We picked up this ‘letter to the editor’ of Sailing Scuttlebutt from Andy Roy. It speaks of the spirit of Masters sailing and is a fine lesson for our SLSC sailors:
“Here’s one from the Canadian Laser Masters Championship held on Sturgeon Lake, Ontario this past weekend. In an early race I rounded in the lead and was holding on approaching the leeward mark when Al Clark, well known sailor and racing coach from Vancouver, was (as usual) smokin’ downwind. As we hit the three boat length circle, it looked like he nabbed the overlap on me. I said, “I think you’ve got it, Al,” and he replied, “No, you take it.” “You sure?” “I insist”, he said. He passed me up the next leg anyhow, and went on to win the event.
In a subsequent race, Al rounded the top mark in the lead and bore off on to a run having forgotten about the short spacer reaching leg. Greg Tawaststjerna rounded a few lengths behind and immediately shouted at Al to remind him about the spacer mark.
These are the type of exchanges that make Masters Laser racing pretty cool.
=> Curmudgeon’s Comment: Yep, this is the same Andy Roy that placed second at the 1982 World Laser Championship and won a silver medal for Canada in the Laser Class at the 1983 Pan American Games.