I’m not the adventurous sort. In fact, sometimes I’m not even inclined to leave the house. But one night last fall, I was enjoying a show with my friend DC when he leaned over and murmured, “Last race of the season next week. Wanna go sailing?”
He happened to catch me in a perfect storm of boredom, bravado and that itch to get outdoors that always hits as soon as the weather turns fair. DC had thrown me a line that spoke to all these things; all I had to do was commit to jumping aboard. So I did.
DC is a longtime affiliate of Davis Island Yacht Club; his parents were members, and when the couple raced, “they would put me down below in a crib.” Though it’s private and member-owned, DIYC is open to the public by way of its youth programs and the generations-old Thursday Night Races. Both serve to advance the sport of sailing while introducing potential members to the club and its amenities. “Any time I talk to someone who’s interested in going out, I try to make it happen,” he explained later. “My goal isn’t to talk you into joining and becoming a member, but you could say that’s the first step, getting you out there to see how awesome it is. It’s a good group of people, and it’s fun.”
Though DC has his own craft docked at the club — a Melges 24 — he wasn’t racing on this particular night. Instead, he facilitated getting my girlfriend and I onto a boat, a Farr 395 (39-and-a-half footer) called The Wired, introduced us to owner Allen Thomas, and then ended up joining us at the very last minute. “It’s kind of like my church; I do it whenever I can.”
Upwards of 50 crafts in all sizes take part in the races, and experience levels range from beginners to professionals. Crew members are called on to do a range of things, including calling tactics, or trying to guess how the wind will shift and where the wind is better, the left side of the course versus the right; hoisting and dropping sails; and trimming sails to make sure they’re at the right angle to generate the most power from the wind. On this night, we did a lot of hiking out, i.e., scuttling crab-walk style from one side of the deck to the other and dangling our legs over the rail so our weight could be used as leverage against the sail to flatten out the boat, since a flat boat is a fast boat.
Though I couldn’t keep up with the nautical jargon or figure out how fast we were going or even which buoys dictated where we needed to go to stay on course, I kept alert. I followed whatever directions I was given, ducked when the boom swung across the deck so I didn’t get knocked in the head (or worse, completely off the boat), and generally kept out from underfoot while the more active crew members pulled and winched and adjusted and maneuvered. In the midst of it all, I found moments of quiet as the breezes teased my hair and the serene swish of waves lapping against the hull lulled me into a sense of dreamy contentment. The boat was so big and slid through the waves at such a smooth glide, it barely felt like we were moving at all, and as the sun set and the moon peeked out from between the clouds, I felt a tremendous sense of peace. “You could argue that there’s nothing better on a Thursday night, than to be out there with the wind and the water at sunset,” DC told me later, and I had to agree.
In fact, I’ve been trying to get on DC’s Melges 24 ever since that night. Once our schedules align, you can bet I’ll be out there. And maybe this time, I’ll pull a line or two, too.
MORE INFO:
Thursday Night Races are held weekly, from March through October, weather permitting. After the time change, during the off season, comes the Full Moon Series — held one Thursday a month, when the moon is full. If you’re interested in joining the casually competitive races on Hillsborough Bay, practiced boaters and novices alike are welcome to visit the club bar on Thursday nights and notify the staff you’re “crew looking for a boat.” You can’t just jump on any boat — it is a private club — but you can be invited to crew one or become a boater’s guest on a first come, first served basis. Bringing along a six-pack probably doesn’t hurt your chances at an invite. Or so I’m told… For additional information, call the club at 813-251-1158.
Davis Island Yacht Club also hosts a variety of youth learning opportunities. The nonprofit Davis Island Youth Sailing Foundation (DIYSF) runs the Summer Learn-To-Sail Program, a series of day camps that offer sailing instruction to kids as young as 5 and as old as 18, both to DIYC members and public (non-members) alike. Week-long sessions in 2015 are held Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., June 8 through August 11, and are broken up by age and experience level. Lunch is provided and is included in the program fees, as is a tee-shirt. Get more info and find out where to sign up your young one at diyc.org/youth-sailing. —LP
This article appears in May 21-27, 2015.