Electricity and Sailboat Racing Don't Mix

Us Sunfish, All wet and getting wetter

Skipper and I were both looking forward to our time racing together.  The weather was hot, and we both wanted to get on the water. Anyway, he showed up early today, we got all set up and went out to the race course.  The wind was really weird today, one minute blowing hard in gusts then completely drying up the next.  Skipper almost fell into the water more than once. We got a great start, then halfway up the leg, all of a sudden the Committee Boat comes up to us full bore.  She looked panicked, and her skipper was yelling.  Then we saw it. A huge thunderstorm was bearing down on us, flashing and booming, and blocking all the sunlight.

I took us in as fast as I could. Near the club, the wind died, and Skipper had to paddle us in.  We got in and Skipper was just about to put my blankets on when it started to rain. Hard. Now that we're both wet, the heat wave broke, and we got cold. Lightning was hitting all around us. It figures that the only thunderstorm of the day had to hit while Skipper and I were racing, and clear up right at the end of our racing time.  Dang!

Even though today was a disappointment, Skipper had a surprise for me.  We're doing a road trip! Next weekend, he's signed us up for a huge Sunfish regatta. He says all my friends from frostbite camp are going to be there. Two full days of racing at someplace called "Cape Cod". I can't wait.

An Oldie but a Goodie

The Old Girl and her Skipper. 

Since we started racing on Saturdays, Sunfish have been coming out of the woodwork to race.  It's awesome. We had 6 boats partying yesterday.  Yesterday an old girl showed up and went on the water for the first time in 20 years! Her skipper had just finished patching her up and sanding her hull. You should have seen how excited she was.  Her skipper had a hard time holding her back.  Sure, she's got the old style rudder, her sails are beat up and she had the creaks and groans that any old boat has, but she was raring to go.  She beat me and Skipper a couple of times and even won a race!

Second Class Citizen

No Fish Today?!

I noticed that Skipper wasn't at summer camp at his usual time this week.  Then I noticed that all of the other Sunfish skippers were late too.  We all started getting nervous.  What happened to our skippers?  Did they all suddenly comedown with mass amnesia?  Was there a terrible car accident that they all got into?  Was there a plague?

Then we saw that all of the Laser skippers were there.  Now Lasers are smug boats, being an Olympic class and all, and they told us that they didn't notice anything unusual, because after all, for years they've been the only boats racing on Saturdays, and this was just a return to normal for them.

We all spent a fretful night.  Then I saw Skipper on Sunday.  He said that there was a Laser Team Regatta, and there was no Sunfish racing.  Then he said he'd see me next week and then took the Harlot out racing instead of me (She finished last again Ha Ha!).

Does this Leak Make me Look Fat?

I might be a looker, but leaks are deceiving!

I'm Sunfish 3929, and I'm a leaker.

No not the kind the NSA doesn't like, the kind that Sunfish skippers don't like. Worse yet, I'm  Binge Leaker.  Sometimes I let in a lot of water during races. It's not all the time, and I don't know how I end up this way sometimes, but I do.  One race I'm going along just fine, dry as a bone, and the next I'm wallowing up to my chines in "moveable ballast".

I hate being a leaker, but I can't help it. At first it cools off my hull, but after I get a few gallons in me it makes me really slow, and tippy. I do really bad roll tacks and downwind death rolls.  Then I start to feel like a old workboat. I can't move and Skipper doesn't like it when I'm that way. Sometimes when I get back to shore, Skipper has to open my drain plug and tip me over so I can be sick. Sometimes he even has to pump out my hull between races. Then I have to bake in the sun for a couple of days to dry out.

I don't know what to do. I've had negative bubble test after negative bubble test. I can hold water in my cockpit and in my mast tube for days. Then once in a while, Boom!  water sloshing through my hull like it was the ocean. I think I may need to see a specialist.

Skipper + Me Forever!

Me and Skipper - as it should be (Photo by Bob Gaffney)

Skipper really does love me! I thought all the abuse making me freeze my rudder off sailing over the winter was just skipper being sadistic, but it was really tough love to make us a better team!

He brought me to summer camp this week, and when we pulled in SHE was there. That Green Harlot, sitting in a dry sailing spot.  Skipper rushed me past her, brought me straight to the beach, and parked me on my dolly right at the shore line.  It was late, and he said that he'd be back to take me sailing in a couple of days.

Then a couple of days later, skipper showed up early, and took extra time making sure that everything was just right.  No rushed setup, no forgetting to put my windex on. The beach was full of Sunfish going out for a regatta. Skipper and I entered in the B fleet with 6 other boats. Here's where the winter torture paid off.  We could point better and sail faster.  We started better (mostly). We got into some awesome tacking duels. We each made a few mistakes, I got my mainsheet tangled around my tiller and we capsized.  Skipper hit the turning mark in one race, but at the end of the day, we came in first in the B fleet!

We had an awesome day on the water while that Green Harlot sat alone, in the woods, covered with pine needles.

Psst..I Think the Affair is Over

Getting ready for my facial

Last night Skipper wheeled me over to the area where he always takes me to work on me. I saw varnish, resin and fiberglass in the shed too.  I woke up this morning and looked out to the driveway.  Empty!  That Green Harlot is nowhere to be found!

I'm pretty sure that Skipper broke up with that verdant homewrecker.  He's starting to pay attention to me again! I'm glad he saw through that no amount of new paint can hide the fact that she's an old barge.  It's about time too.  it's only two weeks before I go off to our summer home, and I want to look my best for the fleet.

I Knew Something was up

The last thing Skipper saw before he got very wet

Skipper is having an affair on me!

First, he brings me down to the frostbite series, races once, then abandons me for six weeks before he shows up for the last race.  I was so mad that I dumped him into the water.  I thought that since he doesn't have a drysuit, he'd be so cold and wet that he'd go back in and take me home.  Not my hardheaded skipper.  He sat out the rest of that one race, then went right back at it. 

Then he packs me up on the trailer and takes me home.  He didn't even bother to put the blankets back on me or put my inspection port covers back in.  He's either mad at me for dumping him or something is up.  He usually doesn't ignore me like this. Now birds have pooped on me and rain got into my hull.  He says he "forgot", but now I know better.

He came home very late the other night.  He had something big hitched to the back of the van, but from the back yard I couldn't see it to well. Then came the morning and I saw this:

The Other Woman

A rival! Now I know why he's ignoring me! That green harlot in the driveway has stolen him from me. He said that he was going to spend some quality time in May with me, patching me up and fixing my leak. But Noooo, he was fawning over her all day yesterday, power washing her and checking out her sails, while I sat alone and dirty in the back yard.

I just hope that she can't write.