Racing 12-2-2017

by Pam

Photo by Bill Naifeh - www.naifehphotography.com

It was a beautiful December day in Texas!  Sunshine, a gentle breeze with coolish temperatures that made both shorts and pants a comfortable choice. We had an average of 10 sailors with some comings and goings for different races. 

I can’t remember the last time I was out but things had changed.  First order of business was finding Cathy’s boat, Sylvia. The east dock was gone and Sylvia had been moved. Jim and I checked sterns until he found her. Then, I went to use the bathroom but they were locked and Bruce directed me to the new port-a-potty. Oh, how I had forgotten that unique smell. Next, while rigging, Paul had to point out that the main block does not go where the vang goes. It’s been too long and I would have been lost without everyone. I keep trying to break this absentee habit but work and life keep getting in the way. 

I had a friend, Bill, join Marshall and Doug on the committee boat. Bill is interested in trying his hand at sailing photography and needs a place to practice until he finds the right settings, lens, angles, technique, etc. Naturally, I could think of no better place than the Butterfly fleet. So, for a few weeks (or months) we will have an official photographer. He is a bit of perfectionist and I think his work is quite stunning. First lesson he learned is that the boat is constantly moving (imagine that) and his very large zoom lens was a little overkill (Doug said he almost poked a sailor in the eye at the start).  Bill was not the least bit happy with his pictures (which are quite good) but he nevertheless put up a link to a few of them just so we would have something from the day http://html.naifeh.dphoto.com/album/10ca1v. They are on his website and free to download. As he takes more photos, he will continue to load them onto his website and we are free to download whatever we want.  I believe the website is limited the size of what he can upload so if you happen to want the full quality digital photo, just let me know and I’ll get it. When I say full size photo, I’m not sure but I think we’re talking about being able to blow it up to like billboard poster size (but I might have that wrong). I will put a link to our “gallery” on his website at the top right corner for ease in finding it.

Photo by Bill Naifeh - www.naifehphotography.com

So, onto the sailing.  First race, Paul and Nancy jumped out with the lead. I was on their tail at the windward, reach, and leeward marks. Then somehow, I passed Nancy on the second upwind and moved into second. Next thing I knew, I saw Burton and Sandy on the course and couldn’t remember seeing them before racing (later learned they were late to the start) but they were both moving up fast to catch me.  So, of course, I tacked, dropped the tiller, knocked my sunglasses off my face, dove for them, dropped the main sheet, screamed, uttered some curse words, spun, maybe tacked and gybed, recovered my sunglasses, then the tiller and mainsheet, sheeted in and sailed on toward the finish line for a second with Burton and Sandy taking 3^rd and 4th. It was only going to go downhill from there so I tagged out and let Doug sail.

Turns out I was badly needed on the committee boat.  Marshall said so when he handed me the score sheet and said it needed to be fixed because he couldn’t write and Doug couldn’t see. Sure enough, it looked just like he described. After rewriting the score sheet, I slipped the hosed up one into my pocket to do something I’ve wanted to do every time I’ve done duty after turning 50. Skipping ahead to today, I have now redone the score sheets to a Dr. Seuss big print version since juggling reading glasses and sunglasses along with wind and a bouncing boat is just too frustrating for a beautiful day of sailing.  Next time I’m out, I’ll drop them in the box. I hope that is next weekend but it could be 3 to 6 months from now. 

So back to sailing. With Burton and Sandy getting to start on time for the second race and with Doug now sailing, it was game on for Paul.  Honestly, I got to chatting with Bill and Marshall and didn’t pay much attention to the racing. I believe Jim was first to the windward mark, then later it was a photo finish at the end with Doug, Sandy and Paul, in that order.

For the third race, Burton had retired and Doug had the lead at one point and luffed up to let folks catch up (he always says you don’t learn anything sailing by yourself at the front of fleet).  The finish was Paul, Doug and Sandy, in that order.

Photo by Bill Naifeh - www.naifehphotography.com

Observations: I noticed that Gary was off his game for most of the day but he had some of the best pictures taken during the day. Larry just kept popping to the top of the fleet (if only briefly) which is something new for me to see. Jim was up and down in the fleet. Nancy seems to be a force to be reckoned with. Miles was holding on to his favorite spot but much closer to the fleet than I recall. Cathy's boat Sylvia is an impressively fast girl. I'm way out of shape. Gotta get back to sailing.