Tuesday, June 30, 2009

2009 Richardson Partners Financial One Design Regatta

With summer rolling in, my itch to sail started getting stronger. I put out the word on to the Kirby25 fleet that I was looking for a ride at regattas. I got a call from Problem Child within 15 minutes of posting my note on the forum.

I drove up to Ottawa on the Friday night before the regatta to set up my tent and catch up with the other sailors in the fleet. I kept up my tradition of bringing a charcoal bbq and grilling my dinner.

We were expecting a lot of rain for the weekend, but the weather held up with a nice breeze and no rain. We packed in 7 races on the Saturday...a lot of work! The most I remember doing in one day in previous years was 5. I'd sailed with Problem Child before so we were familiar with each other. I gave them some tips about sail trim and race strategy and we did fairly well overall. We almost got a first on one race, but we made two extra gybes and gave the race to the fastest boat in the fleet. The last race of the day was pretty hairy with four boats coming together at the finish line. There was some bumping of boats and a protest, but it was all in good fun. Needless to say, I was pretty tired by the end of the day.

We woke up Sunday morning to a misty rain and no wind whatsoever. The race committee called off the race at 11am and I packed up my tent and drove home to Kingston early.

It was nice to be back racing again. Looking forward to doing more over the summer.

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