Yea Right! What an absurd premise coming from someone who's most recent regatta was spent screaming around Baltimore Harbor in a VX40, who bought a Nacra F-18 last summer primarily for the speed and who sold their Henderson 30 mostly because it took really windy King Harbor Races (which are few and far between) to enjoy the sail. And yet, last Sunday proved that it does not have to be fast to be fun.

The antithesis of fast, Santa Barbara Yacht Club's "Centennial Regatta" (the club championship) is sailed in your basic 19 foot harbor rental boats. Under powered with down sized mains, tiny flat jibs and rudders that wobble around in the post, they may be pigs, but they are very equal pigs. Bringing together the skippers of the years top scoring boats in the various classes, the regatta is a great equalizer. With no instruments, no Windex, no telltales, short starting lines, one mile windward/leeward courses and a new…, different boat each race, it may have been slow sailing, but it was pure sailing.

And what a hoot! You could not have asked for a prettier day or a better group of sailors (no collisions, no protests and no pros). Mark Noble drove our pig(s) while I trimmed the rags and tried to keep us going in the right direction. Apparently the combination worked well because the "old guys" lead the "youngsters" around with mostly bullets. Doing well notwithstanding, it was the most fun I have had sailing in years, albeit slow sailing.

Doug Deaver

01/12/07