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PAPOOSE L-36 #5

I inherited Papoose from my dad in 1989. For many years I did day sailing with my family and friends. In 1997 I did my first race, the Master Mariners Regatta. I finished second to last. I didn't race again for several years but ultimately we got better sails and were better sailors and started winning. We won when Leda didn't show up and even beat her twice but Leda typically beat us. Leda is just too fast. Being run down and dismasted one year and then narrowly missing t-boning a boat that crossed right in front of the fleet during our start the following year was too much. I continued to do club racing. We won our first club championship in 2010 and won most of the races we entered. We won most of the clubs series since then including the last series of 2022. In the last few years we started skipping races if the weather report predicted winds above 30 knots. Even being careful about when we went out, we found ourselves jibing around the leeward mark in 30 knots. And to make it harder, I was doing it double handed because of the pandemic. I ended up liking double handed racing very much. This year I am back to day sailing. I don't miss racing (yet). It was always my plan to quit racing when I turned 75 and here I am. I may be ready to give up racing but I am not ready to give up sailing. I am sailing every Tuesday year round now weather permitting. See you on the water. The photo is of Papoose crossing the finish line in 2022.

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A Good Start

Papoose (L-36 #5 in the photo) is the boat that is by far the slowest (highest handicap) of these three boats all about to round the windward mark. The fact that we are three abreast speaks to how well these boats sail. Papoose can't do 12 knots on a reach like the J-105 in the middle and we are not near as fast as the C&C-41 on the left. But here I am even with them this day on this race even at the weather mark.

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