Vamos! Campaigning in Camden

In which Doris finds there are four different ways to trim a mainsheet.

Black Watch has been joined by many other yachts, all crammed into Camden Harbour.

As you may by now be aware, there are two sorts of wind when sailing: not enough and too much.  Once again the regatta kicks off with not enough wind, which gives us an excellent opportunity to admire the variety of beautiful classic yachts taking part.

Our start for the first race was inconvenienced by Skittery Gusset, not as you might think an epithet that we made up for them but the real name of a yacht who decided that the minute before the biggest yachts started was the ideal time to stooge around the starboard end of the start line.  Black Watch cannot be nimble given its massive weight, but fear lends wings and we manage to bear away round her.  We read the programme afterwards: “Skitterygusset (J/46 class) She spends her days handing around Penobscot Bay and enjoying all the cruising and racing opportunities that our home waters offer.”  Hand somewhere else, mate.

It is never easy to get good pictures of racing from inside a boat, but fortunately the organisers have posted some videos and pictures here and if you click on the picture it should take you to a fabulous Vimeo slideshow by Alison Langley. When you are looking, we remind you that Black Watch is Sail 71.

On the second day the organisers started with a Parade of Sail, asking the boats to be dressed overall.  Smaller boats can buy a long string of flag bunting to do this; Black Watch does it very properly with a set of good-sized signal flags linked together.  The crew of Polly got things a bit wrong, which gave us all something to watch as we waited to file past our adoring public.

On this day the start was better, although it did follow 45 minutes of pre-start activity during which the mast team changed the headsail 4 times as the wind strengthened, died away and strengthened again.   “We are wearing them out” observed Cap’n Kyle, as the team struggled to roll another enormous headsail away – the largest ones pack down to the size, shape and weight of a commercial hay bale.

We sailed our socks off during this race, which wound its way in and out of a variety of small offshore islands each with a clump of spruce trees on it.  Cameron, the tacitician from the previous races, was not doing this regatta which meant that Doris only had three reputable sources of views on mainsheet trimming: Skyler (“bring it in here”), Joe (“ease it, ease it now, all the way out”) and Cap’n Kyle (“play the lulls like you have been doing”). In between instructions Doris was free to do her own thing, or indeed to lounge around on the deck for several seconds at a time.  Sid was kept busy hauling’ sails and packing spinnakers.

We are also gradually learning American sailing terms.  Buoys are pronounced booees, gusts are called puffs and those bone-deep bruises that you acquire are called boat bites.  The large staysail is called the Big Whomper and the smaller staysail is unsurprisingly called the Little Whomper, although those last two terms may be Black-Watch-specific.  The booees are coloured the wrong way round, so starboard buoys are red, but they are also placed the wrong way round so that when you enter a bay the starboard ones are on the left, so as long as you are not fussy about the top shapes that cancels each other out. I think.

We must confess that after three days of training, learning, racing and helpful feedback, Sid and Doris were completely wiped and did not go to the post-regatta party.  The web site shows flashing disco lights and party party.  Sid and Doris had a nice meal of fridge left overs and an early night.