Racers Ego/Attitude

[Todd Smith]

What kind of attitude ?

Some people are put off by the "I'm better than thou" attitudes. I don't like that either, but you can avoid those blowhards by picking the right crew to race with.

But the attitude of "we are here to race, not socialize or cruise" is fundamental to dedicated racing. If your wife (or anyone) doesn't enjoy that part of racing, they will not enjoy it. It's better on a laid back boat, but the boats around you at a start or mark rounding might have a more "serious" attitude.

Todd

 

[Dave D]

Todd, I think you nailed it. That's why I have no real interest in racing at this point, and while I respect that others have their own personalities and opinions, I can't for the life of me understand that "race or get out of our water" attitude. No offense intended to anyone who lives and breathes racing of ANY sort. To each his own.

 

[txjim]

In crewing one will find a wide variety of personalities. The trick is to find a spot on a boat that fits you. I have crewed for the anal who yelled at every problem and the laid back who just went with the flow. The best skipper ever, for me, was the guy who crewed for Heart of America. He wanted to win, but realized that it was not always in the cards. He never raised his voice.

I have had the pleasure of crewing for the same skipper for the last 18 years. This longevity is due to the fact that he does not yell. Not to say he can't get a sense of urgency across (Yes, I KNOW the spinniker has to come down, I do see that dam!) but he also allows his crew to do their job.

It's been my observation that the obnoxious racer is an obnoxious person, on or off the water. Some very nice skippers are on very expensive boats. Some jerks are on B-fleet boats . Depends on the person. I also don't confuse competativeness with being a jerk as we get pretty competative on our boat. I would also not want to be near that fleet of J22s on the starting line (such language!) but they are a fun group to have in a regatta.

 

[Dan Johnson]

Hey Ross..

you need to speak to Dobbs--he's racing his own boat with us this year!

Yes, there's big egos even at the club level (a couple of new Mylar sails this year), but it's much less intense than those found in places like Annapolis or Newport or any other major sailing venue. We run a Thursday night casual racing event (take your own time; no committee boat, etc) and have opened up a boat class on Saturdays for the cruiser to participate with the same organizational structure we use for CBYRA sanctioned events.

Show me two boats that are sailing near each other on a parallel course that don't start trimming for more speed!

 

[kloudie1]

Uhhhh what my buddies and I have done is to volunteer to return the race boat to the home port.. Lots of good sailing on a well prepped boat and the intense guys aren’t there! Last one we did, though, we had to put into an unplanned port to get a coffee pot .. The intense owner had removed it to not have extra weight! I like my 0200-0600 watch to start with a GOOD cup of coffee!

 

[PCP777]

I'm new to racing and I dig it, so far my fiancee and I have crewed on three different boats. In the Rush Creek Founder's race, we had a tactician on board who was a bit grumpy but he was really good and knew what he was doing. I just like the chance to learn from everyone so I learn not to take some of the stronger personality stuff personally. As soon as I get some new sails I'm joining the B fleet.