THE GREAT TEXAS RACE,
JUNE 2006
Written by Matt-Man Morris, Team Chums II
THE GREAT TEXAS RACE,
JUNE 2006
Written by Matt-Man Morris, Team Chums II
 |
This year's GTR proved to be another
exciting and worthwhile adventure for Team Chums. This year's team included Lee Wicklund, founder of Team Chums, and Anthony Aquila on Lee's Nacra 20 as Team Chums I. Managing Chums I was Steve Canady who also had the pleasure of heaving Chums I off the beach each day. Matt Morris, aka Matt-Man, and Sean McQuilken on Matt's Hobie Tiger Formula 18 made up Team Chums II. Managing Chums II was longtime Fleet 42 member Kirk Hooper (Captain Kirk). Kirk also had the pleasure of shoving the boat off the beach each day and taking care of repairs, etc., allowing us to keep the boat in shape for this competitive event. The race begins in South Padre Island, which is just south of Corpus Christi, Texas, and over a thousand miles from Arizona (even further for Lee from California). A long way to tow a boat, but definitely worthwhile task to compete in this exciting race. A big contributor in cost is getting the boats to and from Texas, as such Chums I and Team San Diego (Carl Teyssier, Glenn Brown & Wally Chapman) double stacked their Nacra 20s and made the drive to Texas, only stopping for food & fuel (except for some mechanical troubles). We, Chums II, were traveling solo and left early Saturday morning. Traveling with me as ground crew and support were my parents Hank & Montie Morris. As we were coming from northern Arizona, Camp Verde, we decided to take a short cut by Lake Roosevelt. Coincidently, Fleet 42 was having a Family Fun Weekend at the lake so when we rolled through between 6 and 7 a.m.. We let out a couple of blasts from the horn just in case there were any Fleet 42ians on the beach ! We drove all day long and made it to San Antonio late Saturday night. We stayed in a cheap motel, slept a few hours, then got up to and started driving again. We arrived just after Chums I and San Diego in South Padre Island around noon on Sunday. The ocean in South Padre Island was an awesome aqua teal color and we had finally arrived ! Upon arriving, we wasted no time, as this is an important and competitive race with no time to mess around ! So we went and had lunch. Seriously though, after lunch we started rigging the boat. I found a car wash nearby and knocked the crust off the boat which consisted of an assortment of toasted bugs and road grime. As we pulled the boat into the Tiki Condos, other teams were asking how we traveled all that way with such a clean boat. It did not take long and pretty soon the competition were all washing their boats ! The rest of the team flew into Harlingen Airport later that day. For Chums I, Anthony and his wife Carolee and for Chums II my wife Lauren and my brother with his family (Mike, Tracy & Kyle Morris). Most of the teams spend a full day going over eery little detail of the boat. One oversight can be quite costly, where the stakes are high both in terms of earning a top finish as well as the safety of the crew aboard. Hence, the reason we spend all day massaging the boats ! The day prior to the start of the race is where boat safety inspections are made by the PRO, as the Notice of Race specifies the equipment required in order to race. The essentials were pretty much the same this year, with only one new requirement for carrying a satellite phone. The reality is that the coast of Texas is mostly desolate. Most of the 300 mile plus beach front is simply just sand, so standard cell phones, etc., do not work. While renting a sat phone definitely adds to the list of expenses, it is well worth the peace of mind. Another important piece of safety equipment are safety lines for both the skipper and crew that physically attach them to the boat. The lines have to be specially rigged with some sort of quick release in case you need to disconnect in a hurry (like if you are trapped under the boat !). Most people use a carabineer, but we just attached the safety line to one quick snap buckle on our trapeze harness. With the safety inspections complete, we were set to sail in the 2006 Great Texas Race ! The wind was really light the day before the race and the surf was big due to the passing tropical storm in Florida. A couple of boats decided to try and sail anyway. Only 2 of the 3 boats made it out. Big waves and a light breeze coming straight with the waves made for very tough conditions to get off the beach. We decided that the light conditions were definitely not worth the risk of breaking rudders or castings and just hung out on the beach. That evening we had the opening ceremonies. This is where you find out what position you get to start in. The team managers from echocardiogram team draw a number that establishes a starting order on the beach. Then to rule out any chance of