END OF SUMMER... September (Part 74b)

The last Sunday races for the season were basically unmemorable. My crew was the same college kid I’d used in the races to qualify for the championships. I wasn’t in the running for a season trophy so I used the races as practice, working with him on maneuvers within the cockpit. His name was Neil and one of the reasons he was able to sail with me in the championships was that his college was only about 35 miles form the racing venue. I, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to drop him and his belongings off at the college as his “pay” for crewing. The only caveat was that his first day of classes was the same day as the last scheduled race. We worked it out that if I was in contention for a trophy that he’d skip the classes and sail with me. If not I’d just head on home after the last race on Thursday.

The other qualifier from our area was my club mate, Frank. His wife, Ronnie, had been “missing” during the early part of the season and Frank had taken on one of the high school boys from the junior sailing program as his crew. Jack had worked out so well for Frank that he sailed with him for the whole season. His school was to start that Wednesday and Frank had to do a real sales job on his parents to let him go and sail in the championships. It worked out well for me as well. Ronnie, now obviously pregnant, was going along to watch the races which meant that Frank was going to have to pay for a room for Jack. Neil had stated that he wanted to return to his campus each night so he could be with his girl friend. Then, she would drive him back for the races each morning. Initially it looked like I would be stuck with the cost of a room with just me in it until I worked it out so Jack would stay with me and Frank would pay for him.

Neil and I left at around 5:30am for two reasons. The first was to avoid the worst of the morning rush hour traffic. The second was so that I could deliver Neil to his school and still have time to get the boat and sails measured, a requirement at each yearly championship. By the time I arrived at the sailing club it was around 4pm. I got Jack to give me a hand as Frank had already taken his boat through the process. My boat and trailer were parked right next to a fellow that I’d competed against in my prior attempts at the championships. I didn’t really “know” him but I did know that he was very successful in racing two other type sailboats (Lightning’s and Star’s) and that he'd not done all that well racing this class of boat, a Comet. After greeting him, Blake advised me that the inspectors measuring sails had discovered a problem with all the sails made by the company that had made mine. Not good news.

Jack and I had no problems getting the boat through inspection. When I went to where they were measuring sails I could see that there were some people with a “hot knife” (used to cut synthetic material) busily working on a number of sails. The smell of the burning material made me choke. There was a sail on the floor and, in spite of my discomfort, it caught my attention because there was a girl down on her haunches holding one corner of it. I could see three things as I looked down at her... the flesh of her back; the elastic from a pair of panties and her shorts. I quickly decided I could put up the smell for a few minutes.

As warned, my sail didn’t measure in and I had to cut a part of it off. When I finally got back to the boat I saw the same girl I’d just observed standing next to Blake’s boat and talking with him. He introduced me to her as his daughter, Joy. As I looked at them both I couldn’t see any resemblance. Blake was about 5’ 9“ tall and a bit stocky. Joy was easily 5’ 10” and thin. Blake had dark hair and Joy was closer to blonde. She was sixteen and going to be a junior in high school. This trip to the championships was a “reward” for having won the junior sailing prize at their home sailing club. As I listened to all of this I was picturing her standing there in just her panties. More cute than pretty I remember hoping to see more panty peeks during the rest of the week.

After getting cleaned up Jack and I went back to the club for an informal “meet and greet” put on by the host club. There were over 40 boats entered and it seemed like there were 100 plus with all the people who were there. I’d told Jack about meeting Joy and suggested that it might be fun for him to look her up. By the time we arrived it was almost too late for that. There were probably 10 young males for each young female and it seemed like there were at least that many gathered around the table where she was sitting. In a dress and with her hair tied back she looked a lot prettier than earlier in the day. Back at the motel room Jack seemed disappointed that he never got to meet her.

Through the years it has never ceased to amaze me how often I’ve been places where no matter what it is that I do I keep running into the same few people. In this case it was Blake and his daughter. We were side by side at the preliminary meeting prior to the first race and even though we put our boats in the water using two different hoists we ended up side by side at one of the docks. I remember Blake making a comment about a “bad penny turning up” and I was never sure if he was referring to me or to himself. The best part of this coincidence was that I got to see more of Joy.

To be continued...