- Local News for Southern Sailors - August 2002 Next Story
RACING
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SOUTHERN YACHT CLUB Gulfport to Pensacola Sailboat Race Kim Kaminski |
Bob Baxley and his crew on Halcyon head out to repeat their performance from last year's race, which earned them a 2nd place trophy. Even though half of the fleet dropped out of the race due to the bad weather, Halcyon hung on and captured 3rd place in their class.
On Friday, June 21, 2002, over 500 sailors gathered at the Gulfport Yacht Club to prepare for a race across the Gulf of Mexico in the Annual Gulfport, MS, to Pensacola, FL, sailboat race. This annual event sends race participants on a 100.2 nautical mile journey along the Southern coastline of the United States navigating through the temperate waters of the Gulf as well as avoiding various oil rigs along the way. This year a total of 103 sailboats along with eight multihull competitors registered to compete in this long distance event. The sailboat competitors were placed in 11 different class divisions ranging from Spinnaker, Non-Spinnaker, Cruiser/Racer, Cruiser Spinnaker and Multihull classes. At the start of the race, weather conditions on the course were ideal with sunny skies and 10 to 12 knots of wind out of the east-southeast. The racecourse began in the coastal waters just south of the city of Gulfport; out to the sea buoy past Ship Island and then east towards the #1 sea buoy of the Pensacola Pass. (Making note to avoid the oil rigs along the way and passing to the south of the Mobile Bay sea buoy marker.) 
It would take the competitors anywhere from 16 to 24 hours to complete this race. The weather predictions for the duration of the race expected winds from 10 to 15 knots out of the east-southeast with only a 30 percent chance of rain. However, the anticipated weather conditions were not what the racers encountered! A spinning low-pressure system drifted directly over the race area in the middle of the day, and the weather conditions soon changed. Five- to six-foot swells arose as soon as the racers approached the sea buoy of Gulfport. These waves never went away during the remainder of the journey. The winds clocked around to the northeast and began to steadily increase in strength.
A significant storm arose over the coast between Biloxi, MS, and Mobile, AL. Strong winds, lightning and heavy rain greeted some of the racers who elected to sail close to shore. For the other contestants, those who decided to sail in the deeper waters further offshore, the environmental conditions that were found were slightly different from those found near the shoreline especially around 10:00 p.m. At first, the conditions seemed just right with long rolling swells and a steady 10 knots of wind out of the southeast. These winds increased to 19 knots and continued through the night to build up to 26 knots blowing steadily out of the northeast. The swells increased in size as well from five to six feet up to 10 to 20 feet with short, rolling rogue waves pounding the bows of the boats. These strong conditions remained throughout the night and well into the next day.
For one of the boats in the race, Mad Max (Spinnaker B), the pounding waves took their toll on the vessel's keel just off the coast of Mobile. The crew had to call the Coast Guard and request a tow to the shore as their keel was beginning to separate. Another competitor in the same class was Green Jacket (Spinnaker B) who was able to finish the 100-mile race. After the boat crossed the finish line and was heading towards shore down the Pensacola Pass ship channel, one of their crewmembers went down below the deck to start cleaning up sails preparing for docking. As he went down below, he noticed large amounts of water and began to investigate. This crewmember found a rather large hole in the bow of the boat with a steady stream of water flowing into the hold. After close to 16 hours of pounding waves, a portion of the bow had given away and separated. Luckily, a deep-sea fishing tournament was being held off the Pensacola coast, and numerous Coast Guard vessels were on call nearby. They rushed to the ship's aid with water pumps and helped the disabled boat back to the marina.
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The crew on Tiburon takes the overall honors and earns 1st in the Gulfport to Pensacola 100-mile Sailboat Race.
And yet another sailor story comes from the crew on Applejack, a 36-foot Hunter (Spinnaker D). Their boat crew was small in number (four persons including two senior sailors) for the long distance race, and they encountered some challenges along the way. Just past the Gulfport sea buoy the group decided to change headsails due to the increasing wind conditions and the five- to six-foot seas. Once the new headsail was up and flying, the boat was hit with a large wave that washed the larger sail overboard. Rescue procedures went into effect immediately to retrieve the lost sail, especially since this was a brand-new $3,000 sail! It took almost an hour to finally retrieve the sail as it was still bound together, full of water and mostly submerged under the constant swells, making the rescue more difficult. The crew finally had to harness a person and put him overboard to grab the sail. The remaining crew pulled both the person and sail back onto the stern of the boat and into the cockpit. With the successful sail rescue, the group returned to racing and ended up finishing in fifth place in Spinnaker Class D.
