I ended up choosing not to choose between the Dinghy Sailing and Kayak races.

I did both.

The races were being held just off Volley Ball Beach (Home of the Chat and Chill Beach Bar/Restaurant) and KR was anchored off Sand Dollar Beach – a little less than a mile away. Sunday morning, race day, I rigged Katerik, tied the kayak to her stern cleat and off we sailed to the races.

It was a beautiful day, as you can see, and the Small Boat Races were great fun. There were actually 4 events, the two in which I was entered as well as Blind Rowing and Downwind Dinghy Sailing. These latter two were absolutely the crowd favorites as they had high entertainment value. In the Blind Rowing, the rower was blindfolded and the partner attempted to direct the rower through the pack of competitors and around a triangular course. One or two of the boats managed to avoid the inevitable pile up just after the start. The others looked like blind mice caught in a dead end corner of a maze. Their oars were tangled and they were all rowing towards the mass of boats – not away. One couple, one of the few cruisers who, like myself, do not have a motor for their dink, were completely dominant (in a Walker Bay dink, no less). He had done a lot of rowing and clearly could figuratively and literally “do it blindfolded”.

The Downwind Dinghy Sailing race was for any dinghy with any type of sail that would allow the boat to do one leg to leeward. Only enough steering was needed to keep the boat straight. The comedy here was in the “structurally challenged” rigs that had been created and mounted (somehow) on inflatable dinks. Also, some of the “sails” were so large that the helmsman really had no idea where he was headed. Fun stuff.

My own events? I knew that I had a pretty good chance in the Kayak race. At the starting line it was clear that the only real competition was from a new friend of mine. Per and Alva are a Norwegian couple who were anchored near KR at Sand Dollar. I met Per on the beach one day and quickly found that we had much in common – not the least of which was that he was a paddler – and had been for most of his life! He had even competed in flat-water kayak racing when he was young. His was probably the better paddling form and he clearly had more racing experience. However, I had been doing more paddling and was, therefore, pretty well tuned up. And, my somewhat beamy plastic kayak (funny that I have never named her) was simply a faster boat than his Folboat. The Folboat, while sleek, is a folding/inflatable kayak, a very good boat – just not as fast as my plastic ‘yak.

I won by 4 boat lengths – going away. I know full well, however, that if Per and I were to have traded boats, the race would have been damn close – and could easily have ended differently.

In the Dinghy Sailing Race (the picture shows me holding Katerik while waiting for the course to be set up - and looking at the soon to be victorious 10’ Trinka. I knew that I couldn’t possibly beat her) I proved that I am not a racer. I started badly and all too quickly found myself on the side of the course with less wind – clearly the wrong side. Meanwhile the Trinka was off the starting line clean and being sailed well. The boat that should have won it all – a Sunfish – inexplicably capsized near the first mark and then turtled as far as the shallow water would allow. They were still trying to get the mast unstuck from the deep sand after the race was over.

I am not at all proud of my race that day but will say that once the early mistakes were behind me I ran the remainder of the two laps fairly cleanly. Still, I was hugely surprised at the finish line to learn that I had finished second! To summarize – I truly sucked! But, apparently sucked less than all but one of the competitors!

A good day – First and Second Place pennants won and, more usefully, also won were the bottles of rum and wine that came with them.