An avid lifelong sailor, Steve joined Y-Knot after experiencing a stroke several years ago. This year he competed in the 33rd annual Ticonderoga Race, which sails much of the length of Lake George. Steve shares his experience below.
The whole story of the is race is amusing. As you know, I race when I am racing. Jon, the skipper of the tri-maran told me ahead of time that the stereo wasn’t working. Then he mentioned that he was bringing along his wife and two kids. I was told to be on the dock at “8:30 sharp”. When I arrived at the cottage where they were all staying, I was offered bacon and eggs.
The start at Yankee Yachts was scheduled for 9:30. I kept asking if we shouldn’t be getting ready to leave. They assured me we would make it since Yankee was only 2 miles away. At boarding time they loaded everybody and it was then that I discovered that their dog was also coming along for the ride!….. On the Ti race???? Jon was capable of single handling the boat. He knew his boat inside and out. Believe it or not, I helmed much of the down wind leg (a SW wind) and some upwind as well. We ran the spinnaker most of the way executing many gybes. They were surprised that I could handle the boat. I would say, I helmed about 1/4 of the race, an exhilarating experience! During the race we made a 360 to pick up katlyn’s (age 7) pink sandal. We made another 360 to pick up the wife’s cap. I was going a bit nutz, but I kept it to myself (pretty good for me, huh?) We carried a very sophisticated GPS. We knew our heading relative to the mark, our velocity, the depth and the velocity made good (velocity toward the mark). I got us thru the narrows (fastest route) just before the evening doldrums. Our competition was on our heels (winning by a large margin since we owed them about 1 1/2 hours). They got becalmed in the narrows while we sailed home at about 10-11 knots WOW!
We won by about 1 1/2 mins. corrected. The sandal and cap rescues didn’t help our cause very much.
I think my participation acted as an appropriate exposure for Y-KNOT. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!