by Jim Denys
After years of struggling to reach the beach first in the annual GT300 long distance beach catamaran race TEAM HULLFLYING decided to go rogue this year and become pirates.
The TEAM HULLFLYING pirates plotted a secret course from the Bolivar Peninsula (named after the original pirate himself, Simon Bolivar). The TEAM HULLFLYING pirates sailed in near perfect pirate conditions, rough seas, dark clouds, thunder, and used an easterly wind to reach Galveston’s East Beach in 1 hour 40 minutes and 2 ½ hours before the 26 boat GT300 fleet. The original Bolivar pirate would have been proud of these 2 modern day Bolivar pirates from TEAM HULLFLYING.
Dennis Banks and his super fast ARC 22 were the first to arrive from the GT300 fleet some 2 hours and 40 minutes after TEAM HULLFLYING pirates seized control of the beach at 11:15AM Saturday. The 26 boat fleet fought slow in your face winds or no winds over the 40 mile course from Surfside arriving after 2PM with the last boats in after 5PM. The second boat and overall winner of this year’s 300 mile race from South Padre Island to Galveston’s East Beach arrived 40 minutes after the TEAM HULLFLYING pirates left to return to the Bolivar Peninsula. Congratulations to the Casey/Dalton Cirrus Team from Florida whose tactical strategy beat the favored Tomko 2-Wire Sailing Team, a 6-time winner of the GT300, on the final 40 mile leg making up an 8 minute deficit and winning by 40 minutes over 4 day event along the Texas coast.
TEAM HULLFLYING pirates left 40 minutes before the Casey/Dalton Cirrus Team landed and enjoyed a fast 2-1/2 hour return trip to their pirate’s hideout on the Bolivar Peninsula arriving before the team manager who took the ferry. You can catch all the race action at www.gt300.com or LIKE the “GreatTexas300” Facebook page.
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