Race Day
2002-05-29

Ahhh, race day. I'm always edgy on race day. You try to keep your mind busy, to not think about what is coming, the tension, nerves. I never eat before a big race. It probably wouldn't stay down any way. On top of this I'm getting a cold with all it's post nasal lovliness. UGH...

So I start to prep the boat while the crew eats and cleans up. Running lines, moving halyards takes my mind off of things. Finally it is time to do the mile motor out to the start line. It is impressive, hundreds of boats all moving out at the same time. Finally it is our time. I hit the start button and nothing, everything goes dead. I check the batteries, plenty of juice, damn. I stop by to seem my friend the mechanic, but he is no help so up to the marina I go to explain the situation. After furnishing a credit card and signing my life away, a mechanic shows up. He thinks I have a blown starter and he doesn't have parts and can't get parts until Monday. All that money down the drain... But I'm arguing with him. I think it is a short. He agrees to look more. He finds a blown fuse. Hmmm, interesting... Replacing the fuse makes everything work, but when I try to start the motor, it dies again. Well that is a clue. After almost an hour he sees something, the air cleaner intake is touching the starter, the short? Yup, we get everything back together and brmmmmm, the engine starts right up. We dash off to try to catch our start time.

It is windy, way more wind than I would like. We are very light crewed compared to the other boats in the class. Not a good thing. It takes us two tries to reef the main (make it smaller). I'm ready to blow a gasket. We have six boats starting with us, all are in our class of 18. Four are from my local club. We hit the line at the gun at full speed. We smoked everybody in the class right off the bat. The first leg is an 18 mile reach. For the first half we are in the lead, then one boat gets by in a light spot. We stay right on their ass. It is tough driving. The seas are lumpy, and confused. I don't really have a back up driver. We round the first mark in second place, but the next leg is up wind. UGH.... Not enough bodies too much breeze. Six boats pass us on the leg. Damn, now we are in sevenh with only the last leg to go. We need a miracle. We don't get one. We pass two of the boats back and are about to pass the next one when we just run out of race course. We finish 5th out od 18, 19 seconds out of fourth and about 5 minutes off the lead. That one damn up wind leg killed us.

So we get the boat together and head in. I am beat, the crew is beat. We have a beer. We are in the same slip as last year. Down a blind alley with a 90 degree turn at the end. There is a boat tied to the dock taking up a quarter of the channel. We have to turn between two poles. The guy on the boat tied to the dock says to me, if you can make this without hitting anything, we'll give you a standing ovation. I'm thinking I have about a 30% chance, maybe less. UGH I hit reverse, and kick the back end around some. We hit bottom but I zip it into to forward and keep moving. The boat turns, enough? The bow is now at the first piling, a little push and we are in. Sigh.... The people in the boat behind stand up and clap. So do the people next door. I shut off the engine and melt into the cockpit seat. Done....

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