Andy, if you have calm waters, there is always the
famous "Watermelon Race". That is that each boat gets a watermelon and they are placed on shore in no particular order and numbered with waterproof florescent spray paint. Then, each boat skipper pulls one of the numbers from a hat - that is his watermelon to retrieve and return to land. After the drawing, a "powerboater" goes out into the bay and drops all of the watermelons upwind from the start point. They float in the water. At the start of the race, all boats line up behind and between two start points that are predetermined. When the start gun is fired, the boats all head out to "hunt" their watermelon. The numbers are not always floating on top, so sometimes when a watermelon is located, the crew (with life jackets firmly attached) has to dive overboard and check the number. If it is not their number, they climb back aboard and sail on to other watermelons. When they find theirs, they climb aboard with the skipper doing a classic manuever to retrive his crew. Then, they race back to the start, and put the watermelon back on shore at the assigned location. The first one back wins; the last one back probably will not show up for days due to embarassment or because they feel they deserve to eat their watermelon on their long sail home! A couple of rules: everyone overboard must know how to swim and wear a life jacket; no power is to be used at anytime, as it is a sailboat race; no hooks, nets, etc. can be used for retrieval, only a full body in the water retrieval. The last one into port (whomever and whenever) gets to furnish a round!! Any rules violations are immediate disqualifications. A FUN EVENT - especially on a nice warm sailing day. The only issue is to watch out for the other boats who might be headed for the same watermelon at the same time that you are. It can get harried and tricking and we want no one or any equipment hurt! After everyone returns, a watermelon break is a nice way to wrap up (maybe a seed spitting contest? We have done this with as many as 14 boats involved. It is talked about for several months afterward.
