That's how I feel today. Spent four days last week in support of the J/24 North American Nationals, a sailboat race for North American bragging rights in which the winner of a nine race series is judged to be the best in North America.
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| Defiant, skippered by my friend Bill |
The weather was extremely good for racing, winds out of the North at about 13 to 18 knots. It was very cold and miserable for myself and the race committee and way worse for the competitors!
Oh, and I hated being out there. I only did it because the competitors paid a good bit of beer exchange/conversion units (bucks) to be there and they deserved the best we could provide in racing course design, shore side facilities and our good hospitality because some came from as far as Seattle, Maine, Rhode Island and Canada to race. (Just because I'm miserable is no reason to be miserable back!) Wednesday the Yacht Club had an oyster roast with free Bold City Beer. Thursday was fried chicken with free Bold City Beer, Friday was I-have-no-idea-what-what-they-ate ( I dined in the Pirates Den with the Spousal Unit) and finally a proper banquet for Saturday Night Awards dinner. Again, with free Bold City beer. (Thanks to those nice people for providing excellent, local brews! I liked the Killer Whale Ale) Oh, and everyone was extremely well behaved!
I stayed aboard Barco every night for the entire series... No driving after imbibing, sports fans.
Some of these competitors are real racing pro's, and many had been in International competition and I am in no way a sailing peer of these folks!!!
Click to view slides.
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| Visitors! |
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| Sponsors! |
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| The regatta Winner! |
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| This is where the very attractive ladies sailed; Kobayashi-Maru |
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| The hard working Race Committee (I merely raised flags when told to) |
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| Downwind leg |
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| Snuff out the chute and raise the jib while rounding the mark! |
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| Snuff the chute! |
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| Upwind |
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| Indeed. |
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| The Canadian boat with sponsorship on main sail |
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| "Get ready for the next start sequence...!" |
We ran a total of nine races over three days and the weather tried to hinder and confound us. But we were glad to be ultimately successful in showing the competitors a proper race experience. They were out on the water an average of nine hours each day.
Here are the results and here. And here is the official J/24 website. I was plenty glad to be free of my service requirements on Saturday afternoon. It was a pretty nice time and I was glad to be a very small part of the action.
Have a nice week.
4 comments:
These are the sorts of races that I really enjoy. They involve true seamanship.
Bold City has a very nice line-up. Didja try 'em all, or didja stay with the Killer Whale? It was very nice of those guys to provide free beer to a gaggle o' visitors who might prolly never taste it again... unless Bold City has some sorta distribution network (unusual for a local brewery, though).
LL; Indeed, they are great sailors who love to compete in nasty conditions.
Buck; I have tried a number of the Bold City brews but only have really liked the Killer Whale. The IPA is pretty decent, too. One of the senior fellers in Bold City is a member of the Yacht Club, so we see three or four taps with the latest Bold City offering every week.
Sucks to be us.
Have a great week, both of you and thanks for stopping by!
"Sucks to be us" was meant humorously...
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