An Act of God

The third AHMEN race was on Sat.. The club was very busy as host for the Shark World Cup, the J24 Ontario Championship, and the NYC/QCYC Open. The AHMEN has a late start; so the J's and the Sharks had all left by the time we launched. The crew included regulars Chris and David with replacements, Alan and Dave.

The AHMEN series allows one to get the feel for different Club RC's styles. Some Clubs are more active in Race Management and it shows. The RC arrived on station flying the AP and making frantic radio announcements "We are on our way" at 10 minutes to first signal. Was that a sigh of relief, "We made it", heard from the RC? The dramatic entrance was indicative of their style. Race Management 101 dictates that the start line is set at 90 degrees to the prevailing wind. What we had was a 'creative' Committee. One can use poetic license and do whatever? The committee obviously had deep philosophical insight: "start" as metaphor for something which may or may not be "real".

Of course the big problem was lack of wind and not the creativity of the RC. We managed to get a good start. The fleet stayed together for the first two mark roundings but then started to separate. The wind was patchy, either light or none, but we managed to find enough wind to keep going.

Along with the RC creativity and lack of wind we now discovered a third problem: Where was the third mark? We started to get radio reports that the mark was missing. (I suspect that the mark went missing due to an over night violent wind storm that blew the mark out of position, i. e. "an act of god".) So what was the RC going to do? After some delay the committee decided to abandon the race but would stay on station to provide a "finish" time. We elected to continue. (Very nice day and we were having a good time.) The fleet selected a course change by rounding the next nearest mark as a substitute. We went on a long close hauled tack to Gilbraltor and then a spinacker run north to the finish.

The "Finish" line was as creative as the "Start" line. As we crossed the line we hailed "thank you" to the Committee with (sotto voce) "You did your best!". Afterall, the non race wasn't their fault but rather due to the missing mark, i. e. "an act of god".

All about me?

An interesting, and I think, unique tradition at National YC is the "Crew Race". The race provides an opportunity for a regular crew member to helm a race. Giving up the helm for a race is not something most skippers will do. The number of boats participating was lower than average. A lot of skippers made the decision to select a family member as "crew skipper"; a decision which undermines the purpose of the event. Is sailing all about me? My boat, my helm! A good skipper should recognize the need to let others develop. A race is a very different experience than a casual sail. Letting others helm gives them an opportunity to experience what it means to be skipper during a race.

This year David did the honours of being crew race skipper. The wind was fairly intense at about 20 knots from the east. It was decided not to fly the chute. The lack of experience showed. Our tacks were rough and as a result we weren't able to make up for a poor start. We were able to catch up to Honey Bunny before the last windward mark rounding. Excellent! We got a Third. This wasn't a race to be competitive but an experience to develop skills. It was a success. The experience was good for the crew; including the skipper, if for no other reason than that it re-enforces the concept: "It isn't only about me"!