Soccer Mom vs Sailing Mom and aspirations of the BMW Oracle: Bor 90

January 8, 2010 – 7:50 pm
My 13 year old son Kieran has been sailing and racing optimist boats for almost 5 years. He’s a member of PYSF which stands for “Pacific Youth Sailing Foundation. They are located in Redwood City Ca. You should check it out. My husband Blake sails leisurely but it seems he doesn’t get to sail as often as he would like. And me, well I don’t sail. I’m not really interested all that much in sailing. I like being in a boat, near the ocean sipping champagne. I guess you could say that I’m interested in certain aspects of sailing. The reality of it all is that sailing and being the mother of a young sailor is not all that exciting or glamorous.  In fact, it can be back breaking, time consuming, expensive and it can get down right boring going to my sons regattas. Watching Kieran’s boat turn into a little dot as he sails away from the dock into the San Francisco Bay is the highlight of the race most times. More on that later.

I sometimes wonder what life would be like had we chosen to get Kieran involved in soccer or cross country or some other typical kiddie sport? The truth is, on some days I envy soccer moms and dads with their minivan full of kids.  Getting home from work and taking their kid to the next soccer practice or game. Occasionally buying a new uniform or a soccer ball.  From the outside it seams that the investment in time and money would have been far less had we chosen a sport for Kieran like soccer. Don’t get me wrong,  I’m not trying to minimize the effort in time or money of those parents. I realize it’s a lot of work no matter what the after school event is. I even know some parents who do Chinese school, and hockey and sailing. Not me.  I can barely handle one sport for one kid.   I often wonder how other parents do it all when I’m barely hanging on. So when I say that I envy other parents who do other sports that’s just me thinking the grass MUST be greener. I sometimes rationalize my inability to handle everything and to take on more things to the fact that having 3 children is a lot of work.  More often than not I, blame it on the type of sport we chose for Kieran;  Sailing.   There’s just so much to do as a sailing parent.  I’m not just talking about getting your kid dressed in uniform and throwing a ball in the back of the mini.

1. There’s the loading of the boat. It’s only about 9 maybe 10 feet long but still, it’s heavy and it takes two people to hoist it on to a trailer or the back of the truck. We load it at every practice and every regatta. So we really can’t ask a friend to carpool and take Kieran to practice because that would be way too much to ask of them.
2. Then there’s the rigging.
   
   After unloading the boat, it needs to be put on a dolly which we bring along with the boat. Then we roll over to hopefully some grassy area and start rigging the boat.  Floating devices need to be checked, dagger boards need to be dealt with and more. The sail has to be taught but not too taught. It all depends on how windy it is that day. There always seems to be some voodoo magic involved in this but somehow it all works out. Rigging is not so bad anymore. Kieran is older now and does most of his own rigging.  It used to be bad before when he first started out because my husband Blake or I had to do a lot of the rigging and it seemed that Kieran had the attention span of a gold fish. Andre my other son used to sail too. That was trouble times two. Back then, I knew nothing about how to rig a boat. I still know very minimal. I can get by if I need too. But I still don’t call things by there proper names.  Instead of  saying “did you tie the sail ties to the boom”. I might say “did you tie the sail thingy to the pole thingy before doing that other thingy”. It’s all so technical. Thank God my husband Blake enjoys sailing.  So he’s in charge of all that rigging stuff.
3. Then Kieran has to get dressed.
   
