I'd proposed having it on a weekend that wasn't in conflict with a pre-existing SSS event, but nobody seemed interested. Jim suggested doing it alongside the 3-BF, with folks going up to Napa instead of a Delta trip, Ants agreed, and here we are.
I want to support the idea. I VERY MUCH want to support it. I've tried to get something like this going twice before and nobody has expressed an iota of interest, so I'm stoked that there's some action this time. It's just that I don't actually own a little 14 footer right now, so I was going to use the Piper, but getting the Piper back downstream from Napa, against the wind might be problematic. I could maybe have her ready in time.. ~maybe~.. if I ignored the projects that need doing on the Wildcat. Or I could buy a used 14 footer like a Holder 14 or a Lido or something, and do the event.
The thing is that I don't have all the kit to race in the SSS events that go out the Gate, so I hate to miss the few that I CAN do that are "inside"...the Vallejo 1-2 being one of them. Between one thing and another...crewing on other boats, concerts, conflicts and so on, I've hardly raced my own boat at all this year. Here's my last chance this year to race, and.....it's just hard to say "no".
Doesn't mean that I won't, anyway, but it's a little painful. On the other hand, the Wildcats bottom hasn't been cleaned in three years beyond what I can do from the dock and the last race I did I was the far side of dog-slow, so maybe zooming along in a dinghy would be more fun. I dunno. I hate to drop a couple bills on a dinghy, when what I NEED to do is save my boat bucks for a haulout for the Wildcat.
Can I convince Joan that I Need THREE boats?
1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"