Sailing Anarchy Podcast #11. Is racing still fun?

So , screw you , we're loving the boat . I just maybe it has something to do with how old I am , which is ancient , but this boat just suits me perfectly . You know , it's a very nice sailing boat . It's easy to steer . It's actually fun to steer .

You know , it's a giant wide platform for the crew , plenty room to move around , plenty room to hike out ergonomically . The cockpit is really good . The boat was actually ahead of its time . There's just no doubt about that . Sure , should have a three foot taller rig and mast head kites , but it doesn't . It is what it is And I think it's just fabulous .

Really do like the boat . I think somebody said Scott Tempesta of 15 years ago would have rolled over in his grave assuming I was dead 15 years ago by me seeing the praises of a J105 . But you know , things do change , needs and wants change , and you know I just I wanted this boat and I'm glad I got it , loving it .

We've taken delivery of the Quantum Spinnaker and Quantum Light One and all purpose one , and just today the mainsail is in , and so for our next Wednesday night race , the beer can series will have the new main to replace that crappy Doyle one that's on there . It's not very good , but we've been able to make the Boko pretty good .

We've done four of the beer can races so far And you know , like , like any Wednesday night series , i think you know it's serious business . I mean , we raise hard , we sail hard to us . In all the boats I've ever had , i don't there's no fun race .

I mean there are fun races for sure , but that doesn't mean , oh , we're not going to use the racing sales or oh , you know , it's okay if we don't have enough people . Bullshit .

You put the I put the first line sales on all the time anytime I race , and if it's something as simple as a beer can series , great , i mean it's , it's pretty easy racing right . The courses are relatively short . We've been having pretty decent breeze in San Diego , at least for the last three of them , and it's just a ball .

We started off with a fifth , which was awful , just frigging awful kind of got stuck in a bit of a hole . Boats around us got away , we didn't , we sucked . Next race we got a second , which was great , and then both races three and race four .

We got a bullet in both of them And the last one was was the best and most rewarding , kind of kind of led wire to wire . Nobody crossed us And yeah we were . we were comfortably ahead most of the race And the boat speed is good . I mean Eric Hyme from Quantum came down and set the rig up .

Excuse me , jeff Thorpe from the San Francisco loft has tuning , a really nice tuning guide and some really good tips and insights . So we set the boat up according to what those guys thought And we're sailing the rig super loose , like looser than the tuning guide says , kind of by far , and it seems really fast .

The boat just seems to it's , it's unbound to me when the rig is on the loose side . We sail with a fair bit of headstay sag going upwind but we're not having any height problems whatsoever . In fact our height is quite good and the speed is good .

And downwind I mean those of you who know know , but the quantum spinnaker in in the in these boats so far it's just simply superior . It's faster , i mean it's , it's been proven now a few times out . It's . it's a better kite and starting to learn .

You know how to soak the boat , which is interesting with these boats because you wouldn't think on paper And you know just based on how they sort of sail . Normally you wouldn't think you'd be able to dive deep on these things going downwind , but you can . It's really great .

So just learning to you know when there's any puff at all , and I'm getting good information from my guys . You know I'm just soaking the boat down . You know we let the tack float off a little bit and oh , it's just really nice . So I'm really pleased with our progress .

I'm super pleased with the , the group of guys and gals that we have sailing with us , and I certainly like our most recent results . So all things good on the black flag .

Now , having said this , you know I'll probably get seventh on Wednesday and , you know , probably dedicate a broadcast , a podcast , i should say to me complaining about how much I don't like the boat . But I don't think so . I really am enamored with the boat . I think , having done a fair bit of research .

A guy named Bruce Stone in Frisco who was very helpful . Talking about boats , a guy named John Downing here in San Diego who had a couple of them and had some success in the class . You know he's been really good with kind of . He knows some boats and what's been out there and the boat I got I think is a really quick boat . I'm very pleased .

I still have the wheel in the boat and I don't mind it . In fact in some ways I kind of like it . You know you can . It's nice to stand up downwind . It's nice to stand up upwind , i like , and I can also sit down .

It's nice because I can , if the winds light enough , i can pop to the Lourdes and , you know , just get a look at the jib and see what's going on in the Lourdes and I can pop back up . But we're going to definitely go to the tiller . It's just a matter of when . I'm guessing probably winter , but I don't know .

