8-2-2014 Racing

by Pam

Rules discussion

We had temperatures that positively felt like fall which is always welcome in August. The winds were out of the North, shifty and puffy. One minute on the low side hiking, looking for wind, and the next, it was hiking weather (at least for me). For the most part, if was simply wonderful.

Bruce showed up ready to do duty and no one showed up to help. Then we figured out that Paul was supposed to do duty but he showed up ready to sail so Bruce said he didn't need him and would do it by himself.

Despite the beautiful day, we had a low turnout but that didn't keep us from having fun.  At lunch we had a little rules session starting with definitions which we'll continue to do each week so come on out and learn some stuff with us.

People are starting to ask about Cathy and when she'll be back. In the meantime, her boat is getting passed back and forth between me and Doug. I don't know why but she seems to sail better for Doug than me. This week she got a 3, 1, 4.  And that 1st was after she got so far ahead she decided to stop and wait for a few boats to pass her before starting again.

On the way out to sail, Larry asked me what he was forgetting. I did a quick survey of his boat and said, 'a bottle.'  He said he didn't need no stinking bottle because he never tips. And he didn't! Plus, he's starting to move up a little in the fleet.

After lunch on the way back to racing Bruce and I asked Doug how he managed to catch and pass Frank who was in the lead in the 2nd race. He contradicted himself a couple of times and really didn't answer the question except to say that tactics is playing a big part of why he's ahead. I think he's finally reached the point where he sails more instinctively than consciously and might not be able to explain why he did this or that. But, that just won't do. I can't pick his brain if he can't communicate the whats and whys.

So, since Doug has duty this coming weekend, we going to try a little experiment. Back to the walkie talkie. He's going to talk me around the race course not just telling me what to do and where to go but why. I'm not counting on being so far ahead that I have to stop and wait but on the outside chance that the intervention does appear to affect my score, I'll probably have to RAF out of fairness. Should be an interesting experiment.