Time to quit sailboat racing and take up gentle cruising instead
Issue 13 : Jul/Aug 2000
This was written while I was confined to a hospital bed at the Cleveland Clinic following a medical emergency that occurred on the second weather leg of a sailboat race, June 12, 1993, at the Mentor Harbor Yacht Club Regatta, Mentor, Ohio. The pain resulting from this injury gave me cause to evaluate my future participation in this very vigorous sport.
Is there a time to pack up your racing sailbags for the last time and call it quits? Not an easy decision to make, considering that the past 40 years of competitive big-boat sailing have been packed full of adventure, excitement, ethereal moments, and some terror.
Some 30 or more years ago, I had a saltwater sailor scoff at the fact that I did all my sail racing on Lake Erie. During my conversation with this New Englander, he had the audacity to refer to Lake Erie as “one of those small inland lakes.” This conversation took place at the bar at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, Mass. I’ve not been back to the Corinthian Yacht Club, nor do I have the vaguest recollection who made this statement. Since that time, I have sailed all the Great Lakes and have found them to be as challenging as any body of water anywhere in the world.
Years of venturing forth on the waters of the Great Lakes have not found one adventure to be exactly the same as the last. It is the unpredictability that is so addictive in the sport of sailing and sailboat racing. Each occurrence is special and can be dramatically different from the last experience. I have memories of events that were one-of-a-kind.
In the mid-1960s, I assisted in transporting a New York 30 called Minx from Cleveland to Toledo, Ohio. This overnight passage was the most perfect of my entire career and has not been duplicated. It was early June, and the owner wanted to enter Minx in the Mills Trophy Race out of the Toledo Yacht Club. The moon was full, the air was crisp and clear, and we had a 25- to 30-mile-an-hour offshore wind all the way. Not only was the experience visually graphic, due to the clouds in relationship to the full moon, but also at this time of the year all the fruit orchards near the lake were in full bloom and fragrance, along with the night-blooming jasmine.
Never forgotten
The grace and beauty of the Herreshoff-designed and -built New York 30 added to the mix to make this passage one not to be forgotten. The following year we tried for a repeat of the previous year’s delivery. This time we were sailing a converted Six-Meter. The passage caused one of the crew never to sail again and gave me cause to ponder whether I wanted to continue to put myself in harm’s way.
This time we caught the tail end of Hurricane Diane. We were being blown north to the Canadian shore and, after losing our main, we were forced to take refuge in the small fishing village located on the north shore of Pelee Island, Canada. There were three aboard when we arrived exhausted, wet, and very discouraged. We made this port at dawn and after a quick tie-up, we slept until 3 p.m. When we left port that afternoon, there were only two on board, for one volunteer had had enough and flew back to Cleveland.
Time to reconsider
Isn’t part of the formula of these grand memories being young enough to endure the circumstances? Do we want to drive on until one day comes the reality that regardless of the perfect weather conditions, the excellence of the yacht, and the romance of the moment, the fun and excitement are gone?
Here are some of the key prerequisites to making a decision to sell your boat. Obviously, drastic physical limitations will not be considered. If the following conditions now have become irritating, sell your boat!
- You can no longer stand your dock partner — sell your boat.
- Maintenance of the boat has become a chore — sell your boat.
- The visits to your boat have deteriorated from two or three times a week to once a month — sell your boat.
- Your neglect is being reflected in the appearance of your boat — sell your boat.
- Fits of short-tempered behavior come upon you while you’re underway — sell your boat.
- You have a continued wish that the sail race committee would shorten the racecourse — sell your boat.
- Spring launching now occurs in late June — sell your boat.
- You get around to laying the boat up after the first snow — sell your boat.
- You don’t set foot on the boat after Labor Day — sell your boat.
- When you honestly feel that the two happiest days of a boater’s life are the day he purchases his boat and the day he sells his boat — sell your boat.
The good news is that the X-rays showed there was no evidence of a fracture. The bad news is I’m no longer going to participate in sailboat racing. At 35, a broken bone, though serious, will not have the potential of being permanently disabling. At 65, complications resulting from injury are commonplace.
By removing myself from the risk which is ever-present in the sport of big-boat racing, I hope to be able to continue to pleasuresail for many years to come.
Grodon has been an avid sailing enthusiast all his life. He has participated in most of the deep-water races and owned more boats than he can remember. He and his son, Gregory, own Great Lakes Marine Surveyors which Gordon and his wife, Marguerite, founded in 1969.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
