By Dick Herman with Dave Kautz, Don Person and Carl Sundholm
Sailing is good. It clears the mind and keeps the world in perspective. It also brings into sharp focus all those secret images we hold close to our hearts, even when we do fuzzy things. Saturday, March 13, was like that when twelve intrepid small craft skippers gathered at the Peninsula Yacht Club at Docktown near Redwood City on San Francisco Bay for a weekend sail and a race through Corkscrew Slough. Certain anticipations hung in the air, like a challenge between presbyopic, steely-eyed competitors, or a pre Saint Pat’s Day bash of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and green beer. Of course, there was a big “Gotcha!” thrown in to make things interesting.
It all started when Dave Kautz and Carl Sundholm conspired with the Peninsula Yacht Club to host a weekend sail for the Potter Yachters. Now the PYC is not your usual yacht club, but a laid-back community center of friends and folks who love boats. They suggested a race through Corkscrew Slough, which can only be transited at high tide, and a social gathering afterwards to celebrate the impending Saint Pat’s Day.
It all blended perfectly with the Pottering frame of mind where friends gather together to share the fun of sailing small boats, sharing small adventures, and creating large images of resolute skippers clasping the tiller, face to the wind, challenging the big boys for right of way, racing for the finish line—Captains Courageous all. Well, that’s the image. Reality is something different.
The first to arrive on Friday, the day before, was the redoubtable Dan Phy with his P-15, Ol’Geezer. Being an expert mudder, Dan had wisely left his Montgomery 17 at home because even a shoal draft keel can be a sticker when it comes to slough sailing. He headed for the Corkscrew, anxious to test the waters before the race. Of course, he immediately ran aground as it was a falling tide. Being prepared, and always vigilant for alligators,* he tossed out his anchor, mixed a double gin and tonic, and settled in to wait for high water.
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