By John Alonso
Last time I was in a race with my 45′ Hunter sailboat, I messed up and started 30 minutes late. The wind was at 20 knots, the waves were about 2 feet high. All the 30 foot boats were having real troubles because the distance between waves (the wavelength) was about 30 feet, thus a 30 foot boat was stuck between two crests a lot of the time. This slowed them down. As I was 45 feet long, I had a much easier time, I always had two crests below me. It was smooth sailing for me.
As I passed sailboats my friends hollered out “Throw out your anchor, you are going too fast” or “You should not be going so fast, you have a washer and dryer aboard!”
At the meeting afterward I did not expect anything as I had started a half hour late, but I CAME IN SECOND PLACE!
Another race with a different set of boats was going well until the boat ahead of me did not go to the right of the marker! He had misjudged the angle. I went around the marker to the right as we were required to do. At the meeting afterward I put in a protest. The protest was denied, he was awarded second place and I got third!