First taste of a U20

When the 20-foot racing yacht turned on it's side, the mast nearly touching the water, and I found myself preparing to climb over-top to stand on the keel, I honestly smiled and calmly thought, "This is a boat I could love." An unexpected cross wind -- or "cross-puff" as it might be called a mile high in the mountains -- had surprised our volunteer captain, who's barked-out commands didn't do much in my greenhorn ears. The other guy, standing on the bow with a spinaker jib in hand, just clutched the mast. Hard to know if he heard any of it; that's okay, it's his boat.

The U20, the boat of an ominous fleet presence at our Cherry Creek Reservoir are beautiful and scary-looking. There's no where to hang on, or hide. The very idea of being on one put a lump in my throat all last year.

So the story begins on Saturday, May 1st, when I crashed the Denver Sailing Association's season opener BBQ, and eventually found myself talking with Brad, a long-time sailor but new owner of a U20. We hit it off and when he realized I was looking for experience on anything I could crew on, he suggested I come down in the morning at 10 when he'd launch it.

"Maybe we'll take it out."

I was there at 10:00, bag packed, water bottles, PFD, and a bag of sliced apples ready to share. What is it Woody Allen said? "80% of life is showing up."

As he and a friend who'd joined drove it down to the Marina, I locked up my car and trotted after them.
We spent a while tuning the standing rigging. (...That means we stood the mast up in the parking lot, then tightened the cables and measured their tension, and tightened, back and forth, for a good 40 minutes.) We did it side-by-side with another U20, "Juiced."

Here's a photo:


Long story short, we sailed like crazy, with our more-experienced volunteer breaking the boat in, and the owner Brad focusing on parts, pieces, and how to get things rolling.

Since we weren't clear if the weather would allow, it was a treat to get the spinnaker out about five times. Here's a (lousy) short video showing the spinnaker out, Brad up in Bow position, managing the spinnaker & lines.