Paper Cups and Rail Snacks
Sargo sailed in her first Maine regatta – competing against 15 other boats from the Rockport Boat Club, Camden Yacht Club, and Rockland Yacht Club. While not the fastest vessel in the fleet, especially in light wind conditions – Sargo and her crew certainly stood out and rightfully earned awards for the “Most Youthful Boat” and “Most Fun Boat.” Sargo recruited an experienced crew of sailors from the Rockport Boat Club Youth Sailing Program and trained them as “rail snacks” (when each weighs in around 50lbs hard to justify the term “rail meat.”) We filled Sargo’s hold with water guns, water balloons, and candy. With all that sailing talent, weaponry, and sugar aboard, Sargo was ready for battle!
We were a bit late for the 10am start off Rockport Harbor Bell – as Sargo Captain Bjorn sent Purple Narwal (Dinghy) Captain, Alice to the wrong pick-up location leaving the rest of the crew scanning the harbor and looking at their watches. However, it was uniformly agreed that getting 5 adults and 7 kids aboard was a victory in and of itself so there were not too many sad faces looking at the fleet sailing out ahead of us.
The sail from Rockport Bell to Pulpit Harbor, North Haven was in light air on a close reach. The “rail snacks” proved to be more like ping pong balls (perhaps due to the candy provisions) moving and bouncy around the boat happily. Sargo sailed along well and soon we were off Pulpit Harbor in a dying breeze. After referencing the GPS plotter and noting that our ETA went from 20 minutes, to 2 days, to infinity, it was quickly decided that abandoning Leg 1 in favor of lunch was the proper course of action.
This is when the ping-pong crew really stole the show! All went below, filled water balloons and water guns and prepared for attack. Being one of the last boats into the harbor had it advantages as the faster boats were sitting ducks rafted on anchor. Having heard Sargo’s reputation, the other boats smartly armed themselves and quickly a full-blown water fight was upon us. Given the spirited fight put up by the crew of a J’46 named Meme Chum we decided it made sense to join forces, raft-up, enjoy lunch and some frantic swimming.
Sargo had a better race on Leg 2, finishing in the middle of the pack and most importantly making it to the dock of the Camden Yacht Club in plenty of time for cocktail (and soda) hour. Perhaps the highlight of the night for the young crew members was CYC’s unsupervised “soda bar;” indeed they are sailors in training after all. The night ended with a casual BBQ, coveted paper cup award ceremony and the bunks full of 5 exhausted sleeping children and 2 happy adults.
