Hot Sailing Action!

Last Sunday was the annual Opening Day Race at Harbor Sailboats, a random-leg race all over San Diego Bay in which boats of all classes are welcome to compete. You’ve heard all that before. This year, though, there was a twist: the race committee brought along a video camera and got some exciting footage of the start.

It focuses, at the outset, on a couple of boats already rather out of things, then pans to our great friend and archrival, Steve McNally. He, unlike the others, has lined up his start beautifully: sailing in a boat called Echo just off the wind on starboard, he turns up at just the right moment, trims sails, and looks to reach the line with clear air right as the horn sounds. But suddenly, from nowhere, comes Alpha — its crew constisting of Emma, Ross, and Dave — and smokes him, taking the windward position to win the start.

We may have led at the start, but Steve smoked us at the finish, after a really great race that saw the lead change many times among us, Steve, and a professional sailor named Ray Treppa. At the end it was Steve in first, with us taking third, some two and a half minutes behind him after three and a half hours of sailing. FUN!

The video’s pretty cool. To see it, click here. (And, as we say in the computer biz, the file may take a few moments to load. Please be patient.)