| Local
Knowledge Boy Scouts  Normally
when you race on a 78' boat like Scout Spirit you
would expect to see the usual paid guys with a
couple of the owner's friends on board, but not
in this case. We had a mixed crew of 25, 18 or
so were under the age of 18. The crew arrived at
10:30 and started rigging the boat. Now some of
these guys have only looked at this when it was
on the dock and had no experience racing a boat
of this size, and there were only 5 or 6 of us
that knew how it was all supposed to be done. The
kids picked it up in a heartbeat, setting up after
guys, spin sheets etc. The boat left the dock at
about 11:30 and headed out to the start line. San
Diego Harbor is pretty big, but you should have
seen the nervous faces of these kids when they
came around the corner and saw over 140 boats weaving
in and around each other. We got clear of all the
boats, raised the main and put up the medium jib
for some practice. We did a few tacks and jibes
and then got ready to start.  We
pulled off a good start and unfurled the masthead
Genoa for the first reaching leg. We rounded the
mark with Stark Raving Mad Right on our tail and
hoisted our Spin. We continued down wind and did
an awesome douse for these guys not knowing what
a spinnaker douse was. Again we hoisted the medium
jib and did a beat until we got back in the harbor
where the wind completely shut off. We lowered
the jib and brought up the masthead Genoa again
and were doing 3.3 knots in .3 knots of wind. We
finished at around 4:00 in the afternoon and headed
back to our slip. The kids were very proud of themselves,
as they should have been. I was very impressed
with the way they handled themselves and the way
they took every obstacle head on. Good Job to all
you guys! Photos by Da
Woody!
Anarchist
Tyler Wolk, Age 17 |