Message from the OSYC Vice-Commodore - Wed, May 26, 2010
Not Oil For Slip to Ship! Sign up online now, $50 with no late fee.

We are looking forward to another terrific Slip to Ship this weekend. Looking at the marine forecast as of today, winds are forecast on Saturday to be out of the NW at 5-10 kts. Sunday's forecase is out of the W at 5-10kts. Should be plenty of wind for competitive sailing.

I have received several inquiries about oil and the Islands. As of today, no change. The oil is 60 miles away and the Islands remain open. Me and 4 other boats sailed to Horn Island last weekend and it was beautiful. If you know someone who is aprehensive, tell them to sign up now. 30 boats is fine, 50 would be awesome.

Robbie Holstead will be cooking his cajun fare extrodinaire and we are lowering the food prices for extra meals down to $6.00 from $8.00. If you have already paid the $8.00 let us know and we will give you extra raffle tickets to make up the difference. Also, if you paid the late fee, I will put in for a refund for you.

We will have several special awards to give out as well as the Round Dear Perpetual. We will also have a great local band to entertain you on Saturday night.

As always, tents are permitted and a good time required.

As to the course, we will be providing the GPS coordiantes for the finish boat near the eastern tip of east ship Island (Race 1) at the competitors meeting.

Race 3 (Round Dear). The large range marker is no more. After being damaged in the Hurricanes last year, it has been removed. To keep consistency in the race, we will station a chase boat at the former location of the large range marker. An Orange Cylinder will be dropped as well. Competitors must round the Orange cylinder to port. Race 3 will remain the same in all other respects.

Thirty stalwarts of the beach catamaran sailing community took sail on 15 boats May 10th, 2010 to face the elements in a grueling race to Tybee Island, Georgia, some 560 miles from the starting point in Islamorada, Florida. 

The first day from Islamorada, FL. saw stiff breezes on the nose changing as boats rounded the tip of Florida to continue a tough beat to the finish.  The distance of 90+ miles took the last boats more than 12 hours to finish in the dark, but all boats made it, with crews beat up and looking for a comfortable bed. 

The second day from Hollywood to Jupiter, FL  was a shorter leg, but rough seas continued.  Crews saw wash board sailing and challenging sea conditions take a toll on the boats.  Ground crews were up late into the night working repairs. 

Day three from Jupiter to Cocoa Beach were equally challenging, where inlets caused rough sailing even though winds had clocked to give sailors their first chance to use spinnakers.  One boat lost a crew member in early going, recovering, but the boat and crew drifted ashore with broken battens and a decision to take its penalty and a day ashore.  Another crew lost a crew member and put panic in the race committee until all systems worked as planned and the crew member was found by use of the required personal EPIRB and was returned to his boat by Boat US, to continue the race.

Day four starting from Cocoa Beach involved a trip around Cape Canaveral, where a Shuttle stood on the pad, ready for launch the following day.  All boats were required to remain 3 miles off shore for the rounding before arriving in Daytona Beach.  The day was a glorious sail for all with great reaching winds cooperating for a continuous spinnaker run, after turning the corner off the Cape.  

Day five from Daytona Beach was equally a great sailing day, traveling from Daytona to Fernandina Beach, Florida in record time. The race committee had to drive ahead quickly just to stay up with speeding catamarans.

The final day, starting at Fernandina Beach on May 15th, 2010 looked to have light winds and the crews voted to start at 8:00AM in case the forecast held.  Actually, the winds held, but the course carried to the north east, causing the leg to be full of short and long spinnaker gibes.  But even so, much to the pleasure of all, boats began to arrive at 3:30 in the afternoon. There was a joyous celebration throughout the home city of Tybee Island, GA.  Awards followed on Sunday morning.

