More Maine Racing

[Tim R.]

We had some wind this night. In fact about 20kts of it. We also had a tanker come in and park next to one of our turning marks. The nerve!

All photos courtesy of Chris Allen.

All these boats are on the way to the mark we had previously rounded.

Here is the tanker that the tug boats are pushing into the pier. You can see the mark at the stern of the Tug.

Here are some boats dealing with a lot of prop wash from the tug. They are not as close as they appear.

And here is the rail meat. We had a pretty good lead at this point. We got second on corrected time. Once we figure out the tuning of the new main sail we should be winning again.

 

[Cpt. Jon]

Why's it look so cold? And where is the fog?

Nice pics though! Looks like fun!

 

[Tim R.]

Different night, different weather. The guy in the blue windbreaker had never been racing before and had very little sailing experience. At one point we had an uncontrollable jibe that nearly put him in the drink. My wife's finger prints are still embedded in his arm!

 

[Dave D]

nice pfd's

 

[CalebD]

Wearing pfd's while racing is a PITA as they can constrain your movement, IMHO. I believe that fleece floats even when wet and I wear it most of the time when on the water.
Hoping to get out this Weds. after teaching young teens to sail a Sunfish on LI Sound.
Nice pics Tim.

 

[Maine Sail]

Racing in Maine

Racing in Maine is different every week.... weather wise..and yes we do get some sun.. No, on second thought, it's always pea soup fog stay away!

 

[Nereussailor]

Now that's racing. Looks like fun. Wish I was there.

Dave

 

[Dave D]

I'm sure it's as much of a PITA as fishing the dead new guy out of the drink. Just sayin'

 

[Tim R.]

Dave, every crew member and guest is shown where the life jackets are and they get to make the call. I do not force them on anyone.

 

[Pink Flamingo]

Dave, every crew member and guest is shown where the life jackets are and they get to make the call. I do not force them on anyone.

No life jacket worn;an automatic disqualification on our weekly races.

 

[Maine Sail]

A DQ for no life jacket..

No life jacket worn;an automatic disqualification on our weekly races.

Huh...? DQ for no life jacket? Sounds like the safety police/do gooders are out in full force.. What next will we be required to wear a helmet?

Nothing wrong with wearing one, if you want to, but it should be a personal choice not a mandated one IMHO. For offshore single handing, offshore racing (when the race committee says so) or overnight stuff on single watch I do wear one but it also has a strobe, knife, whistle and I wear a hand held VHF. If you go over at night you'll need to be seen, heard and be able to communicate.

 

[Cpt. Jon]

I gotta agree with the choice to wear life jackets or not. We very rarely have them on, we will be getting some auto-inflatable ones hopefully soon and maybe that will have us wearing them more, but even then I am not sure.

Just kidding of course about the fog and cold comments, though I think you got that. It sure looks beautiful up there, I've been wanting to take a trip up there for years and will eventually get to it...

The PO's of our new-to-us boat summer in Maine and winter in VA, it just sounds great up there. I had a buddy in the Army that was from Maine and he said something about you all having velcro gloves up there.... something about the sheep not getting away so easily... He was a trip...

 

[Dave D]

I'm really not trying to be wanker here. I was just thinking that the possibility of an "incident" while racing would be greater than when cruising, simply due to deck activity, number of crew, speed, proximity of other vessels, competitive mentality, etc, etc, etc. I also am under the impression that, with the availability of low profile, auto-inflate pfd's, that wearing one should not be a PITA to the extent that the default would be to not wear one. I am struck by the comment that the newbie still has finger impressions in his arm and how this seems to be analogous to my mother putting her arm across my chest in the car when she slammed on the breaks. If there had been a collision, there would also have been a broken arm on my way to the windshield/dashboard. Overly ineffective defense.

Additionally, I kind of see this analogous to the idiots (of which I was one) that used to refuse to wear a seat belt because it wrinkled their shirt, or some other lame excuse. Not that I'm a fan of making full-time pfd use a legal requirement like seatbelts, but I fear for your safety while out there enjoying this beautiful sport.