{"id":66036,"date":"2019-06-03T22:33:41","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T02:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=66036"},"modified":"2023-05-06T21:28:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T01:28:15","slug":"taken-for-a-ride-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/taken-for-a-ride-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Taken For a Ride"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Repeat <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Harteck family’s J\/105 Repeat Offender<\/em> readies for Santa Barbara YC’s Hitch Hiker Wet Wednesday beer can race.<\/span>\n Paul Todd\/Outside Images<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

On the exterior wall of the Santa Barbara YC is a notice board. Tacked to the cork is a flyer that reads in large letters: \u201cHitch Hiker Wet Wednesday.\u201d If I\u2019m looking to go sailing, I\u2019m at the right place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the middle of March, the air along California\u2019s central coast is cool and the water cooler. The San Rafael Mountains are lush green and blooming after destructive wildfires and the rains that followed. It\u2019s 3:30 in the afternoon, and like most California yacht clubs this time of year, the place is quiet, but the grills are set up and the yardarm is fluttering with burgees and signal flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Photographer Paul Todd and I follow instructions on the flyer, which explains that, if I\u2019m interested in hitching a ride in the club\u2019s Wednesday night beer can race, I am to sit on the wall outside the marina gate, between two orange flags. Should anyone need a crew or two, this is where they\u2019ll find us. We take a seat. Just a couple of blokes looking for a ride. Soon after, a tall, handsome young man steps up and asks, \u201cAre you guys hitchhikers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Indeed, we are. The teen \u00adintroduces himself as Paul Harteck. He has a J\/105<\/a> and could use our rail meat. He’s only 18, a freshman at Santa Barbara City College. He’s into cars, and engines, and obviously, sailboat racing. The J\/105 is technically his old man Larry Harteck’s, but this is really the kid’s program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Young Harteck is a textbook California youth sailor; groomed in Sabots and Optis, raised around high-performance beach cats and 29er skiffs, then onto Farr 40s and Pac52s. Polite, quiet and humble, you\u2019d never suspect the big-boat \u00adexperience he has until he explains he\u2019s been a nipper for a few of the area\u2019s \u00adpro-laden grand-prix programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

As we wait for the rest of the crew, the elder Harteck shares the story of how he bought Repeat Offender<\/em> out of salvage\u2014a boatyard accident\u2014for $40,000, fixed the holes and the keel, and had himself a family racer. Since he was 14 years old, Paul has been onboard for practically every race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my dad\u2019s boat,\u201d he says with a sheepish grin, \u201cbut we like it when he\u2019s not around. He\u2019s a bit of a yeller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a discussion of what sails are on the boat, and whether the tack shackle on the jib furler should be replaced before we leave. Harteck gives it a quick inspection and confirms the repair can wait another day. Soon, Sarah and Heather, from the U.C. Santa Barbara sailing team arrive. Larry\u2019s boat partner Bill and their longtime crewmember Dave will serve as the adults onboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

On account of there being two capable hitchhikers, Larry excuses himself to the club\u2019s second-floor deck, from where the race committee will conduct the evening contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

RELATED: Inside the Classes: The J\/105<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the second night of the Wet Wednesday series. The races are \u201cfun\u201d and don\u2019t count toward the overall season scores. Hitchhiking is encouraged as a way to find or break in new crew\u2014or simply recruit a few hands for the night. This particular race will start between two white, permanent race marks, with a weather leg to Mark A, a red navigational mark, down through the starting line, which is essentially a leeward gate, back upwind and finish through the starting line. Twenty-six boats show up, a fraction of the summer fleet, and it\u2019s a mix of PHRF classics and one-designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Paul eventually asks us what we could do on the boat, which is where our whole ruse of being joe-schmo hitchhikers is revealed. My cohort, the Kiwi photographer often mistaken for celebrity Guy Fiere, agrees to man the mast. I\u2019m happy to trim mainsail and play tactician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cOK! Let\u2019s go!\u201d he commands as he bounds into the cockpit and starts the engine, which rumbles and knocks to life. Just as we slip docklines, a drenching squall sweeps down the emerald mountainside. Everyone dashes below for foul weather gear and we hoist the mainsail in the pouring rain. Wet Wednesday, indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

To our south, however, there\u2019s blue skies, and by the time we\u2019re cleating the main halyard, a vibrant rainbow stretches across the sky as the golden afternoon sun illuminates the Santa Barbara coastline in a golden veil. There\u2019s plenty of time to soak in the scenery, because we\u2019re the fifth of eight starts. While we\u2019re warming up, Paul reminds our bowman, Alex, to keep an eye out for wads of kelp floating in the racecourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe kelp is back,\u201d Paul observes aloud as he scans the course. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of down-coast current, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

With strong current offshore, he assures me the smart strategy will be to start clean, get right ASAP, tack in the shallow water and cover any of the competition. From there, it should be straight-forward. Like the savvy local, he has it figured out already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Harteck nails the start with a few feet to spare, reaches back to pump the backstay a few times and promptly gets in tune with the boat\u2019s heel angle. I ask him if he uses target speeds. Nope. He doesn\u2019t even bother looking the mast displays.\n\u201cIt\u2019s all about feel,\u201d he says. \u201cI just know when it feels slow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Our tack toward shoreline current relief, as planned, is perfect and the trailing J\/105\u2014our primary \u00adcompetition\u2014is to leeward, so we wait for them to tack before doing the same directly in front of them. Game, set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Leading around the weather mark, the mainsheet gets stuck in the jaws of the cam cleat, but Paul, who can\u2019t possibly weigh more than 130 pounds wet, fights the forces of the aluminum tiller and the big rudder that\u2019s stalled beneath the boat. Someone on the crew yells to him to bear away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am,\u201d he responds in a cool, hushed tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Once the spinnaker is set, we try our first jibe of the night. It\u2019s a thing of beauty. So is the next, and we\u2019re still comfortably ahead of our rival, \u00adstruggling with its spinnaker.\nThe gate mark comes quick in the 15-knot puffs and swift current, which makes our first douse a bit rushed. In the chaos of the douse, the jib sheets get wedged in the foredeck hatch. It won\u2019t roll out, and tension on the boat is escalating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Harteck doesn\u2019t say a word, allowing the team to sort out the problem themselves. The kid is clearly not a yeller like his pops. The spinnaker disappears down the hatch, we round the mark bareheaded, but the exit angle is still perfect. The kid is a natural. Once the jib sheet is cleared, the grey sail unfurls and fills with a snap, Dave grinds it home and we\u2019re headed to the shoreline again. The boat is quiet, until Paul says to no one in particular\u2014or maybe it was to himself\u2014\u201cWell, that wasn\u2019t so good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

He calls every move of the loose cover and we win the night\u2019s only race with ease. We sail straight into the harbor, douse our sails, and Harteck glides the boat into its slip with the precision of a professional boat captain. We\u2019ve arrived wet, but safe and victorious, and there\u2019s even cold beer awaiting. Thanks for the ride, kid. That was fun.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An impromptu beer can race doesn\u2019t require thumbs out \u2014but the experience is two thumbs up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Dave Reed","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20190603","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"159","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"An impromptu beer can race doesn\u2019t require thumbs out \u2014but the experience is two thumbs up","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Taken For a Ride %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"RXFGEA3WFD7GEW5TAEL5FSIIWQ","arc_website_url":"taken-for-ride\/","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[830,470,178],"class_list":["post-66036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-beer-can-racing","tag-j-105","tag-sailboat-racing"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}