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829 Southdrive
My Excuse
- Baydog
- New Jersey, Sailing, Food, Family, and anything I think is interesting at the time make up the contents of this blog. Bear with me, I'm still learning.
My Daily Bread
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Old and Lost Vermont Town Names3 weeks ago
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Still here…..1 year ago
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Have A Great Weekend!1 year ago
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The Ceylon Dinner, 1875.7 years ago
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Peru10 years ago
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I certainly remember my first race. I did a lot of hiking and a lot of bailing and I didn't finish the race. But I was the last boat in our fleet to drop out. That mediocre result was enough to hook me for life.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been 60 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been 40 years ago but I remember it like it was 60 years ago. Tillerwoman and I had just learned to sail at Minorca Sailing and we entered the beginners' race at the end of the week.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere on the course we rounded a mark with some more experienced racers and one of them started shouting at me about something called "proper course". I had no idea what she was talking about so I ignored her.
On the final beat we weren't leading but we caught a lucky shift and did win the race.
The experience taught me 3 important life lessons.
1. Talent and knowledge and hard work and expereince don't really matter. If you wait long enough you will eventually catch a lucky shift.
2. Always ignore people who shout at you. It drives them crazy.
3. Nobody understands Proper Course.
It also doesn't matter how you spell "expereince."
ReplyDeleteNo, wait. It must have been 30 years ago. Not 40. Ah yes, I remember it well.
ReplyDeleteCome sit in this chair, Mr. S. It's time for your medication. Here, gaze out the window at the waves rolling in and relax. There, now, what were you saying?
ReplyDeleteIt was 28 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI say that because I can't remember anything that happened yesterday.
We were on a boat, I think. A lot of people who were friends were yelling at each other. One of them was bleeding. I thought to myself, "Why am I doing this? If I ever get a boat, this is the last thing I'm going to do."
What an expereince!
It could have been 24 years ago.
Did I go sailing yesterday? I've forgotten it like it was 40 years ago. What lesson did I learn? Did I pay my US Sailing dues this year? Is Gary Jobson still mad at me about that time I tacked on his wind? I did go to the wrong buoy once when I was leading a race. Does that mean I can run for President of US Sailing (POUSS)?
ReplyDeleteThe next time was after the first time.
ReplyDeleteIt was the same group of friends and they were all yelling again. This time, there was blood on the mainsail. That's the big one.
They wouldn't let me do the job I had been doing the first time.
One lesson I learned is that if there isn't any blood you haven't been trying hard enough.
ReplyDeleteIt's not really the big one. The spinnaker is the big one.
ReplyDeleteBut of the two sails that aren't the spinnaker, it's the big one.
I think the blood was because of the spinnaker. And most of the yelling, too.
Why do spinnakers cause so much yelling? They are such pretty happy sails. They make me smile when I see them.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't really the spinnaker that caused the bleeding and the yelling.
ReplyDeleteIt was more the ropes and the pole that you were supposed to connect to the spinnaker.
The best I could figure out was that this was some kind of religious thing and that everyone on the boat believed in a different religion.
We have the same thing in Laser sailing. There are those who believe in kneeling to worship and those who think knees up is the way to heaven.
ReplyDeleteWell all of this was new to me, but I thought the spinnaker was bringing out the worst in people.
ReplyDeleteWhile there were both men and women aboard, some thought the guys were lazy. They spent all of their time grousing about taking the slack out of the lazy guys. I ignored them, but, like you say, that just seemed to make them angrier.
I'd never heard talk like that on a boat that didn't have a spinnaker.
Some people take sailing way too seriously. It's meant to be fun. It's meant to be relaxing. If some guys want to be lazy then other people shouldn't pick on them. Cut them some slack.
ReplyDeleteI once sailed on a keelboat with a spinnaker and the language was terrible. One crew member spent half the time shouting at me about some lazy guy and the other time he was calling him a "shit" (in an Italian accent.) Then he started picking on me for doing something wrong with my sock (and I wasn't even wearing socks.)
What is wrong with these people? You never hear talk like that on a Laser.
Baydog is right, boys, someone needs to take their pills.
ReplyDeleteBleeding and yelling???... There's plenty of tough love (and occasional blood) in water polo, but respect for one's team mates is sacred.