To race my Classic Moth on Tuesday nights, I have to trailer it down to the club, rig it, race with the faster Lasers, derig it, and then trail it home. Having done this for two years, all that frantic dashing about doesn't seem worth it when you get spit out the back in quick order.....except in very light airs where the Classic Moth is competitive. But drifting racing has lost appeal in my dotage. And it's been very hot recently, even in the evening, so this makes the whole exercise a triple negative.
Well last Tuesday, John Z offered me his Laser which sits on a dolly on the SSA grounds. Combined with the break in the scorching weather and the forecast of some breeze, this looked to be a very good evening to get some dinghy racing in.
I got the Laser rigged in due order, sail up and that fancy multi-purchase vang and cunningham on, only to discover the drain plug was missing. I double checked the board bag; no plug. I called John Z and he said the plug always stayed screwed into the boat and it looked like the plug had been "borrowed". I would have to go out searching into the multitude of SSA Lasers and "reborrow" a plug for the night. Only, it turns out, the Laser can come with three styles of drain plugs and John Z's drain plug was definitely not the popular one. After going through 7 Lasers (and having to cut the ears of one plug that got stuck)..... I found a plug that fit.
All this conspired to make me very late out to the race course. I joined one race at the back after I missed the start. And the next start, I started next to the guy who led at the weather mark; promptly got schooled by these Laser hot shots in light air, rounded mid fleet, slopped downwind until the wind died, quit the race, and sailed for the club having never started or finished a complete race.
Back on shore, I hustled the derigging as my wife, daughters, and close family friend, wife and newborn were waiting for me to have dinner on the club porch. I put the rolled up Laser sail in a black tube bag on my roofracks as I rummaged around the back of my car for a change of clothes. Later that evening, my car had been moved back to the fence line with Eastport YC, out of the light. I drove off and it wasn't until the next afternoon I realized that I had dropped John Z's Laser sail off my roofracks and somewhere on the street in either Eastport, downtown Annapolis, or the road out of town. Six days later, despite walking most of the route, handing out fliers, talking to all and sundry, the sail remains gone.....
I curse my stupidity to the high heavens!
P.S Mr. ..Mrs. or Ms. Schofield; you will pleased to know your "reborrowed" drain plug has been returned safe and sound.
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