Cock Island Race
Steve N agreed to be on my crew for the race. He also brought along a friend, Steven. Steve R and Dew found me 4 other guys to round it all out: Clint, Clint, Kenny and Kevin. Kenny and Kevin are quite experience racers. As Kevin said, he’d be sailing since he was this high (imagine hand held about knee high on a guy over 6′ tall). Kenny was my mainsail trimmer; Keith and Steve N took the jib sheets.
I told the guys that the rules were that the people didn’t hurt and the boat didn’t get hurt. I then proceeded to take 4 Degrees far enough up the Elizabeth River that no one else was around so we (I) could get some practice tacking. We were in the Cruising 3 Class, out of 4 cruising classes, so we were to start next to last.
We began working our way to the starting line about 10 minutes before start time. Mind you, I would have been happy to start after everyone else. But my crew assured me we’d be okay.
Anyway, the wind died on our way up, and we ended up starting 4 minutes after our class, 1 minute before the last class of the day.
Now, I’ve raced on other boats for 5 years. But it’s not quite the same as being the one at the helm. At least, it isn’t for me. I stayed out of people’s way. That was my whole purpose. Despite that, we were moving pretty good.
With the light winds, the course was made pretty short – only 6 miles round trip. The winds are tricky up the Elizabeth River, though. With all the large ships and the big buildings, the wind will shift, die, and pick up in short order. So I was quite grateful for the experience crew who could adapt quickly to the situation at hand.
The one part that made me nervous was heading around the turn. I tell you there were other boats out there! And they were going to hit me! 🙁
Kenny was on my mainsail, Kevin and Steve N handled the jib sheets, and I skippered. Well, I stood at the wheel, but Kenny and Kevin really handled the rest.
I moved way behind the others, upriver a bit, to get a chance to try turning. That went well. When Kenny said it was time to head towards the start, I kept to the side and did that. Mind you, I wouldn’t have minded starting last. But we headed up so as to at least start within our group, the next to the last one. The wind died on us, though, and we actually started with the last group.
I was amazed! I’d never been on a boat that was so well controlled. I told them that it went best at about a 15 degree tilt (I don’t seem to pick up much speed after that) and they literally moved bodies around to keep us at that angle!
We did stay moving, and we did stay away from the other boats. The one part that made me nervous was coming around the turn. But again, Kenny and Kevin had the boat so under control that we sailed right around perfectly. And I do mean perfectly! Because the two that came right behind us ended up colliding!
Officially, we ended up coming in 8th out of 12 in our group. But, if you adjusted for our start time, we were 2nd. Not too bad for my first race.
Now the guys are telling me I need to do this more often. They suggested to Steve R that I skipper his boat during some of the races when I’m with him. They also suggest that they’d be happy to join me on some Wednesday night races. We’ll see.