Racing sailboats inevitably leads to collisions between boats and lots of close calls. Collisions are not fun. Protest hearings are not fun and often not done for non- collision encounters where rules may have been violated therefore. Sailboat racing has a huge volume of rules which very few sailors know and know how to apply in close quarter encounters. Without protests and protest hearings racing can be a farce. But in my experience protests and hearings were scarce and some boats do not even carry a protest flag or if they do the crew does not know where to find it when it could reasonably be used.
On Thu, Dec 19, 2019 at 10:21 PM Robert Abbott via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > Racing....I don't do it anymore. But when I raced, I raced mostly with > a core of 5 good friends, one my brother. > > I learned a lot over many years, on different boats, doing different > jobs, full crew and short crew days, in all kinds of conditions. Over > the years racing, I have spent some time on the foredeck... no one else > wanted do it. Some days I thought that was a good thing, some days it > was not so great....a sail change down in a heavy building breeze > bouncing around up front in the spray...yea, this is fun. > > Now doing a spinnaker peel right felt really good.....especially in the > middle of the fleet where everyone gets to see it done, and done > smoothly. Head sails changes are done regularly but changing a > spinnaker under sail could only be done smoothly if you had practiced > it. We had some good races and we had some bad races. And we spent time > practicing. We practiced to the point where, for example, where I > could put my hand on a halyard and the pit man knew exactly what halyard > and what to do with it without me shouting me back a command. > > After a race, the beers were open for the passage home. After the boat > was docked. sails packed, etc. the first half hour was spent talking > about the race....what did we do wrong, what went right. After that we > normally got juvenile. > > In 1995, I wanted something different from racing....bought a Kirby 25 > that we raced against as our main boat for boat competitor, the J24 > fleet with 4 of the 5 original amigos....me and 3 of the amigos left my > friend's C&C 34R to race the K25.......racing is totally different when > you are on the helm and not on the foredeck when you get to a mark and > there are 15 other boats there compared to normal handicap racing where > twenty minutes after the start the fleet spreads out. > > No matter how you choose to race, it helps a lot if the crew can size up > the competition, decide where they expect to place in their respective > fleet....bottom 3rd, middle 3rd, or top 3rd. If you can get the crew to > talk about this and agree, saves a lot of different expectations among > crew. > > Racing is 50% boat, 50% crew and 50% luck on any given day. I have had > the good fortune to have benefited from all three, and in a few races, > all three! > > Robert Abbott > AZURA > C&C 32 #277 > Halifax, N.S. > > > _______________________________________________ > > Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each > and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - > use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile
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