Final Results 2010 Tybee 500 See Complete Results
F18 Teams	Skipper/ Crew	Total Elapsed Time (hours:minutes:seconds)	Place
Bugaboo (Hobie Wildcat)	Mischa Heemskerk (Neth) Eduard Zanen (Neth)	38:09:51	1
AHPC (AHPC C2)	John Casey Dalton Tebo	38:57:05	2
PepPod Sailing (Nacra Infusion)	Tyler Burd Garth Fasano	40:47:59	3
Seacats Adrenaline (Nacra Infusion)	Todd Riccardi Brendon Scanlon	41:07:41	4
Nacra 20 Teams	Skipper/ Crew	Total Elapsed Time (hours:minutes:seconds)	Place
Velocity 1	Trey Brown Baily White	38:15:53	1
Royal Yellow	Steve Lohmayer Jay Sonnenklar	38:23:11	2
Royal Orange	Jared Sonnenklar Colin Page	39:31:25	3
Seacats Orange	Jake Kohl Frank Moore	39:41:14	4
Royal Blue	Todd Hart Jeff LaSapio	41:26:33	5
Royal White	Jason Childers Zack Marks	43:25:18	6
Velocity 4	Sam Carter Kirk Spicer	44:50:14	7
Velocity 5 Cat in the Hat	Larry Ferber Bryan Paine	45:11:19	8
Velocity 3	Brett Robinson Alan Friedman	49:34:46	9
Velocity 2	Don Lenfestey Ryan Boyle	56:43:41	10
Seacats White	Chris Zander David Strickland	DNF	DNF

Team Bugaboo, skippered by Eduard Zanen with Mischa Heemskerk as crew was the first overall beachcat to finish and the first in their F18 Fleet to complete the long upwind first leg of the Tybee 500 finishing at 6:01:07 pm. They were sailing the brand new Hobie Wildcat and are the factory race team for Hobie Europe.

The first Nacra 20 to finish was Team Velocity One skippered by Trey Brown with crew Bailey White. Finishing at 6:06:00 pm, about 4 minutes ahead of the next Nacra 20.

The first leg of the Tybee 500 started from Islamoroda in the Florida Keys. Because of the lack of sandy beaches in that area this becomes the only leg that uses a traditional on-the-water start. On all the rest of the legs an off-the-beach start is used.

500 miles in 6 Days up the Atlantic Coast - The Tybee 500 is an extreme sailing endurance race from Islamorada in the Florida Keys to Tybee Island, GA. The annual race begins May 10th at the Islander Resort in the Florida Keys and continues up the coast for six days, arriving on Tybee Island May 15th.

Each day there is a spectacular beach launch through the Atlantic surf that is very exciting for race fans on the scene. After the teams leave the beach the race is covered live on the Tybee 500 website at http://Tybee500.com . Each catamaran will carry the Spot™ satellite tracking beacon enabling a realtime view of the race on the website while the teams are offshore.

Race Schedule: Starts are 10am, finish times vary.

• May 10 Start from Islander Resort, Islamorada, FL and finish at Ramada Hollywood Beach Resort, Hollywood, FL.
• May 11 Start from Ramada Hollywood Beach Resort, Hollywood, FL and finish at Jupiter Beach Resort, Jupiter, FL.
• May 12 Start from Jupiter Beach Resort and finish at the International Palms Resort, Cocoa Beach, FL.
• May 13 Start from the International Palms Resort, Cocoa Beach, FL and finish at the La Playa Resort, Daytona Beach, FL.
• May 14 Start from the Playa Resort, Daytona Beach, FL and finish at the Amelia Hotel, Fernandina Beach, FL.
• May 15 Start from the Amelia Hotel, Fernandina Beach, FL and finish at the Oceans Plaza Beach Resort, Tybee Island, GA.

This will be the 8th annual race, beginning in 2003 where two man teams battle the open ocean, equipment breakdowns, and fatigue to be the first on the beach at Tybee Island. Sailors appear as alien figures wearing their protective gear. Each sailor carries enough food and drink to compete for up to 20 hours, in case light winds keep them offshore longer than expected.

April 17, 2010: It was a windy, wet, and wild Miami Key Largo Race this year. The race started at 8 AM just south of the William Powell Bridge in Biscayne Bay with the downtown skyline of Miami as a backdrop. When the gun went off, over 100 boats took off like a herd of leaping gazelles. We had a left quartering headwind at about 15 knots. Everyone was bounding headlong down the bay, going south toward Key Largo. Oriol and I had our hands full the whole race.