Another Boat for My Fleet

The Winter 2009 Capri 22 series — four Saturdays of sailing — involved a mess 'o boats (seven on each of the first three days, five on the last, not always the same boats), but in the end it came down to three of us: Ross and me, Lisa Karmel, and Dennis Burks. In eighteen races, the three of us took the top three places eleven times, and in the remaining seven races, two of us were among the top three five times.

Ours, however, was the only boat in the top three every day, and the top one on two of the four days. (Enough numbers!) Through the first three days, I remember frustratingly light air, some truly awful starts, and some great recovery sailing. Once, on a four-leg race when for much of the race the wind was no more than two knots, we were near the back of the fleet and literally 80 boat lengths behind the leaders, but still managed to come in second (and seriously challenge for first).

We started the last day ahead by nine points (numbers again?!), so we had no real worries, but wanted to finish first in a race or two (after having finished no higher than second the previous two days). We were looking at another deadly still day — the flags were limp when we arrived at the club. But the wind picked up to about fifteen knots — right where we big boys like it (you may have heard rumors about how much weight we lost for the NOODs, and they're true, but I at least gained my weight back as fast as I could). I remember a particularly fun port-tack start ("Starboard!" yelled other skippers; "Hit me if you can," thought I) and a couple of firsts, including a last race that involved a particularly clean start and a wire-to-wire, horizon-job lead.

All of which led to this:

 

You'll be glad to know I was wearing my Maris Stella shirt as I accepted the trophy...