Two thumbs up for Rush Creek
at 5.19.2014
by Pam
In years gone by, I've been at
this event and waited up to an hour between races. But not this year. They have
been making a concentrated effort at training race committee and it showed.
There were 4 fleets all on the same course. No rolling starts and the races started on time. Doug, doing his usual dawdling, made it to the start line of the first race with only 20 seconds to spare. As soon as a fleet finished they started them again. There were fleets starting on one side of the committee boat and at the same time fleets finishing on the other side. Not to mention that there were boats leaving the course randomly and boats tipping all over the place so it was a challenge to even keep track of everyone. And they did it in spades!
The MC Scows and Sunfish got in 6 races while the VX One's, buzzing past us left and right, got in 9 races. The Portsmith class with only two competitors, an 18 foot Aussie skiff and Paul Foerster with his kids on a JY only got in one race. The skiff never made it to the start line and they went ahead and started Paul F realizing that once the skiff went down on its way to the start line, that it wasn't racing. Paul F took the opportunity jump into the Sunfish fleet for a few races just to let us know who was king. Three races, three bullets.
There were 4 fleets all on the same course. No rolling starts and the races started on time. Doug, doing his usual dawdling, made it to the start line of the first race with only 20 seconds to spare. As soon as a fleet finished they started them again. There were fleets starting on one side of the committee boat and at the same time fleets finishing on the other side. Not to mention that there were boats leaving the course randomly and boats tipping all over the place so it was a challenge to even keep track of everyone. And they did it in spades!
The MC Scows and Sunfish got in 6 races while the VX One's, buzzing past us left and right, got in 9 races. The Portsmith class with only two competitors, an 18 foot Aussie skiff and Paul Foerster with his kids on a JY only got in one race. The skiff never made it to the start line and they went ahead and started Paul F realizing that once the skiff went down on its way to the start line, that it wasn't racing. Paul F took the opportunity jump into the Sunfish fleet for a few races just to let us know who was king. Three races, three bullets.
Paul M, Doug and I all sailed
every race even though it was quite windy. I actually had a 3rd in one race
with neither Doug or Paul M even visible from the finish line. None of us
tipped but Paul M did go swimming twice. I know I caused one of those when I
did a crash tack and we collided and the other time I was right next to him but
I'm not taking responsibility for that one. I think the hiking strap came undone.
It was a fun weekend. Going to
different venues certainly stretches the experience level. I've never been in waves like
that and I've never had a sustained gust hit during a run to where only the
back half of the boat was touching the water. I had the main cleated most of
the time going downwind and was two-handing the tiller feeling like I was somewhere
between steering a gondola and riding a broom about the take flight repeating to my myself to stay under the sails.
At the end of the weekend, I was quite proud of myself
for hanging in there for every race. Being a Balboa, I had the Rocky theme song
playing in my head as I got back to the docks and felt like dancing around,
fist pumping my hands in the air and singing 'Getting Stronger!" but in
reality, I was only bent over with my hands on my knees and panting like a dog.
