Back in time... to the GT300 Opening Ceremonies!

Whew! As I write this, I'm relaxing after the third leg of the GT300. But I want to get this all recorded in order, so back to Tuesday for setup and the opening ceremonies. After very little sleep, we woke up quite early to start rigging, but not before eating some delicious breakfast tacos from Manuel's, an SPI favorite. In not too much time, Team Yost Auto went from this:

to this:

We then spent a while tending to a lot of little details before ordering pizza for several dozen hungry sailors fueling up for a week-long race. Needless to say, we had to get a lot of pies:

And of course, sailors can never be far from alcohol, so we had beer from race sponsor Harpoon Brewery, and a nice punch provided by Team Rudderless, so named because they lose at least one rudder every year (this one would prove no exception). What else to stir the punch but a Hobie Tiger rudder?

Word on the street is that the end result was 90 proof... pretty potent stuff. After everyone settled down around the pool at the Tiki with their food and drink, the opening ceremonies began with a run-down of the rules and procedures, and even a visit from the Coast Guard:

Unfortunately, this would not be the last time some sailors would see the Coast Guard on this race. But we'll get to that later. Anyway, after a decent amount of presentation by the race organizers, the all-important weigh-in took place. Since these catamarans are so light (typically less than 400 pounds), their handicap is very dependent on crew weight. If you weigh less than the design weight of your boat, you have too take a steep penalty, or add correction weight if that is an option. Fortunately, there were no surprises, and everyone seemed as pleased as they could be with the scale:

With everyone wanting to get a good night's rest, there wasn't much heavy partying, but things did get a little heated when Mike Beuerlein, an Austin sailor, said something about another sailor's girlfriend's sunburn. She decided that he needed to cool down, so she gently "suggested" that he go for a swim:

This sailor decided that he would be wet enough over the coming days, so I headed back to my room and started to wind down for the night. Not knowing it would be the last time I would have internet access for several days, I fell asleep on my first attempt at writing this blog entry. I needed the sleep, though.

Now I need to get a bit more sleep before the relatively short last leg tomorrow, so more posts will have to wait. Wish me luck!