It Was Inevitable

Part of The Underway Gourmet by Suzy O'Keefe(aka Derrie Aire")

Well, I suppose it was inevitable. Two such people in San Francisco Bay at the same time. Two such people at the Yacht Club at the same time. We had to end up on the same race boat at the same time. Max Ebb and Derrie Aire racing together on the Bay! (Oh yeah, Lee Helm was there too ;-)

Before I get too carried away though, let me say that Max didn't win the race but I did manage to drag my derrieair in the bay... neither incident having much of anything to do with the other.

Ah, March on the Bay, sunny but cold with the threat of Small Craft Advisories. A perfect day for a race on the Bay! There were 5 of us on board one of those little one design boats - three experienced racers though not necessarily in their normally assigned positions, one who was a Lido type of a guy, and me who before that week had not sailed on anything smaller than a 30 footer. Funny, I thought Max preferred something a little larger too. It was quite a mix.

Max elected to drive. A.G. manned the foredeck today and laughed at his own ability to "knit one/pearl two". Lee took Joey under her wing and made sure he knew the ropes. She seemed to enjoy telling him all about the boat. In fact, I don't think she ever stopped talking! I was, well, I was there to observe a free floating self-tacking device that had caught my attention the day before, to do what I could to assist the foredeck, and serve as rail meat... all 106 lbs of me. I think this self-tacking device was Lee's brainchild and had been under development for a while. Like me, she believes in the full scale model. Use your creation for a while, modify it, and when you get it right make it permanent. Max winked and dubbed this version the "Mark IV B". I'm impressed with how well it works and I've had some experience with this kind of thing (several hundred miles of sailing with a free-floating double pole/sail rig). I think that's how I came to be invited aboard. It was quite an honor to be asked to race with this crowd!

Now I'm much more of a cruiser than I am a racer and I don't (yet) own one of those hi-tech self inflating harnesses. I hate the ugly and bulky orange C G approved type so I chose to wear more of a windsurf vest. It was a good thing too, since I had to shinny or limbo under the boom every time we tacked or jibed. I don't know how many of you are familiar with little boat racing, but there was barely room between the boom & the cabin top for this maneuver even for me!

This was a 2 race event with the first one getting underway about 11:00. Not much breeze at the start, less in the middle and nearly too much on the downwind leg. I had a perfect vantage point to observe what I wanted to see. The jib tacker had a dozen or so blocks of various sizes and about a mile of string, but it required almost no attention. Cool! You'll have to wait to read about the specifics in Max's column though.

Max skillfully piloted us to the left side of the course. No wind. Next the right side of the course and again no wind. The rest of the fleet managed to do the opposite and faired far better than us. They also found the overabundance of wind on the downwind leg as we watched several spinnakers dip their vessels to broaching & beyond up ahead of us. Max had no problem controlling the spinnaker, but we were already too far behind to catch up. I'd been back & forth under the boom dozens of times by then. On one of the jibes, however, I found that the lack of non-skid on the cabin top coupled with the lack of nonskid on the front of my foul weather gear and the narrowness of the slot under the boom... well, this is where I slid down the cabin top and off the starboard side of the boat! Stubborn, as I tend to be, I had no intention of being the focal point of a MOB drill.

The underside of the boom had caught my life vest as I scooted on my belly toward the port side. My fingers touched the aft lower but didn't catch hold. Fingertips drug over the lip of the hatch and kept right on going. As my feet touched the water, I was able to grab the stanchion just ahead of the cockpit with my right hand. (Although that was on my left, I guess I just knew that there was absolutely nothing to grab forward of that.) Outside the boat and holding on with one hand, my lower half was in the water. This is a 25 footer remember. There isn't a whole hell of a lot of freeboard even when you're not on the low side! My left hand grabbed the lifeline immediately and I got my left leg back on the boat before anyone else had me. I got my right leg back on board and felt lots of hands holding on to me. Everyone was yelling "I've got you!" and "I won't let go!" Everyone except for Max! He was yelling "No swimming allowed during a race!"

At this point only my derrieair was dragging in the water. They pulled and I strained, but I had to get the group to let me bring my arm around the stanchion before they could get me back into the cockpit. You see, the configuration of the lifeline and the other spaghetti running around the boat had made the spot I had selected to put my legs through absolutely the tiniest little triangle possible for getting back on board. Once I got my arm around the stanchion, I was home free and pulled back into the cockpit only wet from the butt down! 20 seconds! Just 20 seconds, that's all it took, but may I say that it was MOST memorable for all concerned!

I don't think anyone could believe that I had held on or that I was only wet from the waist down. Oh, my long hair got wet also since it had taken a splash, but I was back in business after I cleaned the spray off my sunglasses. Yep, even managed to keep my glasses! I consider myself most fortunate... I made a good grab and held on, Max knew just what to do with the tiller, and everyone pulled me back aboard. I got some verbal resistance (and abuse) when I tried to come topsides right away (mostly from Lee), but after a few minutes, I asked Max "permission to come back on deck?" He read my condition correctly. I was not chilled, scared, or out of action. Thankful for his vote of confidence, I eagerly resumed my position on deck. Later, Lee confided that she'd been "in the water" once herself. "Like, it happens!"

We finished in the toilet - 5 minutes behind a boat that started 5 minutes after we had! Yeah, I felt bad about my acrobatics at the rail, but we had lost fair & square even without my help and there was still the 2nd race to win.

We were all sure we'd nailed the start and held a good lead all the way. We were smoking! I think I heard 11 kts, but then maybe it was just the wind in my ears. We did a well executed takedown just off the committee boat. (I'll bet there's a great photo of that maneuver somewhere.) Needless to say, this time our spirits were high! The marina was in the same general direction so we re-hoisted the chute and didn't drop it again until we were just off the entrance. A bit of cleanup/put away dockside and all of us were off to the Yacht Club (well, I did take a minute to dry my derrieair ;-)

Max and the rest of the crew were in the corner with a pitcher of Margaritas but the mood seemed a bit off. "We were over early...3 seconds" A.G. said. "How could that be?" "We screwed up!" A.G. was really bummed since he had called it, but the rest of us had agreed with him. "Musta been that J-Boat that was over early" we'd all said as we heard the horn. So much for being the boat in that sail advertisement this year!

I didn't see Max or Lee the next morning, but A.G. came looking for me to race on another boat. I found my upper body to be more than a little sore so I begged off. I guess catching a 106 lb falling object exercised a few muscles I don't normally use! But, would I race on a 25 footer again? You bet! Next time though, I'll be a bit more prepared for the fact that I need nonskid in places other than the bottom of my shoes, and I'll wear my life vest inside my foulies.

Derrie Aire
Untanned and Waterlogged in the SF Bay