Priorities - Screwing Over Sailing

It's not often that you get to write about how proud as a parent I am of my teenage children's screwing abilities. But this weekend they and many other friends and family screwed 1300 or so deck screws to create our new deck on the cottage. The deck is done. Now we have to see about the roof for it. But that's another story.

The lumber was delivered Friday afternoon and by Saturday we had most of the deck done. Many hands make light work. Of course there were many other saying this weekend like "It's all fun and games until somebody loses a testicle." An building the deck was not the only thing I had to do.

The lake is something like 70 degrees, as long as you stay right at the surface. The air was into the 80's, but unfortunately not really moving. Sailing was scheduled for Sunday and Monday mornings for E-Scows, and afternoons for MC-Scows. In order to screw as much as possible (the pun never gets old), I bailed on the mornings and just sailed afternoons. This was also the first test of the plan to take the MC straight from the lift to the race.

Sunday morning I ate breakfast out with the family (new concept when not sailing in the morning), drove 90 minutes round trip to Lowes for the last deck bits, went to a birthday party until Noon, and then started the MC launch. Having not been sailed since Florida I suspected I needed time to rig and launch. Sure enough launch included pulling out covers and trailing gear from the boat, and tipping it over at the dock to attach a halyard. It was blowing a nice 6-8 from the Northeast and I was itching to go sailing, an itch I hadn't yet been able to properly scratch yet this year.

So off I go sailing for the starting area. Nobody was out so I sailed toward the club. I got half way across the lake and the wind collapsed totally. A quick tow from a friend to the club revealed no sailing due to no wind. I ate, drank, and did the non-sailing part of being a sailor for an hour or so, then sailed home in the late afternoon breeze.

On the way home I tried a few roll tacks. The first attempt put the tiller extension into my pocket, knocking me down and nearly capsizing the boat. OK, back to basics. I need boat time to simply do lots of maneuvers. As of right now I feel like the kid that took all the Jr. Sailing lessons, got onto his first Laser and capsized at the dock.

After I got home I put the MC on the lift which promptly broke. I left it precariously perched over night.

Monday I was alone at the cottage. The lift repair took the better part of three hours to remanufacture a leg. It was pushing 1:00 when I finally got the MC under tow (little or no wind) to the club. The 1:30 start was going to be tight. But the morning sailing at the club went long and they delayed the start until 2:00. But it looked like we really were going to have a race! Finally some local racing in my own boat.

2:00 - pre race sailing against Steve. One lap. Steve walked away from me on speed upwind. I caught him downwind by splitting left, got the inside at the mark and pulled away. After circling back to fall behind a bit we started a small tacking duel. This was great because neither of us had much boat time.

Race 1 - 5 boats, 1 lap. Big lefty right before the start. I port tacked the "fleet" starting with a 5-6 boat length lead. I blew that quickly and struggled to lead at the top mark by 1 length over Brent P. He passed me downwind leading at the bottom mark by 2 lengths. I engaged him 1/2 way up the leg with a 8 or 10 tack duel. I got around him, but lost Bob Meyer to the right. A lot of boat speed work later I caught Bob with 100 yards to go. One race, 1 win.

Race 2 - same 5 boats. Still a left favor and lots of room at the pin. But I read my watch wrong and hit my run 10 seconds early. That meant ducking 2 boats to find a hole mid line on Port. The better air was left though. I "Z" legged it left and ended up pretty far back in third at the top mark. Downwind I quickly split West and found a really cool shot. I think I surged pretty far ahead. Time to go consolidate. Then I blew the jibe and lost it all and came back into the fleet in a pack. I had the inside at the mark but was dead slow. Steve scooted around first, then a pack of us (60% of the fleet is a "pack") demolition derbied it around the mark. I proceeded to sail half the leg with both boards down (very slow, like dragging a foot). Still I managed to hold off the pack to follow Steve into the finish. Steve gets his first win in his recently purchased MC.

Race 3 - square line and wind. Starboard start at the boat well timed. Little wind and less patience. I didn't do well settling in and concentrating. Third at the top, well behind. Brent G led, Brent P second, then me. Brent P hates slow light air downwind. I worked on concentration, speed, smooth rudder work and actually passed Brent P on speed. I take Brent G's transom on Starboard, split right staying higher and faster than him. But I over stand the bottom mark losing any gains. Brent G still 3 lengths ahead at the bottom mark. A few tacks in the motor boat chop and I realize I'm too far back to get around him that way. I see new wind WAY off the the left. The only chance is to go left and hope he splits right keeping on the current wind line. We split, he extends. I'm about 15 lengths back when I finally get the new wind on the left. Direction is not what I needed for an easy win. We come back together within inches of each other just 100 feet short of the line. The last 100 feet is intense. I'm doing all I can to drive down over him and he is doing all he can to drive up under me. Whoever has the lead when we get together will backwind the other just enough to win the race. This time it happened to be me. Race 3, win 2.

Analysis of the day was that I would not hold my own in any big fleet. The starts were dodgy at best. Boat speed was good upwind, very poor downwind. Boat handling was a total fail. Wind reading and tactics were OK. When the two or three other hot shots get sailing, it will be even harder to find a win. I'll take them while I can though.