Rip

Another hiatus from Wednesday racing! I was off to the 'great white north' for an unanticipated event and so was unable to race last week.

So everybody was nicely rested? The wind was from the east and the RC had another very long start line. I decided to start near the RC boat. After looking over the first starts it looked to me that the south side was favoured. We had a good start but I was not particularly happy with our tacks; we were not staying focused, so with each tack we were slipping behind. I tried to be calm but eventually (after the second windward mark rounding) all I could do was shout: "The pole, the pole, THE POLE"! It wasn't until we got a nice rip in the spinnaker that I calmed down.

We are in a much more competitive fleet this year and our failure to keep up is frustrating. It is not a question of doing things slower; we must step up the pace and avoid silly mistakes if we want to stay competitive. I do!


On Thursday I took the chute over to the sail loft. Just as I entered the sailing loft, 'Dr. House, M.D.' appeared and announced: "I know I have a crappy spinnaker, but I want it repaired; because I have an incompetent crew." How insensitive! I noticed a shy smile from the secretary. The salesman, after a cursory look at the damaged chute, said: "I have seen worse." In an instance 'House' was gone; it was almost as if he was never there. How surreal!

I was told that by Wednesday the loft expects to have fixed the rip.