Team Sanchez: the view from the front.

As always, Geoff gave a very good synopsis of our trek to the East
Coast, but as usual, left out some of the details that that those of you
who wish to travel to non-local 505 events should learn, know and live.
With this in mind, I'd like to give a summary of my lessons learned from
this trip.

Lessons learned:

If you are crew, it is extremely important to isolate your driver from
the following: Tabasco sauce, green curry, blonde hotties the night before a regatta, and from drinking more beer than the volume of his own body.

When traveling, duct tape as many things together as possible so they
can be counted as one bag by the airline. Also, when checking in, try
to go to the counter with the blonde hottie - they're more fun to look
at and usually faster at checking in than the old fat guy.

If you don't have personal equipment for a variety of conditions, think
about investing in some. In our case, a solid set of neoprene full
finger gloves, warm booties and a wool cap would have made the
difference on Saturday. Our attitude towards racing would have been
completely different had we been warm, and we probably would have tried
to fix our rig and stay out for the other two races. We missed some
great breeze because of our thin blood.

The crew always does more work than the driver, so if there's only one
couch in the place you're crashing, demand it. If the driver argues
with you, threaten that you'll fake a clip into your harness and launch
yourself into the drink (in which case, he too will probably get wet).
Don't forget to reward your hosts with some memento of your thanks. In
our case, we gave them exactly what every sailor needs more of -
alcohol.

When chartering a boat, try to get some pictures of it before hand.
Make sure you bring some extras like your own sails and sheets, a
minimal set of tools, lots of duct tape, extra lines, a tape measure for
calibrating, and something to mark the controls with.

In summary, just make sure you plan well. We had a couple of short
discussions of how to approach this trip, but with a bit more effort we
could have been much more prepared and would have been fairly
competitive in the end. Make sure you'll be comfortable and able to
function in whatever conditions arise.

Kudos to Geoff for coming up with this crazy idea in the first place.
Thanks to Ali Meller, Nick Place, Bob Patterson and Severn Sailing for
having us and for a very well organized event. If you ever get a chance
to sail Annapolis, don't pass it up!

Mike Pollard
USA 7095 (the front half)
Team Sanchez