Look, I'm a huge fan of Sailing
Anarchy. Usually funny, always irreverant, it's rare when 2 or 3 days
go by and I don't check in and see what's going on with the Anarchists.
The Sailing Anarchy Forum is almost always entertaining
and you can waste a bunch of perfectly
good time reading about stuff like A-Scow controversies and ultra-jerk owners.
Good fun and
sometimes massively educational.
But one guy really frosted me the other day.
Probably some younger dude, maybe a little hung up on
himself and his rides on Farr 40's and
TP52's, but anyway this dork was slamming somebody's PHRF Fleet somewhere, basically
telling
some other contributor to the Forum that he was a loser and a putz because he
raced PHRF with a
bunch of dogs like "Hunters" and "C&C 34's."
C&C 34's?
What this poor idiot, this "rock star in his own
mind" will probably never understand is that those of
us who show up on weeknights to race in a Club setting, whether it's on board
a 3 year old sportboat
or 30 year old cruiser, we've already won!
We've escaped from the office or the factory or the
freeway for a few hours to do something we love
with our friends and our families and WE'RE ON THE WATER! We might have a couple
of beers or a
Mt. Gay and tonic, and we may compete hard or we may not give a damn who wins.
We're sailing.
And we know that for the next 3 or 4 hours we'll have
a goddam good time and forget
about all the little niggling hassles that comprise a person's life, just forgeddaboutit
and have a good
time...it would be nice to sail the boat to its rating, okay, grant ya that,
but figuring out how to do it is
part of the trip!! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. And most people do,
too, because they
wouldn't be coming back the following season if they didn't.
So, to the young guy who pitys us and our crappy C&C's
and Hunters, you need to
understand...we're very impressed with your resume and it must be terribly
exciting, but we don't
really need the upper eschalon programs. We get out on our own boats and our
friend's boats once
or a few times a week. And we have a blast.
See, we've already won.