While I got you here, let me summarize the 2013 Great Texas
in ten points. Here we go…
1)
Tomko and Billings Back on Top! Last year, John Casey and Dalton Tebo came to
Texas and took home top honors by out sailing John Tomko and Ian Billings on a
crazy, shifty final light wind day. With
JC starting up an Olympic campaign, we were denied a rematch this year. However, Tomko and Billings took out their
fury on the rest of the fleet easily winning the overall trophy for the Great
Texas. They managed to be first F-18 to
finish every day and corrected over everyone for every leg. Hats off to Tomko and Billings for yet
another win on the Great Texas.
2)
Ingrid
Bakker, first Woman Skipper:
Although we have had a few women crew on the Great Texas, we had never had a woman skipper even attempt to sail the
race until this year. Flying in all the
way from the Netherlands, Ingrid Bakker put on a great show as our first woman
skipper and finished the race in respectable fashion. Her team was handicapped when their boat
broke in practice the day before the race and a replacement boat showed up less
than 8 hours before the race. However,
Ingrid and crew Aaron McCulley did a great job and moved up the rankings every
day with a second F-18 to finish on the final day. Congratulations to Ingrid for making history
in the Great Texas.
3)
Wind Gods
took it easy on the Fleet: After
some punishing wind the past few years, the wind gods laid off this year and
gave us a great ride up the coast. Wind
conditions for the first day were ideal with a southeast breeze at 15-20 knots
blowing the fleet on a fast downwind run from South Padre to Mustang Island. With relatively flat seas, the fleet covered
the 100 mile distance in just over 6 hours.
The wind backed down for the second and third days giving the fleet
downwind and reaching conditions. The
final ride into Galveston was a lollipop ride downwind in 10 knots of
breeze. We had relatively good wind and
flat seas making for a fun ride up the coast.
4)
Team
Chums Impresses: Lee Wicklund and
David Cerdes of Team Chums were the only team not on an F-18 platform instead
they rode on a Nacra 20. It was a good
year to be on the Nacra 20 as the winds were lighter and downwind. They scored first to finishes on Legs 1 and 4
and walked away with third overall in the GT and first (and only) in the Open
Class.
5)
Smaller
Fleet: Although we had great sailing
conditions once again, we had a small fleet of boats competing this year. We are not exactly sure why we attracted only
7 boats. We did not get much of a
presence from outside of Texas and some of our regular Texas sailors had to
miss the regatta this year. Two years
ago, we had 16 boats so it is a drop off.
However, we already have commitments for at least 8 boats for next year
so we expect a bigger crowd in the next running.
6)
Money
Keeps Flowing: Despite the smaller
fleet, we raised more money in sponsorship than any year so far. We were able to create a $2,000 fund to
support a woman’s team in the race. We
were also able to raise money for the general fund which allowed us to break
even. The race has plenty of money in
the bank so we will be back strong next year.
7)
Dash: On the final day of the Great Texas, we opened
the race up to everyone! Cat Sailors are
allowed to participate in a race that we call the Dash. We had great participation this year with 17
boats sailing with the GT boats to the finish line. Congratulations to Mike and Janet Hardy on a
Hobie 16 for their win in the non-spin class and Dennis Banks and Matt Parker
on an ARC 22 for their win in the spin class.
8)
Media: Once again, we had the pleasure of having
John Williams and Jeremy Leonard along as commentators for our Live streaming. We also saved all our live streaming and
posted it on our YouTube site, www.youtube.com/greattexas300. We continually sent posts to our Facebook
page so that we could keep everyone up to date on the race! We hope you had a chance to check everything
out at www.gt300.com.
9)
Parties: For the first time in the history of the race,
we had a dinner party at every beach stop along the way. We had dinner at Clayton’s Beach Bar in South
Padre, BBQ on the beach in Mustang Island, Gumbo at Matagorda, Spaghetti in
Surfside, and a Cajun shrimp boil in Galveston.
Nobody went hungry at the Great Texas this year. Thanks to everyone that put on the parties!
10)
Organization: After 11 years, the Great Texas organization
is now a well-oiled machine that does a great job pulling off this rather
complex race. Thanks to Terri Reuwsaat
and all the other officers who do such a great job organizing the race.
As always, we hope to see you at starting line for the Great
Texas next year. We start at 10 am sharp
on June 11 from South Padre Island.
Please come join us as a skipper, crew, volunteer, or spectator for the
12th running of the Great Texas Catamaran Race!
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