Bathroom sink

My new sails. (A story)

The Vintage Marblehead National Championship Regatta was to be held that June, so I emailed my entry. Luckily I happened to have a good straight piece of Sitka spruce on hand which I planed and sanded as thin and aerodynamic as possible for the new mast. It took me a whole sick day from work to set up the new sails. The only rigging wire I had was this rather twisty bendy stuff, which wasn’t really supposed to be rigging wire for a model yacht. I had to secure it to the turnbuckles the same way you secure picture wire to the back of a picture frame. I didn’t have any time to test the new sails, except to rig them on the boat in the living room, the night before the regatta, to make sure everything worked right

At least I was able to practice for about ten minutes before the first race. She went like a dream, like she was on rails, like a real thoroughbred, the way she silently made her long graceful wake through the mirror smooth water, grabbing her wind from above.

I knew about a strategic trick which I suspected only the die-hard locals knew about. During the count down to the start, I kept my boat to the right of one end of the starting line, in a place where I knew there would more often be steadier, less fickle wind.

I kept jockeying in long circles, patiently staying away from the other boats dirty turbulent air. I was in no rush to get my boat across the line right at the start, because I needed to stay in clear air to keep moving, and also to avoid colliding with other boats.

At the start, most of the boats went at an angle toward the left, far side of the pond, before tacking toward the windward mark. I didn’t do that, I tacked right after the start and stayed on the right side. This was where the good steady wind frequently comes along the near shore. My boat was first at the weather mark, and won the first race ahead of how ever many other boats. The other twelve races don’t matter, we won’t mention those.

The point is, what turns me on isn’t winning races at all, it’s the magic of what makes these boats go, all the physical details of how they work. Even better, I get to share the experience with other skippers