Thursday, August 21, 2008

Lame duck

Well, my class presidency is expiring. Nige will take the ball next year and run with it. I'm glad the IMCA-USA is back up and in operation after a 30 year hibernation. Frankly, the only reason that I accepted the president's position is that I wanted to sail a home made boat at this year's worlds with a USA sail number (requiring a ISAF plaque, etc.) Despite my efforts I think that home builders are still second tier when it comes to easily accessing the class organization. The guys with a home built boat are by and large still trying to figure out how to get a working set up, and then how to optimize it. If you buy a BR you just show up and race. The boat is hunky dory out of the box and there's even a published trouble shooting guide. Match your set-up to those of the fast boys and then just sail.

Maybe the blue man group on the right coast (Bill, Gui and I) consists of folks that want to do it the hard way. Maybe we just can't find the big bucks for the production equipment (although if truth be told, I'm afraid to add up my mothing expenses from when the project started to now. As Big George said, it's like raising kids - you really don't want to know how much it costs.) At any rate, we're for sure behind the likes of Bora and crowd. I'll keep plugging away and showing the boat. Even my less than polished efforts garner lots of enthusiastic comments. "So maybe this duck isn't so lame after all," he says as he flys off into the sunset...

3 comments:

Doug Culnane said...

You may not want to know how much it costs (like bringing up your kids) but at least as a home builder you know they are your kids ;-)

Joe Bousquet said...

Yep, sometimes unruly but you love 'em anyway.

phillippe oligario said...

I agree with Doug! It's just a time of change and maybe having BR around has raised the bar but it's not insurmountable and it does mean there is a very close relationship with your kids which is the envy of everyone in Britain at the moment! (I love my modified mistress 1!)