{"id":55,"date":"2014-01-04T09:38:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-04T07:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onehundredandtwenty.com\/?p=55"},"modified":"2014-05-07T14:11:23","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T12:11:23","slug":"the-old-geezer-regatta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onehundredandtwenty.com\/?p=55","title":{"rendered":"The Old Geezer Regatta"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pacer<\/a>
Pacer not broaching…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This blog was actually written about four years ago but nothing has changed….<\/em><\/p>\n

I survived the Old Geezer Regatta \u2013 just!\u00a0 And I only sailed on the Bridge Boat!<\/p>\n

Day one of the keelboat event held annually in Algoa Bay passed me by completely, as I was captaining a booze cruise up the Zwartkops River in honour of a varsity student on day six of his extended 21st<\/sup> birthday party.\u00a0 I ignored a call summoning me to a protest meeting. As a confirmed dinghy sailor, I know how to prioritise.<\/p>\n

Many casualties later, some time after midnight, my elder son and his evil cell phone recorded me singing that lovely rendition of the famous Scottish song \u201cThe Road to the Isles\u201d, the one that starts \u201cOh my little sister Millie\u2026\u201d He is threatening to upload it to You Tube! I can only sigh about the youth of today.<\/p>\n

Day two passed in a blur but I did attend the protest meeting in the evening.\u00a0 In Port Elizabeth, the dinghy guys have to do all the protests, for reasons which will become obvious. Our keelboat people have to pass all sorts of tests and examinations in order to get out of the harbour and sail to the nearest island, but ISAF racing rules are not part of the curriculum.<\/p>\n

Of the four protests dealt with that night, three were thrown out because the protestor either didn\u2019t have a protest flag, or forgot to fly it, or didn\u2019t inform the other guy. The fourth one was a request for redress which we resolved using some dubious calculations.\u00a0 Fortunately there were no Optimist skippers present, and those involved staggered back to the bar quite happy with our findings. I managed to get to the grand finale of the 21st<\/sup> birthday celebration in good time.<\/p>\n

I got to the harbour on day three (late) to join the Bridge Boat, the good ship Headway, for many decades a celebrated garden gnome in front of the Captain\u2019s house in the Village of Redhouse. When it was finally carted off to the sea, many miles away, a saga all by itself, a number of generations came to stare at the huge lawn which suddenly appeared from under the steel monster with which they had grown up.<\/p>\n

Headway was manned by the Captain and the Captain\u2019s Lady, the Aged Judge and his Crew, and me, just along for the ride, or so I thought.<\/p>\n

We set off into a light easterly zephyr which didn\u2019t get up to more than about ten knots the whole day, but was sufficient to build up enough of a swell to make the lack of stabilisers on our ship readily apparent, especially for those who had just survived a 21<\/span>st<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we staggered across the bay to our station about a third of the way up the windward leg, a small, open boat, manned by a portly chap with a red face, and his assistant who did all the work, was trying to lay the leeward mark inside Barneys, that famous pub on the PE beachfront.<\/p>\n

As this regatta included about 40 small keelboats of an average length of less than 30 feet and one giant 65 foot monster that stuck out like a sore thumb, we obviously needed sufficient depth of water for the monster to round the leeward mark.\u00a0 After much argument, the Aged Judge and Portly finally agreed on a spot far enough from the beach to prevent shipwreck and we could get on with the race.<\/p>\n

First to start was Class One, which included The Monster, seven Pacers, two J27s, one Farr 38, one L26, a red boat of unknown design and uncertain navigational skills but plenty of enthusiasm, and a boat called Cooking, which was manned by a crew obviously chosen for their uniform rotundity, looking for all the world like a bunch of potjie pots as they struggled across the finish line last in every race \u2013 Slow Cooking!<\/p>\n

Class One started quite well, although there was not much danger of the \u201cI\u201d Flag being flown. The monster looked very impressive with her blue uniformed crew striking a pose whenever they thought the cameraman was looking their way.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure they would make it into Sports Illustrated if it wasn\u2019t for the fact that they had a funny old geezer in a green shirt standing on the transom, in fact I think they had tied him to the taffrail. His only job appeared to be to raise his middle finger to the other boats if they got too close.<\/p>\n

Class Two consisted of several cruising boats who qualified to be there because they knew how to hoist spinnakers, and how to retrieve them from the sea when they cocked up dropping them on to the deck. They treated the start line with due respect and they all managed to cross the line within the time limit.<\/p>\n

Class Three \u2013 well now, here we have a spectacle which has no parallel in the dinghy world, or in any other sport on the planet.<\/p>\n

First of all, let me attempt to describe what a Class Three boat actually looks like.\u00a0 Although they are all different, they do have several things in common:<\/p>\n