Wednesday Whim

Last Wednesday night I didn’t have any specific plans. I remembered that they have mini-regattas at Cherry Creek Reservoir for keelboats and thought it would be fun to watch or even to crew on a short staffed boat. I was lucky—I got to crew on one of the fast U20 boats.

The U20 was Tom’s boat, who was clearly an experienced sailor. He was in his mid-50’s and wore a baseball hat with a chin strap to keep it from flying off in the wind. His belt was fabric with the logo of USA Sailing printed on it, and he had a pair of custom made prescription sunglasses designed for being on the water. Tom gave clear direct orders, which he expected to be followed ASAP. At the same time, he was patient enough to explain what he meant and allow for inexperience. I found out later that Tom sailed for 22 years and was the judge for most of the regional regattas. I could tell that Tom not only wanted to sail, but to win!

Tom’s normal crew wasn’t there, so Diane and I were his back up crew, his scabs. Diane was also a new sailor. She took up sailing recently because her boyfriend was a big time sailor and she wanted to join in the fun. So we had an experienced skipper and two newbies on the boat.

After we got out of the dock area we hoisted the main and set sail. As we were heading toward the sailing club’s “regulation” boat, Tom asked me “How long have you been sailing?”

“About a year. I took Victoria Sailing Schools Courses.” I was eager to impress him that I knew something about sailing.

Instead, he instructed Diane to get out the life jackets. He joked “Given the experience of the crew, we just might need them. So, Jason, what do you know about sailboat races”

Feeling a bit humbled as I put on my life vest, I said, “nothing except that the first guy across the finish line wins.”

Tom chuckled, “Well, that’s not necessarily true. Each boat is given a handicap and your time is factored by that handicap.”

So I corrected myself and said that I knew nothing about racing.

As we passed the “regulation” boat, they had the numbers 62 posted on the side. Tom explained that every week they were given a different set of buoys as a course. So today, we had to beat upwind to buoy six then run back to buoy two and back to the finish line.

The regulators set off a horn to indicate that we had five minutes to get ready. So we had to “pace” in the water for five minutes to try to be as close to the line, without crossing it, as possible at the time the race started. We sailed south on a beam reach then make a u-turn, tacking through the wind and heading north on the opposite point of sail. At the same time, we had to avoid all of the other boats. I was amazed at how close each of the boats would come to each other without a collision.

Finally, we got the signal: thirty seconds to go. We headed toward the line, but the boat in front of us was intentionally cutting us off. Dirty sailing trick! Since they were on the starboard tack and we were on port tack, they had the right of way. It cost us time because we had to circle back and to make it through the starting line.

We started the race a little behind, but not too far behind. We weren’t the last ones through the line. The boat was fast enough to make up for time lost, although our boat’s low handicap worked against us.

At this point, we were close hauled and making our way towards buoy six. Tom was explaining when we were going to tack and why. He chose his moment so we could either give ourselves the right of way or to “steal” another boat’s wind. Again he came within a few feet of hitting another boat, and no one else flinched.

When you are close hauled, you are sailing almost directly into the wind and the boat tends to tilt in the water. To give the boat more speed, I was all the way at the top end of the boat hanging my legs overboard to give as much counterweight as possible. Tom yelled, “ready to tack” and I had to swing my legs back over the side before he yelled “tacking”. I managed the ropes attached to the front sail and made it to the other side of the boat as we went through the eye of the wind. I was used to doing this slowly, but since we were racing I really had to perform.

We were approaching buoy six. Tom had explained how we were going to launch the spinnaker for our run down to buoy two. We had extended the spinnaker pole out in front of the boat. Diane was responsible for letting the spinnaker sail out as I pulled the halyard. Within minutes, this giant multicolored parachute looking sail was up in front of the boat. Tom had me adjust the spinnaker’s trim as we sailed to the next buoy. I had to continuously let out the sail until it started to fold up and then pull it back in until it was full of wind.

As we reached buoy two, we had to jibe, which means to put the rear of the boat through the back of the wind. This can be dangerous because the boom of the main sail can forcefully switch sides of the boat. If you are on the wrong side of it, you can get knocked pretty hard.

After we rounded buoy two, Diane and I pulled in the spinnaker. We only had two tacks to get to the finish line.

As we finished up, Tom told Diane that she had done well. And then he said “Jason, not bad for your first time out.” From a captain like that, I imagine that was high praise.

As we put the boat up, I couldn’t believe that only three hours ago, I was just formulating the idea to come down to the marina. And there I was at the end of my first sail boat race. I can’t wait until the next Wednesday I can make it.

PS I looked up the results the next day on the internet. We came in second! Not bad for a newbie crew.

Originally Posted 7/12/05