7-2-11 RACING

by Pam

After weeks of mega winds and various centennial events, our regular racing has been back burnered too often.  I was looking forward to getting back to regular sailing but instead we won the trifecta of misery.  Triple digit temperatures, high humidity and no wind.  Ugh!

Nevertheless, in a testament to how much we’ve missed our regular sailing, we had decent turnout with about 10 boats attempting to sail and hoping for just a hint of wind to make it all worth while.  Instead, the sauna like conditions purged our bodies of any toxins, forced us to hydrate and provided some early summer testing of our sunscreen.  I do believe I’m now a huge fan of zinc.  Regular sunblock hasn’t been doing it for me but this really cool transparent zinc that I apply before leaving the house has kept me pink free. 

Now to the drifting.  The CSCers all sailed a further distance to the start line and arrived mostly on time.  The WRBCers all sailed a shorter distance to the start line arrived mostly after the first gun.  Then Mother Nature stepped in and leveled the playing field by creating a magnificent hole that slowed the CSCers and allowed most of the WRBCers to move ahead slightly.  Funny how that happens. 

Even though I often think that drifting conditions aren’t really a test of sailing skills, the better sailors still managed, in super slow motion, to move to the front of the fleet.  Bruce and Frank, coming from different directions, starting at different times, still met up at the first mark with Bruce slightly ahead.  Sandy and Burton, starting earlier and coming from a different direction from me ended up behind me at the first mark and ahead of me at the finish.  I’d have to call that racing.

Luigi, Miles and our guest, Pete, were all doing a good job of keeping their boats moving.  Tom, as happens far too often, helped get everyone in the water but ran out of time and never left the docks.  Now Catherine, she was a source of entertainment.  I think she fouled almost everyone on the course in slow motion and could be heard voicing some four letter objections all along the way, but bless her heart, she was sailing far better than she might have thought.  For the most part she displayed more patience than she had last year and she was doing an excellent job of keeping the boat moving most of the time and hung in there for two races even when most of the WRBCers called it a day after the first race.  I do believe she’s hooked on sailing and even though she’s going through a frustrating stage in the learning process, she is showing a lot of progress.  Doug is going to have to get creative and figure out how to do some long distance coaching to keep her on track instead of just leaving her hanging.  I seem to recall there is virtual sailing program out there on the internet that allows you to race against others all over the world.  You choose the boat and course and then race.  I must find that again.