about losing a race

Posted By: Garry, Ploiarion- Seaward Fox and Mac 26; Lake Fairview Marina, Florida
Date: 7/15/09 9:48a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Seaward PHRF rating (marvin abugov)

Hi Marvin, I love the information you brought us through these posts. It is really encouraging. The other side of the coin is the races where you cannot win - period. I have been in races with my Seaward Fox where we were put in an open class. In two of these races most of the boats were Catalina 23s and one included a catamaran. After the first heat it was obvious that the rules would prevent us from ever finishing as there was a 45 minute rule - all boats not finished withing 45 minutes of the first finisher were considered to have abandoned any claim on finish rankings. The best we were able to do was to finish 50 minutes after the first place boat. even with the futility it was one of our best race days ever and I enjoyed it a lot. Learned a lot too. on another race day I had a different kind of futility. In a race that had a similar ranked boat - Niels who used to hang around this forum came to the races with his Fox. Niels was simply a better sailor than I was - and more aggressive too! He flew a big fore-sail which gave him a huge advantage but even with the same sails he would advance several yards per minute on me - again was futile - there was a possibilty of winning but there wasn't. Learned a lot that day too. btw Niels was gracious and attributed his advances on the positioning of the Jib Fairleads. Modest fellow could not bring himself to claim the prize of better sailing. Had one race where we won - it took mistakes from the big boats and we did have superior agility. and downwind we did nice - winning was good - but did not learn as much that day. peace garry