[Rhodes22-list] First Time Racing

[Ronald Lipton]

To change the subject, I had my first racing experience last Saturday.  I
decided to
get into it by crewing before I had a go myself.  It was a J-24 owned by a
woman
who formerly crewed for her husband but decided to keep the yelling down by
getting her own boat.  She had raced a couple of times before but still is
pretty inexperienced.  Besides me there was another first-time racer
and an experienced captain of another J-24 who was not taking his own boat
out that day.

It was quite an introduction.  Winds were 20-30 mph with gusts to 40.
The boat really flew.  One boat was knocked down and parted it's main
halyard.  Our skipper's husband's boat tore it's spinnaker.  We had problems
as well.  Our spinnaker was incorrectly packed and came up twisted.  It
then tore the ring holding the pole off the mast.  We gave up on the
spinnaker
for the day.  Our skipper didn't quite get the idea of a controlled gybe,
even
after a couple of explanations.  The J-24 mast is only about 12" off the
deck
with the big mainsail so an uncontolled gybe can be quite dangerous.  I
huddled
on the floor of the cockpit when we were anywhere close to directly
downwind.
Another crewmember did't get low enough and caught a glancing on the top
of the head.  Blood everywhere.  Boy those head wounds bleed.  After some
convincing our skipper agreed to turn around and head for harbor.  The wind
was blowing directly out of the harbor entrance and it took some time to
work our way in.  The little 4 hp motor was no help and we turned it off
when
we noticed here was no water telltale stream.  We ended up getting towed in
by the skipper's husband.

In the end all crew survived and we did not drop the boat when we lifted it
back
onto it's cradle.  As much fun as the high winds were I think I will wait
for lighter
winds for a second try on that boat.  On the other hand I learned enough
about
racing that with a couple more trips I am confident that I wouldn't embarass
myself when I enter with the Rhodes.

Ron Lipton
Empress of Blandings
Michigan City, Indiana