Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Wednesday Night Races: No. 1, 2010



A windy, chilly, but beautiful evening greeted us for the first WNR of 2010. It was an exciting evening as we started off by realizing that we were missing the battens for the main. Ugh. We were too far from the dock to turn around and get them and then make the race on time.

I called Mackenzie and being the trooper that she is, she and AndrĂ©a drove to Mimi's, found the battens in the garage attic and zipped them out to us via the powerboat. Sounds fun, but not so much when it's 50° and blowing 15-20kts! They both were soaked, but we were glad to get the battens.

We quickly raised the main and as it got to the top of the mast, TWANG!, the rope part of the wire/rope halyard snapped. With 15 minutes left before the start, we looked around and David piped up, "I'll go up, Dad." We grabbed the bosuns chair and had him up the mast in no time.



If you've ever been up a mast, you know it can be pretty scary up there. A few degrees of heel on the deck doesn't feel like much, but 40 feet up, it can translate into 10 feet of motion! In rough seas, like we had tonight, it can be quite difficult to hold on.

David did it like a pro! He went all the way to the top, tied a line to the broken halyard and even checked the sheave. I was very proud.

We ended up starting a few minutes late. It turned out battens were the wrong set and a few of them bust through the pockets...not good. Harry (484) and Mike (550) were the only other A30s out there, but we caught Harry at the Naval Academy sea wall and came in 2nd. Not a bad start to the season.

Now for the NOOD this weekend!