{"id":1517,"date":"2013-02-03T20:25:30","date_gmt":"2013-02-03T20:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=1517"},"modified":"2023-09-21T00:19:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T05:19:25","slug":"racing-bahamas-sloops-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=1517","title":{"rendered":"Racing Bahamas Sloops. Crazy!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the best way to begin this post is to say that I am sore.\u00a0 My arms, back, hands and just about every muscle in my body hurts.\u00a0 So, what caused this discomfort Bob, you say?\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, you guessed it, I sailed on Thunderbird<\/em> again yesterday for three races.\u00a0 \u00a0On top of the muscle sores, I have plenty of \u201cboat bites\u201d (that\u2019s racer talk for bruises thanks to Thunderbird<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, the bumps and\u00a0bruises\u00a0hurt but they are totally worth it.\u00a0 What a kick in the pants.<\/p>\n

Yes, and my head hurts a bit too although that\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0from banging it into the boat. \u00a0 It\u2019s well, from banging my head into a Klick,, a local Bahamian bear, actually a number of them.\u00a0 Having said that, I\u00a0didn’t\u00a0have more than a few, so to have a headache from that is pathetic in itself.\u00a0 You\u2019d think that after so many years of practice I\u2019d do better.<\/p>\n

Yesterday was just about the most fun I have ever had on the water.\u00a0 Having said that, I am very happy that the races are over for now as I doubt that I could make it through another day without serious injury.\u00a0 I am just too little a guy to be tossed around on these boats for too many more races. Additionally, those who will get into cruise ship or boat accidents may consider consulting with Cruise Ship Passenger Accident Injury<\/a> experts for legal advice.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, let me give you the gist of all this sloop racing stuff.\u00a0 Ok, you start by anchoring your boat along a line between two\u00a0buoys,\u00a0 the starting line.\u00a0 Each boat, and there were nine of them racing, dropped an anchor, actually a\u00a0grappling\u00a0hook, and let out enough line to fall back to a spot just below the starting line. Once this is done, and it takes longer than you’d think to make this happen, the race begins.\u00a0\u00a0 The lining up at the start is as much a part of the race as the sailing as the captains\u00a0jockey\u00a0for the best spot on the line.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most curious of all, although not\u00a0surprising\u00a0is that all of the captains cram their boats into the favored end of the line and when there\u00a0isn’t\u00a0any more room, the latecomers just pick up and move the starting line\u00a0buoy\u00a0so that they can squeeze in. \"\"<\/a>Off we go. \u00a0You can see how small the sail is given how windy it was. \u00a0Imagine if a full size sail was used? \u00a0That’s a really tall mast.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>I doubt that the United States Sailing Association would encourage the moving of marks.\u00a0\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s just a \u201cBahamas ting mon\u201d.\u00a0 All the while there is constant yelling from one boat to another about any perceived infraction.\u00a0\u00a0 Believe me, there is nothing said here that\u00a0isn’t\u00a0done in a raised voice.\u00a0\u00a0 At one point I asked our captain just how pissed off this other captain was at us.\u00a0 His answer was that they were long time great friends, laughed and began yelling back at the top of his voice again.\u00a0 I\u2019d say that with friends like that I\u2019d be very wary of real enemies.\u00a0 More on that later.<\/p>\n

So, when all of the\u00a0jockeying\u00a0is finally done, the boats are settled and the gun goes off.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s when all hell breaks loose.\u00a0 The captain yells \u201cpull boys, pull that F*%#@$% anchor, F&^%$@# pull.\u00a0 Faster, faster\u2026\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Three members of the crew pull on the anchor line as fast as possible\u00a0 and this gives the boats forward momentum so they can get going fast enough to\u00a0maneuver.\u00a0\u00a0 Once the anchor is nearly on board the sail is hoisted up and off everyone goes, on a starboard tack, always to\u00a0starboard\u00a0and always to weather.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>We’re the one with the “9” on the sail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As soon as the sail is up, actually at the same time, the long hiking boards called \u201cprides\u201d are put in place.\u00a0 These are thick heavy wooden boards, 10\u2019 long, that are rammed under the leeward gunwale against the hull of the boat so that they stick way out to weather. \u00a0These boards allow the crew to act as ballast. \u00a0Without this leverage and weight to weather, these way over canvased boats would capsize immediately and sink. \u00a0 \u00a0When you set the prides in place you\u00a0literally\u00a0launch yourself out onto the board. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Moving the prides into position is done with such violence that it\u2019s a wonder that they don\u2019t go right though the hull and out the side of the boat.\u00a0\u00a0 Believe me, the ribs in that (all of the boats are wooden) are pretty banged up from all the abuse.<\/p>\n

