The Shuster Regatta, the final Star regatta of the season hosted by Miles River Yacht Club also happened to be, technically, my first Star regatta at MYRC, and my second Star regatta. Technically, because I started two races with Karen out of MRYC in the spring regatta, but it was blowing and we opted out of both races; I think it was something about valuing her rig and not trusting green crew. You just can’t call that a regatta. I think Karen and I made up for that unimpressive showing by placing 3-1-2-1 in the four races run on Saturday. I’m genuinely grateful that Karen gave me the chance to crew for her in the regatta – I’ve been begging for crew spots all year, guys! We had a lot of luck, and thankfully much of it was good as proven by our results.

I understand the committee recorded the wind as generally coming from the northwest around 340 degrees, varying from 320 to 28 degrees true. Although the water was glass while boats were launching Saturday morning, eventually the wind did beat the forecast, being at or above 8 knots all day and often around 10-12 knots. I can tell you that I was hiked out most of the day on Saturday and it was rare that I was in the boat on the upwind legs. I’m a little too big to hike out in truly light air - at least not over the windward side.

If it weren’t for the green crew wrapping the jib around the forestay in Race 1 like a neglected spinnaker, we would have been fighting for 1st in all four races – Karen will tell you I didn’t wrap the jib, I just destroyed it. Mongo go sailing. My jib art necessitated a long delay while we reached away from the course, to give me time to (not so leisurely)unwrap the spinnaker… I mean, jib. Regardless of the great jib debacle, race one was generally pretty rough, especially on the skipper, having to call just about every adjustment in the rig on every jibe and some tacks. We managed good upwind speed on each leg to recover 2 or 3 positions after the aforementioned jib debacle, and held out own on the downwind legs. By the end of Leg 1, race 1, I was starting to get that clue and we started to be able to focus a little less on rig tweaking and more on tactics.

Race 2 was my first win on a Star boat – or any one design boat, for that matter – and I was a little too elated to really get details. We won. I think at some point I realized my job was a play-by-play commentary for the skipper which devolved into “don’t worry about it just do your thing and let’s finish as soon as possible” once I realized we were in the lead.

Race 3 saw us consulting on the Racing Rules of Sailing with other skippers – and crew –and recover a 2nd place finish from Don at the finish line on port-starboard rights. I like screaming starboard as much as the next guy, but I think some folks take things a little personal out there. Note I’m sidestepping the rules issue because I am not the expert. Let’s just say we disentangled ourselves and passed said consultant/consultee (sorry, Will) and ran off to find Don, on whom we got to “request” Starboard rights and take second over the line as they lost precious seconds to jibe away. Race 3 was also memorable as we seemed not to be able to find the final gear downwind and Chuck Wiley found some kind of afterburners on Elusive, passing us with extreme prejudice to the finish.

Race 4 was exciting for us as we managed to fend off other boats, including Chuck, to the finish by, I think around a 20 second lead. We had this lead earlier in the race but starting losing it as Chuck found that last gear downwind again. Fortunately Karen had a good handle on strategy and we generally found ourselves benefiting from her choice on which side of the course to race on. It seems we found ourselves crossing tacks with the fleet on most upwind legs initially, with course choice and upwind speed giving us a position or two each time we went to windward. On the final upwind leg as we approached the finish, my narration probably became incoherent, and I recall suggesting we tack over to starboard to stay between the fleet and the finish. Karen wisely – or cruelly – chose to hold port tack for a bit longer to maintain better speed and widen the lead.

Sorry I don’t remember all those play-by-plays I was narrating for Karen throughout the race; I think I was having a little too much fun and living a little too in-the-moment to record much detail. Thanks to Marshall and all the volunteers (I understand racers only outnumbered volunteers by 1 or 2 bodies). I think everyone had a great time, and I know the racing on Saturday was a lot of fun. Of course I’m biased, and no, I don’t want to talk about not racing on Sunday. I’d have rather raced Sunday, but there was no wind. In fact, there was so little wind we just rolled up the main to stop it from driving us crazy as it flogged incessantly. Clearly the race committee felt the same way and ever so wisely cancelled racing.

I believe everyone enjoyed seeing Mrs. Wiley present her daughter with the trophy donated in honor of their father and grandfather. I’m not sure it’s appropriate to make your mother cry after a certain age, but it was touching. Now, I haven’t seen a lot of sailing trophies, but the first place trophy was pretty grand! You’ll see in the picture me trying to lean closer to it. Hey, it’s not every day I get my picture taken for winning something - I wanted to be seen with the big trophy! Walking away from a regatta with my first sailing trophies (2!) was a great way to end the weekend, and I sincerely hope to do a lot more Star racing in the future. Hands down some of the best racing I’ve been involved with.