Took Chelsea, a friend from work who has never sailed before, out to Friday night racing. It was a perfect day for it, since they were late starting the races, so we had some time to mill around and get her feet under her (and her some steering time) before races started. A quick race night, with only a W4 and a W2, both of which we had tough starts on (my fault, taking steering back too late from Chelsea on both accounts). Beautiful night, though, with a decent yello breeze. They didn't run the sips and sails bar, either, so our post race dock social time was cut short.
Century Club: Sage Leone
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Today was Madi and finally a day with some wind. This has been the calmest fall I've ever encountered. Once again flew a spin, cause she also just took the class, but more fun today was just zipping around. Madi doesn't like to get her butt out there or roll tho, so some room for improvement for sure.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Sailed with Adrian today! He's awesome! We took a spinnaker out to practice our newfound skills, and spent the other half the time rolling our hearts out. I'm not good yet, but we're getting there! I would loveee for him to be my 420 crew/skipper forever.
Sunday, September 28, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
I bailed on MOW today, since Grace was supposed to be in town, but then she bailed on me, so I headed out to CBI. Sailed my first tiller club race and had an awesome time. By far the most active I have ever been on a Mercury. We were hiking and rolltacking and really doing our best to sail good and fast. Three great finishes (2, 4, 2) and then we must have started getting tired, cause we fell apart. A few penalty spins, and the last three races were back of the pack for us.
THEN, there was a spinnaker class that had an open spot, and I hopped in there. The wind (of course) picked up, so we ended up out there on a relatively wild yellow, river full of boats, tossing spinnakers up in the air for the first time. Meg and I got star of class :). It was SO much fun, and I don't think I got any better at trim, but I loved getting more time to feel it all. Driving was neat, too!
Then I went home and laid horizontal after a full 7 hours out on the water.
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
No Bill, but we took the pony out anyway! Made our start with four minutes to spare, and began the choose your own adventure (direction) race around Boston's lighthouses. I was bow assist, and ended the night being told "I think you're ready to do the bow on the Pony now," woohoo! We came in 7th, with no particularly major mishaps, besides the jib being dropped instead of tightened for a brief moment. Spin manuvers were clean and chill! I mostly just sat arounda and vibed for an awesome race on an awesome day.
Friday, September 26, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
As a memorial to Ed Long, the person who used to run Friday night casual racing, every year CBI hosts a Friday night "un-regatta" where the courses are wacky and the sailing is a mess. This was my first Ed Long, and it was a beautiful day for it. The courses were a warm-up W4 (sailed as per usual), a W2 Haiku race (write a Haiku between the start and finish, not done until it is turned in at the RC), a "backwards" race (which does not mean sail backwards, as we all thought, instead means start downwind, roundings to starboard), and the CBI 500 (a figure 8 where you collect a washer that gives bonus points at the RC boat each lap). As I'm sure they predicted, anytime we were required to gather at the RC resulted in an absurd amount of bumper boat, and the backwards race's leeward mark was a similar pileup (I think the start also had some issues, aka almost the whole fleet was over the line before go). We collected a special washer that won us a CBI pint glass, but certainly were far from the top of the rankings.
Monday, September 22, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
This one was dying, dying, dead wind, but got slightly better at the roll tack thing. I have been tasked with watching a Laser footwork video on youtube before my next session.
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
the final Wednesday night of the summer, and we went out in style. Raced the Pony around Spectacle Island (no marks, just the island) with a bunch of our other friend boats. One catch - every beer consumed during the race = 1 second off your time. We won, but not thanks to the beers. The record was over 8 beers/crew member, and we had nothing on that. We just sailed fast!
Monday, September 15, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Ran out of work since it was a sunny day to play on a Laser! Found Mark and Simon on the dock, and Mason on the water for a fun day of ripping down the river. Nowhere near enough rolltacks for practice, though, so maybe next time I vibe on my own and tack...tack...tack...tack. I did manage two roll tacks that almost felt good, and I learned that rudderless sailing concepts go hard on a laser.
Learned about wiggling downwind: sailing by the lee, tilting the boat to head up, flattening to get speed, sailing by the lee...
En route home, raced Mason and got him! All testament to my sailing prowess, I am sure.
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Dragged myself to Marblehead for one last time, to get in one more race on my adopted boat this year. I was jib trim this time, and not sureeee I did the best job. My mast replacement also didn't do too hot...
Once again, not the finish we'd like, but a beautiful day to spin around some buoys!