Congratulations to Neil Calore (aka LeatherLungs) on winning Class 4 (small sailboats) of the Watertribe North Carolina Challenge (NCC 2012) in late September!  He finished 12th overall out of 54 entries.

Neil writes:

The race threw a little bit of everything at us: no wind, a lotta wind, current with and against us, hot during the day, cold at night, shifting sand bars all over the place.

The video below is of the 7:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 28th start , where all boats must launch unassisted from the beach, above the high water line.

The 1st day was mostly all rowing (phew!), rested for 45 mins at the 1/2 way check point (at 10:34 p.m. Friday), then kept going and sailed through the night. The sun rose with dolphins playing around the boat for about an hour, which gave me a second wind.

Neil Calore and Dory in the North Carolina Challenge 2012 (photo by Doug Higgins) 

The photo above is when the Race Manager told me that, at 10:52 a.m. Saturday, mine was the first class 4 boat to reach the finish line (including single- and double-handed crews) and 12th over-all out of 54 boats of all kinds.

The photo below is rowing through the Harlowe canal with mast unstepped to clear the 3 low bridges.

Neil Calore Northeaster Dory in the North Carolina Challenge 2012 (photo by Doug Higgins)

100 miles in 27 hours, 22 mins, roughly split rowing and sailing.

Again, the dory proved to be the perfect boat as it is an excellent rower and a pretty good sailor with the Lug Rig that excelled in the flat, no-wind conditions and handled the 3-4' confused seas that we faced for the last few hours of the race.

Neil won Class 4 of the Watertribe Everglades Challenge earlier this year.