PAMELA LEBLANC: FIT CITY

Catamaran racers battle Gulf of Mexico

Austin founder of the race finishes despite broken rudder

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, June 21, 2008

MATAGORDA — Steve Piche wades into the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico, glancing uneasily at the roiling surf and inky skies.

"We all figure it's about a 50-50 chance of getting out," Piche says. "It's a gut-check morning for everyone. We're all nervous."

In 20 minutes, the eight boats that have survived the first two days of the Great Texas Catamaran Race will shove off from this sandy stretch of beach near Matagorda, heading toward Surfside, 60 miles up the coast. By the time they finish their four-day odyssey, they will have covered 300 miles of Texas coastline between South Padre Island and

Galveston.

Piche, a 44-year-old electrical engineer from Austin, started sailing about 15 years ago. He sails regularly in Lake Travis, but inland winds typically die down during the summer, so he heads to the coast, where he can get his fill of big surf and wide open waters. He founded this race six years ago, after twice finishing the Worrell 1,000, a grueling 14-leg offshore race between Miami Beach and Virginia Beach. (He had to be rescued by helicopter in a storm off Cape Hatteras, N.C., the first time he attempted it.)

Texas, he decided, needed its own version of the event.

"One day I looked in the mirror and said, 'Why am I driving to Florida? Why don't we just start this style of racing in Texas?'" Piche says.

And so he did.

Nine boats showed up for the first Great Texas Catamaran Race in 2003. This year, a dozen boats started the race on June 11. Half the teams are from Austin; the others come from Dallas, League City, San Antonio and Houston.

Piche, sailing this year as Team Gazelle, named after the Gilbert's Gazelles running program he participates in, should be among the leaders at this overnight beach stop near Matagorda. But his catamaran has lost a rudder in rough water on Day 2 of the stage race.

He and crewman Juke Ball, 34, limp in the last 30 miles on the remaining rudder, rigged together with a screwdriver, a strip of rope and some duct tape. When they finally reach the beach, they drop to their knees and kiss the sand.

"This was probably the most challenging day of sailing we've had in the six-year history (of the race)," Piche says after he comes ashore. "There was a lot of wind and the sea state was rough. It was a big washing machine."

Other teams share similar sentiments.

"(We were) just getting slammed in the face," says Mike Rohrer, 46, of Cedar Park. "Waves were hitting me in the sides so hard that every once in a while it would knock the wind out of me."

Masts snapped. Rudders broke. Sails tore.

"It's like watching NASCAR on water," Piche says.

He should know. Besides the 20-footer he's sailing today, Piche also races a 31-foot sailboat. That boat once bested a field of 210 in the Harvest Moon Regatta from Galveston to Port Aransas. He's also sailed it in the storied Chicago to Mackinac race and the Miami to Nassau race, where he broke a course record that had stood since 1934.

Here in Matagorda, each boat is equipped with life vests, a GPS system, a satellite phone, strobes and a tracking device, and the sailors are tethered to their boats by safety lines. They wear goggles to protect their eyes from spray that feels like it's coming out of fire hoses.

The competitors know the dangers. Just a week before this race started, a sailor died when his boat sank during the Regatta de Amigos, a long-distance race from Galveston to Veracruz, Veracruz.

"It's an accomplishment to finish a 300-mile race and not quit," says Billy Richnow, the principal race officer for this year's Great Texas Catamaran Race.

The sailors work nonstop while under way, drinking from hydration packs on their backs and hardly pausing to eat. Their boats zip along at speeds that peak at more than 25 mph, pitching and bucking over waves. At the end of each day, the sailors' hands are raw from "sawing in sheets" (pulling on lines to tighten the sails). Their support vehicles speed by road between the overnight stops, where they prepare meals, provide communications and set up camp for the sailors.

"It's good fun," Piche says.

The catamarans started on South Padre Island on a Wednesday, sailing 100 miles to Mustang Island in anywhere from five to eight hours. On Thursday they continued 100 miles farther up the coast to Matagorda. Today they'll forge another 60 miles to Surfside, and Saturday they'll cruise 40 miles into Galveston.

The skippers and crew waiting to take off get drenched from a passing squall. They're apprehensive. "These are some of the largest seas I've seen — waves as big as apartment buildings," Piche says before the sail to Surfside.

His crewman, Ball, has driven all the way to Houston — two hours each direction — in the middle of night to borrow a replacement brace for his catamaran's rudder. He made it back to Matagorda by about 1:30 a.m. and Team Gazelle's boat is now ready to go.

It's a LeMans-style start, with boats lining up along the beach and crews pushing them into the surf at the blast of an air horn. Two teams hold back, waiting to see how the others fare during the launch. One doesn't do so well — Team TCDYC's boat rears back, flipping in the surf and snapping its 28-foot mast in the shallow water. Such a repair can set a team back some $2,000. They'll have to miss today's sail and borrow a mast before they can rejoin the race on the last day.

The two boats holding out take a lesson from Team TCDYC and decide to skip today's leg. One team is using a borrowed boat and doesn't want to risk damage. Instead, they'll take a two-hour penalty and trailer to the next overnight stop, where they'll join up with the group for the final day. It appears they've made a wise call. Piche reports later that the conditions are rough on the race course. "Big waves, high speed and a lot of spray in the face made for a tough day," he says.

Luckily, winds ease and the seas calm for the final leg on Saturday. Eleven of the original 12 boats set sail and make it to the finish line that afternoon.

In the end, just five teams were able to sail all four legs of the race. Piche's Team Gazelle finishes seventh.

"We were proud to be one of the five teams to survive," Piche says. "We blew out our main (sail) on the first leg, had the rudder fiasco on the second leg and blew out our spinnaker (sail) on the final leg. The rough conditions challenged us, but in the end we were able to keep the boat going and finish. To me, finishing is everything in such a challenging race."

Team Ruff Rider — with skipper John Tomko, 32, of San Antonio, and crewman Ian Billings, 40, a New Zealand resident living in Austin — finished first, repeating their victory from last year and setting a course record of just over 19 hours.

They didn't have an easy go of it, either. They flipped several times, and Billings got washed off the boat once.

Worth the trophy and bragging rights they earn for the finish? Certainly, for these sailors. They love the thrill of the adventure and the adrenaline of the competition. Out in open sea, they're immersed in nature, with only themselves to rely on. That's what makes this event more than a race.

"It's a test of skill, courage, strength, preparation, ingenuity and perseverance," Rohrer, the Cedar Park skipper, e-mails Piche when the race is over. "It's the same coastline, but a different race and adventure every year. I think that's why we all come back."