I decided to post this in teh garage since there seems to be a healthy boat-centered dialogue going on in here lately. I figured some of you other insane people would be interested in this.

Every May, me and some of my crew (including the recently-absent coronadouche) get together and participate in a sailboat race that starts in Miami and ends a week later in Tybee Island Georgia (outside of Savannah) As the crow flies, its 523 nautical miles (1.1 nautical miles = 1 mile) from start to finish. We're on a boat called a Nacra 20, which is basically like the boat that 69 is refinishing, except 4 feet longer, and carries a spinnaker. If his boat is the Camaro of sailboats, ours is the Z06. Two people on the boat the whole race, exposed to the elements. We go about 100 miles a day and hit a series of checkpoints. We sleep the night, and then wake up and do it all over again, until we reach Tybee. We usually have to deal with shit like changing weather, currents, angry sea life (sea turtles are FUCKING EVIL), jetties that go 3 miles out into the middle of the ocean (Jax), inlet currents trying to suck you in, idiot powerboaters (last year we almost got hit by a 40' sportfisher 2 miles offshore) and of course sandbars and shit.

Below are some images of last year. We leave for the race on Thursday. James' 55 chevy is one of our team vehicles. If you want to learn more about us you can check out http://www.velocitysailing.com

5/9/2006 1:13:15 PM

Coolo man. That's a long fuggin way on a cat.

5/9/2006 1:24:39 PM

wow thats quite adventurous. awesome

5/9/2006 1:30:50 PM

now if it did it all in the nude, that would be something to talk about

5/9/2006 1:38:24 PM

foggotry!

5/9/2006 1:42:42 PM

dude in the Florida sun all day, I get sunburnt through my drysuit!

OUCH in the nood.

OH SHIT

I forgot to mention that our site is going to be updated each night with new video starting the day of the race. You can click on "Tybee 500 Video Syndication" on the top right and it will pop up a new window with a flash player that will have the videos. On-boat footage and so forth. If the wind picks up, there will be carnage... oh yes carnage indeed.


[Edited on May 9, 2006 at 1:49 PM. Reason : .]

5/9/2006 1:47:03 PM

Oooooof! Damn.

5/9/2006 1:51:05 PM

That's awesome man. You should contact WRAL about this.

5/9/2006 1:56:45 PM

next year do this:
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050712/NEWS01/507120390/1008/NEWS01

5/9/2006 2:02:13 PM

danny, rowing across the atlantic is nothing really.

Two crazy fuckers sailed across the atlantic (the long way, from Europe to the Carribean, not from new york to Ireland) in 13 days on a modified Hobie 21.

When they arrived, one of the guys had to have his hand amputated.

5/9/2006 2:15:00 PM

Quote :

"rowing across the atlantic is nothing really."

Quote :

"one of the guys had to have his hand amputated."

huh?

5/9/2006 2:17:10 PM

Rowing across the atlantic can be done in what we call "seal clorox bottle boat" meaning that you can completely seal yourself away from the elements while you row. The sea state can beat you to everyliving shit and you wont be in danger of sinking because you're living inside a sealed enclosure.

Sailing however takes a shitload of not only skill, but toughness.

I'm not discounting that rowing across the ocean will take a long time and undoubtably be very arduous, but sailing it would be tougher IMHO.

5/9/2006 2:24:11 PM

I'm saying sailing is tougher. My opinion. Shit get's nasty out there, and sailboats aren't generally sealed from water intrusion.

5/9/2006 2:28:09 PM

wait

i still don't get how dude lost a hand

5/9/2006 2:35:07 PM

salt water immersion + open wounds +13 days = infection that spread through the guy's hand.

5/9/2006 2:46:35 PM

ok you get the crazy fucker with big balls award

5/9/2006 2:47:33 PM

That does look pretty batshit crazy, but fun as hell altogether. I would be down for crewing for that, though I'm rusty as hell, out of shape, and have never sailed a cat before.

5/9/2006 7:38:12 PM

they don't let just anybody race this.

You have to have a sailing resume that includes other lesser-distance events in order for the organizer to let you compete.

But I could put in a good word here or there

Go buy yourself an F18 and do it next year.

5/10/2006 9:37:35 AM

You think I could handle this in a sunfish?

5/10/2006 10:16:53 AM

yeah man no problem.

You might wanna take a bigger camelpak than the rest of us though

5/10/2006 11:14:36 AM

FUCKING CHRIST FLORIDA AND ITS INABILITY TO FUCKING PUT OUT A FUCKING FIRE

5/11/2006 1:31:29 PM

Quote :

"You might wanna take a bigger camelpak than the rest of us though "

Nick won't have any problem with this. He already has a big damn camel toe.

5/11/2006 1:51:41 PM

Nah, that's his twin sister...Nicole. lol

5/11/2006 1:54:53 PM

welp

this year sucked

I went to the hospital on Day 5 with dehydration and exhaustion.

Got back on the boat day 6 only to have a weld break on our rudder gudgeon when we hit a cannonball jellyfish and took us out of the race for good.

You guys should go check out some of the video coverage, its fucking awesome.

5/21/2006 9:48:22 PM

damn, bigger balls than me

5/21/2006 10:26:56 PM

derek told me about your 2 hour wait, sucks man

5/22/2006 12:11:48 AM

thats some cool shit right there

5/22/2006 12:44:55 AM

Quote :

"when we hit a cannonball jellyfish"

what? is that a real jellyfish?

-ZiP!-

5/22/2006 1:09:44 AM

^no, it's actually a term that means they had so much gay sex, it prevented them from completing the course

5/22/2006 2:51:54 AM

I don't know if its the actual name of the jellyfish, but thats what we all call them. They are jellies that have no tentacles but are the size of cannonballs. They hit your blades and it feels like you just drove over a speed bump. In our case, it ripped the rudder off the back of the boat.

Day 3 was the hardest leg of them all. We didn't get to the beach until 3:30 in the morning. 16+ hours on the water.

5/22/2006 9:07:11 AM