Koci’s Midwinter’s Diary:
Feb. 4, 08
Four sleeps, as the girlfriend says, until I am surrounded by the warm waters, warm winds and warm beer of West Palm Beach Sailing Club, the US Sailing Centre at Jenson Beach and Melbourne Yacht Club. The Masters Mids are beckoning me, and I am heeding the call.
The boat is loaded on the trailer at Cedar Point Yacht Club, CT, and ready for takeoff. I couldn’t take my boat down as I did the last years, or a James Town Sailing Club boat as I did for two years before that, but the fleet at Cedar Point kindly allowed me to charter one of their club boats and put it on the five-boat trailer going down from there.
Every year for me has been progressively better. My first year, I was about as humiliated as I ever thought I could be at the Mids Open, which usually follows the Masters events, but admit also that racing in that regatta was probably the best idea I had had in a long time. The bitter taste of defeat was good medicine, delivered without malice, that forced me face squarely the question of whether I really belonged in a Laser.
Well, here we are, four years on. My favourite series is the Florida Masters, which takes place the first weekend. It’s held at West Palm Beach Sailing Club, which is a small club for small boat sailors—an unusual species in the world of 12-month summers and tanned retirees that bulge with money. Though it is clearly a club with well-heeled members, they have not forgotten the joys of small boat sailing.
The genesis of the Florida Masters starts not a West Palm SC, but in the backyard of one of Florida’s greatest Laser sailors, Jack Swensen. Joe Van Rossem, who has been making the trek to Florida for over 20 years, tells the story of the old days at Jack’s house, when 20 to 30 boats would be deposited on his lawn, to be launched over the break wall at the end of his backyard and to the lake beyond to compete for the title of “Dirty Old Man of the Sea.” West Palm Beach Sailing Club, where Jack’s widow Molly is still a member, stepped in to help when the fleet looked like it was going to take over the living room.
Last year, I placed fourth in the Masters category and 14th overall with about 40 boats competing. Joe Van represented Canada more effectively with a second in the Great Grand Master Category and eighth overall.
Predictions for this year? No way, except that District 3 can trust that we’ll do our best to prove that Ontario is a hotbed not just for the rock stars that are competing in Australia and Miami, but for us rickety 50-somethings that can’t say no to a warm day, warm winds and, well, actually we can say no to warm beer.