Show Me dueled a little with Tom and Tommy Dyll’s Lightning Hare on Fire. We entertained offers of crew swapping from No Not Yet, and provided constructive criticism to Black Jack Pete as to ways he might get off of our air. Well behind the black and yellow spinnaker of Ole Yeller, and watching Hot Lips (yes, Carlton and Aggie named their spinnaker) on Just Us disappear into Sunset Harbor we became philosophical. Diane went so far as to open a beer, which immediately resulted in a back winded genoa, and complete stoppage.  We recovered painfully and struggled to the last mark of the course and the last four hundred yard reach to the finish. The wind quit. Then it came in from behind, before we could set the pole, the wind backed all the way to the nose. By now Brent and Maryann had overcome the severe handicap of the 29erXX Wile E and were becoming a threat. As they rounded the last mark behind us they raised their asymmetrical spinnaker and we smiled. Diane had another sip of beer, the wind quit again, the 29er chute disappeared back into the hull of the little boat, and our smiles vanished. Wind, plenty enough to finish was right over there, close enough to touch with Andy’s whisker pole. Would we get it in time to avoid losing another place?  Just telling this story has made me almost as tired as I was by then. We finished, did not lose any more places and had beers without consequences. Soon thereafter Mike Padgett and Kristin Cole  sailing there new San Juan 21 Eloiserounded the last mark and announced that they were still married.

Mike Padgett and Kristin Cole sailing Eloise

On the beach there were trophy’s cleverly disguised as bottles of Cruzan Rum with pictures of the most interesting man alive and a quote, “When I sail, I don’t always race, but when I do I always win”, or something very similar.

A little more wind or a little more consistency might have improved the racing but I don’t think anything could have improved the event. The scores will have to be provided by the Ocala Sailing Club as I did not remember to get a copy. One of the best things about this event for me personally was being coincidentally seated across from Jim Edens at dinner, the Nacra 6.0 skipper and overall winner. A short discussion revealed that I have a F-31R as short discussions with me generally do, and much to my delight, Jim let me know that he is building a F-22.  If you are familiar with trimarans at all you will surely be aware that Farrier designed  trimarans are arguably the finest trimarans designed and built in the world and the F-22 is soon to be (as predicted by me) the most popular sailing trimaran in the world. Naturally Jim and I had much to talk about and I hope will have many more opportunities.  As the evening closed, my conversation with Ann Simms helped me select my music for the trip home. Electric Ladyland filled the suburban at volumes reserved for special occasions.  A smooth, safe, and loudly satisfied ride home, punctuated with an immediate deep sleep at the end. Some days are better than others, not many are better than this one.