+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 NelsonWater Phantom
Sent from the all new Aol app for iOS On Saturday, January 30, 2021, 1:31 PM, CHARLES SCHEAFFER via CnC-List <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 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
