Northwest Shorthanded Sailing Society

I just back from the Northwest Shorthanded Sailors meeting.
All in all it was what I expected, a group of guys older than I talking about sailing. The topics were more racing heavy than I had expected, but then again I really didn’t know just what to expect.
In general the goal is to revive an old club. I can’t tell you about the history of the old club. These guys say last names with the familiarity of family. These names are lost on me. They’re the Armstrongs and Woods of the local sailing community. All in all I’m pretty green in the sailing scene but I like the idea of the group.
Their goals scratch that, our goals, are to promote shorthanded sailing in the Northwest. This would be a good time to define shorthanded sailing. As far as I can tell its two or less people on board. The group is focused on getting more shorthanded boats out and racing and to a lesser extent, out cruising.
The plan sounds simple enough. Get short handed divisions in as many races as possible, but focus the critical mass of the group on 3-5 key events spread out between the North, Central and South Sound. The thought is if you have a dedicated group of boats; say 6-10 you can get the race organizers to set a shorthanded start. With the added income of an additional fleet most organizers would be hard pressed not to take us up on that.
We talked about how we are going to distinguish the shorthanded sailors from the rest of the fleet. It sounds like the idea is a large pennant off the back stay. The multihull guys will have to find some way of displaying a pennant seeing as they might not have a back stay. There was the idea of coping the Kiwi cruisers and have a large bright colored stripe on the top of the main. But who wants to sew a little day-glo acid trip onto their carbon sails? The pennant seemed to be the favored idea, it’s also cheap. There was some talk about a logo. I think some sort of captain hook style hand would be cool if not politically correct.
I’d have to say that I’m 60% cruiser 40% racer. I bought Winterhawk to get from A to B fast, but with a full bar and dinner in the (gimbaled) oven. I’m looking forward to sailing hard and fast and learning what I need to know to sail as efficiently as possible. These guys are a wealth of information on timing tides, reading the sky, rigging the boat and in general, how to enjoy the time out in the water with less than a crowd to the fullest. Whether it’s sailing with your race buddy or cruising with your girlfriend, the Short handed sailing is for me the norm. More often than not my boat is shorthanded.
After the meeting I have to say I’m looking forward to racing more than I thought. The Idea of Alia and I racing a bunch of friends up to Port Ludlow and then tying up to the dock for the night and socializing before racing home does sound really fun.

I don’t think I’m alone in why I came to the meeting. I think there are a lot of sailors out there that would like to sharpen their skills when it comes to sailing shorthanded. I think this group is going to be a good place to look for help and information. There will be an informative web site with articles and tips. I’d like to get a pool of mentors within the group who could be available to go out on the boat with someone who is not necessarily comfortable going single or short. Maybe this would help get more couples out racing together in the Jack & Jill races.
All in all the meeting was productive. There are still lots of things to figure out, but setting the bar low by not throwing a race this year and only piggy backing is probably best. The large colored pennants are a great visual reminder to the other boats that yes, you can go out and race single handed and also let the other crewed boats know that we might not be able to react as fast as they can and might persuade them to give a little more room in close quarters.
I’m sure there will be some updates on the Sailing Anarchy site soon.
Links:
http://www.nwsss.org/
http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=88124&st=0&gopid=2207279&#entry2207279