Flying Like the Wind (originally published in longer form in Chesapeake Style Magazine)
Our sailboat is slow. There, I said it. We have a full keel,
a nearly 12-foot beam, and a solid 2” thick fiberglass hull. We could run
through a dock—just not quickly.
This has been hard on my husband. He is a racer at heart. If
we are on the same tack as another sailboat, he will adjust the sails to within
a millimeter of their lives so we can pass them. And he’s good. We have
actually passed much sleeker, faster boats, though in the spirit of full
disclosure, I am not sure they were aware we were in a competition. I take the
helm, and he loosens and tightens lines, ponders telltales, and optimizes…and
tweaks….
I know how this all started. In the days before we could afford
an actual boat, Eric raced windsurfers. At one point, his name even appeared in
Windsurfing Magazine as holding third
place in the Mid-Atlantic standings. He had a full quiver of sails and four
different boards, which he hauled to races via a remodeled (and totally free)
1968 Apache trailer. I was a windsurfing widow. I went along, sat on the beach,
and read books. Come to think of it, that was a pretty good life.
We never officially raced a sailboat together, though we did
end up at the finish line of the Governor’s Cup once. The race goes from
Annapolis to St. Mary’s College, just across the Potomac from the Northern
Neck. We were newly married and borrowed my in-laws’ little swing keel Catalina
for an overnighter. Blissfully unaware of the race, we sailed up the St. Mary’s
River and snuggled into the deserted, quiet cove—only to be awakened the next
morning by raucous shouts and champagne corks flying. We had anchored at the
finish line.
These memories were triggered by a recent visit to
Christchurch School near Urbanna. Though they have a small student body –about
200—they already beat out every sailing powerhouse
to win their second consecutive MASSA Gold Fleet Racing Championship by an impressive
64 points. Watching those kids sail is nothing short of
inspiring. It is enough to make a dedicated cruiser dream of racing.
Who
knows? I might even tweak a mainsail.
Comments
Post a Comment