Sailing 2019

Everything hurts today. Pushed myself too hard yesterday crewing for my dad on his new boat (a Wayfarer newly dubbed "THX 1138: Stay Calm." Did I mention my dad is an awesome nerd like me?). But we want to do well at the Clark Lake Regatta in a couple weeks, so practice practice practice.

But ow my ankles and lower back. One of the primary things crew does on a two-person boat is act as intelligent ballast; at most points of sail, the closer to horizontal you can keep the boat, the faster you will go, but the wind is trying to roll you around the long axis of the hull ("heel") so you have to put weight on the windward side of the boat. In strong enough wind ("heavy air"), this involves sitting on the edge of the boat ("rail"), hooking your feet under a strap inside the cockpit ("hiking strap"), and pushing your body out as far as you can away from the boat ("hiking out"). So basically I spent most of Sunday afternoon effectively holding a 200 pound sit-up, by my ankles.