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So I realize that this post is about a year late, but I have been sitting on the experience trying to come to terms with my dismal performance… Since winning the NOOD I finally feel I have the energy to post what I wrote shortly after the July 10-12th 2008 Western Nationals.    Please Enjoy…

There are currently 6.6 billion people living on this planet living in 245 countries.  Let’s assume that maybe 50 countries have enough sailboats/water/beer money to scrape together any type of national one design sailing regatta, and that at most a serious sailing nation like New Zealand might host at max 100 national one design regattas.  Let’s average it out and say that on average there are 20 designs represented in 50 countries so there may be 1000 National Regattas held world wide each year.  If we take yet another leap of faith and assume that on average there are maybe 50 boats at each national event then at most there are 50,000 people each year who get to claim that they skippered a sailboat in a national one design regatta.  That is 0.0008% of the world population or 1 in 132 thousand.  A 2005 article in Livescience.com calculates the odds of being killed by lightning at 1 in 84 thousand.  So in any given year your average human on the planet is about 50% more likely to be killed by lightning than sail their own boat in a national event.  This year I was one of the very, very few who have had the pleasure to experience this rare gift when I took Limpet to the San Juan 21 Western Nationals in Coos Bay Oregon.   Continue Reading »

Well the time came to see if project PAY would pay off at the Seattle NOODs.  Last year I was dead last in the working sails boats at the NOOD never placing better than 5th in a 10 boat fleet over 10 races despite the fact that I flew spinnaker all three days.  In 2009 due to very light and shifty winds we only got 4 starts and my over the line results were 8,4,4,4 in a 15 boat fleet.  However, this year I didn’t fly the spinnaker and the folks at the NOOD scored the 5 working sails boats separately from the  10 spinnaker boats, so in my class I finised 1,1,1,1, and came home the 2009 first overall winner for the SJ21 Working Sails class.  I guess it pays to PAY! Continue Reading »

I have always bruised easily.  When I played football in school I took a certain pride in the monstrous blooms of crimson and purple which would spread across my body like so many bubonic jellyfish pulsing just below the surface of my skin.  It didn’t take long to realize that the body will always heal itself… the bruises people can’t see are much, much harder to handle.  In my first race of 2009 I managed to give myself a few of each.

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I never had training wheels on my bike as a kid.  I went strait from a tricycle to a two wheeler with a little courage, quite a few scraped knees, and my dad spending hours running up and down Creso lane holding the back of my seat.  At some point he let go and I was just riding on my own.  I don’t know how I was doing it… I just was.  Something happened, and the same things which had always seemed to end with me in a crying heap on the asphalt, were now allowing me to cruise along with the wind in my hair and a smile on my face.  I felt a very similar feeling on Fleet #1s last race this Saturday, when Chris handed me the helm of Wooglin, and we were able to win the race by our largest victory of the day.  I’m not sure how it happened, it just did.

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I know that it has been quite some time between postings here on LimpetRacing.  It is not from lack of amazing experiences I have had this summer.  I had a couple great cruising adventures with Limpet, and attended the San Juan Western Nationals in Coos Bay Oregon.  I will undoubtedly get together some belated posts on those outings in future weeks.  One of the major insights from my experience at Nationals is that I clearly suck as a sailboat racer.  My traditional back 1/3 finishes in Fleet #1 races translated into near dead last finishes with the increased competition of Nationals.  Luckily I went to Evergreen where I learned one of life’s most valuable lessons… “You can learn anything. . . if you know how to learn.”  The first step in learning you ask?  Get a good teacher. 

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On the second day of NOODs I was the last boat on the water and the first into the marina.  The delicate balance of managing family obligations and campaigning a sailboat tipped in favor of the family, and I missed the last two starts of the day.  Despite that Saturday was a beautiful day and it was great to get out even if it was just for a few starts.  I had Dave Coons with me and we challenged ourselves to once again fly the spinnaker despite the freshening breeze from the south. Continue Reading »

The National Offshore & One Design Regatta (NOOD) made its first ever date in Seattle this past weekend for three of the most beautiful days of sailing this city has experienced in a long time.  Even better was the fact that the San Juan 21s managed to bring 10 boats making our class one of the more respectable showings of the regatta.  Another great addition was an agreement from fleet #1 working sails boats that we could fly spinnakers and still get scored as working sails for seasons points standings.  So I rigged Limpet up with some donated cleats from Chris Popich, and some donated lines from my boss Jim, and headed out to fly my spinnaker for the first time ever. 

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Fleet #1 had originally planned our Saturday race to be on Lake Union.  Upon realizing that this was opening day of boating season we quickly decided to hold the race anywhere but Lake Union.  In our attempt to avoid the crowds we decided to swap out the venue to Don Armeni park in West Seattle and hold races on Elliot bay.  Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find every space in the launch ramp (and half the street) full of trailers from the hundreds of boats which were swarming Elliot bay like roaches when you flick on the light.  What was the cause of this flurry of activity you ask?  Opening day… of the Seattle shrimp season.  Seriously who in their right mind would eat something which lives on the bottom of Elliot bay?  It is literally hundreds of feet from the mouth of the Duamish river (one of the nations worst super fund sites).  “Another shrimp cocktail sir?”  “No, no, I am just going to mainline this lovely blend of arsenic and heavy metals!”  Why bother wasting time catching the shrimp?  It would be far more efficient to just wander around licking the streets of Seattle.  But I digress… Continue Reading »

Saturday ended up being a pretty good day of racing considering it started with the fleet arriving at a closed launch ramp. The day had a little piece of everything. From an emergency trailer repair on the side of 405, to a race finish during a hail storm. By the time I got home we were even getting some wet snowflakes falling.

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Our first Fleet#1 San Juan 21 Race of the 2008 season ended up being a serious drifter with light and shifting winds.  Of course most of the work I had done on Limpet since last season was for an adjustable backstay, and Cunningham.  Both of which are only needed during a serious blow.  I was off my game with the starts and we never found much boat speed in the light winds but it was still a great way to spend a March day in Seattle. Continue Reading »