
Th-Th-Th-That's All Folks!
The last Polar Bear race of 2015 was an absolutely fantastic way to end the season. We had light-air, technical sailing, constant jockeying for positions, near misses with other boats but most importantly loads of fun!
Aboard Thursday's Child we really had our work cut-out for us. Most of our crew were unable to make the race. Being so shorthanded meant everyone had to take on extra tasks. Leifka, our chief rookie, was upgraded to our chief light-weight do-everything person, Rory had to put his Tinder/Fantasy sport-of-some-variety down and take over jib-trim and tactics, Dave worked his magic in front of the mast, where he passed through almost every sail we have, which left Ian and I to figure out where to go, whilst driving and trimming main. This was a true trial-by fire scenario with the extra added difficulty of almost no wind, and strong currents. In these conditions any movement aboard the boat can cause us to loose speed; every movement and adjustment has to be slow, gentle, and calculated. Sailing in light wind is akin to a delicate dance, where every step is carefully choreographed, thought through, practiced ad nauseam, and executed flawlessly...unless of course it's me.
Being more of a displacement design my grace manifests itself in ways other than fluid movement. When dancing I'm usually biting my lower-lip and flailing around like a drunken chicken, or busy stepping on my partner's feet shortly before spinning her in to some unsuspecting innocent bystander's fruit parfait. This day was no different. As everyone was gently moving about I, with all the grace of big-bird, swung the boom directly in to poor unsuspecting Ian's head whilst I was trying to invert the battens on the sail. After this I was invited to stay-put and stop moving. Fortunately we had plenty of light people on the boat who were able gently move around and make any required changes. Everyone did a fantastic job and Ian's head seems to have recovered, though my boom may still be bent...
We did it our way...
At the last leeward mark rounding we opted to tack and break away from the boats ahead of us. We knew we weren't going to outpace them and that our only hope of getting past them was to gain some sort of tactical advantage. This unfortunately paid-off like Madoff investment and we drifted around whilst XS and Equilibrium sailed away. In retrospect this was particularly dumb, as we were most certainly in first place on corrected time when we rounded the mark, and had we sailed to protect our position we may have done better... Grumble...
We managed to finish third in the race, with the Santana 3030 brigade Talisman and Jasmina nipping at our heels, which put us in to a very respectable 2nd overall in the fall-series! This is something to be very happy with!
Highlight of the day
The highlight of the day has to be 'rounding the windward mark neck-in neck with XS, fighting to be ahead, and looking back to see their spinnaker hoisted upside down. The look on Benoit's face was priceless. What did he expect putting someone who owns a Maple Leaf 42 on foredeck!?
The fat lady has not yet sung!
While this may have been the last race of 2015, and the last race of the Fall Series, We still have the winter series, and the overall series (Fall/Winter combined). There is lots of great racing to come, and I'm so excited to have such a fantastic crew to be racing with and such fantastic boats to be racing against.
The Goal Remains The Same
We've had some wonderful successes aboard TC as of late, we've even won a race or two, but this doesn't change the goal we set out with each day which is to Have fun, do our best, and try not to hit anyone. Anything over and above that is fantastic but not expected.
The last Polar Bear race of 2015 was an absolutely fantastic way to end the season. We had light-air, technical sailing, constant jockeying for positions, near misses with other boats but most importantly loads of fun!
Aboard Thursday's Child we really had our work cut-out for us. Most of our crew were unable to make the race. Being so shorthanded meant everyone had to take on extra tasks. Leifka, our chief rookie, was upgraded to our chief light-weight do-everything person, Rory had to put his Tinder/Fantasy sport-of-some-variety down and take over jib-trim and tactics, Dave worked his magic in front of the mast, where he passed through almost every sail we have, which left Ian and I to figure out where to go, whilst driving and trimming main. This was a true trial-by fire scenario with the extra added difficulty of almost no wind, and strong currents. In these conditions any movement aboard the boat can cause us to loose speed; every movement and adjustment has to be slow, gentle, and calculated. Sailing in light wind is akin to a delicate dance, where every step is carefully choreographed, thought through, practiced ad nauseam, and executed flawlessly...unless of course it's me.
Being more of a displacement design my grace manifests itself in ways other than fluid movement. When dancing I'm usually biting my lower-lip and flailing around like a drunken chicken, or busy stepping on my partner's feet shortly before spinning her in to some unsuspecting innocent bystander's fruit parfait. This day was no different. As everyone was gently moving about I, with all the grace of big-bird, swung the boom directly in to poor unsuspecting Ian's head whilst I was trying to invert the battens on the sail. After this I was invited to stay-put and stop moving. Fortunately we had plenty of light people on the boat who were able gently move around and make any required changes. Everyone did a fantastic job and Ian's head seems to have recovered, though my boom may still be bent...
We did it our way...
At the last leeward mark rounding we opted to tack and break away from the boats ahead of us. We knew we weren't going to outpace them and that our only hope of getting past them was to gain some sort of tactical advantage. This unfortunately paid-off like Madoff investment and we drifted around whilst XS and Equilibrium sailed away. In retrospect this was particularly dumb, as we were most certainly in first place on corrected time when we rounded the mark, and had we sailed to protect our position we may have done better... Grumble...
We managed to finish third in the race, with the Santana 3030 brigade Talisman and Jasmina nipping at our heels, which put us in to a very respectable 2nd overall in the fall-series! This is something to be very happy with!
Highlight of the day
The highlight of the day has to be 'rounding the windward mark neck-in neck with XS, fighting to be ahead, and looking back to see their spinnaker hoisted upside down. The look on Benoit's face was priceless. What did he expect putting someone who owns a Maple Leaf 42 on foredeck!?
The fat lady has not yet sung!
While this may have been the last race of 2015, and the last race of the Fall Series, We still have the winter series, and the overall series (Fall/Winter combined). There is lots of great racing to come, and I'm so excited to have such a fantastic crew to be racing with and such fantastic boats to be racing against.
The Goal Remains The Same
We've had some wonderful successes aboard TC as of late, we've even won a race or two, but this doesn't change the goal we set out with each day which is to Have fun, do our best, and try not to hit anyone. Anything over and above that is fantastic but not expected.