The Return to the Regatta
I was pulled into a sailing regatta. There was a J24 Sailing Regatta last weekend and the girl's team needed another person on the boat. For those of you who have no idea what a J24 Keelboat is click here. It's a 5 men keel boat and they needed another trimmer. So after a more than three year long hiatus, I found myself officially sailing again.
Being a trimmer was really rather fun. It was tiring work, one had to release the headsail (called the jenny) during tacks or gybes and pull the other sheet (or rope) as fast as we could once we hit the other tack. Tiring but hardly mentally tiring. Somehow.. Su Jun persuaded (I would say hood-winked but I dont really have any evidence to prove such a case) me to be take over the helmsman position and there I was.. helming a boat that I have hardly any time to get accustomed to and gearing up to a regatta in three days.
I admit I wasn't really stressed about it (I know some of you would go.. aiya.. he sure can handle it one) but it did take quite a bit of mental activity to remember everything. Oh sailing the boat wasn't the problem, remembering the finer points of sailing and racing was. It was quite a re-introduction. The regatta had only 5 J24s racing and consisted mainly of veteran sailors. How did I do? We were decimated. haha. It really was quite a learning process as the J24 had significant differences to the laser (the boat that I was used to and have been sailing for years).
After the first day of racing, I went down to the substation to meet the guys. Almost everyone was there and despite being tired as hell, I went along to Arab Street for shisha and chilling out. It was a hilarious night and while it was definitely crazy for me to have stayed over there and not get any rest in between the two days of racing.. i would say that it was probably worth it. I rushed back home by cab, took a quick shower and grabbed about 2 hours of sleep on the trip to Changi Sailing Club.
We were better on the on the second day. My starts were a little better and arguably the boat speed increased, although I realized that the big boat can't take going against waves very well only after the race. For one of the starts, I banged into another boat but I had right of way... it was quite a crazy moment, our lines got caught and needed untangling. For another start, the mainsheet pulley came apart in my hands and at another point during the last race, Miranda (one of the girls on my boat) fell and hurt her back. We stopped racing and headed back. We called the ambulance and sent her off to CGH. I was thinking to myself I must have made a helluva reputation as a J24 helmsman.. banging into boats and getting my crew carried off by ambulance after the race. Haha. It was definitely an experience.
Being a trimmer was really rather fun. It was tiring work, one had to release the headsail (called the jenny) during tacks or gybes and pull the other sheet (or rope) as fast as we could once we hit the other tack. Tiring but hardly mentally tiring. Somehow.. Su Jun persuaded (I would say hood-winked but I dont really have any evidence to prove such a case) me to be take over the helmsman position and there I was.. helming a boat that I have hardly any time to get accustomed to and gearing up to a regatta in three days.
I admit I wasn't really stressed about it (I know some of you would go.. aiya.. he sure can handle it one) but it did take quite a bit of mental activity to remember everything. Oh sailing the boat wasn't the problem, remembering the finer points of sailing and racing was. It was quite a re-introduction. The regatta had only 5 J24s racing and consisted mainly of veteran sailors. How did I do? We were decimated. haha. It really was quite a learning process as the J24 had significant differences to the laser (the boat that I was used to and have been sailing for years).
After the first day of racing, I went down to the substation to meet the guys. Almost everyone was there and despite being tired as hell, I went along to Arab Street for shisha and chilling out. It was a hilarious night and while it was definitely crazy for me to have stayed over there and not get any rest in between the two days of racing.. i would say that it was probably worth it. I rushed back home by cab, took a quick shower and grabbed about 2 hours of sleep on the trip to Changi Sailing Club.
We were better on the on the second day. My starts were a little better and arguably the boat speed increased, although I realized that the big boat can't take going against waves very well only after the race. For one of the starts, I banged into another boat but I had right of way... it was quite a crazy moment, our lines got caught and needed untangling. For another start, the mainsheet pulley came apart in my hands and at another point during the last race, Miranda (one of the girls on my boat) fell and hurt her back. We stopped racing and headed back. We called the ambulance and sent her off to CGH. I was thinking to myself I must have made a helluva reputation as a J24 helmsman.. banging into boats and getting my crew carried off by ambulance after the race. Haha. It was definitely an experience.
posted by undergradbyday @ 4:07 AM
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