Last race of 2022

[Gordon Laco]

Hello shipmates. 

So there we were… dashing down to the club with no supper due to the late season early start, throwing the sail cover off, lines ashore, and motoring out to the start of the last  Wednesday race of the year.

We got away before 5:30 for the 6:00 start… what ho…. the bay was empty.  No boats, no committee, oh no was there no race?  We motored back in and found that everyone else was still busy casting off, including the committee boat.  The flotilla duly followed us out again.

This reminded me of a story told by a fellow I worked with who had competed in the 1976 Olympic Games, winning a Gold Medal in sailing.  He told me he and his colleague in their Tornado cat made a point of leading the fleet out each morning of both practice and racing, and also leading them back in afterward.  He said the intention was everyone might get used to following him, a bit of psychological strategy.   But… in case anyone is getting the idea that my colleague was unethical, here’s another story.  The British team of which he was a part was accompanied by a supporter who was helping them each day with their boats.  One day this fellow noticed that they were using 1,000 grit sand paper on their rudders and centreboards; so he spend a day driving around buying up all the 1,000 grit sand paper which he brought to the boat, gleefully saying ‘we’ve got it all, nobody else has any’.   My friend promptly took that box and distributed the sand paper to all the competitors.  Not just generosity, that was also good sportsmanship.  He did not want is hoped for win to be marred by any taint.   He ran his business that way too.

Back to last night… so out we all went, this time not alone.  Fifteen yachts began the usual swinging to and fro as the time counted down to the start… and again I had a ‘what ho’ moment… instead of the already-tired-old newfangled ’sausage’ course with one buoy, up and down a couple of times, the committee gave us the classic and much superior Olympic Triangle course.  Twice around with an up and down at the end.  Perfect.

So… one minute to go, SURPRISE was foaming along close reaching for the committee end of the line with our foe SUNDANCER ahead and likely to be early.  Barging down came a Wayfarer (what’s a dinghy doing in the race?) on our windward starboard side.  In the spirit of joyful benevolence I decided not to scrape the small fry off on the committee, punishing him for his barging.  We started bang on time with SUNDANCER ahead and a bit to leeward.  After the start I began pressing up on the Wayfarer and he duly tacked away.  

Up to the windward mark we battled… what ho again… normally SUNDANCER walks away from us to windward but there they were literally under our bows as we rounded.   Down to the gybe mark we battled… round the gybe with a double bang as both our booms went over and away reaching to the leeward mark.  I tried to get over them but ended up right on  their transom and up we went again, battling.  I knew they’d climb up higher on that course that we could, so rather than wait for the turbulence we’d end up in, tacked away.  That was a mistake.

While on starboard tack away from them, there was a dramatic fifteen degree wind shift which we were on the wrong side of.  At the windward mark we were a hundred yards back and we never caught up with them again.

We finished the race running down to the finish ‘reading both pages’, main and genoa wung out, in third place and headed back to the club.    Awards were handed out after a last BBQ of the year… anticipation grew as the Snake Island Race prize was next on the list… that race was run a few weeks ago.  Alas we didn’t win as we thought we had… second to FINN McCOOL.  And worse, the well sailed FINN McCOOL is a Shark.  Did I ever mention that Sharks are vermin?

All that’s left now is a last sailing trip with Caroline this weekend in what is forecast to be a pleasant weekend weatherize… then the usual end of season Misery Trip and that’ll be it for 2022.
\

Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com
705-527-9612