Speeches, Boatracing and thanks

by Andrew Campbell on 26 Sep 2008 Speeches, boatracing and thanks: just about sums up these last few weeks. Since coming home from China I've been in the process of tackling my small slice of real life, albeit staying as far away from an office as possible.

Beyond a failed log canoe weekend, I'll have spent three weekends making the mad Friday dash between Washington and New York for speaking engagements at Island Heights Yacht Club in New Jersey as well as Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay, New York last weekend.

Tonight I'll be at the Annapolis Yacht Club before heading back to New York this weekend to race with the 55-footer Rima2. Beyond some Sonar teamracing last weekend, and some Thursday night races under the sunsets and airplanes with the Georgetown Alumni Racing squad, the sailing has been remarkably on the backburner.

I'm very excited to jump back in as the fall season starts here. Melges 24 North Americans are set for the end of October in Annapolis and coaching will likely take up some of the on-the-water hours in the coming weeks. I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon in the county on Monday with the St Mary's College laser sailors as they get ready for their MAISA championships.

I was lucky enough to send out 215 individual thank you cards to the multitude of donors who supported my Laser sailing over the last few years. What an incredibly humbling experience, sitting in front of the post office putting stamps on that big a stack of envelopes. I wish that I could personally thank every person and their family in that pile. It would take me seven months to thank them all if I spent one night with each of them!

Filling the rest of the time is something I'm itching to do, but certainly a bit of rest is doing me good. I've been able to bridge this website into a number of columns in upcoming editions of Sailing World Magazine, so we'll see where that goes!

The winter season is the next item on the agenda. I'm looking into some Melges 32 racing, debating heavily whether to get involved in some Star sailing this winter and trying to sort out whether or not to charter my Lasers for the winter in Florida before I put them up for sale. If anybody has any interest in winter charters or two good Lasers please feel free to contact me at campbellsailing(at)gmail.com.

www.campbellsailing.com