Let's just see if I can find time for the yard to do it and somebody to actually do the work , because it , because I certainly can't , and I know that those , the J105s , since they're all different , that they're different back in the quadrant area and all that sort of stuff . So you know we'll do that and it'll be fun .

So that's what's going on with the 105 . I was . We raced in a series down in the South Bay . If you don't know San Diego , the best sailing venue of all of San Diego period hands down , no questions is in the South Bay .

And for those of you who aren't familiar , you know you probably know of the Coronado Bridge right And so anything south or east of that is considered the South Bay And it's great because the wind comes across the strand and accelerates a little bit over it .

The breeze is almost completely uninterrupted , there's virtually no kelp down there , the wind is consistently good , not super shifty flat water , and really it's just outstanding . I just don't know why San Diego Yacht Club and a couple of other clubs don't run more races down there . I know people complain about oh , it's a long motor down there . Oh , bullshit .

To motor out to the ocean takes probably twice as long and a lot of the races are out in the ocean , certainly the one design weekends that San Diego Yacht Club does . The Echols and the J-1 of 5s really are the two big boat classes , if you will , and you know the ocean's not fun in San Diego It's really not .

There's tons of kelp , you know it's always a little bouncy . And those of you who raced off what they call Coronado roads you know that starboard tack going into the chop is just miserable . It's not that much fun . I don't like it . If it was up to me I wouldn't sail in the ocean at all .

Maybe that's indicative of kind of what a pussy I am and how soft I've grown . But I just like I like a race course that is just consistent across the board . I like that the best . I'm sure everybody likes shifts and when we hit them , you know , we feel like heroes and when we don't we feel like you know dopes .

But they had a regatta down there earlier in the month . It's called the crown cup And it used to be really well attended . I mean , boats would come , a lot of boats would come And it's you know it's all straight , windward , lured , good racing and really fun . And over the years the participation of the crown cup has just dwindled .

I'm fairly certain there's been at least a year , maybe even more , where they didn't even have the event because nobody wanted to go And so it kind of stopped me and made me think like , well , why not ? Why don't people go down there ? I think it's a fact , sort of a function of two factors .

Number one Even though it's a great venue and even though it's one of the best ways to do really good when we're lured racing here , i think people are tired of , you know , the same locale , the same races , the same competitors .

I think that has a lot to do with it and , you know , sort of dovetailing with that , you know , are the factors like yeah , I can't get crew that weekend . Yeah , no , we're racing too much . It used to be a two-day regatta . Well , that's gone by the wayside and I assume it's gone . That's gone by the wayside for a lot of you people In in various areas .

Some are more hardcore than others , but certainly in San Diego , people do not want to do two-day regattas . For the most part , it's understandable , given , you know , the complexities of all of our lives .

However , they may be the various things that we have to do or want to do , maybe besides going sailboat racing , which is Which is virtually unthinkable and certainly was unthinkable to me a few years ago . But really I don't want to do , i don't want to do a two-day regatta .

I I don't know if I should tip my hat or just Laugh at them and call them fools , but the actual 22 . They go out there Saturday and Sunday and they can run up to nine races in a day . And I think I've bitched about this before . But Jesus Christ , who wants to do that ? I mean really all day .

First of all you got to get towed out there and that takes an hour and a half . And then you know You do , let's say , you do five races , which they do , they will run five races , and then you get an hour and a half motor back . You know then the bar time and the bullshit and all that stuff .

Then you know you drag your half drunk ass home at nine o'clock , kiss the wife , tell the kids to do something besides , bother daddy , go to bed and then get up . You know much too early on Sunday to do the whole thing again . And you know the weekend is just toast . I mean you're just , you're burnt out , you know you .

I mean , if you won or you did really well , that's bitchin . I mean you feel pretty good about it . But just in terms of time invested , i just don't think that people want to do that as much They might like to go out and do a race or a regatta , but multiple days It's certainly around here .

You know that that's not gonna happen And so , you know , made me think a little bit more about okay , so I don't people come , i don't know . Maybe they they're afraid to go down because it's , like I said , too long of a motor . It's not .

