Saturday, March 17, 2007

Rapscallion vs. The Dutch Mafia




Sometimes the Secret Societies disagree with my mutant perspective. That's ok. I realize not everyone can think like me, that would simply be crazy! In this case the dutch mafia at the Yacht Club is putting the squeeze on my serial contrarianism. I bought Rapscallion because she was a whole lot of bang for the buck. Basically she was half price; cosmetically rough, but a sound and accomplished racer. I brought her back to a town that had a fleet of these boats - the only one design Laser 28 fleet in the country actually. Last summer the racing was a whole lot of fun. I raced my own boat sometimes and I crewed on Warbird, the laser 28 I started on the rest of the time. I caught some guff for not racing my boat all of the time; the fleet numbeers had to remain high I was told... OK!, I grinned as I raced on Warbird some more. I spent the rest of the time teaching the Wife how to sail. We would cruise every chance we got. I was sailing every day. It was a great summer! I also took Ali on some races with my Dad on his boat. He sails on a smaller lake near by. Lake Winnebago is much more forgiving than Michigan; smaller waves, slower boats, and the sailors are not as high strung.

The gruff began when I started to talk about moving my boat to Winnebago. The Dutch Mafia and the One Design-da-niestas began to balk and growl. "Think of the fleet man!" were the nicer comments, the rest were worthy of SA poop fights. I have grown immune to banter of that nature, only monkeys fling their own poop. I like monkeys! I also started to modify the boat in order to make it more wife friendy. Furling jib, Genny with a dousing sock - with the idea i could race with the wife - and make it a little easier on us. No one design for Raps? The Peanut Gallery cried "Wimpy Wimpy Wimpy"

But now the mob has reached a frenzied apex when I decided a small two seater trimaran was the platform I was gonna race with the Pirate Librarian. They started acting like I was trying to steal all of their rum and their birthdays at the same time!!!
It's OK Dutch Mafia, It's OK.

The YC has a Ban on multi hulls at the moment, thanks to a recient degrangolade involving a 20+ year club member who bought a boat with two many hulls. The Tri guy quit the club, and doesn't race. He can't. I'm a big fan of windmills and wooden shoes, but if those clogs were meant for walking... down the dyke that leads to the darkside -they are gonna walk without Raps skipping gleefully behind.

The only serious bugger at the moment is the fact my boat is "stuck" because I don't have a trailer yet. I would pull the ride and race on the little lake this year without batting a belfry. Better yet, I should chop off the keel and make it trailer launchable so i don't need a YC crane to launch it, and it would also put an end to this one design sillyness once and for all. But all of these plans are based on possibilities that depend on my future employment... that origami future has yet to unfold. So, I guess I'll smile while I ride my skooter through the storm of monkey poop. After all, it is a beautiful day, the sun is shining, and I love monkeys!

In the meantime, I'm penning the mission statement of the Sheboygan multihull sailing club!!! My own Secret Society!
no dues, you don't even have to like boats to join! My kind of YC!

2 comments:

Tillerman said...

Ahah! The perennial tension in sailing clubs between the "let's build decent sized fleets of a few one-design classes" and "let freedom reign - everyone should sail whatever class they like".

There is no right and wrong. And I suspect the argument will continue for ever. I'm more of a one-design guy myself but I do see the other point of view.

Let the poop throwing commence.

"Raps" said...

I agree with you tillerman. OD sailing is where it's at if you are into racing. The answer in my mind is race the L28 one design and "race" the tri with the wife where ever they would let me play with such a crazy contraption. I should have just bought the little laser. But after owning a Mistral IMCO - a 30lb board with a 7.4sq meter sail the laser would have seemed like more work for less speed. But the one design racing would have been second to none.