This Month's Story

I wasn’t the only person on the beach with a Sunfish. One Saturday, three neighborhood girls, all preteens, came down and rigged one of the beached neighborhood Sunfishes and took it out on the water. It was a pretty day with light breezes, just enough to move their boat along at an easy pace as they sailed back and forth in front of our house. They had an older model Sunfish and the sail sagged slightly showing its age, but they went along very well.

It was a pleasure to watch them. They were having a great time.

I knew the fun they were having. I had been out with Gretal on my Sunfish earlier that morning and together we had our share of lackadaisical sailing. I had cleated the sail in a locked position and then, tying a line around the tiller and then to my wrist, had jumped over the side and had the Sunfish tow me through the water with Gretal at the bow, barking loudly to anyone that could hear that she was in sole command. Later, we had “threaded the needle” in the larger gaps of the pound poles, chased the birds on the pilings, and then, bored by the light winds, came back ashore

So, here I sat on the porch and watched appreciatively the girls go back and forth with Gretal sprawled sound asleep at my feet.

All this was interrupted by Lee, my neighbor from just a few houses up the street, coming up on the porch.

“Is that my daughter Dianne out there with the girls?”

“Yeah, it’s her, Missy and Anne. Sit down and watch them. They’re doing very well.”

We sat and watched. After a few moments, I could feel Lee getting antsy.

“Paul, you’ve got your Sunfish rigged. Let’s go out and show them how to really sail.”

I am ashamed to say that I got up, put Gretal inside and, with Lee leading the way, went down to the beach to show the young girls what true sailing was all about.

“First,” I said when we got to my Sunfish, “we have to drain it.”

“Drain it?” He looked at the boat. “Why?”

“Gretal and I took it out this morning. Usually, after we run it for awhile like we did, it tends to get a little water in the hull through some small cracks.”

“Cracks?” By now he was really staring at the boat and bending down low finally spotted the tiny cracks.

“How did the cracks get in the hull?”

“I got into an accident awhile back. I, err, well tried going in between that last set of pound poles out there.”

“The last set? Good lord! Is there room for the boat to go through those poles?”

“No,” I said.

By now, I had opened the drain valve and he helped me turn the boat on its side to allow it to drain. A lot of water poured out. Even I was surprised by the amount. Then, with the water out and the hull much lighter, we put the Sunfish in the water and went out where the girls were sailing. Lee in a loud voice challenged them.

“We’ll go from the Jeffrey’s pier to Carrere’s pier. And the winner is the winner!”

“All right!” they yelled back and they headed for the starting point. We turned about and followed them.

As we followed, I started to become worried. They were edging away from us as we went to the starting place. Not by much, but enough so that I was no longer as sure we would do well when the race started.

“Ah, Lee,” I said, “I think they may have the faster boat.”

“No, we can do it,” said Lee confidently watching them. “You’ve got a newer boat, you’ve a new sail, and we know sailing technique they haven’t even dreamed of. Don’t worry. We can do it. We’ll show them they have a lot to learn. Kids need to learn that nothing beats skill and experience.”

I wanted to point out that Lee weighed a conservative 210 pounds, I was 180, the boat leaked, and the girls had a faster boat, but I saw it wouldn’t do any good, so we went ahead.

Well, they beat us pretty badly the first time.

I wanted to stop, but Lee yelled for a rematch and we raced them back to Jeffrey’s pier.

They beat us on that run as well.

I wasn’t happy, but Lee was infuriated.

It was how the girls beat us that was really galling him.

The fact was that they didn’t care. They really didn’t care. If they won, fine; if they didn’t win, fine. They actually sang songs as they sailed and once, one of them got up and did a silly dance holding on to the mast (which should have slowed them down, but didn’t).

Lee just sat there trying to figure out what had happened. I quietly turned the boat toward shore and we left them singing another of their songs. It wasn’t far to shore, but it was very quiet.

“You know, Lee,” I said as I ran the sunfish up on the beach, “I bet we didn’t get all the water out of the hull.”

“You’re probably right. We had too much water. I noticed it acted a little sluggish out there.”

We began to take in the sail and he helped me drag the sail and rudder up to the house.

“I’ll drain it again later.” I said, “Come on up on the porch. Stella’s made some cake and sun tea. We’ll watch them make sailing errors from those benches on the porch that you and I made.”

We sat there, ate Stella’s cake, drank iced sun tea and watched them go back and forth singing songs; their race with us long forgotten.

I don’t think it was just the boat. It appeared to me they sailed very well.