From practice race to the closing 6^th race, this has been a great time. Sailing at a NAs always teaches me that I have a lot to learn. Luckily, everyone in this class helps each other get better. We got advice on our day off and were improving. Don Brush fulfilled his promise to sail all the courses, as the flag for the triangle went up for the 6^th race. Yeah, a third race, no sailing in rain with big breeze Friday. Oh boy, are we tired. Won’t the reaches be fun, Josh (our middle crew)?

I was learning (slowly). A good start, we were off. I wish I could say I remember the race. I don’t. We just laughed and joked our way around the course. Josh survived the first set of reaches. Back up the course we went. The thing I do remember is all of us hiking out and trying to figure out if the blue fleet was catching up with yellow. There was a lone boat about 300 yards or more out in front of the blue fleet. Maybe it was one of the boats we saw flip earlier? As we got closer, we realized that Steve Hayden was doing something almost impossible on a triangle course with the conditions we had. But there his team was on the way to becoming the North American champion. It was a thing of beauty.

One more set of reaches, whooping it up as we planed with each new gust. Around the leeward mark we went and up the home stretch. We were done.

The thing that stuck with me from these NAs was watching the teams get up at the awards dinner: Teams that had sailed together for 20+ years. Teams that were comprised of family. Skippers that grew up sailing with their parents with their children at their side as they accepted their award. I wish I could repeat George Peter’s comments as he accepted 2^nd place for the green fleet. He said it best. But …In so many words: It’s belonging to the lightning class family that keeps me coming back. See everyone next year.