Hooray for Team La Vita!

Wow - this Wednesday's 'beer can' race was just magical for Team LaVita, which is composed of Ralph, his son Scott, and Scott's neighbor, me. It was so breezy when we sailed out to the race course that Scott put a reef in the main. The weather settled a bit so that we were able to shake out the reef prior to the start. It was a nearly perfect night, weather-wise and team performance-wise.

For example, each time Scott attached or moved the whisker pole on a downwind leg, he actually snapped the shackle at the end of the pole onto the genoa clew without even touching the sail and usually on the first try!! He was like Robin Hood Daffy Duck or something -- minus the smack upside the beak at the end. "Ho, Ha-Ha, Dodge, Parry, SNAP!" Beautiful.

As for me, the genoa was (semi-consistently) well-trimmed during the entire race. My real superhero move was when we tacked the boat, and I released the genoa on the port side, trimmed it on the starboard side, and then trimmed the mainsail, adjusted the traveller, and tightened up the adjustable backstay -- all with minimal flailing! I'm sure that it was just a one-off, so I'm feeling more surprised than smug about the whole thing.

And Captain Ralph? He is always a rock star. He skippered La Vita to a 2nd place finish in our fleet for the first race of the summer series. I wonder what color flag we'll win for this series? I hope that it is my favorite color.