No Lido Racing

Sailing and in particular racing, requires wind. Sometimes there's not enough for racing and you wait... It happens to everyone. Other times there's too much wind. Is that possible or is it a matter of having enough experience to handle the conditions? Are you experienced? Should you have to pass a test or are the conditions you race in the test in and of itself? When we raced in the Columbia Gorge in 2005, the committee observed our collective ability during some practice racing. They used that information to gauge our ability to handle other conditions during the week and postpone racing as they saw fit. I think they did an excellent job.

The wind speed yesterday was still in the upper teens (MPH) in the late afternoon and early evening. That's doable and even fun in a Santana 20. I'm planning to race my Lido 14 with my son this summer in some weekly club races. Last night was our first opportunity now that school is out and other activities are complete. This was not Lido weather...

No body in a Lido wanted to go out. There were a several Lasers and a cat or two but no one was racing. The Lasers were just having fun reaching back and forth and they were screaming! It looked like lots of fun and Trevor was certainly chomping at the bit. He was game to head out even if there was no racing... I'm not sure he knows exactly what he was asking for... We would have been overpowered much of the time and occasionally hit by the monster puffs that were rolling through.

Now this was a bummer. I wanted to go, Trev. certainly wanted to go... but our old Lido wasn't up for it. Everyone recognized this weather was outside the range of a Lido's design. On top of that... the class rules have a 300 lb. minimum crew weight. Dripping wet as we would have likely been last night... Trevor and I come up about 50 lbs short... Not a good combo for heavy air... The anticipation of our first race together will have to wait another week.

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