Took us just under an hour to motor down there and And just the , the notion that we do a lot of the same races over and over , and I and this is certainly not unique to San Diego and really what , what really can the race organizers do ? I mean , you can come up with new and Innovative races , and there's , there's a few of them .

There's like that , i don't know , the Three mark fiasco , which is takes off after the Frisco three bridge fiasco , what or whatever it's called , and that's kind of interesting . And there's some other fun races , fun , fun , still using the top line sales , but they're fun .

And two of the most highly attended here in San Diego , our series called the hot rum series , which a lot of you know Probably most of you don't it's a three race , i think , every other weekend , every there's every Saturday a reverse handicap Starts in the bay , goes out into the ocean , goes down to a marker off of Cornota roads and then a beat up back to

the Zinnigah Jetty in point Loma and then usually a beat back in . The series is complex in that there's almost always a ton of tide and the wind is almost always variable .

I mean , sometimes we get pretty good winter , i blows that come through and because series starts in November , i think , yeah , november And and it's challenging and it's hard to win this series , hard to win this series . Winning your class is quite an achievement , winning overall that's . That's a tough one . I mean I've won it before .

I've won it with Doug Peterson on Flamboyant , the Peterson 41 . I won it overall on Anarchy 1 , my flying tiger , and last last year , last year , year before , when I sailed my Ericsson 35 Mark II , anarchy 5 , we were first in class and second overall , which I felt was a pretty good achievement in that boat And that

was really fun . But that's a well attended regatta . People like to come out for that Primarily because it's so hard And it's just so different than the normal type of racing . I mean there are so many variables . Kelp is almost always a horrendous problem . You know there's holes everywhere . I mean it's a , it's a challenge .

And the other series here that is super popular is put on by something called the Cortez Racing Association . They are the de facto hosts of all PHRF races in in San Diego . I mean Candidly , san Diego Yacht Club only does a couple South Western Yacht Club . I mean they're usually poorly run buoy races So they don't run much anymore .

They do a thing called the Cabrillo series which is a odd sort of winter series where they race offshore . It's usually really light in the winter down here but can also how , but but ? but the beer can series is really highly attended and much liked . A lot of boats come out , a lot of classes .

You know there's something like 30 courses to choose from And the race committee does a good job picking good , good courses for whatever horses are out there . That I think there's something like . I don't know there's got to be like nine classes or something you know from from RP or from , yeah , rp 50s and Davidson 52s .

You know all the way down to like a victory . And it's cool because the J105 fleet has its own class for the regatta And , like I touched on earlier , one design is just so great And you know I've been out of it for quite a while . The last one design I really did , if any know , was the Flying Tiger . When the class was brand new .

You know we'd regularly get 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 boats out And you know that was really fun .

And then you know , i guess it's inevitable for a lot of these classes , maybe more so for the Flying Tiger , but you know it started to , you know , degrade after a couple years and people started to drop out and you know the guys that don't do good and consistently get their hats handed to them . You know they do tend to just go away .

It's not fun getting your ass kicked all the time . And you know , one of the things that attracted me to the 105 is the one design , the strength of the one design . And the fleet down here is decent . It's good . It could be better . We could use a couple more boats and a couple more people that really do want to sail .

I know this is , you know , no news bullet to you guys , but I'm loving it And I'm very pleased to be in the class and , yeah , just looking forward to doing more racing in that fleet , but along the lines of thinking about well , is it fun ? Is it still fun to go out ? I mean , what makes it fun to go racing ? For me the fun equals winning .

And when you win you're usually sailing really , really well , right , the crew's cooking , the boat's going quick , you're on top of your game tactically and strategically And you know those kinds of wins are really satisfying , like they're the best . You all know it . Like when we won last Wednesday , you know I just static with the feeling of the win .

I haven't been out on the race course really for well over a year And it's just great to get back out there , get the band together . At least the league guitarist and the bass player and the drummer And I'm lead singer of course goes out saying And it's just so rewarding . But what happens when you don't win ? Maybe it doesn't matter .

You know owners all have different things they want to accomplish when they go sailing or go racing .

I should say , you know , maybe they just want to have fun , maybe they want to bring their friends and some family members and you know , go out there and , you know , give it the old college try , but with some understanding that they're probably not going to do very well , but that's okay , they're just glad to be out there .