manipulation, or the perception of one, they flip a coin to decide if the starting order will start as drawn or in reverse. Both Chums Teams got a good starting position, with Chums I in the 5th slot and Chums II in the 6th slot. 9:50 a.m. (Texas time), the 10-minute preparatory flag is raised. We have the Tiger's nose just kissing the water, with Sean on one side, I on the other and Kirk at the stern. Kirk counted off the minutes as the adrenaline was beginning to flow. After a short discussion, Lee and I both decide to start on a port tack, away from our destination, in order to make it out past the surf. With just a few minutes left to the start, I wave goodbye to my wife Lauren. We now inch the boat further into the water onto the start line, with the waves rolling in around our ankles. The seawater was nice and warm, which was good because it was going to be a wet day ! Three, two, one, GO, GO, GO ! As all 14 boats pushed their way through the surf. Sean and I pushed until the water was waist deep or so (with the waves) then jumped on. Kirk continued to push from the stern and Sean and I started working the boat by tuning the main and the jib sheet. Once the water was deep enough we pushed the dagger boards down a little to try and minimize any side motion. Then we hit some monster waves, where all we could do was hope for the best as the splash from the wave made it hard to see. Kirk did an awesome job of pushing us out, as with his tenacious spirit continued to grind us out through the massive waves. Finally, Kirk yelled up to me that he could not go any further as he could barely touch the bottom ! I motioned to push our sterns out with one last push, and then we were on our own ..... With the bows down, we accelerated quickly; I turned the boat up just before hitting the next set of waves. Then on the backside, as the bows were falling down, we cut back down to build up some speed. We worked the waves back and forth, until we cleared the surf. Once on the other side we noticed that we were one of the first boats to punch through the surf barrier. (We found out afterwards that some of the boats had to make several attempts to get out through the surf due to rudder/casting damage.) Along side of us was Team Chums I, a great start for bot of us ! Well, that is until we tacked. Chums I and us both tacked at the same time onto starboard to start making some headway up the coast. After we tacked, I proceeded to pull up the starboard rudder (Texas has lots of seaweed, so the less you have to snag the better) and as ai pulled on the rudder I accidentally pulled a little to the side, which put the boat into a turn to port. So the boat turned and my body went straight overboard !! I tried to grab the foot strap on the way down, but I only got my fingertips around the strap when the full weight of my body jerked my hand away. Luckily for me, Sean did an awesome job getting the boat turned around and picking up his clumsy skipper ! I have only fallen off a boat twice in my life and both times have been with Sean (in less than a year). For some reason though, Sean refuses to fire me. After taking the swim break, we had some work ahead of us to try and make up some time as by now most of the fleet were well on their way. The course from South Padre Island to Mustang Beach (100 miles up the coast near Corpus Christi) is tactically challenging. The wind tends to be better along the coast, however, because the coast of Texas has a significant curvature to it, you end up sailing a longer distance. Having run the "Rhomb Line", straight course from South Padre to Mustang, last year with very little success, Sean and I decided that this year we would run the coast or at least stay between the competition and the shore. As such, we put the chute up and sailed a deep course along the coast. We were sailing deeper and faster than most of the fleet as we were gaining ground ! Then I remembered at the skipper's meeting that they warned us of a large storm system that we could definitely history on the way to Mustang. As I looked off in the distance, I saw what appeared to be a dust storm. It looked dark brown and Monsoony. The competition were all heading a little higher and looked as though they would slip by on the backside of the disturbance. Therefore, I thought perhaps we should head a little higher just in case. Looking back it was the wrong move. As we got closer, the brown dark/stormy area, it just disappeared and we had already given up some ground by coming ut. But we pressed on. We had passed two Tigers, TKO and TCDYC, and were holding our own when the entire fleet decided to jibe back towards shore. We jibed and immediately discovered that our Harken Auto Ratchet Spinnaker Blocks were backwards !! Note: My second set of these auto ratchets are only used for distance racing, to give a little more holding