2014 Flying Scot North American Championship: Part 3

Sailboat racing. Thank you, Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss for giving us an unrealistic but pretty image of the sport. There may -- indeed --  be clean-cut lanky kids with delicious haircuts who stand looking manfully out to sea while sporting spotless linen trousers and fresh stripey shirts, but they are not on my racecourse.

On my part of the water, we are unkempt and bruised. We live out of our cars for days at a time. We repurpose odd pieces of clothing in layers to avoid more sunburn. We wear compression shirts when our figures don't really support that option. We are encrusted with salt. We often smell pretty bad. 

But we are smiling. We are living fully in these moments while balanced on the sharp edge of a small, tippy boat, trying to make it go just a tiny bit faster. 

Here's a link to a lovely photo album showing some on-the-water North American Championship action (the work of Art Petrosemolo) from this past week.  

Our pack of local boats did a great job at the NACs, bringing home a big pile of loot and several titles. 

We might have looked better, but we felt pretty amazing.