Full Tilt Sailing Team

Woman at the Helm race #3

Tonight was the final Woman at the Helm race of the three-race series.

Adam Westerman and his co-worker Chris surprised us by showing up tonight. Adam used to crew for us a few years ago, but his job has kept him working late most Thursdays, so he hasn't been on the boat for a long time. It was great to sail with him again.

Oh, did I mention they work for North Sails? Adam was the bowman, while Chris did sail trim. We got some great advice from them, although I feel that I must say I did a good job calling tactics. Hey, if I don't mention it, how are you supposed to find that out? Do you think Joyce is gonna email you? Huh?

There were a total of maybe 32 boats tonight; there may have been 8 or 9 in the WAH class, but I don't really know. It was an exciting start for us. We held our own, and Joyce did real good, especially when somebody on another boat tried to scare Joyce by saying he wasn't going to let her get by. She was awesome though, and ignored him. It turned out he couldn't do anything to stop her. She kicked his butt. Joyce rules.

We're heading for Welches after rounding the E mark at Charles Island. We stayed left on the course, and as I expected, it paid off. Like I said, I'm great. Oh, and so's our crew. Yeah, they're great too. We're all great. OK?

Post-finish, it's Happy Hour! Lori enjoys a beautiful sunset while Adam inspects the rig. You can tell he's a sailmaker.

Ho-hum...these sunsets are getting SO boring.

How come Joyce looks so sweet and lovely, and I look like every guy you see sleeping on a park bench? I guess I'm just not very photogenic...but I DO call great tactics! HAH!

I'm guessing we pulled a 3rd or 4th place; we don't know because some of the boats we raced against last time went with the 27+ class rather than the WAH class. I'll have to wait to see the results probably after we get back from vacation, since we're gonna be gone next week. When I find out I'll post the results.

Joyce, Lori, Chris, and Adam all did a super job tonight, and the race, although short (about 35 minutes) was great fun and exciting. Way to go, crew!

RESULTS UPDATE: We ended up with a 5th place finish; we missed 4th place by 12 seconds, 3rd by 33 seconds, and 2nd by 39 frickin' seconds! Oh well, preliminary results put us in 5th place overall for the season, as opposed to 3rd place if we'd been 40 seconds faster. It was still fun.

Now it's vacation time. YAY!

posted by CT Bob @ 9:53 PM