Okay, so when I got into the truck to go home I hiked up the leg of my loose warm-up pants and started counting bruises. 22 on my right leg, 24 on my left. I expect I've got some on my upper legs where I couldn't see, and maybe a few on my arms as well. My hands didn't get too badly ripped up and although I got sunburned it was pretty chilly so everything but my face was covered up good.
I don't know where to start, really, talking about how much fun this weekend was. The Etchells class has a bumper sticker that says: "Etchells. It's the boat. It's the fleet." And I am so in love with the boat, and so in love with the fleet. The boats are beautiful and fascinating and complex. The boat I was on this weekend was entirely different than my boat, and I have a million ideas for how I want to change the way the lines on my boat are laid out because of what I saw this weekend. I walked around on the dock staring at people's boats, asking questions about their rigs and setups. I think because the boats are so complicated, the people are extra friendly. Maybe that's not true, but everyone I've talked to is eager to teach or share experiences with the boat. Maybe, too, because the boats are sailed with only three people per boat it encourages a lot of interfleet mixing and mingling. Or perhaps it's the fact that very few women sail Etchells that made it so easy for me to feel like I could meet everyone. Whatever the reason, the sailing was great and so was the dock/yacht club porch/bar time.
We had a big contingent of Maine sailors down -- four boats went down from our local fleet. I didn't bring my own boat down, but was crewing for someone else, and another guy on our boat has his own Etchells that he usually sails up in Casco Bay. So on one boat we had three of our fleet's skippers represented. All in all, although we only sent four boats, we had eight of our fleet's twelve boats represented at the regatta.
I'm going to gush for a while here. Am ending this post lest it get too long.
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