I chuckled at your closing line, Dave. My wife has become more interested in going out on the boat in recent years. This past summer I set the anchor twice. First time in decades.
From: Dave Godwin via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2021 7:37 PM To: C&C List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Cc: CHARLES SCHEAFFER <cscheaf...@comcast.net>; Dave Godwin <dave.god...@me.com> Subject: Stus-List Re: Why race? How did you learn? Charlie, This thread has been interesting. I was wondering, since you mentioned Old Dominion, if you ran across Greg Cutter, professor at ODU who was an active member of this list and is a serious racer? He and I have raced together, in the past and recently Double-handed Down the Bay races and have had a good time. We stay in touch. As a data point, I started racing as crew in Cruising One Design boats in the winter of 1994/95 in Annapolis. Never looked back; it was like crack cocaine for me. I crewed every opportunity that I got, all year long, every weekend and any other racing that I could attach myself to. Graduated from crew to owing my own boat in the early 80’s. Interesting story there; I crewed on my friend’s father’s Sparkman & Stevens alumni 60’, Brigadoon against her sister-ship, Running Tide in an AYC Fall Series. I was assigned to the only 3-speed grinder for the jib. It was very heavy air. I probably weighted about 145 lbs at the time. Me and the other grunt were responsible for the first and second gear in-haul, after which we were completely exhausted and a second couple jumped in and finished off the tack in the fine gear. I would stagger back to the high side and wouldn’t even know where we were. I remember looking back to the after-guard and having a revelation: I’d rather be a big frog (my own boat) on a small boat than a small frog in a big pond… I crewed or captained on other non-One Design boats, back in the day on One-tonners and the like but I just never cared for handicap racing. One design was pretty simple: if my competitor was going faster than me, I was doing something wrong. And vice versa. Crewed for a good number of famous names in Annapolis, around the buoys and off-shore. Did that for 35 years. Stopped because I had earned the respect of my peers and the racing was getting to be like the same old black-and-white movie over and over again. The start. The mark roundings. Set the ‘ chute. Take down the ‘chute. The finish. And primarily because given my intensity on the course, I was either going to have an aneurysm or be beaten to death with winch handles by my crew. Probably the latter. When I met my soon-to-be wife, I informed her that sailing/racing was my life. If she wasn’t onboard with that, well fine. She said that she liked sailing (if I had a dollar for all my girlfriends who said that and then tried to get me to take up golf, I’d have a Hinckley…) and that she wanter to learn how to sail. I said that the absolute best way to learn to sail was crew on a race boat. She quickly responded that she wanted to crew for me. I told her that our relationship would have a half-life of two weeks. I put her on my old crew’s race boat and things worked out for the best. So, for me there is not a better way to be able to sail well and comfortably than having racing chops in your quiver. I’m still not really a cruiser. I can’t anchor to save myself. Regards, Dave Godwin 1982 C&C 37 - Ronin 1998 Mast & Mallet Thomas Point 34 - Katana On Jan 30, 2021, at 5:06 PM, cenelson via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > wrote: +1 on why race Chuck. All your points are valid and they match my own reasons for doing it—plus a few more. I got into sailing late in life and had a terrific mentor who was a champion sailor at Old Dominion in college. So I learned what it took to get a boat to maximize its potential—all in PHRF racing. Plus he found crew. I found two additional reasons why I race: 1) I wanted to earn the respect of the sailors I raced against, most of whom knew a lot more than I about sailing and racing. I thought it would be cool to compete with what I thought were the best sailors, at least locally. 2) I found I enjoyed the competition, the thrill of a good start, catching someone to windward or keeping them behind me downwind, etc. among friends was fun! Of course, I was more often behind, than ahead, blew the start, was Lee bowed and left in the gas of other boats and finished DFL! Back at the dock, we commiserated among the crew but often our competitors would come by and congratulate us about a good move even in defeat! After many years, I am usually mid-fleet but with enough top finishes to make up for the boat costs and troubles and difficulty of finding and keeping crew. I still love being “...in the game...” and as long as I do, I will race (and sail) on! Charlie Nelson Water Phantom Sent from the all new Aol app for iOS <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aol-news-email-weather-video/id646100661> On Saturday, January 30, 2021, 1:31 PM, CHARLES SCHEAFFER via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > wrote: Why race? If you consider the benefits of racing; learning to sail better, getting a boat to perform at it's highest efficiency, learning how to trim sails properly, learning to use the tide and currents, learning a few racing rules and signal flags, learning how to develop and manage crew members, building a team, etc. I enjoyed the challenge and personal growth that came with it and I'm grateful for all the people I met along the journey. Racing has a stigma about it that diehard cruisers avoid at all costs. Cost being the most important. Risk of collision and risk of breakage is another. Next is prep time. Next is learning new skills associated with learning the start sequence, flag signals, racing rules, etc. I followed the cautious route learning to race my boat. I crewed on some racing boats and learned the start sequence and how to get round the course and then had some experienced racers coach me aboard my boat on a couple races. It made the greatest difference to have their experience and skills to make the races safe and I would encourage any yachtclub to foster that program of coaching cruisers in a few races. I was lucky and found some really good guys to help me learn. My mentors were soft spoken experts who were firm but never raised their voices, so all my pickup crew members had total respect for their wisdom and we prepped the bottom and I had good sails and we did very well. Why do others race? How did you learn? Chuck Scheaffer Resolute 1989 C&C 34R Pasadena Md Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray <https://www.paypal.me/stumurray> Thanks - Stu Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks - Stu
Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks - Stu
