Winning Despite 'Adversities'

Family and Friends, We had only one crew-person show up of Tuesday's final race of Series 4, arriving a minute before we had to shove off lest we miss our race start. His 'Uber' ride had been stuck in rush hour gridlock taking an hour and twenty minutes to make the short trip from Westwood/UCLA to Marina del Rey. Fortunately, he'd left his back pack on our boat. His celebratory hang over during our second place finish festivities Sat. evening at Shoreline YC, after the big 23 mile Queen Mary Race left him too incapacitated to show up for Sunday's race, to come back to retrieve it till then. I was anxious to do well in the final race of Series 4 of our club's "TNT" season long racing program (TNT=Tuesday Nite Trials, going from Daylite Savings start to Daylite Savings End) and sailing without another crewman to help disabled Eric, who is about to have hernia surgery, would have been more difficult. Despite one of my keen competitors out for blood to avenge his defeat-and my first place in Sunday's Vic Smith [Memorial] Great Circle Race and BBQ victory-, catching me by the lee and forcing me to spin the boat (I'll have to learn how to spin my Cal 24 faster next time!!) around in a circle lest I 'T'-bone the race committee's cabin cruiser, we recovered and went on to win a forth race with Grande Finale (and fifth straight with straight all races win in this Series 4, and with it, the Series trophy. Later, at the club, as the winners were announced, I had been worried that the required "throw-out" race wouldn't be my first race, first place with Shpritz which I was told wouldn't count because I was on a different boat, which thus would have put me out of the running. But it didn't....Whew! I gave me new crew Victor Lu (the Penn State Sailing team member, class of 2019) the trophy cup for the race, puting a smile on his face. He wanted to know what the inscription VSTNT meant. I told him, Victor Smith Tuesday Nite Trials, in honor of our late race chairman of the Venture MacGregor Fleet...then, an even BIGGER smile! Roy (former owner): Thanks again for encouraging me to get crew on board with advanced skills as befits "Grand Finale"'s potential. Until then I thought I was lucky to get any enthusiastic crew person on board to help out. I've another fellow in the works thru the "Go Sailing" app., from Hawaii, who was fore-deck on J24's and Melges 24' Sport Boats. Sounds like 'just the ticket' for up coming racing, since I want to try my hand at flying the big spinnaker balloon sail. And I've decided to move up to the "A" fleet. Since B fleet had now given me boat a lowered PHRF handicap of 170 seconds per mile (vs. its true original 240 seconds per mile) for this final race. B fleet tries to give crews better chances to win, and they would have carried over the 170spm handicap, then dock me down to 150spm for next race, into Series #5 making it much harder to win. Instead, Fleet A resets the handicap to original placard PHRF at the beginning of each of the six series, and limits the change in handicap for each following race. Much, much better for Grande Finale and crew, and higher caliber competition from the other bigger and faster boats. I've been feeling goofy from lack of sleep, but, except for the copious muscle pains and joint aches from advancing age, I'm the happiest right now that I've ever been in my life. I feel like I'm floating on 'Cloud 9'. All the adulation from club members and co-competitors is a bit intoxicating, and makes up for a childhood filled with too much annoying, teasing, fun-making and put-downs (yeah, I think those inflictions do damage to one's soul and distort one's self image that one may carry on thru life). LIFE IS GOOD! To all of you, the best!Gerald

