Saturday's Lesson: It's The Sailor, Not The Boat

At least in some situations!

Unscientific Proof:

Take 2 Sailors -

Sailor A (let's call her, oh, Holly the Sailing Co-Chair) and Sailor B (let's call her, oh, Bonnie)...

Put Sailor A in a Laser with a radial sail.
Put Sailor B in a Sunfish.

Send them out to a little island a coupla miles out in the bay. Let's not even talk about Sailor B's getting under the bridge (it's not pretty but the wind eventually relents & gives her a well-timed puff during which she does manage the four tacks in two seconds required if she's not going to do the paddle-with-one-hand-steer-with-the-other trick which Sailor A attempts to explain while zipping around nearby).

It's not a race or anything, but Sailor A (Sailing Co-Chair w/Laser radial) smokes Sailor B (novice in Sunfish).

They eat lunch & switch boats for the return.

Sailor B thinks that perhaps this time she has a chance.

Sailor A smokes her again. Just not quite as soundly.

Sailor B has lots to learn. No surprises there, though!

It was a beautiful day out there, and as we came out from the lee of Canarsie Pol, the wind picked up enough that Holly gave me a few hints on how to get a Laser to plane. She said the wind was right on the verge, and we think I got the boat to do it for a second or too, and all in all it was a really great day. Oh, and once we got back to the dock she also let me in on some basic pointers for getting a Laser to move well downwind in light air (specifically, she mentioned they are happier sitting a bit on edge downwind in light air). Look forward to trying next time I get a chance.

Sorry no pictures, Mr. DeMello! Wow, what is it about these mean readers rubbing in the fact that my camera is now halfway across the country so I can't take pictures of either sailing, or Broad Channel (we actually landed there on Sunday's paddling excursion & the town is even quainter close-up), or the HIGHLY photogenic-looking Swoon Flotilla (now en route to NYC with stops in Croton-on-Hudson and Nyack - performance schedule here (thanks for the heads-up, DennisG, hope your sailing was as much fun as mine).