DINGHY RACE

April 17

We were out the door before 9:30am, ready to go sailing again.  Lisa and I were especially keen to do the capsizing exercise today, so she can get her shackle key at the end of the ‘sailing program’.  We were the first ones at the boat house and we picked one of the clubs ‘Pacer’ sailing dinghy.  We took the wrong mast two or three times and then finally found the right one, set it all up and discovered that we had no boom vang. Great! We found one of the dinghy guys and they fixed us up with parts to rig one up from leftover things.  

Capsize: I didn’t mind going out to demonstrate the capsize, so Lisa could get a better idea of what she needed to do with the boat.  So, I went out and did the entire thing, and was trying to sail around the powerboat so we could swap positions.  One thing led to another and then boom*(^&*! f** I bumped into the powerboat/crashed into it… a small gust of wind came and yeah...  I should have let go of the mainsheet sooner, but I didn't!  At that point I had a a small 5 inch diameter hole in the front of the boat and we were worried that I wouldn’t make it back without filling the dinghy with water.  Everything turned out fine…Taro's dad took out the roll of duct tape and patched it up for the race.  Lisa decided to go out on someone else’s boat Roger and she did her capsize in the middle of the Lake with no power boat in sight.  After my lil incident we were a little hesitant if we should still race, but no one could stop us.  We registered and then launched the boat for some racing excitement!  Lisa the skipper and helms lady responsible of the main sheet; Natalie, tactician and jib.  First challenge – finding the start line and understanding the course.  Second challenge – trying to understand each other and figuring out terms/commands we both comprehend.  Third challenge – staying upright during the race and finishing the race.  This was one hell of a race, we’ve never raced a dinghy in our entire life and we managed to capsize midrace, recover and continue at our own pace.  We had some ups and downs… some tense moments and some good laughs, lets just say it was an awesome experiential learning experience!  The Natalie/Lisa team will be in full force next Saturday for the final race of the year.  Stay tuned for more stories.