[alfa] Clubs and old farts

[C M Smith <cmsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When I joined my local sailing club 20 or so years ago I thought I was 
pretty fast until my first few races against the old farts. Funny thing was 
they were mostly pretty generous in telling me how slow I was and why (at 
least it seemed generous at the time, maybe they were just laughing at me) 
and as I paid my dues I became faster. Eventually, I began to beat the 
fastest guys. Then I became the mentor and started telling and showing the 
younger members what they were doing wrong, why and how to fix it. Why do 
we share these go fast secrets? Because the whole point is enjoying close 
competition. How much fun is it to continually blow the doors off a slower, 
less skilled club member? What's truly satisfying is getting beat by one of 
those young lions after he accepts your advice and uses it against you. A 
truly rejuvenating experience you know.

Some of those old farts who taught me so well are now dead. I remember 
their tremendous knowledge base and skill to this day and keep building on 
it. They live on in the techniques they taught me and in those same 
techniques I am now teaching the young bloods hot on my transom. It's a 
blast, especially when they finally whip you.

Why? Because we all joined the club for our love of sail boat racing, truly 
one of the world's most absurd but best loved and oldest sports. Imagine if 
you will a group of otherwise mature adults seeking a few tenths of a mile 
per hour out of a conveyance that maxes out at around 15 mph under truly 
insane sailing conditions (more usually crawls around at 5 mph), all the 
while trying to keep ahead of someone doing maybe a tenth of a mile an hour 
less for a distance of anything up to  a couple of miles or so (dinghy 
racing, of course there are much longer distance races in bigger boats that 
are nearly as slow). Crazy. But we love  the sport and the boats we use.

As for the age of the car and the age of the club member affecting your 
relationship with other club members, anyone who thinks that acting your 
age is relevant to something done for fun is really troubled IMHO.

Cheers


Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
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