Wingssail Home Wingssail Images LogBookPages Map of our travels Index Email Fred & Judy

Sunday, September 02, 2007

August 25, 2007-Day 3

Western Circuit Regatta, Raffles Marina.

wingssail image-fredrick roswold
Prestart

I gave this all up once, this hard core racing. We had enough, sold the sails, put on a dodger and wind vane, went cruising, retired, put it behind us. We had little left to prove after 10 years in the Seattle racing scene. No regrets. Move on.

We cruised in the South Pacific for the next ten years, did a few pickup races in places like Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji. Raced quite a few times in Hong Kong, did OK. We had a good time but none of them was a serious attempt at racing, it wasn’t hard core, it was just fun, we didn’t care if we won or lost.

Now we’re in Singapore, and we’re back at it again, starting over, rebuilding. We’ve got new crew, new sails, and we’re relearning skills lost in the intervening 10 years since Seattle.

We are struggling some. Not struggling to race; struggling to win. That’s hard. It always was, but we want to do it, want to win. Racing is about winning, or it is for me.

Now that the Western Circuit, the first real test, is behind us we see that this is going to be tough. We did OK on day 2, on the long windy passage race, but the short courses on the other two days were hard and the light boats smoked us. That and we had some mistakes. It added up to a last place in the standings; not where I want to be.

wingssail image-Judy Jensen
Start


I know about these things: You just keep working at it and one day it all comes together. Maybe King’s Cup; maybe.

The crew?

I love them. They are doing great. They can get the boat through any maneuver, they stay cool, they take orders, they’re having fun. I am sure if you asked any one of them about Western Circuit and the six races, they would say it was great. It was.

But I have my sights set on higher things.

Click here for more images from the Western Circuit Regatta

Click here to go to the event website.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Singapore

Labels: , , ,

1 Comments:

Blogger Matt said...

Great posts! Exciting to see that a Serendipity is out there competing.

The captain of our team has just picked up a 1981 SPY43 that needs some serious TLC before we'll be able to race her -- been a cruiser for a long time. It's a bit of a change for us, as we will be shifting from a Tripp 33 (very light), but we are looking to partake in more offshore events (Marblehead-Halifax and Newport-Bermuda, mostly).

Take care, and good luck with the racing.

08 September, 2007 22:11  

Post a Comment

<< Home

NEXT Page (More) , or... GO BACK to Previous Page
#