This close up of us hiking out on the prides gives y0u a feel for how high up from the water you are. \u00a0As the wind was very gusty, we had to scramble on and off of the prides every few moments. \u00a0Amazingly,\u00a0know one\u00a0fell overboard but some came close. \u00a0The rules require you to finish the race with the same number of crew that you start with. \u00a0That’s good.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

As you can imagine, this sort of violence reeks havoc on the boats and all are in various stages of decay.\u00a0 There was plenty of evidence of repairs done badly, if at all.\u00a0 There was also plenty of trash under the small decks including a tool box that was more like a lump of rust than selection of tools.\u00a0\u00a0 Not surprisingly, at the end of the races when we delivered the boat back to the mail boat to be shipped back to Nassau, the now soaked cotton sail was just left in a heap in the bottom of the boat. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The rigging is a mix of stainless wire and a few a few\u00a0turnbuckles\u00a0but mostly just eye splices that had thin line laced through to provide needed tension to the rig.\u00a0 Amazingly, they don\u2019t seem to get\u00a0dis-masted\u00a0and in spite of sailing in 25kts of wind, nothing major seemed to break on any boats.\u00a0\u00a0 Two boats did sink, something that I\u00a0understand\u00a0happens with some regularity to the great amusement of the spectators.\u00a0 As you can imagine, it\u2019s a bit of a project to\u00a0re float\u00a0one of these boats as they have a good deal of lead\u00a0ballast\u00a0 which has to be removed, one pig at a time prior to pumping out.<\/p>\n

On the first day it was really rough with waves breaking over the bow and running inside the boat on each weather run.\u00a0 So much water came over the bow and\u00a0leeward\u00a0side that a bilge pump is just left running to deal with the incoming flood.\u00a0 They don\u2019t even bother to have a float switch or any on-off switch for that matter on the pump.\u00a0 When we were taking on water, which was most of the time, the captain just reached under the aft deck and placed the lead on the battery.\u00a0 Note that everything is soaked with salt water which is an excellent conductor of electricity.\u00a0 The few times that I had to connect the battery lead that was always coming loose and was treated to a solid buzz of electricity up my arm.<\/p>\n

At one point on the first day we were taking on so much water that the pump\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0keep up with loads of water sloshing around in the bilge.\u00a0 Being the littlest guy aboard I was asked to bail by hand while the guys that had 100lbs on me were hiking out.\u00a0\u00a0 They say that the best bilge pump is a terrified guy with a bucket.\u00a0 However, try as I might, I\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0do much to lower the water level since my bucket was only a one quart\u00a0thermos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After a while I thought to look under the aft deck I noticed that the bilge pump \u00a0was working just fine except that the hose was split wide open so that most of the water was just squirting back into the boat. \u00a0 Duh! \u00a0Fixing this problem helped a lot.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, in the \u201ctool box”, such as it was, there was a roll, no make that a remnant of a roll of electrical tape so I was able to wrap around the two pieces of hose so that the water was again being pumped outside of the boat, where it belonged.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty obvious that the hose won\u2019t be replaced any time soon so let\u2019s hope that the tape holds out.\u00a0 Perhaps if I am lucky enough to race on Thunderbird again in the future, I will be able to check on my \u201ctemporary\u201d repair.\u00a0 So much for preventive\u00a0maintenance\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope that there is a roll of tape\u00a0available\u00a0then too.<\/p>\n

So, back to the race.\u00a0 I won\u2019t give a blow by blow, pun intended, except to say that while racing rules are important they are only\u00a0loosely\u00a0enforced.\u00a0\u00a0 One interesting example was when we were rounding the weather mark neck and neck with another boat, us outside (the correct side) and them on the inside of the mark (the wrong side), with the mark passing between us.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead of them\u00a0re rounding\u00a0the mark, as required, they just kept going.\u00a0\u00a0 No protest was filed, probably because they finished after us. Actually, there was plenty of \u201cprotesting\u201d going on but it was more like \u201cstreet court\u201d between two New York City cabbies in an accident than yacht racing.\u00a0 Pretty amusing.<\/p>\n

