I am back home this evening from Bermuda. I sailed the Bermuda Race aboard Larry Huntington’s “Snow Lion”. The boat was well prepared, we had a new North 3Di mainsail. We had sailed together in the Block Island race and the NYYC Spring Regatta.
Seven minutes into the race the clew of the new mainsail failed. There was a collective groan, we all knew what this represented for Larry. My first thought was: “I know Larry will not withdraw”, followed by: “I might not make my flight home..”We watched our class sail away from us, while we accessed the problem and developed a solution. We reefed and started stitching. Once we felt the clew was stabilized enough we unreefed and continued to stitch. About a total of forty hours of sewing.
We could not sail at 100%. We nursed this sail right to the finish. We managed a second in class and 14th overall, but in my mind the race will always be remembered by the crew for something else. Everyone contributed to the solution, everyone picked up where the last person left off. We behaved as a team with a single purpose. The result was a sense of satisfaction that cannot be measured by results. No one ever quit, they just kept trying harder.
