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Rolex Day 1 – Eat Some Pasta, Have Some Rasta, Sail a little Fasta…. »
March 25, 2011
I am writing this report post Day 1 from the St Thomas Rolex Regatta with my toes in the sand at the St Thomas Yacht Club which has more bars serving rum per square foot than I have witnessed before. I guess when it is 85 and sunny everyday, you get used to just relaxing and having a good time every minute of the day.
At our crew dinner last night, our fearless team owner Mark Plaxton gave the team a rousing pep talk at what normally would be a quiet, peaceful restaurant. If you spend more than 2 minutes with Mark, it is not hard hard to figure out that his native land is Canada, but it does take a little bit longer to fully realize that he embodies true Canadian spirit. Whilst giving his “fire-up” speech last night, he informed the team that he wanted us to channel the strength and might of the Canadian Military. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to laugh at this point, but I thought he was pulling all of our legs, and when he felt I was challenging the might of the Canadian Military, he decided to put me in my place. Disclaimer: Mark may or may not have been caught in a rum squall earlier in the day.
Mark (with a deep Canadian Accent): “Have you seen the Canadian Military? Do you know what they have done???”
Me: “No. I thought the extent of the Canadian Military was guys with top hats riding horses who can’t carry guns.”
Mark: “Well, let me just remind you of a little historic fact. Many think it was the Americans who rose to the occasion in WWII. What people dont know is the Canadians put down their hockey sticks, outflanked the Germans to the left, and took them all out.”
Me: “…………………………….” While still trying to figure out if he was serious or not, I took another look at him and realized that I could not test his passion at this point, and it was better to just stand down, and cheers the might of the Canadian Military. A rousing speech it was, and our goal for the first day of the Rolex Regatta was to fight like a military that we were not even sure existed.
The breeze was much lighter than expected, and as we thought, both us and the other Melges 32 in our division shot out to the front of the fleet in both races. The other boats we are racing against consist of a few Melges 24s and a Henderson 30 which kept things interesting all day as we had to not only try to keep the other 32 behind us, but sail well against the clock. Both races we did a good job in tight places of getting around Jurakan, but in the 2nd race we did not do a good enough job with the rest of the fleet and while we crossed the line first on corrected time, we lost out to a 24. We settled for a 1,2 on the day which is good enough for the lead, but with more tricky courses, and sailing in and out of islands that do crazy things to the breeze, we will have our work cut for us.
Full results here. Here is to hoping the Canadian Military can keep it strong throughout the weekend.
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