Other highlights included a number of close\u00a0encounters and collisions\u00a0when boats crossed a bit too close or the end of the impossibly long booms that hang out beyond the transom at least ten feet caught on another boat.\u00a0 However, the best, no make that the worse, encounter we had was at the windward mark on the second day of racing.\u00a0\u00a0 We were approaching the mark with a number of other boats and a boat approaching on a different tack held their course for a bit too long even though we had the right of way.\u00a0 As we passed\u00a0 in front of them our boom caught their\u00a0forestay\u00a0and pulled them right over\u00a0 on their beam ends.\u00a0 This was a bad thing, very bad, as they quickly flooded and headed right for the bottom.\u00a0\u00a0 The good news is that the water at the mark was only about ten feet deep so they\u00a0didn’t\u00a0have a long way to go.\u00a0 The rest of the fleet was able to dodge them and continue around the mark.<\/p>\n

The crew of the stricken boat were all yelling\u00a0obscenities\u00a0at us.\u00a0 Actually, everyone is always yelling\u00a0obscenities\u00a0but it was pretty clear that they really meant it this time.\u00a0 If we thought that they were pissed, we\u00a0hadn’t\u00a0seen anything yet.\u00a0 A few minutes after the\u00a0collision\u00a0 some guy, perhaps the owner of the now sunken boat or at least one who sympathized with their plight, powered up to Thunderbird in a large launch with a 150hp engine, waving his arms and suggesting all sorts of unpleasant things about our mothers and girlfriends.\u00a0 What seemed at first to be just one more enthusiastic Bahamanian, turned ugly when he decided that yelling\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0making his point clearly enough so he began ramming his boat into our stern.\u00a0 At first it was more of a nudge, a sort of \u201cI am bigger than you are and can prove it\u201d, sort of a bump.\u00a0\u00a0 As his rage grew, he tired of this more \u201csubtle\u201d approach and things quickly\u00a0escalated\u00a0into his running his the boat between our hull and the boom, which pulled in our rig violently and threatened to break the boom.\u00a0\u00a0 At this point profanity really got\u00a0interesting.\u00a0\u00a0 Me, I was having sinking thoughts or worse. The\u00a0situation\u00a0was going from bad to worse and it\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0looking good for us. \u00a0Finally, he backed off.<\/p>\n

However, as it turned out, his backing off was more like an enraged bull\u00a0stepping\u00a0back to begin a final charge.\u00a0\u00a0 So, next he powers up and charges for our beam.\u00a0 He struck us amidship with his bow rising up over our gunnel as if he was going to run right over us.\u00a0 I was standing, no make that couching down as low as I could as his bow rose over my head.\u00a0 Fortunately, he backed off but it sure felt like a near miss to me.<\/p>\n

Again, more swearing and disparagement of various family members but he finally backed off for good and sped off on his way, perhaps back to the bar.\u00a0\u00a0 Amazingly, no one was hurt and damage the boat was minor.\u00a0 Actually, there are so many battle scars on Thunderbird that everyone seemed to take the whole episode in stride.<\/p>\n

I heard later that the \u201coffender\u201d had been ejected from the course and that was the last it was spoken of.\u00a0\u00a0 The whole episode was amazing, actually. \u00a0\u00a0Perhaps most amazing is how quickly everyone forgot about the whole thing.<\/p>\n

After the races we took Thunderbird back to be un-rigged in preparation for her to be taken back to Nassau aboard the mail boat.\u00a0\u00a0 Then we returned to the party on the beach and what a party it was.\u00a0\u00a0 The Bahamians take racing seriously if the size of the trophies are any indication.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>On top of there were several government officials in attendance all decked out and looking very much part of the\u00a0yachting\u00a0set.\u00a0 It seems that outlandish pants are not unique to the US yachting and golfing set.\"\"<\/a>It was just fabulous fun being\u00a0 a part of such a Bahamian event with the locals far outnumbering the\u00a0cruisers.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps this\u00a0tee shirt\u00a0worn by an\u00a0enthusiastic\u00a0Bahamian says it best. \u00a0I agree the Bahamas are indeed a great country.\"\"<\/a>I’ll close with a photo of the “yacht club”. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>And, a nice shot of Pandora from the docks.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Our own little piece of paradise. \u00a0 I’m taking it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the best way to begin this post is to say that I am sore.\u00a0 My arms, back, hands and just about every muscle in my body hurts.\u00a0 So, what caused this discomfort Bob, you say?\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, you guessed it, I sailed on Thunderbird again yesterday for three races.\u00a0 \u00a0On top of the muscle sores, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1517"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13566,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions\/13566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}