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Published: October 8th 2007
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Extreme
Borrowed Photo Given to me by a new friend, Sindy who is currently traveling somewhere else (Africa, I think) in the world. Yesterday, Ben’s Metal Tech teacher called me and invited me to go sailing. It seems he and Ben were visiting one day, and he mentioned to Ben that he sailed. Ben said, “My Dad likes to sail.” So, I got invited to participate in a Sunday race. Ian picked me up, and off we went to the Tauranga Yacht Club marina. Oh my, what a boat. I’ve never sailed, nor seen anything like it. The boat is named Extreme, and it lives up to its name. Designed by New Zealander Jim Young, it is 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. That is wide. It is also very light. Extreme has a bulb keel on a dagger board. It extends only about 5 feet - not much. The mast is tall and it carries lots of sail. That means it is a tender boat and it has been known to capsize. Off wind it can plane at over 20 knots. That’s very fast for a monohull. The boat is owned by seven guys who have sailed together over ten years - a syndicate. Previously they raced a slightly smaller boat successfully, but they were not winning as many races as
Extreme
Compact but Muscular. they wanted too. One evening after imbibing, it was decided that a newer and bigger boat was needed. One of the guys said, “I know of a boat in Auckland” - a classic sailor’s tale. Most of the guys are my age or older. The only young guy was on the foredeck. Good choice - expendable. You can fall off the boat when you’re on the foredeck. On arrival, we readied the boat for sail by fitting all of the running rigging. Then the majority of us were instructed to move to the port side and hike out so that the boat would heel over. While standing on the dock, Ian scrubbed the bottom of the boat, including the keel. I wondered if we could flip the boat while in the slip. The bottom was clean and required no scuba or anyone getting wet - fantastic. The cockpit of the boat is wider than our bed room. It needs to be since eleven of us were sailing. My main function was rail meat, a duty I have performed on a variety of boats. This boat, although relatively large, sails more like a dingy. The four of us on the rail
Extreme Stern
Sorry Mom. This is a Testosterone Infused Boat. It makes up for the Rum infused crew. (Post Race Only - It's Serious Fun) had to constantly shift and move around to keep the boat sailing at the proper angle of heel. Each tack required us to jump off the rail and run around the back between the jib and mainsheet trimmers and the main sheet track in the center of the cockpit, without tripping, falling, or bumping into someone. It looks a bit like a Chinese fire drill. I knew that the skills I learned as a pulling guard in high school football days would come in handy at some point. I was not expecting that my abs would get a work out on a thirty foot boat. Our main competition, “Frenzy” is also an aggressively designed boat with flaring side decks like “Extreme.” It does not look as beamy and my hunch is that its keel may be deeper. On paper it is a faster boat and has to give us time on the course. My thoughts are that Frenzy is faster up wind, but we should be faster down wind. This proves to be true. We boogered the start, but made it to the first mark in the lead. At one point we overlapped “Frenzy” and their skipper said something about
Not a great photo except for bragging rights.
This is the first opportunity I had to get my camera out during the race. I was standing in the companion way inside the boat ready to pack the spinnaker as we rounded the mark. Yep, everyone else is way back there. No camera tricks. being careful if we were going to sail with the big boys. I miss hearing racing smack. There was lots shouting, “Room at the Mark” and “Starboard!” The use of Kiwi slang was abundant. I could not understand it all, but the intent was usually clear. Frenzy pointed a little higher but we maintained better boat speed and got our share of favorable wind shifts. It was real close until we rounded the mark for the down wind leg. Up went the huge red spinnaker, down came the genoa. Then, we spanked the fleet. Sail boats are pretty to look at. Sailboats flying spinnakers are beautiful. The entire fleet flying spinnakers as observed from your stern - gorgeous. Frenzy made up a lot of time on us on the next windward leg. The last run was also down wind and up went the spinnaker, again. We finished with the benefit of hearing the signal canon first. A few “atta-boys” was all the celebration mustered. The spinnaker was dropped on hearing the gun. The motor was started and the mainsail dropped. We were back at the slip within a few minutes. The customary rum was rationed. The skipper analyzed the race
Extreme Competition
Frenzy as seen after we rounded the mark, packed the chute, and I was able to get back on the rail. I don't think they usually get this view. for the purpose of improving performance in the next race. Interesting, he commented twice on the amount of gear crew members brought on board, concerned about the unnecessary weight. He did not complain about the amount of rum brought on board, which easily out weighed all of the crews’ personal gear.
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