JS Sailing: Goal Accomplished!
(We didn't lose anyone overboard.)
Jared Johnson '01
Issue date: 5/3/00 Section: Sports
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Terri Reilly, Carol Chan and I left dreary, cold, rainy Ithaca three weeks ago and arrived in Annapolis to find a place that actually had spring-like weather. Imagine, a place where one can actually sail before mid-May! Tim Van De Water and Ed Schmitt had driven up the day before and were waiting for us with a boat already registered when we arrived. After a brief check-in for the three late arrivals, the sailing team was ready to go. We'd be racing J-24's over the weekend, and we Johnson school sailors brought a wealth (and I say that in the most facetious sense) of J-24 racing experience with us. Between the five of us, we'd been on a J-24 a handful of times, total. And none of us had ever helmed one.
So, we headed out to the boat and spent a good deal of time guessing how to rig it, then sailed out into the Chesapeake to get a few hours of time on the water (our first since last fall). It was a beautiful day for sailing: winds of 12-15 knots, sunny with temperatures in the high 70's. Beautiful. But, our tacks weren't beautiful, our jibes were a mess, and, when we attempted to jibe the spinnaker, I realized that I'd forgotten nearly everything I knew about spinnakers in the five years since I'd last flown one. Terri came up and helped clear the cobwebs out of my mind and, pretty soon, we were making passable, if not particularly fast, jibes downwind. After a few hours, we felt that we wouldn't embarrass ourselves too much and, with the sun slipping down toward the horizon, we headed back in.
The wind had really kicked up on Saturday and, as we rounded the point into the bay, we started to hit some real chop. As we were sailing borrowed boats and were concerned about possible equipment damage, there'd be no spinnaker flying today (probably good for us). As cold, really cold, water splashed up and over the deck, we scrambled below to don sailing suits and life jackets. I derived a special glee each time we buried the bow in a wave, drenching us. (Hey, I was actually using my sailing pants! I think this weekend I got my cost per use down to about $45. It doesn't take Michaely's finance core to see what a lousy ROI that is....) The high winds, choppy waves and cold water made for an especially exhilarating day of sailing. So what if we finished every race DFL? On the second to last race, we were actually going to finish better than last but, rounding the leeward mark, our sheet once again bound up on the winch. By the time we were finally able to round up, we were hopelessly far behind. At this point, an instructor from J-World drove up to show us how we'd guessed wrong on our rigging; too bad he hadn't pointed it out at the beginning of the day. But, at the end of the day, we turned out to be ninth out of 11 boats. One boat had lost a crewmember overboard and, in the process of attempting to pick her up, had rammed another boat. Both had to withdraw. So, we were moving up as we headed toward the second day.
A huge storm blew through Annapolis on Saturday night. As we woke up on Sunday, we looked out of the hotel room window to see a dusting of snow on the ground. It was quite cold, and the winds were very. There'd be no sailing on Sunday. So, we'll have to live with our ninth place finish. But, next year...next year, we're going back to win that regatta. Assuming of course, that we end up with a load of tremendously talented first-year sailors. Hey, it could happen. I'm already talking to Natalie about our admission criteria....
So, we headed out to the boat and spent a good deal of time guessing how to rig it, then sailed out into the Chesapeake to get a few hours of time on the water (our first since last fall). It was a beautiful day for sailing: winds of 12-15 knots, sunny with temperatures in the high 70's. Beautiful. But, our tacks weren't beautiful, our jibes were a mess, and, when we attempted to jibe the spinnaker, I realized that I'd forgotten nearly everything I knew about spinnakers in the five years since I'd last flown one. Terri came up and helped clear the cobwebs out of my mind and, pretty soon, we were making passable, if not particularly fast, jibes downwind. After a few hours, we felt that we wouldn't embarrass ourselves too much and, with the sun slipping down toward the horizon, we headed back in.
The wind had really kicked up on Saturday and, as we rounded the point into the bay, we started to hit some real chop. As we were sailing borrowed boats and were concerned about possible equipment damage, there'd be no spinnaker flying today (probably good for us). As cold, really cold, water splashed up and over the deck, we scrambled below to don sailing suits and life jackets. I derived a special glee each time we buried the bow in a wave, drenching us. (Hey, I was actually using my sailing pants! I think this weekend I got my cost per use down to about $45. It doesn't take Michaely's finance core to see what a lousy ROI that is....) The high winds, choppy waves and cold water made for an especially exhilarating day of sailing. So what if we finished every race DFL? On the second to last race, we were actually going to finish better than last but, rounding the leeward mark, our sheet once again bound up on the winch. By the time we were finally able to round up, we were hopelessly far behind. At this point, an instructor from J-World drove up to show us how we'd guessed wrong on our rigging; too bad he hadn't pointed it out at the beginning of the day. But, at the end of the day, we turned out to be ninth out of 11 boats. One boat had lost a crewmember overboard and, in the process of attempting to pick her up, had rammed another boat. Both had to withdraw. So, we were moving up as we headed toward the second day.
A huge storm blew through Annapolis on Saturday night. As we woke up on Sunday, we looked out of the hotel room window to see a dusting of snow on the ground. It was quite cold, and the winds were very. There'd be no sailing on Sunday. So, we'll have to live with our ninth place finish. But, next year...next year, we're going back to win that regatta. Assuming of course, that we end up with a load of tremendously talented first-year sailors. Hey, it could happen. I'm already talking to Natalie about our admission criteria....