So... no big news for most of you racing guys and gals..... but last Saturday I helmed my first Beach Cat race in 27 years!
Yeah, been out of beach cat sailing for THAT long! But sailing the club's H16, it all came back in a flash, even doing the wild-thing in enough pressure to fly the windward hull with a new crew.
It was a slow day.... very little wind on a relatively small lake. The first race was abbreviated just as my crew and I rounded the first windward mark in a windward/leeward race due to ghosting pressures.
Second race had slightly more pressure, but plenty of big holes to try our patience and climb out of. No abbreviations, but only one time around.
Third race had real promise of building pressure, but still some holes. Weeee! .... Ahh darn.... Woo hooo!.... Oh come on wind!....
The wind came in very nicely just after finishing the last (3rd) race. Even got on the trapeze. Practiced some man-overboard drills.... Crew's pink hat blew off in the building pressure, so thankfully it floated during the three attempts to recover it.Â
Then, my pfd blew off the tramp. Three more attempts at man-overboard. Yeah, I need more practice. We'd perfectly get the leeward bow within a foot or two of the man overboard object, then slide downwind before my crew could snag 'him.' I guess I was thinking of how the bigger, heavier, daggered H18 that we owned & raced 27 yrs ago would carry more momentum head to wind.Â
So anyway, my crew and I came in first! (tied with two other cats) That'll do for being so long off a cat. We had lots of fun even with so little wind. Good to be back on a beach cat!
Now gotta get at least one of my two cats ready to splash for the first time in many years!
Crossing the finish-line on the third race with a little more pressure in the sails... doin' the Wild Thang!