Can You Say "Forrest Gump"??

I am seriously having a Forrest Gump moment!  A few days ago, I got an email from my old college friend, Chris Bake, asking me if I would be interested in steering his RC 44 in the first stop of the RC 44 World tour for 2011 being held in San Diego.  Chris has been very successful in the oil business overseas and has had business commitments come up that have made it impossible for him to attend this event.

Needless to say,  I am a little overwhelmed with this opportunity to jump aboard a world class Grand Prix racing machine and racing against many of the worlds best sailors!  Making things easier is the fact that Chris has assembled a team that has vast experience sailing these boats and "Team Aqua" has consistently been one of the top teams on the RC 44 circuit over the past 3 years.

I am not sure of the proper time to tell the guys that I have never helmed a boat with a wheel in a race before!  Hopefully, I won't do anything too stupid that results in serious carnage.  I plan to be in serious "shut up and steer" mode and let Chris' team get us around the race course.

The match racing portion of the event starts today and the fleet racing begins tomorrow.  I won't arrive in San Diego until this afternoon and hope to get out and see what these racing machines are all about.

 The pro's steer the boat in the match racing portion of the regatta and the owner/driver's steer the boats in the fleet racing.  Since I am classified as a Category 1 sailor (an amateur), I am eligible to steer the boat in Chris' absence.  Should be very interesting!  Much thanks to my wife Amy and my big family for encouraging me to give this a shot on short such notice!

The web site for the regatta is www.rc44.com

I'll keep you posted!