The 2024 Texas 200 - Sailing Expedition
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- A brief video documenting my experience on this year’s Texas 200 sailing event. I set sail along with about 70 other small sailboats for a 200 mile, 5-day sailing expedition along the Texas Gulf Coast. June 2024. This was my 11th year participating in this event.
Thanks Matt. One of the better sailing vids I've seen. Pat yourself on the back :)
Great vid! At 8:24, there is a blue and white boat. Do you know who this is? I'm wondering if this is a 21' Gulf Coast, like mine.
That is a 19' O'Day Mariner.... very similar to the Gulf Coasts....
Looks like allot of fun!, I live on CapeCod and hav been boating all my life, large and small. I’ve always found a smaller boat more fun! Little boat, big adventures😊
Yeah, I'm from NJ originally, grew up sailing on Toms River/Barnegat Bay on small Sunfish-type boats, and an uncle's Hobie 16. I really appreciate the small boats, and the big ones. I have two sailboats currently -- that Bolger Featherwind, and a Hunter 410. It's really cool to sail for a week straight on the little one, and then step on to my "big boat" and go for a sail. What a difference.
Well Matt, my last real sail boat was a Hereshoff, Marco Polo. Ow that I’m 68 I don’t have as much energy for all that kinda stuff anymore. So, now I own Dragon Force 65. Est thing about it is ; I csn take it to a lake or pond, sit down in my lawn chair, drink my beers and go sailing😊🤪
Wow! Great video, thanks for sharing.
Nice video. The agony of light winds up a narrow channel, the slow going…well done. Thanks for sharing…from east Tennessee.
Fantastic video, great commentary.
Outstanding accomplishment. Thank you for the wonderful example.
Nice work, Matt. Thanks for the great video. Miss you all!
That's an actually rare boat, the featherwind. I actually have those plans from an old Bolger bk. It looks better in person than on the page.
Yeah, I had never heard of it. It was gifted to me by a friend with a few too many boats, and I've fixed her up a bit, bought a new sail, and have sailed the heck out of her. She's very fast and has taken pretty good care of me.
Great job completing your trip, and without a motor. Also thank you for filming and editing your video. Its really a pleasure to watch. I hope to come visit sometime and do the Texas 200.
Aloha for now,
Cullen Chong
Corsair F-31R "Delta Vee"
Honolulu, HI
Great video! Looks like you have a vang/kicker downhaul setup like the Lymington Scows use and that Michael Storer talks about. Is the downwind efficiency worth the extra complication on any adjustments? And could you tell me what blocks you used? They apparently have a cleating function. Hmmm. Not trying to sign you up for anything but an article in Small Boat Nation would be helpful to many (I enjoyed your watersail article).
I love the "double vang' setup, stole the idea from a friend, who made a little video of how it is set up. Yes, both blocks have cleating. It is extremely easy to use, no complications at all. I love setting the sail way out like a square rigger when headed downwind, to balance the boat, and it's 10 seconds to set it that way and another 10 seconds to get it back to "normal". Video here: th-cam.com/video/axBTt1yjupQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Hv8gW1IGEN9LBPlo
Thoroughly enjoyed your video. Although I don't own a small sailboat now ( my first sailboat in the early 70s was an Oday Mariner), I appreciate and admire what you folks do sailing the coastal waters. I would encourage you to consider bringing your boats to the Mississippi gulf coast to sail the islands just offshore. There are many places to camp and explore. For the past twelve years I have owned a Beneteau 42s7, which is homeported in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I'm very familiar with the coastal islands. I enjoyed your night sailing and would like to share a link to one of my night sailing videos. th-cam.com/video/XCB4eJVSjWA/w-d-xo.html Here is another link to my most recent cruising videos along the Mississippi, Alabama, and Northwest Florida coasts: th-cam.com/video/Pr78ul2m838/w-d-xo.html Hope you enjoy these and others on my channel.
I owned an ODay Mariner for several years and did several Texas 200s on her. Great boat. Have heard a lot about the Mississippi sailing you’re describing and some friends of mine have done what they call the Mississippi 110, an event similar to the Texas 200 for very small boats out on those islands. I’ll get there someday…..
Great story and adventure, Matt!
