It's All Fun!

[Ex-Calif]

Pblais posted on another thread that it's all supposed to be fun. It got me thinking, now that the holiday rush is over, what fun we've had lately.


Thursday in brisk conditions we went out for a couple of hours late in the day. We brought the club manager aboard as we've noticed that he doesn't get invited to sail much. We've had him aboard about 5-6 times now. We always let him helm and he really seems to enjoy it. We got back after dark and finished up in the club bar.

Friday we brought the Mumm 30 alongside the pier and spent about 6 hours cleaning her. Some may recall my post about sailing the Mumm. The owner has indicated he might be in for us using it more often so we decided to clean her up as a sign of good will. Also, Saturday was going to be a twilight race and we thought the Mumm would be great. We bailed over 100 liters of water out of her, completely washed and bleached the inside of the boat. We took all the gear off (trashed a bunch of useless stuff including fishing gear?????), scrubbed the spinnaker and cleaned up the battery terminals. We threw the battery on charge.

Saturday we ended up with a crew of 7 for the Mumm plus a few other people wanting to join the twilight race. I volunteered to split the load and take our boat, two of the kids and my boat partners wife on our boat and basically gave up my seat on the Mumm which ended up with a full crew of 7 ;-(

Conditions were crappy with an overcast. We were literally moving backwards from the start line in the outgoing current - Just when we thought the race would get scratched the breeze came up 2 minutes before the start. We all knew it was from an approaching thunderstorm and knew we would sail through it in about 10 minutes. We got a good start and for those 10 minutes we paced with a J24 - Not bad for a 4,000+ pound boat. With my crew (basically single handed) I decided to furl the headsail as we approached the first squall. Good call. We got flogged pretty good and visibility got down to about 200 meters. We took a compass bearing and steered by compass for 20 minutes. Good fun - Everyone enjoyed the pelting rain! The Mumm took off with another boat at the start and after the storm the J24 was about 150 meters ahead. After the storm the wind died completely. The Mumm finished first in about 1:30. We were about 1:15 back to the club with half the race to go in calm conditions. The Mumm even went backwards for a while near the end. We aborted, got a DNF but had an awesome BBQ. About 60 people and our best turnout yet.

Sunday was another great day and we did a twilight sail in the afternoon. Hull speed for about 2 hours. The northeast monsoon has been hit and miss.

New Years day today. Winds 20G25. Took a visiting family for their first yacht ride. 5+ knots on half furled Genny alone with 8 people on board. We didn't want to much heel for first timers and had great fun. Dropped them off and ended up with 4 on board for 3 more hours. Two reefs in the main and the Genny at about 60%. Still doing 6+ knots. Great speed for our boat. We could have pushed a bit more but some of us were recovering from NYE. Out in the middle of the bay we spot a club Taipan completely turtled. No one helping out. We sail over close, drop sails, fire up the engine and pull up. All they needed was a long line to throw over the hulls to get some leverage. We tossed them a 30 foot line and stood off. We called the club and they had already dispatched a "rescue" boat. We were about 30 minutes away. Eventually they got her on her side and water started draining from the mast. The rescue boat showed up and when it was clear they were OK we took off.

Yes - It's all supposed to be fun and it pretty much is...

[Joli]

Good to hear you have the Mumm program up and running! You will enjoy sailing that boat.