Scenes from an imaginary western
2004-04-28

I ache in several familliar but unexplainable places so racing season must have started. During the action, you just ignore all the bumps and bruises, and yet somehow at a later date, they don't ignore you. I'll survive, but please don't touch me. :-)

I gave the crew the standard speach before the race, it's only the first race of the spring, get the boat around the course without breaking stuff or us, have fun. We'll take it easy at the start, not too agressive. I think it is acutally more for me than them. I was a wreck.

We practiced a few tacks and things were pretty ragged. Bob and Paul had never worked together before and on my boat with it's big headsails, timing is everything. We didn't have it, but it was what I had so I decided to tack as little as possible until we dialed in and hope for the best.

The Spinnaker boats went off without a hitch and we were next up. There was one boat we got time from and six we gave time to. One we needed to time with a calender. I wanted to be below everybody and managed to get that position even if it meant ducking a 38 footer just before the line.

As soon as the gun went off, I told the crew, remember all that stuff I said earlier? Well I lied, trim, COMING UP!!! We pushed up the inside stack and managed to get Evil 42 to hit the mark. Sweet....

We got up to boat speed early and were right on the targets in the gusty 12 to 17 knot southwesterly. I was surprised how well I dialed in on the first leg. It was like winter never happened. We hit the weather mark right on the money and never looked back.

We had some problems with the pole set on leg two, but I guess everybody did because we held our own. On the long 3 mile reach out and back to the lighthouse (I told you we'd end up there) we actually gained ground and added more on the return leg. The jibe at that mark was a thing of beauty and told the crew that. Now it was just one more up and down.

The last winward leg was definately not our best. The main was all out of wack, it was gusting and I was snake waking. I just couldn't find a good groove. We did however hit the lay line right on the money, have another great jibe and coasted home downwind with the gun guarenteed.

Would it be enough? We knew we had beaten Evil 42, but the X boat and the Baltic looked too close for comfort. We tried to estimate the course lenght and counted. At two minutes we figured we had the X, and after another two we knew we had the Baltic. The little boats, well, we just didn't want to wait that long.

We popped open beers and started to put the boat away and headed in. We missed the results on the radio so I called the Race Committee on the cell. We had taken first, X was second and one of the little guys was third. Evil 42 was 6th. Awwwwww

We went in the YC and M.E was waiting with a birthday cake. I had a couple of people buy me grapes and there was lots of hugging, always a good thing. We gave everybody cake and had just enough.

I was home by 10:00 and ready for bed. One down, Three to go.

Happy Hump day world and oh if you see Saddam tell him happy birthday for me. Um, then again, maybe not.

Ron

Previous - Next