Well done, thanks for posting!
Very cool! Congrats!
Excellent video, looks like a great time. I have a 20ft scow,problem is not alot of storage. But what a great idea.
Thanks for this very enjoyable and enlightening log. I have read that vibrio is present year round. Is the risk of infection thought to be lower in colder water? Has anyone ever kite-sailed a sea kayak in the 200? Seems to me it would be a way to get through the narrowss easier and also make some headway when becalmed.
Great video, Matt! It blows my mind that you guys do this event without the use of a motor or tow or cabin or bimini shade! Definitely something to aspire towards. My hat goes off to you real sailors out there. "The Captain" should be proud. ⛵🤙
I’ve done it the other way too, my first 4 or 5 were in my old Mariner, with a motor, bimini, crew, big old ice chest, etc. Those were awesome experiences, I guess I just decided to try to find new and more challenging ways to do it….. now that I’m on number 11…. Just to switch it up a bit.
A great adventure and narrative of small boat sailing of personal perserverance! I did 180 miles in my O'Day Mariner in the area around Roanoke Island, NC. so I can identify some. But I had a 4HP Yamaha to help through the tough spots though. Adventuring in small boats is great fun! Carry on!
I did the first 4 or 5 of these Texas 200s in an ODay Mariner, and it was a blast. I had crew, a bimini, a 3.5hp outboard, big old ice chest, and a very comfy V berth. What a great boat, the Mariner. I miss mine.
Absolutely amazing!
Thanks for sharing Matt! Always an inspiration. Can't wait to bring my boys down for this and try to finish in my proa again
You've got 11 months to get ready!
Great Vid. The voice over commentary provides excellent context to what could have been an average clip... also, the maddening aspects of sailing cant be understated. No wind for hours, then only to get wind on the nose, while fighiing an incoming current was exceptionally frustrating. I really appreciated my 2.5hp suzuki up that last channel.
I just subscribed and will second that the narration quality is excellent. Have to get solar panels and a charger for my electric outboard.
Thanks for sharing Matt. I watch you guys from up north here in wonder! : ) Fantastic acomplishment. I don't think I could stand the heat!!
Yeah temps were in the mid 90s every day, and the heat index each day was in the 105-110 range. The news media was telling everyone to stay inside in air conditioning every day, which wasn’t really an option for us!! Ha!
@@mschiemer yep.
Yep...I'd melt 😆
Fantastic, almost makes me want to do it in a small boat.. maybe a canoe
What a great video…. I just learned of this yearly passage yesterday (random pop up video on TH-cam!!)
Regardless.. i would be interested in joining this group!
Do you all do a fall passage?
I sail a MacGreggor, and have been wanting to drG it down to the Galveston… but I’m pretty sure i can drag it a little farther south and west to participate in this event.
I am in Oklahoma, drop me a line please.
We do this one major annual event, 2nd full week of June. www.texas200.com for more info. But, if you get on our Facebook page, which is very active year-round, you'll find that our members organize 3 or 4 trips a year, in the fall/spring normally for nice weather (not so hot!). They are typically 3-day/2-night excursions out and back from the same boat ramp, so a really nice taste of the event. Usually 3 to 6 boats will do these, so they are small, but great companionship and the members of this Club are second to none. Get on the FB page and start to engage.... it's a great group.....
Great video! Makes me wanna...
You da man!
I would not dare with out an outboard
Great report. You have a lot of patience with those light adverse winds. You have a lot of sail on your boat. Do you have an offset center board? 😊🙂🙂🙂
76 square foot mainsail and about a 15-20 square foot makeshift water sail at times. Yes, offset CB.
@@mschiemer the old timers used oars for adverse winds. I made a hinged sculling oar for my 20' job boat. It works great.
@@fredbalster3100 Yes, this boat has oars and it rows pretty well. Two issues led me to not doing that on this event. First is the setup is odd and I need to fix it. Can't really row without completely stowing the sail somewhere else. But mainly the issue is I have a torn ligament in one arm/elbow and I simply can't row right now. I was able to do some limited paddling with the bad arm at the top of the paddle and the good arm essentially doing the paddling.
@@mschiemer your sail might Bungie cord vertically to the mast. 🙂
@@fredbalster3100 yeah, I need to work on something like that.....
