Last night was the first TBYC Wednesday night race, officially marking the beginning of summer for a tiny segment of Thunder Bay’s population – the yacht racers.  (Haha!  That sounds just ‘proper’ doesn’t it?  In Thunder Bay, it couldn’t be farther from the truth – we are about as elitist as any dive bar.)

We didn’t do well.  I could crumple up a stack of excuses and throw them at you, some of them actually valid, but that’s boring.  The most important thing – as always – is that we had fun.  That’s what we tell ourselves when we finish DEAD LAST.  It hides the shame. 

No, honestly – really – there ultimately wasn’t much we could do because how the race was set up (everything will be normal when the committee boat is in the water – next week), but there were still a ton of things under our control that were fumbled.  When you get down to it, we just need to practice with regular crew.  And I need to get my head in the game.

I do feel partly responsible.  Sort of.  The owner/driver of Straight Jacket needs to have one or two people who he can trust for course and crew management, and that’s not happening.  That’s slow – any time a driver takes his attention off driving, the boat slows down.  That was happening a lot last night.  There are two people on Straight Jacket other than the driver who should be holding the crew and course management responsibilities, and I’m one of them.

Or, at least I know that now, because it was said to me last night in the bar after the race.  This is a good thing.  I’m ready to take my investment to the next level, and I’m interested to see how the boat will do when (if?) we get our crew and course management issues sorted. 

Straight Jacket, after having so much work done to her, doesn’t feel all that different.  But why should she?  It’s funny, but I was expecting her to be almost like a new boat.  I think I was even trimming differently.  But when I asked the owner how the helm ‘felt’ he simply said, “Same as last year.”  I’m so silly.