News Masters

Day 1 of the Masters was blown out. Everyone left the shore and sailed around for a couple of hours. There was plenty of wind, a few breakdowns and capsizes but no races.
 
Derek Jackson did a great job reporting on the midwinters. I wanted to provide more timely news on the Masters but I was sailing in the regatta. Furthermore, at my age I am lucky to even be able to figure out this Internet Super Highway thing.

Since Derek covered the first day, I will start with the second day. It was almost as windy as the first day. You could smell the Ben Gay in the air on the shore as we ancient mariners prepared to do battle. The first race was WINDY - a couple skippers who forgot to fasten their hairpieces down lost them within minutes of even hitting the water! Anyway, after a brutal upwind leg, Richard Whitehurst led the fleet down a blazingly fast first reach. Tom Whitehurst took control on the second reach. But wait, what's that?? A race official boat came by and stopped the race! Apparently someone had misunderstood a race committee radio command and picked up the leeward mark as we were all heading to it! Not much I can say, I can barely hear, much less see, so it seemed like an honest mistake to me. But boy my legs were shot after 30 minutes of what turned out to be a tuneup race.

We then got in a full race, and Tom Whitehurst cleaned up for real this time.

It was still pretty windy when the next race got going. We had all been hiking our brains out (what hasn't turned to mush at least) for about 10 minutes when that &&$*#$ boat came by again and said this race was abandoned too!! This time it was because either the race committee had forgotten where the recall flag was (the committee appeared to be staffed by masters, so we could all relate to this) or because the wind was shifting too much.

So we tried to start another race, and the black flag came out almost immediately. We had a general recall anyway, and then the committee decided not to post the numbers of the boats that were over early, thinking it wasn't really fair to those skippers. At our age we have all been through a lot, so we probably could handle the pain of disqualification, but for some of the weaker among us it might have been upsetting. A couple of my buddies are still trying to recover from the shock of the the AARP unexpectedly raising dues back in 2004. So we had another recall or two, but due to all the bickering about whether to display numbers or not, the committee abandoned the race to start fresh.

At this point it was so cold my fix-o-dent stiffened up and my dentures fell out! I managed to get them tucked away in my pocket, but that meant when I needed to sheet in I couldn't use my teeth; I had to gum the sheet and boy, that is tough on the gums. My sheet left all sorts of abrasions on my gums, so drinking my daily hot tea is out of the question for probably a week.

Well, we got the race off and I think it was Tom Whitehurst in the winners circle again.

Then we had a third race, and a legitimately old guy, Tony Elliot, won it. A lot of us thought that it was unfair Whitehurst was strong enough to actually hike or pump his sail, so it was good to see a true Master win a race.

We had only gotten in three races, but it was already about 3 or 3:30, and a lot of us wanted to get in and get cleaned up quickly - in the Port Charlotte area most of the early bird dinners end at 5, so you have got to get a seat by 5 in the restaurant or you will end up paying full price for dinner, and I haven't done that in 15 years.

Sunday dawned colder than the day before. The last time I was this cold was back in a foxhole during the second world war. We chipped the ice off our boats and headed out. Damned if that stinkin' kid Whitehurst didn't win another one. A couple of us wondered if he would be so fast if we had given him a little working over with our canes before he left the shore. We didn't think so. So he better watch it next year or he is going to get a "cane massage." Better hope no one hits him with their walker!!!

Race 5 came along and off we all went again. Seems like we had a few more general recalls, but all the races are starting to blend together. These big puffs kept rolling in from one side or the other. The first weather leg the left-center was the way to go, then the second weather leg a shift the size of a latter-day Elizabeth Taylor came in from the right. I haven't been as confused since they stopped making Sanka. Anyway, Whitehurst won again if I recall. I don't even think that kid has a gray hair on his head. What kind of Master is that?

So anyway, Whitehurst won the whole thing (they mercifully sent us in after the fifth race.) I was going to look at the scores to find out who else finshed near the top, but I fell asleep and missed the awards ceremony. I got a telegram this morning from one of my buddies who was there and he told me who the top finishers were. Unfortunately he used morse code to write the telegram, so I may not have decoded it correctly, but I think he said Fred Hutchison was 2nd, Tony Elliot 3rd, possibly Richard Whitehurst 4th, and Reid Hutchison 5th.

The whole organizing committee certainly worked really hard to put on this event. The location was perfect (a nice county park), there was a very nice dinner on Friday night with lots of door prizes (I won a case of Geritol.) Since we were freezing out there on our boats, I doubt the race committee was any warmer, but a huge bunch of folks were out on the water to run the races, operate crash boats, etc. Many thanks from us oldsters for running this fun, windy event!!

The Unknown Master
 
Funny report, made me laugh.

I do have to say that I was impressed at how well all on the water handled their boats under extreme conditions. For me it was survival just to get around the coarse as the bet around my house was how long before I swam.

I was worried when the bow of my boat dipped 2' into a 3' wave on a 25mph downwind. "Take a deep seat squeeze at the knees the higher the buck the sweeter the breeze' as we say in the rodeo. I told myself I'm not swimming it's too cold. And my son has told me it's not fun to do a Russian Death Roll.
So I jumped to the back of the boat yanked in the sail and powered through the wave. Lost my cig's, hat and desire to get that close to the edge again.

They say fishing can be fun ?

I wont to thank all involved in making this regatta happen. Now I have some great stories to talk about I know all that went out do.
The 2007 Int Masters
 
Unknown Master....I tip my hat to you. That post may have to become required reading for newbies at this site. Love the part about ben gay smell in the air and losing the dentures. GREAT REPORT!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D

Please come to Erie in 2008 and be our reporter.
 
Tim, I will be attending the NAs in Erie. You will recognize me because I will be the one wheeling an oxygen tank (and I will probably be the only one sailing with a bag over my head.)

The Unknown Master
 
That is great to know U.M.

Will the RC need to be keeping refreshment bottles of O2 for you?

I am serious about the daily reporting though. I will let you use my computer as needed. Or, we have a free wireless network at the club if you bring your own, so there's lots of options. You would have to put a few serious things in the report too though ;)

Oh yeah, and please put a notice of regatta in the AARP forums for me would ya? Thanks.
 

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