I'm going to race. I have to now that I spent all that money on new sails.
I read Sailing Anarchy fairly regularly and am getting a bit of the bug to throw my hat in (edit: and mix metaphors apparently). I've raced as crew before which is actually pretty easy; you have your silo of a job to do and you pull on this line or that one, make sure the spinnaker doesn't curl, yell out when you're about to get wet on the rail ..... that sort of thing.
But, racing your own boat is a bit trickier. Apparently, there are rules. Lots of them. When daysailing, I'm on starboard, he's not, I have right of way. Easy. When racing, there are these overlap rules, two boat lengths around the pin rules, and numerous other confusing items. Sailboats aren't supposed to be this close to each other so they have to add a bunch of new rules to keep it safe. Even with that, these bozos still hit each other. Let's see if my sense of survival is higher than my sense of competition.
Now, the big problem isn't my boat. My boat is slow, we'll come in last much of the time, but I have a PHRF rating of 255 or something so I'll correct pretty well. The problem is that I need two people who want to go sailing every couple of Friday nights. I know one that I can count on but I'd like one more ideally. Anybody game?
3 comments:
Good for you. If I lived anywhere near you I'd love to come out on your crew and help you get started in racing. Don't worry too much about the rules - there are only about four rules that cover 99% of the situations you will meet on the water. Just go out and have fun.
It's strange. Reading your blog and Scherezade's I'm starting to think it might be fun to get a keelboat so I can take friends and relatives out for a day's sailing and cruise around and have a beer or two.
Ain't blogging grand?
I'll try it once, at least. Will you buy dinner afterwards?
Interesting...the bbq afterwards costs about $5...I might be able to spring for that if they'll give me a bulk discount.
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