power for the crew, and had not been used for a year and the auto ratchet mechanism was not working. So we put the two working ratchets on one side, as the long points of sail are generally always starboard, and the two non-working rachet on the other. Problem ! If the auto ratchet does not work, it makes it hard to know what direction the sheet needs to be fed through. So, we found out the hard way that at least one of the two ratchets was backwards, which makes trimming the spinnaker almost impossible ! Sean did his best, but we lost ground. TCDYC were able to pass us. After we jibed again back on starboard, we did our best to try to make up some ground but TCDYC were sailing Really fast. We battled a little with Team San Diego and Team MCBok which further kept us from catching TCDYC. But we had some fun. After trying to pass Team San Diego a couple of times to leeward, we were pretty far below them; we finally gave up and decided to drive over them. We eventually did. Next was Team McBok, who was also on an Inter/Nacra 20. Team McBok was sailing really high, and we did not want to have to sail extra distance as they were heading on a course above the finish. We sailed on our preferred course, just below them. It was at this moment where I had to make a choice. We tried to pass Team San Diego to leeward, but could not do it, but I REALLY did not want to have to head high to go around McBok. Then a bit of luck for us, Team McBok stuffed the bow in a wave and we seized our moment of opportunity. I dove off hard to drive down and through their shadow and we were just able to get through when they recovered, and now we were in clear air !! We continued to sail toward the finish with Team San Diego following our pathology. Team McBok then put up their chute to get back down to the now established Rhomb line, falling in behind Team San Diego. We were now inching towards the finish, and the wind had picked up. A nice tight reach, with spray from the waves peppering our eyes with each bounce of the boat. We finally spotted the finish, and were almost done with the first day of the race, but not quite .... The last obstacle or task is to pilot the boat with good speed, don't want to give up any time, through the breaking surf. I chose to keep a relatively high angle to try to come in hot, remember we are still trying to make up ground on the lead boats, but this was a bad move. Last year we finished normally with the spin up, which helps to keep the boat down. This year the wind angle was too high and too strong to fly the chute, so we had it down. Just 10 yards to the finish, a large wave caught the stern and proceeded to try to spin the boat about. With the water too shallow to have either one of the rudders all the way down, we were at the mercy of the wave. Rather than fight it, I just turned the boat around into the wind and we came in backwards. But wait, the race is still not over !! Now that we are completely drained and tired from dragging the boat through the finish we must now get the boat out of the way for the incoming boats. We drag the boat way off to the side, meanwhile we are trying to get the cat wheels under the boat when the next boat is just seconds from hitting the beach and are out of control !! The boat looked like it was going to come in below us through the finish line, but then at the last second the boat jibes and turns straight for our boat. Kirk and others had literally a split second to get out of the way. Kirk dove in between the hulls of my boat just before the other team crashed full speed into us. Luckily, no one was injured. The collision was just an unfortunate accident. We were working to get the boat out of the way, but did not have enough time, although our boat was off to the side of the finish. The other team simply lost control in the surf, similar to how we did. No hard feelings, but nonetheless we had some damage. The cables for the spinnaker pole were frayed and needed to be replaced. Thankfully, Team Texas Performance (last year's champions of the GTR) loaned us a spare to get us by for the remainder of the race. THANK YOU Texas Performance !! Captain Kirk changed out the parts so we were race ready for Day Two (THANK YOU KIRK ! ! !) First Day of the Great Texas was completed ! Having sailed on open ocean for over 100 miles, we felt good about accomplishing the challenges of the day. Things did not go exactly to plan, but overall we did well. Lee and Team Chums I ended up in 7th overall after corrected time. Team Chums II ended up in 5th overall with corrected time. After finishing the race, we headed to our hotel room just a few miles up the beach (some of the other competitors camp on the beach, but the mosquitoes are terrible). Took some showers, ate some food at the hotel restaurant, and then went to sleep. Day 2: To Be Continued ...... |
 |
 |
||