foreseeable future. Chuck further made no bones about the fact that far heavier penalties for rules infractions are in the works along with some significant tightening of the sailing instructions to remove some inconsistencies. Each year, the rule set is further refined, and it is clear that 2009 will not be an exception. Though overall mild, the conditions in 2009 still created considerable damage in the fleet. Rudder systems seemed particularly vulnerable during two of the five beach starts. The Tybee 500 Organization would like to gratefully acknowledge collaboration and assistance from Harken, Gill and Zhik, in addition to the invaluable hospitality from each of the communities that hosted our fast-moving fleet. Each beach neighborhood opened their arms to receive our frantic circus train and we barely had time to appreciate the beauty of the southern Atlantic coastal towns where we slept. We hope you get the opportunity to spend some actual leisure time in some of these places soon. The final finish photos are up HERE. We’ll also have some additional wrap-up and awards ceremony pictures for you soon. Thanks again for joining us on this adventure and stay tuned for details on the 2010 event.

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Photo Links...

Day Four finish photos are up HERE. Day Five start photos are up HERE. Day Five finish photos are up HERE. Day Six start photos are up HERE. Kevin has done some nice work with cameo shots from every day of the race - check those out HERE.

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Got 'em in...

That's right - our wayward team MooseBurd is safe and sound on Tybee Island. They were greeted ashore at 22:08:21 by a cheering group of sailors and spectators, some of whom merely wanted to see what Tyler and Moose had come up with to get themselves to the finish. I'll let the picture speak for itself, but it may look familiar to those who have seen the pictures from last year. Those Burd boys were almost certainly Scouts. The results are now posted. Kevin is hammering away at uploading pictures tonight, so keep an eye peeled. Awards are by the pool at the Ocean Plaza at 08:30 tomorrow! Now to track down the fleet at Sting Ray's and celebrate!

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Almost Home!

Contact! MooseBurd is a mere four miles from the finish line and are making about three knots. There are still members of the fleet waiting anxiously to collect up the last of us... I'll have the finish time when they hit the beach.

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Technical Difficulties...

Sorry for the skip in the record, folks... our RC is still hard at work down on the beach pulling trailers and setting up the beacon for our last wayward sheep - Team MooseBurd dismasted 37.5 miles from the finish just a few minutes after 2PM local time. After some jury-rigging, they got underway again with a partial rig - at last report, they were making about six knots. We had some communication difficulties from the beach, so I'm off-station to get a quick report up for you - all other boats are in and they arrived in very good breeze, spins up, with only two hours between the first and second-to-last boat. TCDYC pulled a bullet from their bag of tricks to win the longest leg, and Whike was hot on their heels. Team Cat Fever laid a 15-foot long blue skidmark in the sand as they screamed across the line in 11th place. We have some awesome pictures being pulled together right now. I'm working on getting the final scoring together so everyone knows where their teams wound up - give me just a few and I'll get them posted... More soon...

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