Last night was my first beer can race win! I was hoping I'd win at least once this season, and I was able to pull it off after a really great start to the day.
First, a bit of non-sailing fun... This is my last week at Google, after contracting there for a year. Google requires contractors to leave for at least 3 months after being there a year, so I'm taking 3 months off, will travel some, and hope to do a LOT of sailing. Yesterday was my send-off lunch, which was great. I couldn't believe how many friends I've made there this year,
and I hope to be back there working with them again in December.
Anyway, I decided to schedule a bike conference for 6 Googlers and myself, since I'd never tried the conference bike and wanted to before I left. So around 1:30, we went over and commandeered the bike, thanks to Mike who remembered the lock combination and John who agreed to drive. We took it down to the entrance to Shoreline Park and back around the long way and had a blast! People driving by gave us odd looks and raised their cell phones to shoot pictures of us as we passed by. What a hoot!
Ok, back to sailing... Later in the afternoon, I showed up at Spinnaker for beer can racing and discovered that only two Merits were scheduled to race. I was in Dave's boat, M5, with Sandi, John, and John, and GP was in M1 with one crew member. I've sailed with GP (see video in "Racing with GP, Kerry, and Dave" on a previous date), and he's a very serious racer, so of course I wanted to beat his boat!
We crossed the starting line exactly on time - 6:02:58. (Later, GP told us the new start time was 6:03:01 and that we had crossed the starting line too early, but we won fair and square anyway.) We raced out to the Y marker with M1 close behind us. The course was relatively unremarkable, except for the huge waves battering us around.
When we got close to the marker, I was at the helm, and Dave instructed me to go 100 yards past the marker before tacking. I didn't understand why we should go so far beyond the marker before turning and uttered a few expletives (shocking the crew I might add, adding a bit of levity to the situation) to express my feeling that we should round the marker as soon as we pass it rather than going 100 yards out of our way. Dave explained about how the current and wind would be better 100 yards out, but in the end I rounded close to the marker and headed back to the channel. Dave later told me that was the right decision after all. Heh, heh, heh...
After splashing through the big waves again for a while, we got back to the channel and kept a watchful eye on M1, as they were gaining on us the whole time. At one point, they were about two boat lengths behind us, and we thought they were going to pass us on the high side, which would have not only meant losing the race to them in the final stretch but losing the wind as they passed... the little wind we had, which was about 5 knots, if that.
We decided to go wing-and-wing part way down the channel, which was a good idea, because we gained a little speed. Just as Sandi was saying something about wishing M1 would blow a halyard or something, they went aground! Oh my god, Sandi is so powerful!
We watched for a minute to see if they'd get free right away and saw them start their engine. I wanted to press on, figuring they'd be fine with their en
gine on and lots of big boats coming down the channel with radios, etc. But Dave, nice guy that he is, wanted to go back and make sure they were ok. So we tacked and headed back. Just as we did, they got loose and started heading toward us, so we jibed (gybed?) and continued the race. At this point, we knew we'd won, because they'd started their engine. We were pleased.
At the apres sailing dinner, we were presented with the coveted plastic beer glass with the yacht club insignia
. Sandi and I were the only crew members left by then, and she said I could take it home and she'll get the next one. I'll display it in a prominent place in my home and think of this fun race whenever I use it.
A bunch of us have a 39' Beneteau reserved for an all-day sail out of San Francisco this Monday, Labor Day, so tune in after that for more news.
First, a bit of non-sailing fun... This is my last week at Google, after contracting there for a year. Google requires contractors to leave for at least 3 months after being there a year, so I'm taking 3 months off, will travel some, and hope to do a LOT of sailing. Yesterday was my send-off lunch, which was great. I couldn't believe how many friends I've made there this year,
and I hope to be back there working with them again in December.Anyway, I decided to schedule a bike conference for 6 Googlers and myself, since I'd never tried the conference bike and wanted to before I left. So around 1:30, we went over and commandeered the bike, thanks to Mike who remembered the lock combination and John who agreed to drive. We took it down to the entrance to Shoreline Park and back around the long way and had a blast! People driving by gave us odd looks and raised their cell phones to shoot pictures of us as we passed by. What a hoot!
Ok, back to sailing... Later in the afternoon, I showed up at Spinnaker for beer can racing and discovered that only two Merits were scheduled to race. I was in Dave's boat, M5, with Sandi, John, and John, and GP was in M1 with one crew member. I've sailed with GP (see video in "Racing with GP, Kerry, and Dave" on a previous date), and he's a very serious racer, so of course I wanted to beat his boat!
We crossed the starting line exactly on time - 6:02:58. (Later, GP told us the new start time was 6:03:01 and that we had crossed the starting line too early, but we won fair and square anyway.) We raced out to the Y marker with M1 close behind us. The course was relatively unremarkable, except for the huge waves battering us around.
When we got close to the marker, I was at the helm, and Dave instructed me to go 100 yards past the marker before tacking. I didn't understand why we should go so far beyond the marker before turning and uttered a few expletives (shocking the crew I might add, adding a bit of levity to the situation) to express my feeling that we should round the marker as soon as we pass it rather than going 100 yards out of our way. Dave explained about how the current and wind would be better 100 yards out, but in the end I rounded close to the marker and headed back to the channel. Dave later told me that was the right decision after all. Heh, heh, heh...
After splashing through the big waves again for a while, we got back to the channel and kept a watchful eye on M1, as they were gaining on us the whole time. At one point, they were about two boat lengths behind us, and we thought they were going to pass us on the high side, which would have not only meant losing the race to them in the final stretch but losing the wind as they passed... the little wind we had, which was about 5 knots, if that.
We decided to go wing-and-wing part way down the channel, which was a good idea, because we gained a little speed. Just as Sandi was saying something about wishing M1 would blow a halyard or something, they went aground! Oh my god, Sandi is so powerful!
We watched for a minute to see if they'd get free right away and saw them start their engine. I wanted to press on, figuring they'd be fine with their en
gine on and lots of big boats coming down the channel with radios, etc. But Dave, nice guy that he is, wanted to go back and make sure they were ok. So we tacked and headed back. Just as we did, they got loose and started heading toward us, so we jibed (gybed?) and continued the race. At this point, we knew we'd won, because they'd started their engine. We were pleased.At the apres sailing dinner, we were presented with the coveted plastic beer glass with the yacht club insignia
. Sandi and I were the only crew members left by then, and she said I could take it home and she'll get the next one. I'll display it in a prominent place in my home and think of this fun race whenever I use it.A bunch of us have a 39' Beneteau reserved for an all-day sail out of San Francisco this Monday, Labor Day, so tune in after that for more news.
1 comment:
There must be some way to un-attach the conference bike's drive train from those silly wheels and hook it up to a halyard or something. Many feet make for light work.
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