Tuesday Night Racing Begins

The first night of our Tuesday night series started last night.  When we arrived there was decent breeze from the east, but it started to die and clocked about 10 degrees as the evening progressed.  Our dazzlingly beautiful blonde friend joined us as our third, although she drove the race committee boat out, anchored it, and stepped aboard the Hooked on Tonics only for the race and stepped off to drive the RC boat back in when racing was done.  She proved an excellent tactician and the three of us worked well together.  Ruby, the redhead, and I had decided we could call her "Cinderella" and have her be our scullery maid for the race, but she somehow evaded any and all rigging and derigging responsibilities and was inside enjoying tonics before we made it off the water.  Outsmarted again.  She definitely has the makings of a HOT girl.   

We got a second, behind the nefarious Schadenfreude, who is the fleet favorite to win.  We've been scheming ways to sabotage Schadenfreude, including stealing the skipper's shorts and altering the name on the stern, with electrical tape, to something else.  (Can you think of a long word that begins with Sch and ends with de?  I can....)  As instructed in paragraph 9 of the racing instructions, we all had to give the winning crew a beer. 

I'm surprised we did as well as we did, because the boat is a mess.  Most of the problems are little ones that we can work around and fix over the course of the season, but there's something wrong with the rig.  I have only the slightest bit of weather helm on port tack, which is fine, but I have noticeable lee helm on starboard tack.  I can reduce it a little bit with sail and backstay controls but it's still there, decisively.  Not fast. 

We stood inside and laughed and told stories and teased one another.  It feels great to be back in summertime again.   We talked about getting Cinderella a boat of her own to sail.  I used to race against her in junior sailing -- she used to trounce me.  She should be driving.  There are a few boats in our fleet that haven't been launched -- owners too busy with new houses or babies.  We'll get you a crew, we'll find you a mooring, we'll help you launch, we promised her.  She got excited.  Maybe we'll have another boat on the line in a couple of weeks.  Excellent. 

Comments

[wab]

Nothing like committing a "crime" and leaving your name in tape as evidence.

[Dan]

Tie a one-gallon bucket to their keel... It'll slow them down quite a bit. :D