Quality over Quantity, The Touchy Feely "Ouch!" of Boat Politics, and ' Confirmation'

A case of quality over quantity with one of my all time favourite races which continues to offer sailors many challenges over its' 3 stages and 80 odd nautical miles. I havent done much this season ...due to the boat politics or a personal grudge bombing me off a boat. Talking more then about the touchy feely stuff, no names mentioned apart from yours truly, the soggy bottomed boy- Now no longer soggy actually, as my Musto mpx's kept me bone dry despite my imodest weight being lifted from the rail. This was indeed a nervous moment of bouyancy which if not hanging on, could have resulted in MOB and in a sea running a good swell being pumped and stacked up with a dtrong 4m spring tide ebbing under it, would have possibly been fatal. Day two was nerve wraking then and I was rail meat, first in line for any waves. My compatriot forgot to secure her jacket and got soaked to her knickers in a previous wave to this one. I battened down all my velcro hatches and my almost 30 yo henri L offshore goretex actually kept me dry, and the day before too when it rained. Once again I got let loose on the helm on the preceeding leg to Tobermory, a race which I won in some glory once, it being the first yacht race I had helmed the whole way through. " Who's infront of us" me said, as I weaved my way down the gentle gusts on spinnaker and between cheeky class 4 white sail boats towards the line outside Tob'. " No one. Keep on sailing" came the reply! This time was a lot less certain, but we did all the right things...almost, Now then to the touchy feely stuff and crews, the ones you suffer a little and probably annoy a lot yourself Already there had been a tiff between owner ( who is a little on-the-spectrum) and one well experienced crew. His bidey in though was just plain entitled and not actually with any real entitlement to act like she did. This first little tiff was over the owners somewhat high volume, direct and precise instructions, or maybe a correction and ended in a little tantrum from the crew of not sailing today! Resolved by leaving them alone, both of them are a little challenged it transpired. Knowing that they were both sailors, I gave J the control of start. This prove to be a logical start, speed on the line seconds after the flag came down, clear for wind over the whole fleet, but most likely we firstly were in adverse tide and to exacerbate that, we had longer to sail and had to keep clear of most everyone being windward boat. Anyway I was satisfied we had involved a good crew who had never sailed before, and the boat itself had just been through its first start in many years, and over 20 years for this glorious race Tob Day 1 , to Bunessan day 2 and back day 3. To my chagrin two of the slower boats ( Elizabethan 30, fine design with suspiciously nice looking blue grey laminates) were ahead but we were chonking up towards them and could then avoid the nasty eddy holding them up at Lismore and shoot through the middle line, managing 9 knts surf on stadning waves, SOG though no doubt being less. Onwards, but the big westerly, with a charming HC on CYCA it transpired was probably quite a bit ahead of us having been played a hand of cards or having known to stick to the Mull shore as previous WHW winners have told me, Always stick to the Mull Shore! I reckon the owner involved the crew a lot in trimming the boat and the Sound of Mull's inevitable fickleness. But said lady kept on wanting to do tactics and go over to the fleet of class 2 which had gathered mid sound where the wind was fighting itself, boxing for NW versus SSW direction to flow up and down the sound, and cancelling itself just here near Salen. There was no logic in this, It would be following a largely different class and then possibly being shadowed by them and losing time in fights with them. Also the wind was filling and veering NW on the Mull shore. She just wanted to be a boss and play and became ratty that we didnt include her suggestion I tried to explain the wind was filling but then she just became arrogant and said we thought, in her important opinion, that we should go eastwards and I was in her tone of voice, quite wrong. Anyway, I had otherwise a great day. Disappointed not to get the break away I had hoped for, playing the Mull Shore Card, but feeling I sailed a really good race. When the wind was SSW / SSE we could hold spinnaker and this was bracing, sometimes nervous as the helm was heavy and there was a lot of heel. I wanted to instruct the crew, but felt this was the owners job, to get weight out and use the kicker as I have done in the past, to flatten the main off and on. Underway I started really losing the helm and the owner was really pleased when I asked simply " what do I do?" which involved shaking the turbulence off a few times to allow the upwash over the rudder to re-establish and get attached flow back allowing me to bear away more. Two bodies on the rail would have been ideal though. Confirmation is a thing I used to hate seeing in other people. When they obviously are having a good old ego trip on the helm or trimming and get that used to grind my gears. In part because I wasnt in with the owner enough to get a job, or dare I say helm and in part because I needed experience, or later on, had possibly more experience than others Now I am more chilled about it, but it has lead to a fall out this year with another skipper who really was quite patronising, probably a personal grudge because his wife used to basically flirt with me. Anyway I enjoyed that day with confirmation a lot. It felt like years of experience pay even when you are a little rusty Last year I won my first time out on the helm of the Express so I know I can helm, and especially when other people do the thinking by in large of where we are going. However you do get a good overview from the back of the boat so the wind veering meant we were in an ideal place to take a steal for the day, while other boats were forced to lee by their spinnaker SOG ambitions! This is often the case. A heard under kite wander way off the course in order to cover each other, or are just bloody sheep. Said crew's calls to fall off lacked any logic and I tried to explain, which is what then pisses me off, but I have let it all go. I had a day basking in the sun of my own bloody ego, cut down to size on corrected time as many a helm has encountered! Things deteroiated next day with her. She had said the evening about how the owner was talking to them was unacceptable. Well I found her arrogance a bit annoying, She didnt ask for an explanation of 'the middle tell tales' when trimming just came with an odd response which didnt beckon an explanation, This irritated her and I did explain everntually, but she was irritated. Next day I think I shoved her out the way a bit. They had come late, delaying our exit from the dock and the Westerly, who were serious old fellas, from leaving. This cost us dear as the No 3 wasnt battened so we had to shift it off again. We over tensioned the halyard apparently giving swivel issues which persisted until next day. She not only was late up but her jacket and life jacket were on the cockpit with 2 mins to go to the start, which annoyed the HSE in me, and i got her to move perhaps in a abrupt manner. Things went down hill. She got scarred by the swell made steep by the tide and the bashing we got for 3 hours. My turn to be irritated as we went way too far out and into more sea most likely than needed, while the class 1 and bigger 4 boats chundered along the mystical north shore with its lighthouse, castle, sandy bays and wildness Nothing much got repaired on the touchy feely and to my relief, with the thought of a repeat holiday next year to include this most glorious of races, they said they wanted to follow the race perhaps in their own boat next year. I did tidy up and make coffee post race day three, and the owner had let the two newbies steer and trim the boat by in large, me doing foredeck and enjoying the sunshine and rather stunning views. It had been a big fall out before, which resulted in us splitting up for the 2002- 2004 seasons. I had been angry at a crew for shaking the boom onto my face and alomst breaking my glasses and knocking me out"! Time has healed this and judging by no " dont like how you speak to my crew" and also said owner getting several severe comments about how HE spoke to the two screwy crew, I think reflection was taken. Also I had apologised and my anbriuptness was in part caused by lack of sleep due to a feverish cough which many have had this bloody summer. I enjoyed it all immensely despite the cough, nerve wracking sea day 2, and the BS from said new members of the wee clan. How to speak to crew and other international matters of diplomacy.