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I had a steady trickle of guests—mostly
complete strangers, mostly with no sailing
experience at all—sailing with me every
weekend. In the year or so since I started
doing this, I’ve taken over 75 people out
on Paloma and given them their first taste
of sailing.
In my case, I was able to meet people by volunteering to act as assistant race officer
on the club committee boat, an opportunity which arose as a result of taking the keelboat
course at HHYC. This led to a couple of invitations to crew, which in turn led to finding
sympathetic people I could bribe with enough alcohol to countersign my application.
Then I was invited for an ‘interview’ to establish my worthiness. Apparently I was deemed
fit, although I think honestly that people were more interested in the fact that I planned to
bring Paloma home to HHYC and restore her than they were in me. I didn’t actually get
a word in during the entire thing. I was only asked one question at my interview, just as I
was leaving at the end; as I stood up from my seat to leave, I heard the words, “And of
course, you are going to race her?”
Actually, the thought had never occurred to me and h eld no interest whatsoever for
me. However, I’d come this far, and I wasn’t about to blow it now. “Of course,” I replied.
Never one to duck a challenge or a commitment made, I set about refitting Paloma
and getting her seaworthy again. I drew up a plan that had the necessary work split into
three phases over 18 months but kept the boat sailing in between.
During December 2012, while the boat
was out of the water for a new paint job
and antifoul, I had the opportunity to race
in the Winter Series aboard Bits & Pieces.
Watching from the committee boat many
times as assistant race officer, I had often
noticed with considerable admiration how
well this boat was crewed, and I was thrilled
to have the opportunity to see how this was
done. It was an eye opener, and I knew then
I had taken on a much bigger task than I
had thought. Frankly, I wasn’t much use
as crew on Bits and was soon displaced
by younger, fitter and more experienced
sailors. I’m still grateful for the experience
though, and Toby, Graham, Geoff, Kay and
the rest of the Bits crew have continued to
offer advice and encouragement as I’ve
gone on to race against them.
By February 2013, I had enough novice sailors to put together a crew for the Spring
Saturday Series. With the second phase of the refit complete, we made our way out to
the start of the first race with a new paint job, new stripped-down interior and go-faster
graphics on the topsides.
Our first races were something of a joke; I had no idea of tactics, boat handling or how
to instruct my crew. I think we crossed the start of our first race about three minutes after
the gun. Despite my incompetence, we also had an impressive handicap and after a bit
of practice we started to actually get some results.
In between the Spring Saturday Series and Summer Saturday Series, we added new
sails, got some crew T-shirts and finally got good enough to dare to fly our spinnaker. In
the Summer Series we again did moderately well. We made lots of mistakes, did plenty
of stupid things and won more than our fair share of race officers’ prizes for trying hard
while messing up spectacularly. Along the way I got to know many of the skippers of
other boats who gave me advice, tips and, on occasion, forgave my lack of knowledge
of the rules of racing when I accidentally got in their way.
At the end of my first season of racing, we came 7th in the Spring Series and 9th in
the Summer Series. I’m glad I decided to race the boat, I’ve certainly learnt a great deal
and have pushed myself, the boat and crew harder than I would have dreamt of at the
beginning of the year. I’m still not certain I’m cut out for yacht racing, and one of the things
I’ve learnt about myself is that there’s much more to being a successful skipper than boat
handling and tactics. Yacht racing is very much a team endeavour, and creating the right
conditions to train, inspire and manage a crew is far more important than almost anything
else. If I’m going to do better, this is the next skill I have to master.
So that’s my first year as a member of HHYC. When I joined the Club, I was looking
simply for somewhere to moor my boat and provide me with a sampan to take me to it.
Over the year, I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many members that have welcomed
me, offered advice and encouragement and, in some cases, become great friends. The
Club has become an important part of both my life and my wife’s, providing a sense of
community that gives us an anchor in the sometimes chaotic waters of life in Hong Kong.
So if I haven’t met you already, and you see me around the Club, come over and
say hello. For those of you I have met, please accept a warm thank you for making us
so welcome.
Next, I needed crew. Initially, I reached out to the Sailing Centre, thinking that there
would be plenty of people like myself that, having completed a keelboat course, would
want to continue sailing. The results were disappointing, and I remain surprised to this day
that in our club there doesn’t seem to be a clear progression from dinghies to keelboats.
No one has ever responded to my advert on the Club’s crew finder either.
I got to thinking about my own experiences trying to get into the yachting community
here, and decided that I would endeavour to give anyone that was willing the opportunity
to come out and sail. Since I’m an IT engineer by profession, I created a website (www.
tayler.jp) to record my adventures and invite people to sail on Paloma. I promoted it through
the UST Sailing Club and other social media sites and word started to get around. Soon
54 Hebe jebes • Jan/Feb 2014
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