Losing your marbles

Does participating in a J24 race mean you have lost your marbles? Sometimes!

Dan asked whether or not I would go to a regatta this year. OK, but we need some experienced crew. Dan was; and Jaimie impressed me as a very competent sailor/racer. Emi was trying to do windward sheeting and had good weight. The fifth would be a problem but it wasn't a deal breaker. So we were going to the EYC Open. I could rely on Dan to find a good candidate for the fifth, with his racing connections? As it ended up Dmitry was a last minute addition and worked out well.

The "get together" sail, i.e. our first sail together as a crew, was on Thursday. Everything went well until the traveler broke! We had time to repair. A "McKean" repair means one has to repair the repair. I spent Friday afternoon rotating the traveler. I decided to rotate the car as well. Oops. As I removed the car from the track the bearings spewed out. Traveler mechanics were obviously something new to me. I tried to reload the "marbles" back into the car. It never quite worked and each time I lost a few more "marbles". Eventually it looked OK. We left the dock for a pleasant sail over to Etobicoke. As pressure was placed on the main sheet, the traveler disassembled again. For the next two hours Emi and I searched for a replacement "marbles" while trying to figure out how the damn thing worked. At our last stop, a Canadian Tire Store, we were told that they didn't sell ball bearings but our sample "marble" looked like shot from an air gun. We motored over to EYC and did most of the repair repairs. Did I say Emi was a great crew? Well without him there would be no regatta.

There were other mechanical challenges. On Thursday I tried to replace the windex (with Uri's help!) but only manged to completely brake off the fitting. During the race on Sat. the compass came out of its bracket and was lost. The main sheet cleek broke and was replaced by one of the toe rail cleeks during a pause in racing.

So the regatta itself was a bit anti-climatic. We had good starts but our tacks were too slow. In one race we were OCS. The J's use colourful language when advising one on boat handling. On one start we were the only boat to start at the pin. Good call since all the biggees came over to the pin for the next race. In another race we were second to the first windward mark rounding only to finish second last. Our tactics weren't the best. On a downwind leg, we tried to head up a boat so we could overtake after a gybe. The wind had shifted so much that, when we tried to complete the manoeuvre with a gybe, we were heading way off course. We lost one boat on that. At one windward mark rounding we arrived on port. I ducked half the fleet trying to get a spot on the starboard layline queue. Our regatta result: 16/18.


We had a good crew. Even with our experience and skill level we were only at the 'entry' level for the fleet. Perhaps a good base but we will see.

Life lesson: You can temporarily lose your marbles and still have a good time.