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!
Century Club: Sage Leone
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!
Saturday, September 13, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Another of the big Boston races - I heard rumors of 90+ boats in this one, but who knows if that is right. In true pony fashion, we were still late to the start after TWO different boats towing us out there.
I was bow assist/mast today and we had THINGS go wrong. Biggest being on the first spin drop, we both took forever, and pulled it down mixed up in the jib sheets. I saw and briefly protested, but shut up when I was told it was okay, which was a big mistake, cause it was not. Whipped the jib out and things went wrong, we had to scramble around popping all the lines off, and we lost a bunch of boats. Lesson learned - I know my shit (I already knew that) and I need to speak up (I already knew that too, but I don't like to).
Still 4th in class, but not what we ever hope to place. Epic day though! I packed a million layers and foulies, and ended up having to wear none of it. Sunny and a perfect wind to pony.
Friday, September 12, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
With Betsy! and a beautiful day for it! She skippered us through a rocking start, and we never had allll too bad of starts. One race, Betsy was even narrowing in on the leaders (until she wasn't... maybe due to a bad tactical call from me...). Super fun!
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Came down to ZERO wind, so coerced Madi into rigging some lasers with me. Perfect day to remember how it all works, since there's no wind to knock down a mast and nobody rearing to get out there behind us, so we can take as long as we want. By the time we both had managed to rig our boats, it was nearing time, so I launced for a quick (slow) spin around the mooring field (where I quickly realized I had rigged some of my boat wrong) in the approaching sunset.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Terry hosted an "Intermediate racing practice" today with three or four boats on the water. Drills included:
- raise your hand when you're crossing the line
- rolling one minute starts
- stop and accelerate
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
I had promised Adrian a 420 day, and totally took advantage of that offer by inviting a million other boats to come do a pseudo roll clinic. Watched a YouTube video (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UAmQW6mahvs), rigged up, then roll gybed all the way down and roll tacked all the way back. I still haven't figured out how to grab the edge of the tank on my way back up to flatten and am grabbing the crossbar instead - bad habit - but we're working on it!
Monday, September 1, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Took a week's vacation in Lake Tahoe, which is really hitting my days on the water count hard...
But! One day, we went rafting down the Truckee River. It claims to have at most Class 0 rapids, so I was prepared for a chill float and was not particularly excited for it, but I could never have guessed how crazy it would be.
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
we’re sail 1!
Sunsets are getting too early, so we did the last of the Thursday night races today. The wind was PERFECT for it. We unfortunately didn't have enough rated 420 sailors to get everyone on a 420, but we ended up with 4 420s and 3 mercs. It was awesome. I and crew Phoebe were consistently number 3 (as expected) with Terry taking 1 and Kai taking 2. Couldn't have asked for a better send off to summer racing.