I have been racing on Frank Martien's the Tartan 101, "Starbird" for a number of year's now. I have been a regular onboard during the AYC Wednesday Night Series and the Frostbite series. I have been permitted to skipper the boat on those rare occasions when the owner is unavilable but we have a full crew. Sunday was one those days. I had not been helmsman on Starbird in a while so the crew agreed to get out on the water earlier than usual to give me a chance to get the feel for the boat and experiment with some sail trim settings,
The wind conditions were just variable enough to make it important to stay on our toes and ready to respond quickly. Those kinds of changable conditions make for fun races, with lots of opportunities to advance or end up in the cheap seats. We had a good race out there, playing the conditions quite well and ending up as the second boat across the line and beating boat for boat all of the boats who owed us time. But of course, there were boats who we owned time, and so we corrected in fifth place out of the 13 boats that were out there. As someone who does not helm that boat regularly, I don't feel too badly about that finish since we were only 30 seconds out of third place. (Darn if I had only not over stood that one mark!)
I was very appreciative of the Starbird crew working as a well oiled machine and keeping me advised on what was happening outside of the boat, while still keeping it light and fun.
Back at the dock, during the debrief, we implishly considered sending the owner a text saying, "The starboard tack boat is asking for your insurance information." While there were big grins among the crew as we joked about this, we unanimously chose not to. Instead, the text thanked Frank for letting us use his boat and for the trust that represented. It truly was a generous gift.....
All in all, it was a wonderful day on the water with a great bunch of folks. .