I Had My Moments

Thankfully the wind on Sunday wasn't quite as light as originally forecast and we enjoyed another typical day of Laser frostbiting with a large fleet, packed start lines, crowded mark roundings and all the usual fun and mayhem that happen when 15 boats are trying to occupy exactly the same spot on the water at the same time.

Once I pulled off a perfect squirrel start and sailed in clear air to the right side of the course and judged the layline perfectly and rounded the first windward mark with the leaders. But most of the time I didn't.

Sometimes I had great boatspeed upwind with my shoulders positioned outside my butt, just like Steve Cockerill taught us, and could feel the tension in my stomach muscles squeezing the boat forwards, and was steering the boat with heel not rudder. And sometimes I wasn't.

Occasionally I was doing effortless, flowing roll tacks that were a pleasure to perform and I executed the roll just at the right time and speed to accelerate the boat smoothly on the new tack. And other times I didn't.

Sometimes I had great boatspeed downwind, sailing by the lee at just the perfect angle, using the heel of the boat and not the rudder to steer, and I could feel from the tension in the sheet that I was fast, and I was scooting past other boats. And sometimes I didn't.

Once I thought ahead when approaching the leeward mark with a crowd of boats ahead and abeam of me, and slowed down and worked across to round on the transom of the inside boat and passed a bunch of boats rounding on the outside of a pinwheel. But most of the time I didn't.

Once or twice I executed a perfect leeward mark rounding, going in wide and coming out tight so I was in clear air with freedom to tack and could look back and see a dozen boats gasping for air behind me. But most of the time I didn't.

Sometimes I judged the finish line perfectly, finishing at the favored end, and approaching it on starboard tack so I could use my rights to pick up a place or two in the last seconds of the race just how Dave Dellenbaugh taught us. And sometimes I didn't.

A sailing coach once told me that you have to be inconsistently good before you can be consistently good. On Sunday I was sometimes inconsistently good. But most of the time I wasn't.