For 15 years the Everglades Challenge has pitted paddlers, rowers, and sailors against a variety of sea conditions on a 300-mile journey from Tampa Bay to Key Largo. The rules of the race require that every vessel be launched by hand from the beach. The 2015 EC brought some approximately 107 canoes, kayaks and small sailboats of every description to the starting line at Fort DeSoto Park near Tampa Bay, Florida. It would be my fifth Everglades Challenge and my first with Wally Werderich, a 42-year-old Chicagoan with a respectable ultra-distance racing résumé.My first EC, in 2003, was a trial by fire. In that five-day journey my partner and I battled through navigational errors, leaking spray skirts, headwinds, waves, sleep deprivation, and hallucinations. In 2006 I teamed up with veteran WaterTriber Marty Sullivan and we picked a plywood triple kayak to race in. We spent two months building the kayak and one month training in it. The race went perfectly, and Marty and I finished in a time of three days and six hours, a Class 1 (Expedition canoes and kayaks) record that has yet to be broken. In 2009 and 2013 I raced with other partners in the triple, CONDOR by name, and again finished first in the division.On Friday, March 6, Wally and I spent the morning at my house in Orlando making some modifications to his kayak seat and trying to fit all of our gear in my car. We loaded CONDOR, picked up my girlfriend Stacey, our shore contact, and arrived at Fort Desoto Park just in time for the mid-afternoon roll-call of racers. We all go by aliases. Back in 2001, when I needed to pick my WaterTribe name, my young daughter was a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer so I came up with RiverSlayer. Wally chose Los Humungos.
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I have followed the EC for some years and wish to take part in 2016. However, I would be interested to know how the US Coast Guard could mandate that all WaterTribe competitors leave the water while not doing so to any other boaters on the water. Apparently a day sailor asked over the radio whether they should go ashore. When they said they were not part of the WaterTribe they were told that they did not need to go ashore. Seems odd to me.
Does anyone know what sail Bill Whale is using?
The sail and outrigger are made by Balogh Sail Designs.
Can someone tell me the make of sail on CONDOR?
CONDOR carries a downwind sail made by Spirit Sails. The flexible fiberglass masts are attached to a V-shaped fitting that can be set at different angles in a deck-mounted socket.
Christopher Cunningham, Editor, Small Boats Monthly