One of the asymmetric sailors walked across to me after racing this afternoon and said in an accusatory tone, "I hear you got beaten by a woman." Emphasis on "woman."
His wife was standing by us.
"Yes," I said, "I was beaten by a girll!" Emphasis on girl.
Oh god! I did it again. I used the G word. I hope his wife wasn't offended when I called her a "girl." I got into a lot of trouble a couple of years ago using the G word. I was publicly admonished on the Interwebs by the chairman of the US Olympic sailing program, no less, for referring to female sailors as "girls." I wrote the case for the defense in my post Girls on Keelboats.
Perhaps if the chairman of the US Olympic sailing program had devoted a bit more attention to working out how to win Olympic medals for the US in sailing in 2012 instead of having a go at a random old geezer blogger, he might not now be the former chairman of the US Olympic sailing program?
Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes. Getting beaten by a girl.
It's true.
It became apparent after a couple of days of drills and races, that the talent in our Laser group this week at Minorca Sailing consists of two female sailors, one from Switzerland - one from Scotland, and myself. We three tend to end up near the front in most of the drills and races. The two ladies race Laser Radials back home but have been racing full rig Lasers this week in the light winds we have had the last few days. I think that was a wise decision for them. They are lighter than me and if you are heavy enough and skilled enough to sail a Laser flat upwind in the prevailing conditions (and they are) it can only help to be many tens of pounds lighter than the fat old geezer in the orange hat. (Me.)
In the first three days of racing, the Swiss lady and I have shared the wins in the races.
Today the Swiss lady decided to sail a Radial. I think she felt that maybe she would have an even better chance to beat me with the handicap advantage that she would have in a Radial rig.
The Scottish lady opted to stick with the full rig and she beat me fair and square in the first race today. She was sailing higher and faster and smarter on the first beat and led me around all three laps.
So yes, I was beaten by a girl, I mean female sailor.
I hope she wasn't offended that I called her a girl. You have to be so careful using words like that these days. I only meant it as a self-deprecatory comment against myself and a compliment to her own youthfulness. Shouldn't a lady who is a mother of three teenagers be pleased to be called a girl? Perhaps, as she is Scottish, I should have called her a "wee lassie?" Or, then again, maybe not. I have discovered the hard way that drawing attention to a woman's weight or size never turns out well.
Anyway I was beaten by a girl.
"I bet you won't blog about that!" said her husband.
5 comments:
Fif-tee pee! On'y fif-tee pee!
Ah, the sounds of the London street markets. Sorry, I keep getting distracted by the pictures and forget to read the words. Something about a young lass sailing was it?
I was told by a young lady not so long ago that the expression used in road running is ' you've been chicked'.
You probably shoudn't say that either.
If you haven't been beaten by a woman, you haven't been sailing much.
These days at road races it seems that more than 50% of the runners are women. As I am an exceedingly slow runner there are always women in front of me. In some races I am beaten by hundreds if not thousands of women.
I had never heard the expression "chicked" before. I will try and use it in future.
Good point Sam. Although, as I sail only Lasers these days, and as there aren't many female Laser sailors (at least in the full rig fleets) it is not every race that I get beaten by a woman. Having said that, there are some very good women sailing Lasers, especially around Rhode Island and Massachusetts, so it's not an unusual experience for me to see women in front of me at the finish.
I only wrote this post because the husband of the lady that beat me seemed to think it was something worth drawing attention to.
Post a Comment