Monday, August 22, 2011

gotta regatta

While my teammates on the Dyneema Experience Team are winning ocean races with their sporty new rigging, we are taking a low tech approach to regattas - root beer cans and lots of tape!
(serisous about the start!)

Zach has been counting down the days to the annual 12 Ounce Regatta here in town. Kids who enter are given a bucket of supplies including the root beer cans. You are limited to what is in the bucket to create your vessel and the vessel must fit back in the bucket when it's finished. The race committee provides the water and the wind, and off they go! The last time we did this race was two years ago. That's because last year he worked and worked on his boat and a certain pregnant mama got the day and time wrong on the calendar and we missed the race. (I swear that's going to be one of those things he will remind me of when he's 40. Oy.) I was looking back at past races and noticing how very little he looked up there and remembering how there were many tears at lost races, lots of nerves, and it was an accomplishment for him to just stand up there alone and launch his boat without mama or daddy.
(age 5)

This time around the boy hardly checked in with us as he compared boats with fellow racers, he kept track of the standings on his own, and he finally understood what it means to be a good sport while cheering on his competitors and genuinely being grateful for his 6th place finish overall. I think the grown up racers could learn a thing or two from these little ones.
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