Race, Duty and Teaching

This morning I arrived nice and early at the club. The wind seemed to be better than yesterday, but still not great. I rigged a Laser and launched. There were some delays with the committee boat so I had plenty of time and I was relaxed and not stressed. I was going to towards the start line when downwind to me was another boat and since he didn’t seem very confident I didn’t want to push him too much. I know, most people would say racing is racing and the rules apply for everyone, but I don’t to scare people off. If I see someone experienced I will stand my ground and fight to the end. If I see someone who looks already stressed I don’t want to stress him more. He might even make a mistake and make things even worse for me. What’s the point if I ask him to do a 360 or 720 turn after he has messed completely my race? Beginners are people too and we were beginners once. Actually I still am a beginner. My start was not that great.

The wind was not strong enough and it was shifting constantly. Being heavy didn’t help me and all the time I was coming close to the boat in front of me and then falling back again. Eventually I finished last and I pushed my sore thumb a couple times too much. Therefore, I decided not to take part in the second race because I wanted to give it a rest and I would sail again in the afternoon with the New Members’ Club.

Steve, a nice chap, who is also a Laser sailor, was on safety boat duty. I offered to do his duty for the second race so he could race. Quite uneventful second race, with hardly any surprises. The wind had picked up just slightly and people were sailing nicely. I gave my thumb a rest and after lunch we got together for the NMC. We were supposed to practice racing, so I thought it would be good for me to practice my start. Instead I ended up in a GP14 with another guy, who didn’t know a lot. I don’t blame him at all actually, it was not his fault, but it wasn’t what I really wanted.

Anyway, the GP14 feels like a yacht after you’ve been in Laser. Plenty of space, you can stretch your legs, you can have a drink, read a book, even watch the football if you have a portable TV. We cruised a bit and then we were going round a triangular course were we had to talk, bare away and gybe. I helmed and he crewed and then we swapped. Then I realised that he hadn’t done it before. During the tack I could hear crash, bang wallop and the boat would move and shake all over and in the end he was still sitting on the same side as before. I say again, it’s not his fault that he doesn’t know, but initially he said he was a club member for something like a year and he has his own boat, a Firefly. After I showed him how to do it, he was much better.

He was in a hurry to go and I was left to unrig on my own. That’s not really nice, but anyway. I also had to unrig the Laser that I had rigged in the morning. I had left it there, because I thought that I would sail in the afternoon in it.

So today, I raced, did safety boat duty and taught someone how to tack and gybe. Interesting day…