Waxing on about Waning Wednesday Night Racing
by Lynn Fitzpatrick on 28 Sep 2007
The best dressed crew at Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club’s awards party for the annual Wednesday Night Racing Series. Lynn Fitzpatrick
September 26th’s full moon brought everybody out for the last of the Wednesday night summer racing series throughout North America. While there weren’t any werewolves, monsters, witches or Dracula look-alikes on the water last night, pirates, Parisians and drag queens boarded boats in time for the 6:00 pm start of the final race of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club’s Wednesday night series. Everyone threw their spinnakers up for a downwind start.
The fleet squeezed through Two Rock and then out into The Great Sound. Boats with costumed crews rounded a leeward mark and headed back home as fast as they could. While some of them were trying to secure another trophy for the season and others were trying to improve their scores for the series, many were eager to get back to the club for the end of the season awards presentation/ barbecue/ costume party.
Does it sound like a Sailapalooza? In a way, it is. While Bermuda is surrounded by water and has a rich sailing history, expats comprise a large portion of the Island’s active sailing community. One way or another, sailors from all over the Island and the World, find their way onto one of over 30 keelboats ranging in size from an Etchells 22 to larger PHRF boats. The season starts in early May and runs through the end of September. That’s twenty Wednesday nights and one really long regatta!
At the awards ceremony, the regatta organizer and the crowd recognized the boat that came in DFL, with a series score of 999 points, with the same fervor as the team that was low point for the summer. The biggest cheer, however, was for the boat that was mid-fleet. It seemed that everyone agreed that it’s easy to get out in the lead and keep it, but to be in the middle of the fleet and to be tacked on, gybed on and covered all of the time, that’s something that deserves an award! Also deserving of awards were the best dressed crews.
Whether you’re in Newport, New Orleans or Long Beach, you are sad to see you’re Wednesday afternoon escape from jail pass invalidated until next spring. You’ll miss the organizational telephone calls and e-mails. You’ll miss the camaraderie on the boat, the dock and back at the club on Wednesday nights. Try not to let it stop; apply the same enthusiasm that you had for Wednesday night sailing to weekend races. Just think from Annapolis to Duxbury folks are starting to gear up for their frostbiting series.
Have fun, invite some new blood for a sail, come up with new awards and have a Sailapalooza.
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