These are just a few of the many sailor stories that were told after this year's race. Thankfully, no one was injured, and all of the competitors made it safely to shore. Out of the 103 sailboats and eight multihulls, 53 sailboats and six multihulls dropped out of the race along the way. Congratulations to those who finished the race and endured the 2002 Gulfport to Pensacola Race!
Race results with corrected time SPINNAKER A 1ST - "Tiburon" - John Dane III 15:51:18 2ND - "Java" - Burt Benrud 16:10:13 3RD - "Decision" - Steve Murray, Jr.16:18:19 4TH - "Patriot" - Mark / Ken Taylor Loftin 16:40:14 PBYC SPINNAKER B 1ST - "Green Jacket" - Bobby Tassin 15:58:21 2ND - "Sudpack" - Scott Sonnier 16:27:23 3RD - "Man-O-War" - Tom Beery17:22:34 4TH - "Atlantic Union" - Paul Gillette 18:05:27 PYC ("DOC" from PYC finished in 7th place) SPINNAKER C 1ST - "Zombie" - Beau Morse 17:19:03 2ND - "Cutlass" - Cal Herman17:31:47 3RD - "Moxie" - Brad Broadus 17:50:37 4TH - "Joe" - Jake Poillon 17:58:42 PYC ("Wiley" from PBYC finished in 7th place) SPINNAKER D 1ST - "L'Estimatee' II" - Sam / George Hopkins 18:10:46 2ND - "Gritz" - George Hero IV 18:20:53 3RD - "Halcyon" - Robert Baxley 21:20:24 PYC 4TH - "Sea Hawk" - Roger Seals 21:20:36 ("Appklejack" from PYC finished 5th place) SPINNAKER E 1ST - "Katsy II" - Jacque LeBeau 17:29:28 PYC 2ND - "Holly Too" - Bill Culberson 18:50:27 3RD - "Sandi's Wings" - Weston Stanley 18:54:13 4TH - "Chiquita" - Frank Burgett 19:33:31 PBYC CRUISER / RACER 1ST - "Whistling Wind II" - Bill / Mamsie Marchal 18:36:37 2ND - "Sabadaba" - Bill Hightower 18:49:073RD - "Kon-Kiki" - Henry Lopez 19:20:14 4TH - "Wild Thing" - Sam Vasquez 19:24:11 ("RokaDobi" from PYC finished 7th place, "Avalon from PYC - DNF) CRUISER SPINNAKER A 1ST - "Creole Lady" - Malise Prieto 17:28:17 2ND - "XTC" - Thomas Glew 23:39:56 CRUISER SPINNAKER B (No boat had finished in this class) NON - SPINNAKER A 1ST - "Telltales" - Jim Mitchell 22:10:28 PYC NON - SPINNAKER B (No boat had finished in this class - "Don't Worry II" from PYC - DNF) MULTIHULL 1ST - Mark Twain / Bert Rice / Rick Zern / Bud Schuman / Jim Baum 24:76 2ND - "Cool Change" - Frank Schenk 31:64 FLEET 1ST - "Tiburon" - John Dane III - PCYC 15:51:18 2ND - "Green Jacket" - Bobby Tassin - TYC 15:58:21 3RD - "Java" - Burt Benrud - SYC16:10:13 4TH - "Decision" - Steven Murray, Jr. - SYC 16:18:19 5TH - "Sudpack" -Scott Sonnier - SYC 16:27:23 6TH - "Patriot" - Mark / Ken Taylor Loftin - PBYC 16:40:14 7TH - "White Trash" - MYC 16:43:19 MASTERS (Age 60 years and older) 1ST - "Decision" - Steven Murray, Jr. - SYC 16:18:19 2ND - "Man-O-War" - Tom Beery - SRYC 17:19:14 3RD - "Joe" - Jake Poillon - PYC 17:31:59 4TH - "Whistling Wind" - Bill Marchal - SYC 18:36:37 5TH - "Sabadaba" - Bill Hightower - SYC 18:49:07 6TH - "Windigo II" 21:10:58 7TH - "Applejack" - Dan Owczarczak - PYC 21:18:42 |