Reluctantly Delighted

Everybody likes to sail, right? Of course they do. They all just may now know it, yet. This is the case with my 11yo son. OK, I admit I've done a couple things with him on board that may have been somewhat frightening--a particular gybe, which my wife won't let me forget, comes to mind. Still, the son does seem to enjoy sailing--even tells me so while we're out on the water. He's just apprehensive about getting out there in the first place.

In the interest of injecting a bit more variety and family fun into the Weta fleet, we're trying to promote certain regattas as Friends & Family events. For the fleet here in Northern California, we'll start with the tamer lake events such as Whiskeytown and High Sierra before trying to coerce the reluctant into a wild mid-Summer regatta on the Bay (which, of course, anybody should love to do.)

Now although Iain hasn't officially said, "Yes" yet, he'll be my crew at Whiskeytown. So, he needs some time in the boat to get ready for racing. Last Friday, thanks to a CA schools furlow day, he and I splashed into the local puddle, Contra Loma Reservoir, for some tacking, gybing, and kite furling/unfurling practice. He did great, remarkably well in fact, having never handled the sheets and control lines before. Heck, he even seemed to be enjoying it. We tooled around the lake for a while, up and down, back and forth. The Weta is a bit fast for this pond causing us to change directions often--perfect for our practice session. Eventually, we made our way back to the dock, and as we were pulling the boat up onto its dolly, Iain said, "That was really fun, Dad."

"Cool. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Would you like to go again?"
"Sure!," he replied.
"So then," I asked, "do you want to race with me at Whiskeytown?"
"Umm, I'll let you know on that."