A Trip To the Worlds
By Anna Gorbold

This is not a new venture for US FD class sailors, but for some of us, attending an FD World Championship regatta being held at a venue out side of the US is a first time event,and perhaps it’s worth sharing the excitement of the occasion.

    This year, for in fact the second year in a row, several US teams  decided to participate in the ‘99 FD Worlds being held at the Lee on the Solent sailing club not far from Portsmouth on the south coast of England:

Lin Robson  with Dave Nault from Florida,
Jim Algert from San Diego with Timothy Gorbold from New York,
Tim Sayles with Pavel Ruzicka from Pennsylvania,
Doug Domermouth and Marco Colombo also from San Diego,
Nigel Gorbold and Dave Kline (junior sailors) from New York,
Jonathan and Anna Gorbold also from New York.

    The decision to undertake a trip like this is hard to define – it probably stems more from realizing a dream rather  than any rational thought!! Four teams went last year to the Worlds that were held in Holland, and  their successful venture certainly inspired consideration of the Worlds in England for ‘99. Experience with  boat transportation  was relatively fresh and perhaps is seemed a shame to let that knowledge and experience go to waste. To most sane beings the mere thought of transporting boats across an ocean is sheer madness not to mention ludicrously expensive. The expense is substantial and should not be minimized, but it isn’t prohibitive especially when shared by six boats, the number of boats that can fit into a container. But most sailors aren’t sane beings and FD sailors are perhaps the least sane of all. Or perhaps it’s an indication of getting older and seeing that life is too short and that you need to do those things that you really want to do. Or perhaps it is simply the need to bring a dream to life. All these are probably some of the possible explanations for committing to such a trip. For our family it was all of the above, and especially the very real possibility of realizing a dream – a dream to sail competitively in England, our mother country, and to do so with our sons.  This was an opportunity and  a challenge that if we didn’t take now we knew we would live to regret it. ( Here age and wisdom come into play as we have lived to regret actions not taken!)

    But for all the dreaming, when the desire is strong enough it is  the hard reality is that makes the dreams come true and boat prep is a major part of an undertaking like this.  In our case it was a question of overhauling two boats, one a KDV that is sailed hard and the other a ’68 Bob Hoare. So once the cross country ski season finished and the garage became warmer it was time to bring the boats in, strip them down, make lists of every thing that needed doing and then simply get on with the overhaul aiming to have the boats ready for the start of the local sailing season.  As with all good plans there are always glitches, business and a family emergency in England occupied several precious weekends. Suddenly the sailing season had started, the Nationals are getting closer, no boat time had been accrued yet and the World’s trip was no longer a dream but a very real thing that would occur starting with packing the boats into a container on a given day that couldn’t be changed!

    Organizing the container seemed real easy…..but then I didn’t do that, it just seemed to happen! Tim Sayles undertook that part of the trip planning using his experience from the previous year. Many thanks Tim for all that you did, and god bless e-mail which makes communication so much easier to day. In fact perhaps it’s more reliable than US mail which managed to lose a payment check.  The Can-Nat regatta held at Canandaigua Yacht Club was planned around boat transportation. We had to allow enough time for the boats to be shipped, while at the same time making it reasonable easy for every one to get their boats to the loading venue. So for the  3 days of the Nationals we all focused hard on the great sailing and then suddenly it was boat packing time, this was what we had planned for. This was what we had prepped the boats for, this was what we had sorted tools and consolidated equipment for, this was what we had bought carpeting for and received a donation of a bail of rope for. Our precious boats were going to be packed into one of these enormous containers that we see too many of on roads and rails. Who knows what happens to these giant boxes once they are packed, we had to make sure that every thing was secure limiting the amount of possible damage to equipment. Not only that but was the container going to arrive on time, in ’98 there were last minute container arrival problems causing much nerve wracking , as the timing of this event goes beyond the mere packing, vacations days are taken and people have other schedules to keep.

    This year the container arrived at Canandaigua as scheduled, in fact it arrived half an hour early. The previous day there had been great discussions as to where the container should be parked for easiest access. For those of you who know Canandaigua Yacht club it could even be difficult to envision a huge tractor trailer getting down to the water front. But the truck did arrive and the driver effortless positioned the container where we wanted it and then left us to it. It was a hot humid day  and we had two hours of container time. Every one hustled.  The first boat is tied up with rope as close to the ceiling as possible without it’s dolly, the next boat, already tied to its dolly, gets strung up under the first and the third also tied to its dolly, under the second. The inside of the container has tie hooks positioned every 3 feet along the inside of the roof. Carpeting was already used to cushion bundles of masts and booms, additional  rolls of it are used as buffers between the boats and the ceiling of the container, and between the boats them selves. The dollies that come apart easily are packed in and tied down, tool boxes are packed in and tied down and then the final 3 boats are strung  up. Before we knew it the driver was back and it was time to close up the container but not before several Kodak moments. Then the tail gate is closed, the truck is maneuvering out of the club water front area and that precious cargo is en route for Montreal. It almost doesn’t seem possible – but it did happen, and it is happening, and now we just need to get our bags packed and make plane connections and find our way to Lee on the Solent.

UK Worlds here we come!

Stay Tuned. . . More news on the worlds from the sailors that participated. . . Coming in the October Issue of the Trapeze.