Three days. Nine races for the Laser fleet. Great race committee work and on-shore hospitality. Thank you Hyannis Yacht Club.
Seeing old friends. Making some new ones.
Too much pizza. Not enough beer. Probably better that way round than the other. (I'm not saying the beer ran out. Just that I was too exhausted most evenings to be able to break any drinking records.)
Eight solid finishes and only one bad one. Hey, that's pretty consistent I reckon. At least for me.
Strong winds. Light winds. Waves. Flat water. Bit of everything.
Current sometimes. No current other times. Hey, if I can't detect it, then it ain't there.
Sunshine. Fog. Thunder boomers. But no rain while we were racing all weekend.
Some great starts. Some mediocre starts. No OCS's. Probably means I'm not trying hard enough if I'm never OCS. But in a regatta with no throwouts allowed it paid to be a little conservative on the start line. At least that was my theory.
Finding the secret for sailing a Laser on the beat fast and high in light winds and chop. Hey, if I told you it wouldn't be a secret would it?
Not finding the secret as to why the top guys were so much faster than me downwind in light air. Possible theories: I'm too old, too fat, too clumsy, too dumb, or too lazy. Hmmm. That's a tough one. All of the above?
Rounding the windward mark in first place in one race on the last day. Oh did I mention that I was ahead of last year's Central American and Caribbean Champion, the current US Masters Champion, and this year's North American College Sailor of the Year? Well yes, they did all roll over me on the downwind leg but it felt good for a while. When you're an old duffer like me you have to relish those small moments of glory.
Overall score for the regatta in the top 25% of the fleet. And everyone ahead of me was younger than me and had a newer boat than me. Hmmm. I guess I could fix one of those issues?
Beating that guy. I told you I would. Didn't you believe me?
Getting home in time to see my granddaughter before she left our house on Sunday evening. She still remembered who I was and demanded a hug. Actually several hugs. Priceless.
How was your weekend?
7 comments:
"Overall score for the regatta in the top 25% of the fleet. And everyone ahead of me was younger than me and had a newer boat than me. Hmmm. I guess I could fix one of those issues?"
If your avatar curiously starts aging faster than you do, we'll know you're up to some evil Dorian Gray shenanigans. You won't get away with it so you'd better just buy a new boat.
Congrats - impressive racing!
My weekend had good bits (out in a hobbie) and bad bits (the flight back).
Will post soon
Sailed the ass off a Feeling 38 on Raritan Bay. Then dinner at Bahr's a great seafood place at the bottom of Sandy Hook.
My weekend involved some hard work, in anticipation of next weekend: Taking the boat apart, trailering it through 6 or 7 hours of gorgeous scenery and over mountain passes as high as 11,000 feet, to arrive 6 days in advance of the Dillon Open Regatta.
Where in the heck did you have "strong winds"? I'm ready to bleed for strong winds (not a bad bleed, but stick a bandage and some tape on me...I'll trade that for a fresh breeze."
As usual, I'm at the wrong party apparently.
Dillon had some nice winds today -- actually a mixed bag when we were out varying from about 4 to 12 kts. and switching direction just often enough to keep us on our toes ... Knot bad at all!
Puffin - wind on Nantucket Sound on Friday was around 12-15 knots I'd say. Probably you windsurfers don't call that strong but it's enough to keep an old guy like me in a Laser happy. Saturday and Sunday were a lot lighter.
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