Good Monday morning from the Outer Banks. Another fantastic week is in store for our guests this week. T-minus 1 week and counting down until Memorial Day and the unofficial start of summer! We all just enjoyed the Worrell 1000 sailboat race too.
Signs of Summer
This past weekend we had our annual seasonal reminder that the summer is getting close. The Outer Banks was invaded by 13 ocean going catamarans. The Worrell 1000 sailing race made two stops on the Outer Banks. One night they stayed in Frisco on Hatteras Island, and the final day of the race went from Kill Devil Hills to Virginia Beach. The captains and their crew had a 13 day race from West Palm Beach, Florida to Virginia Beach Virginia.
Here's some pictures of the boats on their last stop before the finish line this past Friday afternoon in Kill Devil Hills. The race started the last leg at approximately 10 AM on Saturday morning.
History of the Race
The race came about more than 40 years ago. It was the result of a bet in a bar about who was the best sailor. In those days they raced Hobie Cats, and the race was a non-stop affair that went day and night. The boats would hit a check point, and the two man sailing crew would have one person jump off and another would jump on and away they would go to the next check point. They stopped doing that many years ago due to the safety factor of racing at night (hitting things in the water, and not being able to see the waves is not good). The race is still a thrilling adventure with boats flipping over, masts breaking, hulls leaking, and sailors falling off boats getting rescued by the Coast Guard. In between these sleek boats are screaming up the coast at record speeds.
Today the majority of teams race F18 Nacra Evolution boats. Before you think this is something that you may be able to do keep in mind these boats cost about $35,000 to outfit for the race. When you add extra sails, masts, rudders, travel, meals, support teams and the like the commitment is significant for each sponsor.
This year's Participants
13 teams participated in the 2022 edition of the race and they were from all over the world. Above is a picture sent in by one of our guests of Team Outer Banks. They were joined in the race by Team Netherlands, Team Australia, The Clean Sailors, Team Cat in The Hat, Way of Life, Team Sonnenklar, Team Allen, Team Rudee's, Team Restream, Rocket 88 Racing, Team Recreational8, and Team Fast Forward Composites.
The race was won by Team Australia, and was wrapped up early in the race when weather conditions caused 9 of the boats to not be able to finish the race. That put a 5 hour penalty on all of the boats that did not finish. Team Rudee's with 6 Time Worrel champion Randy Smyth did their best to try and make up the ground. Rudee's won 7 of the 11 legs of the race, but by them not finishing day 2's race to Cocoa Beach they finished approximately 4 hours behind Team Australia. The Team Australia won. See the final results of the race here.
If you are wondering, it takes approximately 90 hours of race time to win the Worrell 1000.
Congratulations to all sailors that participated in this year's race.
All the best from the beach!
