Anyone race sailboats?

[Peekay]

I started my first season of racing one design boats this year and absolutely love it! Today our usually foredeck was out with family, so I was asked to step up. The foredeck dude on most boats is responsible for getting the spinnaker pole up and taking care of any issues that pop up on the bow.

Basically you are working on a moving platform with not much to steady your balance, very tricky work. Anyways long story short, I rocked it! Clean raises and take downs. Biggest problem I took care of was when the fraculator (sp?) broke off the jib halyard on the run, had to climb up to the very front and use the front cleat as a makeshift fraculator using the jib halyard. Again tricky work.

My crew was awesome and coached me well. I always had a lot of fear about working foredeck since there is not a lot of safety like the cockpit. I forgot about it when the time to work came, because in the end I did not want to let my crew down. We placed well and my crew said I did a great job.

Anyone else have some good stories to share about sailing?

 

[stevehawk]

Sounds like a very cool, albeit rather pricey hobby.

I once won a remote controlled boat race at a bar. They had a deck over a lake right outside the back door. Not sure that counts, but it got me free drinks for the rest of the night.

 

[Peekay]

Sounds like a very cool, albeit rather pricey hobby.

I once won a remote controlled boat race at a bar. They had a deck over a lake right outside the back door. Not sure that counts, but it got me free drinks for the rest of the night.

Crewing is the best way to go, you just show up and have a good attitude. I spent a little money on ($100) foul weather gear, but haven't had to use it yet. I used water shoes ($10) for a while on the boat and then got a nice pair of boat shoes for my birthday.

Honestly a lot of race clubs are hungry for people at the start of the season. Drinking is the second best part of the sailing experience too.