Did you have navigation lights for your night sail? Looks like navigating through the skinny water would quite challenging into a headwind but what a blast! Thanks for the wonderful video.
No nav lights. Not required, just need to illuminate the sail with a flashlight, which I did every ten mins or so. We were far outside the ICW (a few miles or more) in extremely shallow water for that sail, and we'd have heard any power boats coming our way for sure in the calm conditions. Any sailboat coming at us would be a very small boat and therefore the "collision" would hardly be noteworthy. It was a pretty low-risk endeavor, all things considered.
Great event, how were the bugs? Love Seeing your campsites on virtual sandbars.
Bugs are generally not too bad. This year was a very odd light wind year, so there were some mosquitos once the sun went down, but normally the wind is up day and night and they're not an issue.
Great video! I would love to participate in the Texas 200.
www.texas200.com for all the info you need. We’ll leave the light on for ya…..
👍thanks for sharing
Awesome video Matt!
RIght back at ya!
Hardcore
You really had to embrace the suck this year! Thanks for sharing!
Every year is a different type of suck it seems. The mud and muck and sun and general "rustic" conditions are pretty much the same every year. Normally we add in some high winds to the suck mixture, to stress out boats, people and gear. This year it was more psychological torture with light winds and bad wind direction to make us all kind of go a little nuts.
anyone with kids participate?
There aren’t a lot but yes sometimes folks bring kids. Not very young ones. Usually in the 12-16 year old range, very rarely do we see kiddos younger than that.
I think there were 2 teens this year. Its a tough trip but doable.
@@mschiemer what do you use for navigation?
@@torasfishroom Navionics and paper charts as backup. I have a compass on board.
I like your rig
cool
Hello. Best is to sail in no shark waters. Thank for the moovie.
That's tough to do in salt water, but yeah I suppose sharks are no fun. Fortunately, no shark-related issues on this trip!
Wow, that big storm knocked out almost 30% of the fleet. Was there any lightning? Here in FL a storm like that would be packed with lightning. Looks like a fun adventure. If you like sailing without a motor, you should try the Everglades challenge. 300 miles with only wind or human power allowed. I’m hopefully going to try it in the next few years.
I don't think any of our fleet actually got hit with the storm itself. That is, it passed in front of us, so we didn't get rain or lightning. We got the winds off the back end -- in the 30 to 50 knot range, depending who you ask. So we sort of lucked out I guess. As to the EC 300, I don't see myself doing that. I really don't like racing; not my thing. Who knows, maybe one day....
@@mschiemer it is a race, but I think most people do it just to see if they can finish.
Can I come with you next time?
Yup, come join us next year. www.texas200.com for more information on the event.
Very cool Matt! Miss you guys. Maybe next year 😀👍
Nice video Matt and a nice finish. Knew you had this. Not easy but very rewarding.
I had to tap into my inner “Pat” this finish. Thanks for the inspiration man.
😮 I need this
Come join us. www.texas200.com. 2nd week of June every year. We'll leave the light on for ya....
sounds like a great trip
Nice video, Matt. I had paid my fees and taken time off from work but ended up not going. An inability to secure a slip or place to stay at the start was my undoing. Unfortunately when I posted this on the FB page, one of the participants used it as an opportunity to be very insulting. That misfortune sapped all my motivation to get it together at the last minute. He was a lone bad apple, I knew, but I will definitely try to make it next year. I have a Boston Whaler 15 and a Macgregor 25 to do the run. Your video makes the BW 15 look like the best contender.
Sorry you couldn't make it this year. Now you've got 11 months to get ready for next year. My strong advice is to get your motel/hotel/condo and boat slip arrangements made right away, in January, as soon as we announce the starting point (which is always Port Isabel or Port Mansfield). With that out of the way, you can then focus on stuff within your control like the boat, gear, etc. Hope to see ya down there next June.
Words of wisdom. Thank you, Matt.
The featherwind is a great boat to introduce people to boat building and sailing. It is very easy to build, fairly cheap, and can be built as just a rowboat with the option to turn it into a sail boat later on. My father and I built one when I was a teen and it is still one of my most treasured memories almost 30 years later.