Gerry will be nice to have another competition in a fleet Dave Paulson Sundancer > On Aug 22, 2019, at 11:26 AM, Gerald Sobel so… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > Family and Friends, > We had only one crew-person show up of Tuesday's final race of Series 4, arriving a minute before we had to shove off lest we miss our race start. His 'Uber' ride had been stuck in rush hour gridlock taking an hour and twenty minutes to make the short trip from Westwood/UCLA to Marina del Rey. Fortunately, he'd left his back pack on our boat. His celebratory hang over during our second place finish festivities Sat. evening at Shoreline YC, after the big 23 mile Queen Mary Race left him too incapacitated to show up for Sunday's race, to come back to retrieve it till then. I was anxious to do well in the final race of Series 4 of our club's "TNT" season long racing program (TNT=Tuesday Nite Trials, going from Daylite Savings start to Daylite Savings End) and sailing without another crewman to help disabled Eric, who is about to have hernia surgery, would have been more difficult. > > Despite one of my keen competitors out for blood to avenge his defeat-and my first place in Sunday's Vic Smith [Memorial] Great Circle Race and BBQ victory-, catching me by the lee and forcing me to spin the boat (I'll have to learn how to spin my Cal 24 faster next time!!) around in a circle lest I 'T'-bone the race committee's cabin cruiser, we recovered and went on to win a forth race with Grande Finale (and fifth straight with straight all races win in this Series 4, and with it, the Series trophy. Later, at the club, as the winners were announced, I had been worried that the required "throw-out" race wouldn't be my first race, first place with Shpritz which I was told wouldn't count because I was on a different boat, which thus would have put me out of the running. But it didn't....Whew! > > I gave me new crew Victor Lu (the Penn State Sailing team member, class of 2019) the trophy cup for the race, puting a smile on his face. He wanted to know what the inscription VSTNT meant. I told him, Victor Smith Tuesday Nite Trials, in honor of our late race chairman of the Venture MacGregor Fleet...then, an even BIGGER smile! > > Roy (former owner): Thanks again for encouraging me to get crew on board with advanced skills as befits "Grand Finale"'s potential. Until then I thought I was lucky to get any enthusiastic crew person on board to help out. > > I've another fellow in the works thru the "Go Sailing" app., from Hawaii, who was fore-deck on J24's and Melges 24' Sport Boats. Sounds like 'just the ticket' for up coming racing, since I want to try my hand at flying the big spinnaker balloon sail. > > And I've decided to move up to the "A" fleet. Since B fleet had now given me boat a lowered PHRF handicap of 170 seconds per mile (vs. its true original 240 seconds per mile) for this final race. B fleet tries to give crews better chances to win, and they would have carried over the 170spm handicap, then dock me down to 150spm for next race, into Series #5 making it much harder to win. Instead, Fleet A resets the handicap to original placard PHRF at the beginning of each of the six series, and limits the change in handicap for each following race. Much, much better for Grande Finale and crew, and higher caliber competition from the other bigger and faster boats. > > I've been feeling goofy from lack of sleep, but, except for the copious muscle pains and joint aches from advancing age, I'm the happiest right now that I've ever been in my life. I feel like I'm floating on 'Cloud 9'. All the adulation from club members and co-competitors is a bit intoxicating, and makes up for a childhood filled with too much annoying, teasing, fun-making and put-downs (yeah, I think those inflictions do damage to one's soul and distort one's self image that one may carry on thru life). LIFE IS GOOD! > > To all of you, the best! > Gerald > > >

On 8/22/2019 2:26 PM, Gerald Sobel so… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: > > > > I've been feeling goofy from lack of sleep, but, except for the > copious muscle pains and joint aches from advancing age, I'm the > happiest right now that I've ever been in my life. I feel like I'm > floating on 'Cloud 9'. All the adulation from club members and > co-competitors is a bit intoxicating, and makes up for a childhood > filled with too much annoying, teasing, fun-making and put-downs > (yeah, I think those inflictions do damage to one's soul and > distort one's self image that one may carry on thru life). LIFE IS > GOOD! > > Well, congratulations on winning big, and more congrats on getting younger folks involved in sailing. As to that penultimate sentence (I just love being able to use "penultimate"), one of the great advantages of getting old is becoming kinder and more generous toward others, and learning to find pleasure in others' triumphs and successes. Being young is a terrible burden, what with all the anxieties and worries, things leading to the teasing and put-downs you mention. Young folks are so insecure that they have to diminish others to feel a sense of self-worth. Most of the cruelties that still make me blush when I remember them were done out of my own insecurities. I don't race my Cal 20 but last night after work I had one of those flat-water, good-wind, past-hull-speed sails that make it all worthwhile. Just flying.... Chris Campbell