And then there's probably those people who go out there and don't do very well and go okay , i've , what do I need to do to get better ? What do we need to do to get better ?

And they invariably go talk to their favorite sailmaker , quantum , and you know , get some help , not only , you know building a couple new sales , but more than that , helping with the rig . And you know this falls on to sailmakers a lot . There are coaches . There's some great coaches . I bet in your area there are good coaches .

Certainly in San Diego there are plenty . And you know , if you want to get better , well , there are steps that you have to take to get better . Right , how's the bottom ? Pull the boat out of the water ? you know , fare the boat , paint , sand the boat . What's in the boat ? Good , bottom paint .

Go out for a practice with a coach and let him observe how you guys do it . And no doubt I mean Without ball busting . Of course I would be . That's why I'm not a coach . I just yell at everybody , right , but you know they point out the things that you're not doing very well , uh , or areas that you could certainly improve .

And you know you work on those . You do . If you're interested , say you're a mid packer , right , maybe even bottom third , i don't know , but you want to get up there towards the top . Maybe you know that it's all . It's a hell of a mountain to climb to get to the top because , let's be honest , it is .

It really is both monetarily , uh , and and just organizationally , crew and everything else . I mean , it is an effort and you've got to make it or it's not going to happen for you .

And you know , i think we see a lot of people maybe not race , uh as much , uh , not race , not not really enjoy it anymore , and those people tend to kind of just fade away and that's inevitable . It's inevitable in one design classes . Some stay really really strong J 70, . You know there's whole bundles J 24 class .

I mean these , some of these classes really do endure and , um , like in San Diego , they've built themselves up a really nice little J 24 fleet . Hell , i almost bought one . I came really close to getting one cause it looked like all right , listen , they've got a pretty strong class and um , be good to get a good boat .

I had a deal on a , on a really fast boat , and uh , you know , we're going to do the whole thing , we're going to go out there and kick a little ass . But then I , i sobered up and I like , oh my God , dude , you're 900 years old , you don't want to sail a J 24 . They're not comfortable , you know , the crew hates it .

And , um , so I , you know , wised up and ended up with a 105 , which to me makes perfect sense . By the way , i've realized it , let's say I've spoken , um , oh , i don't know . Let's say I've talked for seven hours on the podcast . Probably five of them have been dedicated to the J 105 .

Uh , and this really isn't meant to be that , i really did want to start off with what we had done , uh , uh , with the boat recently race wise , race wins , uh . And then just sort of look a little deeper into , like , well , what's what's happening . I mean , attendance is down , um , for most everything . And you know why aren't people coming out ?

And this is an age old question . I mean , if you go to the sailing anarchy forums , you'll find a bazillion threats on why people talk and , excuse me , on how people talk about what's going on And the sport . What's gone wrong in the sport ?

We've we've addressed it over the years a number of times on sailing anarchy , but just anecdotally , from my perspective , uh , as a as a competitor , again out there , you know it's .

It's worrisome that people seem to only come out for the quote , unquote fun races , right , the hot rum series , which , by the way , there's nothing fun about the hot rum series unless you do good , it's brutal . Um , the beer can series is fun .

I mean , hey , it's a Wednesday night , it's summertime in San Diego , woo-hoo , you know we're going to be on the show , we're going to drink a bit and , uh , and race pretty hard and we don't have to spend all day doing it . Right , the race course is maybe take an hour , an hour and a half maybe , um , and you know that's just fine

. And and I think it speaks to as I wrap this up , it speaks to people's time , how much they're willing to dedicate to the sport , by the way , not just as owners , um , those of us owners who are serious about it , you know we are happy to put in some time . Spend some money , lordy , are we spending some money ? Um , and that's fine for us .

But how about crew ? How about ? yo ? you're trying to get younger crew and they've got families and they've got commitments , and there's soccer and there's little league , and you know there's a million things that people can spend their time doing , and they won't go sailboat racing if it's not fun .

Everybody's interpretation of fun is different , as I said , but if it's fun , people will go , and if it's not , they won't . And that's that for sailing anarchy . I'm Scott Tempesta . See you next time .