by GreenLake » Thu Dec 05, 2019 3:25 pm
Trailering a boat across the country isn't everyone's thing. But some people do it (for all kinds of events, or even just for fun). At the Texas 200 I met someone from the upper Midwest who later to his boat to the Pacific Northwest for some island cruising. Not a DS owner, but similar size boat. I've sailed far from my home waters, but then on other people's boats.
There are a number of regional events, but they are organized either around an existing fleet or local people organized and added a DS fleet to some existing event.
I'm either spoiled or ruined, take your pick: our big local event is a weekly no-handicap race, which is very challenging for all the wrong reasons, but not really a competitive event. It's challenging because the winds can be erratic, the traffic is something else, there are boats up to 75' in the race and the start line is never square. However, it's a good test of your boathandling skills nevertheless and great fun and the other dinghy sailors are a wonderful crowd, even if they all sail the "wrong" boat.
Understandably, I'm not much interested in seeing whether I can coax the 2-3 other DS owners that I know of (or suspect) in the region into some more cleanly "competitive" event just for the DS; that seems a lot of work for no additional return. I've also seen none of them at the weekly event even though it's well known to locals who aren't even sailors. I've tried intersting some of them I've spoken to over the years, but with not much success. They may all be like Jim, happy to use their DS for cruising and / or meditation on the water. One DS owner I met is a university professor and uses his boat to get students on the water for observations / sampling.
I used to be content with that as well, but being accepted as part of a small community of oddly-mismatched small-boat sailors is something I wouldn't want to miss. And, I've found, having a scheduled occasion does get me on the water more often.
However, for any of you that don't have a ready-made venue, you could try to organize some meeting of local DS owners; whether a joint cruise or a race around fixed marks. Or, you could check whether there's a mixed-fleet local or regional event going on and try to get enough other DS owners there to join as a your own fleet. Cutoff is usually 3 or 5 boats of the same class.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~