It Wasn't Boring

I sailed as a crew member in a race last Sunday and I thought that I'd share the story with you guys. As we all know, few sailboat races go perfectly. Well, this race definitely had its share of problems. There will be no names mentioned here because I don't want upset anyone who may accidently read this on a google search. I want to stay friends.

About a month ago I tried to join our club's boat in this particular race but I was a little too late calling the club coordinator and the crew list was already filled. Fortunately for me a regular sailing competitor of the club asked Dave (first names are o.k.) if he was interested in crewing on a boat (exactly the same type of boat that I was trying to sign up for & the type boat that Dave has crewed on for years) that was short-handed in this particular race. Dave was unavailable for this race but he recommended me & so I got the invite.

I show up at the dock on Sunday morning and there are 5 sailors that I regularly race with as well as the boat owner, Bob. And then another guy shows up, and another, and still another. So now we are 10 on a 37 foot boat that needs 6 or 7 crew members. Well, there's enough booze and sandwiches for 15 so we ready the boat and off we go.

The race is to start in about an hour and there is one slight problem...there is no wind. This is typical around here and as it turns out the wind did start to come up just a little after the race officially started. With no wind at start time it was a little bit tricky getting a good run at the line in a crowd of 120+ sailboats and a strong current due to an extreme tide change. Our tactician unfortunately got us to the start line 30 seconds early and the current pulled us over onto the course side and with no wind we were unable to get back and start correctly for four & 1/2 minutes. This was by far the worst start to a race that I've ever experienced. We were quickly in last place among the boats in our class but since the wind was so light no one was very far ahead of us. And the race was about a 20 mile course so there was plenty of room to catch up. But, there were plenty of experienced and competitive sailors on board our boat wondering how this tactician botched the start so badly. Yet, not a negative word was spoken.

The wind was filling behind us and most boats had their spinnakers up on a broad reach out of the harbor and into the ocean. Our tactician decided that it would be to our advantage to sail closer to the wind and aim for the western edge of the harbor where he thought the wind would be strongest. Therefore we stayed with our Genoa to hold that course as spinnaker powered boats in the classes that started after us sped past us. Id never met this guy, our tactician, before but he was given this role on our boat because of his vast racing experience. This higher course heading finally gained us some stonger wind and we put up our chute but unfortunately for us this course took us directly through the notorious seaweed/kelp beds that effectively ended our race. Although we tried to navigate our way safely through the kelp there was so much that it was as if we were sailing through a forest of vines that were reaching out to entangle us. And that they did. We were caught in and dragging with us hundreds of pounds of weeds. We slowed from 8-9 knots to 3-4 knots. We used a special pole to try to release it from the keel and rudder but it wouldn't budge. We managed to sail out of the beds but we still couldn't free our boat of the kelp. So we continued ahead slowly.

After about half an hour we approached the first mark and made our first sound decision...keep clear of the mark. Boats larger and faster than ours started 10 to 15 minutes after our start and they were catching up to us very quickly. The wind was stronger out in the ocean and some boats were approaching the mark with a lot of speed and not much room to maneuver their jibe at the mark. We watched two large boats become entangled, rip out some rigging, break a spinnaker pole and tear some sails. Well, at least we avoided that!

On our kelp dragging reach leg we were caught and passed by just about every boat before we reached the second mark. On this reach our sails and rigging were under a lot of pressure by the wind and by the drag of all the kelp. I was standing on the windward rail when, bang!, the block on the deck that had the spin sheet broke apart and the 3" diameter metal wheel shot out and hit me in the foot and then hit the guy behind me in the chest. Neither one of us got hurt. I was wearing shoes and I think I slowed it down before Matt got hit. The real concern was that all of a sudden the spinnaker sheet was now wrapped around my ankles. But, with the bang the person managing the sheet released her hold on it so there wasn't a tight wrap on my ankles and I was able to slip out before it tightened again.

We managed to get the chute under control and sailed ahead to the second mark. We decided that when we round the mark we would point into the wind, stop the boat and then back down in an effort to free the boat from the kelp. Some kelp released but unfortunately the majority of it was caught up firmly on the keel. After a quick discussion a crew member volunteered to go over and pull the kelp off the keel. Amazingly the owner/captain allowed this solution. My opinion was that this was a crazy and dangerous answer to the situation and that the way things were going for us an answer involving a potential drowning was not a sound decision. But nevertheless this guy stripped down to his skivvies, was handed a diving mask and over he went into the cold ocean. In one minute he sucessfully pulled off a small island/ecosystem of seaweed and we were free of it. Our diver was rewarded with a dry towel, a cold beer and a round of applause. We sailed off in second to last place.

The wind became lighter and a bit flukey (that's a technical term). Oddly, we were in a place on the water where the wind was working for us and taking us on a direct line to the next mark while boats a mile or two ahead of us were either stopped in dead air or moving in a direction away from the mark. We were able to play some weird wind shifts to our advantage and we caught up to and passed quite a few boats. On the down side, now that we were competive again and back in the race we no longer had trust in our tactician and there was discussion and disagreement about every decision. The helmsman needs to point higher, lower; we should tack, not tack; go here, go there; beer not wine. Eventually we are on a course taking us directly back into the kelp beds and we all just lose it to a near mutiny and command a tack away. The tactician thanks the crew for the alert attention to the upcoming kelp.

We are on our final leg to the finish several miles ahead in the harbor and we are feeling good that the boat is sailing well, that we have passed 20 or so boats and we are gaining on some more and most importantly and surprisingly back in contention with some boats in our class. We continue gaining on our competition by riding the lifts and tacking on the headers. We re-enter the harbor that is now at extreme low tide. Our tactician has us sailing the edge of the channel in an effort to max the wind shifts. We are moving nicely at about 7 knots only about a mile from the finish with our eyes on two boats in our class that are only slightly ahead when oooff! the boat stops and we have run aground. We have to start the engine and power full reverse with all crew to leward to get the keel out of the mud. It takes about 5 minutes (seems like an hour) to get out. We are now disqualified. We turn off the engine and return to sailing and after all our troubles cross the finish line before about 10 other boats (I can only imagine what kind experiences they had). The owner/captain is rightfully unhappy that his tactician ran aground and perhaps damaged his boat. All of the crew is concerned about damage as well. We had high hopes in the morning of doing well in the race but come late afternoon its 'keel-haul' the tactician & put this boat to bed.

Actually we had a rather nice little party on the boat afterwards with plenty of food and drink & isn't that what sailing is really all about anyway?