Blown Away at Community Boating's First Weekend of the Season

Community Boating opened on April 1st so this was the first weekend of the sailing season! I have been waiting for months and the countdown timer they put on their website at the end of last season seemed like it would never reach zero. Well it finally did so friend Ryan and I headed down today to dust off the cobwebs in our brains and see if we could remember which ropes (lines!) went with what and whether to push the tiller towards or away from the sail and sheet in or out in order to luff up or bear away when sailing on a starboard reach. I think we might have done okay except for one thing--there was too much wind. It's a rare occurrence when sailing on the Charles River but today the wind was steady at over 15 knots gusting to about 25 knots. Alas, despite having several ratings between us we were advised that it would be risky even in a keel boat without a jib. I think they just didn't want to have to come rescue us if we capsized--well I don't blame them and we had no interest in sinking a boat today so opted to live to fight another day.


Yep, that's the red flag flying straight out.
Here's the lone Laser (Olympic men's solo class boat) capsized!
Here he is back upright, it's a small boat in those waves.
You can click on the above pics to make them bigger.