May 5, 1999-Double Handed Racing in Auckland

Judy

WINGS could not stay at the dock on Memorial Day, just couldn't.

Maybe it was too many memories of Swiftsure.

So even if Memorial Day is not a New Zealand holiday, we celebrated it by sailing in the Royal Akarana Winter Double Handed series Sunday.

We had two short races on Waitemata Harbor. It was a windy, rainy, gray day and we had a blast. The Commodore of the Royal Akarana later told us WINGS looked impressive going upwind. Well, flat water and 20kts of wind, that's what WINGS loves best, so what did he expect?

Anyhow we loved hearing it. The old girl still has it. When we told them in the clubhouse bar that it was a Doug Petersen design they nodded knowingly. When I joked that Doug took a lot off of WINGS when he drew BLACK MAGIC, they just gave me blank looks. Judy had to tell them I was joking. Then they gave a little laugh. They may not have appreciated my humor, but they were nice enough.

And, anyhow, being back on a starting line in a real race, beating up the race course on a nice breeze, and even picking the jibing angle downwind...it was all too great. We loved it. We hardly even noticed that it was raining all day, after all, what would you expect for Memorial Day? The races were too short for us to fly the kite (the races, five legs each, were only 38 minutes) but we still finished first and we got a 6th and a 2nd out of 11 boats and felt pretty good. We know we'll do fine if we get a longer race with similar wind.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Auckland