   I think parents of football kids can relate to this. there’s a lot of stuff to put on for sailing. Sailing gear consists of PFD vest (always). On warm sunny days, a hat and maybe a pair of sunglasses. Booties, rash guard, sailing bibs or overalls, water shorts. If it’s especially cold, then extra layers are in order. Something warm and water repellent like a thick pullover and a spray jacket which helps block out the wind and all the splashing water wile sailing.    Sunblock seems to be optional but really it should be mandatory given the fact that they sail for 3 or 4 hours plus at each practice and regatta. It always seems to be an afterthought to the kids.
4. Then there’s the launching. This involves putting the boat back onto the dolly and rolling it over to the dock and sliding it into the water. At practices this isn’t so bad. There are only 5 or 6 other kids on the team and everyone helps one another. But at regattas sometimes there’s 30 kids with 30 boats and each kid has one sometimes two parents helping and everyone is trying to launch,  rig and do stuff to get ready at the same time. It can get down right crazy.
5. Then there’s the waiting. I hand Kieran his lunch and we wave goodbye and drive away for at least 4 hours. Again at practices it’s easier. We can drive home because we only live 5 minutes away.  But at regattas we usually drive to places that are over an hour away like San Francisco yacht club in Tiburon, Or Saint Francis Yacht club in San Francisco or The Richmond Yacht club in Richmond. At those places, we can’t drive home because it’s too far away and we would have to turn around to pick Kieran up in a few hours.  If we have a clear view of the race we’ll stay and watch.  There’s nothing more invigorating than watching the racing and rounding the marks.  The Saint Francis Yacht Club: Heavy weather regatta had one of the best seats for watching the kids.  We sat just outside the club restaurant. One of the marks was quite literally 40 feet from us.  Unfortunately, most of the time we can’t stay and watch because the kids usually sail way out into the bay. They are little dots in our binoculars and it’s hard to make out who is who.
   So we usually go into town, have some lunch, hang out with other parents and chat, read a book or do something to pass the time.  We do something to pass the time because we have about a 4 hour wait until the kids return from racing.
6. After four hours we go back to the club and check to see if the kids have come back from racing. We never know what time they come in. There’s no set time. It all depends on how many races they were able to get in.  If there’s not a lot of wind, the kids don’t get a lot of races in. Sometimes they get only one race in after 4hours and the racing committee decides to keep them out longer so that they can get one more race in. Other times the committee may  decide to bring them in early because they think there’s no chance of getting any more races off. And on other days it’s perfect. There’s lots of wind, and lot’s of races.  For the parents, it’s all just a lot of speculation and guessing as to what the day will bring and what time to come back to the docks.
7. It’s a scramble after the kids finally do return. Everyone helps out here. When the days races are completed. All the kids come in at the same time.  So all the boats need to be pulled out of the water in or around the same spot.  And this part is actually a lot of fun.  There are parents running to the docks, pulling boats out of the water. Boats being loaded onto dolly’s and hauled past you, booms swaying, the sound of all the sails flapping in the wind.  Boats being hosed down. Kids walking around soaking wet, exhausted after having been on the water all day and parents are helping whoever they can to get the boats out.  It’s true team work and sometimes back breaking. But all the parents seem to be working independently yet working together. Like a well oiled machine.
8. Once the boats are out of the water, the kids have to hose down the boats of all that salt water. Then they cover the boats up and put it off to the side.  We don’t load it back onto the trailer because a regatta is usually 2 days long. So we just put it off to the side with the other boats so that it will be there for the next day.  That’s right, we have come back again the next day and do it all again. so we drive an hour or so to get home but we’re too tired and it’s too late to cook so we stop over in San Francisco on the way home and have some Za Pizza. Sometimes the regattas provide diners but usually we just eat on the way home.
9. The next day we wake up around 7 or 8 a.m. and drive around an hour to get back to whatever club we were at and it starts all over again.  Rigging, launching, waiting and helping. When the kids come back in from this second day of racing there’s a sense of relief. Kind of like when you’ve worked long and hard at something and now it’s over. You think wow, that was hard but somehow you feel a sense of accomplishment and proud. So After we pull the boat out of the water it’s time to de-rig, hose down and load the boat into the back of the truck again.
10. It’s not over yet. It’s now 4 or 5 p.m. We’ve all been going at this since the day before at 7 a.m.  Now we wait for the award ceremony.  There’s usually a first, second and third place for each of the boat classes. There can be as many as 5 or 6 classes of boats.  Ranging from  FJ’s Lasers, 49 ers, Bytes and Optimists (that’s Kieran’s class of boat at the moment). In the optimist class, there’s four sub levels. Green, White, Blue and Red. Kieran is now in the Red. It’s based on age for the most part. Red is for 13 to 15 years old. After that they age out and have to graduate on to one of the other boat classes meant for the bigger kids. Kieran is currently transitioning to FJ’s while concurrently sailing his Optimist.   So this part of waiting for the awards usually takes an hour. sometimes less. It jsut depends.
11. Now we drive home. Most of the time we get home around 7 or 8 p.m. at night. Way too exhausted too cook. So we’ll pick up some Take out on the drive home. Eat at the table and fall asleep.

So that’s what’s involved in being a sailing parent. I have no idea what other parents do for other sports.  This is what we’ve chosen to do.  It’s been an investment and a lifestyle for quite a while now. It transcends our daily lives at times and it involves the whole family. I hope one day Kieran appreciates how much work and sacrifice is involved. I have to say that it’s not all hard work. We do enjoy ourselves when we take Kieran to his regattas. Even if it is only just to hang out. The venues are usually beautiful. Especially Tiburon and San Francisco.  We usually get in a nice lunch and hang out leisurely while we wait for Kieran to finish up his races. And I have to say that the conversations we have after wards about how he trimmed his sail to make his boat go faster, or how he capsized and continued to race and still finish the race give me a sense of purpose. I feel proud that Kieran has something that he is good at, that he enjoys outside of school, video games and school friends. I suppose it’s a lifestyle thing.  It’s the values, the freedom of being on the open water, the accumulated knowledge of working at something and seeing the fruits of your labor come to fruition.  After it’s all said and done, it all seems worth it.

A friend of mine sent me a video about the BMW Oracle : BOR 90 that was built for the World Cup.    This video about the Bor 90 reminded me about why my husband and I are working so hard and sacrificing so many things to keep Kieran involved in sailing.   This boat is massive, it’s elegant, it’s beautiful.  It makes me want to sail.  I hope one day Kieran may be lucky enough to sail and race on a boat that’s 1/10 th  as impressive as this boat.  Anyways, If you like the history channel then you’ll probably enjoy this Video. It’s short and has just the right amount of sensationalism mixed in with education. Just to give you a better understanding about the magnitude of this boat, here are a few of the specs.

Equivalent Size: The infield of a professional baseball diamond or Two basketball courts
The hull alone has taken over 130,000 hours to build to date

Mast Height: Up to 185-feet/55 meters
Wing Height: 187 ft / 57 m (compared to 102 ft / 31 m span of a Boeing 747 wing and 143 ft)
Overall Length: 100-feet/30 meters
The Mainsail: 6800 square feet

And here’s the video.

You can learn more about the Bor 90 from the Golden Gate Yacht club website at http://www.ggyc.com/

p.s. My husband has a similar point of view. He is much less wordy at explaining things. You can see his write about the boys sailing at www.blakeelder.com

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Author: Annie André runs a charming boutique filled with cute, unique gifts & quirky handmade things inspired by the romantic spirit of France, fairytales, forest creatures and the cute but quirky off beat style of Tokyo Japan. You can visit her shop at http://www.lenekonoir.com. Read her Blog at http://www.lenekonoir.com/blog. Become friends on Facebook here http://www.facebook.com/lenekonoir