Why I Hate Sailboat Racing

Some of you know that despite my interest in this sport (and my cockeyed insistence on keeping this site going), I have basically retired from actively racing, at least temporarily if not permanently. Here in Dago, I have done all there is to do in terms of handicap racing, and I frankly burned out, both personally and professionally.

What I quickly grew tired of was the horseshit politics involved in this sport (and I imagine probably every other sport as well). The landscape is littered with idiots of all kind, each with their own particular brand of stupidity, jealousy, agenda, bias, etc. You all know what I'm talking about - you have the same douchebags screwing with your world too, they just go by different names.

The only way I go racing these days is if A) It is going to be fun, B) It is with people that I like (and like me - a small group to be sure), and C) It is a fun boat to sail. Pretty simple, or so I thought. Now let me add one more - D) Only if the race organizers aren't idiots.

My bitch is with what should have been a fun day, but instead infuriated me to the point that I simply refused to go. The only boat that meets A, B and C for me has been the Cheetah 30 Spinout. It's not possible to have more fun than we have on that boat. So we thought it would be fun to race it in the New Year's Day Race here in Dago, a 10 mile race in SD Bay. This race consists of a short weather leg, a long run, a long beat and a short reach. The Cheetah (actually 28') rates 75 buoy, and 45 random. I don't normally pay attention to what ratings the idiots in PHRF come up with because they are almost all wrong, but I didn't sweat it anyway because this is not a PHRF race anyway, rather "arbitrary handicap", an otherwise great opportunity to run the race and issue handicaps without the apparent built-in inanity of PHRF.

This race is for all intents and purposes, a windward leeward type of race, and as such ratings that reflect a boats' ability for this format should be used. On the Cheetah, there is a good reason for a 30 second per mile difference between the buoy and random ratings: it is quick running, but not a good boat upwind. Common sense says give the boat it's buoy rating, or perhaps even dial it down a bit. Even a 60 would have been okay. And put us in the class with the B 32's, Schock 35's, Hobie 33's, etc. No, not these guys. Not only do they give us the 45, they put us in Class 4, the biggest boat class with an IACC boat, R/P 50's, all the way down to Beneteau 40.7's. We have no chance. None. Zero. The boat will get crushed off the starting line, gassed on the beat, and horribly DFL at the first windward mark, with no chance for a comeback, given the long final beat.

I called the PRO, voiced my opinion, and absolutely nothing was done about it. I was so completely pissed off by this, I called the boys on the Cheetah and said "fuck it" - no way was I going to spend my day "racing", knowing that we had been screwed before we even left the dock. The boat went without me, got punished in light air almost exactly as I said, and ended up dropping out.

I'm not whining, I'm just telling you this is the kind of stuff that I can't stand about this game. I've been around long enough to know right from wrong, and this just sucked. It only confirmed that spending my weekends with my two fine sons learning how to boogie board, or hiking or playing baseball is a fuck of a lot more rewarding than being subjected to the same horseshit that I was hoping might have changed.

Wrong again.