Review of 2012

2012 was another funny old year...


In January I went out racing with the Newport Laser Frostbite fleet early in the month and had a very confusing day which I wrote about at Say What You Like About The Deaf. This was also the month that I accidentally got into one of those stupid Internet fights with some hip, young bloggers selected to cover the Volvo Ocean Race in Abu Dhabi. Why do some people not understand my sense of humor? Anyway I forgot about all that nonsense by jetting off to the Laser Center in Cabarete with a bunch of local Laser sailing friends for Just Another Week in Paradise. Aaah! I feel like I may need another Cabarete break soon.

In February I had a day out in Boston and wrote Two Things about the New England Boat Show. And in the depths of the New England winter I was dreaming about the  Top 9 Sailing Destinations on the Planet. Didn't sail a Laser even once. Ugh!

In early March, I went down to Florida with some sailing friends for a 4 day Laser sailing clinic at Kurt and Meka Taulbee's SailFit. We had a blast and I wrote about it at Mashers Gone Wild. In other news I was philosophizing on 7 Reasons Why Human Beings Love The Beach. March must have been comparatively mild because I did go Laser sailing locally three times too.

For reasons that seem to have slipped my memory, I only sailed my Laser once in April, and even that day was a pretty pathetic attempt as I had to invent 30 Reasons Why I Only Sailed 3 Races Today. On the blog we had a group writing project about sailing destinations and, thanks to some inspiration from Anna Railton I wrote the ultimate, definitive Laser Sailing: The Rules.

Early in May I went out for a Tuesday evening sail in somewhat windy conditions and hurt my back so badly that it basically screwed up the rest of my season. I wrote about it at Scary Play and Playing Hurt.  In fact for some crazy reason I was writing posts on the theme of "play" every day in May. Two of my favorites are Playing with Dad and Playing with Grandkids.

In June I eased rather slowly into Laser sailing again, not wanting to make my back injury any worse. You can read about it at Back. We had a group writing project on photography for bloggers which elicited an amazing response. And Tillerwoman and I had A Nice Day Out In Newport watching some chaps in helmets race catamarans.

In July I sailed my Laser nine times but the highlight of the year was definitely the afternoon when I took my granddaughter sailing for the first time. Read about it at Sailing with Grandkids - The Hook and When Daddy Was a Little Boy. I love my grandkids, of course, but I also wrote about another love of mine in A Love Story.


In August I sailed my Laser nine times too, including the three day Buzzards Bay Regatta which (unusually) had great sailing winds every day. I was working pretty hard - see When I'm 64 - but was still nursing my back injury by skipping some of the later races each day. I also wrote a long rambling post about different ways of Learning concluding that my favorite way is the fish and chips and beer method.


In September I sailed the New England Masters at the start of the month, always one of my favorite regattas. But I was "knackered" as we say in real English after only two races on Day 1, (definitely wasn't fit this summer) but I did manage to complete all the races on Day 2. It's sad to say that my 2012 racing season was so messed up by the slow recovery from my early season back problem, that that was the first day at a regatta that I had been able to finish all the races. Oh well, better late than never. Later in the month Tillerwoman and I headed off on a trip to visit family in England and then on to the Mediterranean for some sailing. Somehow I also managed to find the time to write one of those rambling philosophical posts about Sailing and Luck.


We spent the first half of October at one of my favorite places, Minorca Sailing. I raced a lot and won sometimes. I did gazillions of drills and learned a lot from the instructors. Some days I just had a blast on my own. I actually sailed Lasers on 14 consecutive days, sometimes twice a day. I guess my back was finally better? On my return home I sailed in my last regatta of the season, the Fat Boys in Bristol, completed all the races and actually managed to come 3rd and 5th in the final two races. Wow. I finally got back to form just as the season was ending? Such is life.

In November I did a bit of frostbiting at Duxbury and Newport, and finally worked out, after over 30 years, why I still persist in sailing a Laser even though it's hard and I have never been very good at it.

"If it's amazing, it won't be easy. 

If it's easy, it won't be amazing. 

 If it's worth it, you won't give up. 

If you give up, you're not worthy."

 (with apologies to Bob Marley who almost said this.)

December brought some more frostbiting at Newport and then off for ten days at the Bitter End Yacht Club where I received some very sad news.

When I counted up how many days I had sailed a Laser in 2012 I discovered that the total was 64. Not too shabby (but still a long way from my old aspiration to make it to a 100 days one year.) In spite of the back injury leading to an incredibly below average summer of Laser racing and training for me, I made up a lot of days on our trips to the DR, Florida and the BVI, and especially with that 14 days of consecutive Laser sailing in Menorca.

There were some great days of sailing in 2012, but that day in July when I sailed with my granddaughter for the first time was the best of all...

Happy New Year to all my readers.