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To those who know Billy-Bob Boyer (Bob Boyes), they know there is not a finer offshore sailor and mate than Bob. One of the very best downwind drivers to come from the West Coast of Cali, he is much sought after not only because of his natural brilliance in wind and waves, but because he is so good to sail with. Mellow, happy and just plain fun to be with, he defines what offshore races should be about. The other side of the coin however, is buoy racing, and Bob's skill set is not utilized in the same way: For the Big Boat Series in 'Frisco, Bob was relegated to the Sewer aboard J-Bird III! Here is his account of what went wrong in their less than stellar series.
This soldier is fortunate enough to sail on a couple of TP 52's; where the most money is spent and the talent runs deep. This year the TP 52's had their own class at the Saint Francis Yacht Club's Big Boat Series and were treated to an awesome week of sailing. As this story begins I arrived on Sunday evening with sketchy details heard third hand, to attend a meeting with the owner and other crew. With an auspicious start, only 4 out of 15 show, including the owner (who I have to say after knowing him for the last 3 years, is one of the nicest, most patient, unassuming, generous, and giving individuals I know). Were we being responsible or just being made jackasses? The owner was scratching his head… I hoped for the first but feared the latter. This was supposed to be a meeting to get acquainted and talk about anything that was needed to get us going for a Monday practice sail. To me it made sense since we were less than stellar with our Pacific Cup effort. After waiting two hours and drinking 4 or 5 glasses of wine, the meeting was cancelled. Is this the way a successful organization is run? I suppose it could be…but doubt it. We needed to be the first ones to Frisco to organize ourselves, cross our "t's" and dot our "i's" as there was a lot of that to do. Monday it's, all good. We move straight into the unglamorous work of the professional sailor. We start the day by going over all the detail work needed to complete the transformation from an offshore boat to a regatta boat. We hump the regatta sails down to the boat from our trailer (each boat has its own trailer to accommodate all the equipment and sails) and go over each one. Then we lay out each headsail, insert battens, tape batten pockets shut, bag properly and identify each bag with the proper designation. Spinnakers get unbricked, banded, properly packed, and also identified. During this process all the big headsails and all the spinnakers are checked for correct measurement stamps against the certificates. Although we carry only 100% overlaps on jibs we still carry a 5,4,3.5,3,2,1 for headsails and 4 spinnakers including .6, ½ full, .85, and a VMG. Gets to be a lot of sails in the sewer! For this race this is my domain. Anyone entering gets the stink eye. By midday Monday we are on the water with one of sailing's best coaches, Dave Ullman. As we run through our practice sail things are running like one of those funny cars a clown would drive during a parade, never knowing if the wheels will fly off. Then after 5 hours of tweaking here and there we smooth out and start doing good jobs and actually start liking the people we are sailing with. Dave brings a very calming effect to the boat and has a system that leaves you feeling respected and important no matter how menial your task may be. When we reach the dock we run through our debriefing, as we do everyday. This is where all things are open for discussion and are addressed, no matter how painful. After the first day on the water the work list grows and it seems to never get smaller. It usually grows to astronomical proportions and leaves you thinking how in the hell are we ever going to complete it even with 15, before sailing tomorrow. The new day Tuesday starts the same way we start everyday. Some work hard and others stroke it! The ones stroking it are always the ones that think they're above doing the dirty work. The others are whom I tend to hang with. As we complete our lists of details we head out for practice and put in our time on the water. Another 5-hour day of windward leeward close buoy maneuvers and we have honed our skills as a top-notch yacht. All seems well but we haven't lined up against any of our competition and have no idea of how we stack up against them. Tuesday night another work list, debrief, and we are all looking forward to getting together with our competition. Wednesday and it's the day before the show and are feeling confident and a little cocky (bad omen). We are so confident we go out and break our spinnaker pole in two! Do we have a back up pole back at the trailer? NO! Boy do we have it together… After a few phone calls on the way in, we secure a new pole from Forespar (thanks Randy), fully rigged and delivered that night from SoCal. This is some of the best service I have seen in the yachting industry! Anyway we were a little embarrassed. When we get in, the old pole is dropped off with one of our crewmembers to possibly be repaired and we head back out to practice starts. We were as far off on starting sequences as you could possibly be. Currents on the bay are hard to judge; shit we were off every time. We probably should have allowed more time for practice starts but what do I know? I was running the pit and sewer. Friday this would come back to bite us in the ass because we fouled the start boat so hard we were tangled in the anchor lines for a coupla minutes. Then we had to clear ourselves with a nice circle! There is always excitement heading into a situation where you're not quite sure where you will be placing. All is well and secure on our boat as we leave for the first race. Observing weather patterns, currents, wind shadows and other interesting things on the bay give us some clues as a game plan forms. After the gun we get pumped up to maximum. Within 5 minutes after the first start it was all decided. Yassou, an upwind rocket ship, was untouchable in over 15kts. On the first upwind leg of the first beat, it's over! Game over! No more intrigue, so long, bub-bye! First one to the weather mark in almost every race in this series wins. If Yassou can prove that it is fast in a downwind race I may become a believer. After all, we do call these thing Transpac 52's not Regatta 52's. We started, sucked and continued sucking until it was all said and done. In general we had good crew work, poor tactics, hideous starts and we all thought we could do better. Except for the some of you that have stabbed us to death (rightfully, perhaps) after our Pacific Cup debacle, we were here not only to win but also to prove that we could follow the rules and not cheat or make asses out of ourselves. In the end, despite what others may have you believe, it's all about getting the owners to drive their million dollar steeds from point A to B to C, to do it so no feelings get hurt, have a good time and be able to come back and have more fun next week with the people you call your friends. 09/18/2002 |
