Big boats - part 1

I participate in a competition in the Skûtje Elizabeth
Friday afternoon I left for Lemmer by train from Amsterdam with Noëmi and Niek. We arrived in the evening and went to the race office to register right away. Doing so, we walked through the center of Lemmer, which is a harbor full of classic ships. There were sailors everywhere and you could sense that this was a big event for the small town. The race office was in a pub where a lot of sailors were having beers, but we didn't stay. We went to meet the crew of Elizabeth and our sister-team from the Verwisseling. We were all staying aboard a huge ship together sharing rooms two and two. An impressive luxury considering we only paid 55 euro each for the whole weekend. We spent the first evening getting acquainted with each other and getting settled in our rooms.
The next morning we woke up early and had a nice breakfast together. We then prepared Elizabeth for the race by removing absolutely everything from the inside. There was definitely nothing wrong with the preparations as we took out everything down to the plates, knives and forks to optimize the weight of our 12 ton Skûtje.
Sailing out of the harbor was an odd experience. People wanted to take pictures, but of what? We could see absolutely nothing inside a thick mist. We all knew that it would be impossible to race in a weather like that, so we dropped the anchor near the other Skûtjes. While waiting for the mist to clear we would sometimes see Skûtjes appear out of the mist and disappear just as sudden again.
Around one o'clock the mist finally dispersed and we could hoist the anchor and set the sails. Even in the light wind the Skûtje is surprisingly fast. They are old boats (all of them are built in the beginning of the 20th century), but they have been heavily modified to look the way they do today. The ships have been elongated, the decks replaced to a thinner layer of steel, the masts have been moved backwards and of cause much larger sails. They are so overpowered, that they can actually capsize. Think about that for a moment, a 12 ton boat, which can capsize. That is just crazy. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I had not seen a YouTube video of it.
Fifteen minutes before our start, we heard the first sound-signal. It was the five minute notice for the A-class. We were in the small Skûtje class with only three other boats, but we started with the B and C-class Skûtjes, so there were plenty of boats on the starting line. The start of the A-class was a pretty sight. All of the boats had found a spot on the line and were crossing at speed. This race no one crossed to early, but many were close. I heard someone from our crew describe the A-class as the champions league of sailing, and after seeing them start I felt that the description might not be too much of an exaggeration.
Our own start was terrible. We ended up far below the line and in a bad position relative to the other boats, but that wasn't even the worst part. We had absolutely no boatspeed, when the start sounded. It was hurting my competitive heart to see all the wrong decisions of our helmsman, but I didn't really have any way of influencing what was going on. I had the role of second jib trimmer, which essentially meant I had no decision making power at all. The roles with influence are the helmsman, the tactician, the main sail trimmer and the jib trimmer and it is also important to have a good centerboard trimmer. The rest of us are working mainly at their commands. Our roles are second, third and fourth jib trimmer (the fourth is in charge of releasing the jib, and the two in the middle are just muscle), starboard and port centerboard trimmers (muscle for the centerboard trimmer) and two guys working the halyards.
After the disaster start we sailed upwind and rounded a the top mark. Then there was a long leg of reaching and some zigzagging back towards the start line. The course was very odd, because the lake is fairly narrow and the wind came from the side. I think we did a lot of mistakes, but we also made some good choices and our tactician was very attentive so we always got well clear of the other boats. That is in fact an important issue as they tend to sail very aggressively, luff each other on the downwind and even chase each other into starboard situations. I can be quite tense, because the boats are so big and heavy that it can be difficult to maneuver away from tight situations. I was quite frustrated with our helmsman for steering such a bad course towards the wind, but I couldn't really express that to anyone. Obviously, I would not be allowed to show him how it's done, because you need all sorts of certificates to sail a Skûtje. It warmed me inside, when Charlotte our jib trimmer expressed it for me. "Arh! We varen echt zo...! (big zig zag motion with her hand)". But even if I was struggling a bit with suppressing my competitive ambition, I fully enjoyed the race. being part of a race with 30 other big boats race, who all compete intensely is a lot of fun. We kept getting into close situations, overtaking and being overtaken by others throughout the entire race, which lasted for two and a half hours.
After the race we evaluated it in a manner that I have come to recognize as very dutch. We do it at work as well. Everyone sits in a circle and are asked to say their opinion. It is a very uncomfortable exercise, but the dutch seem to like it. It puts one person on the spot and if a negative opinion is voiced there will be a discussion about it. The helmsman will get defensive and it will be altogether unproductive. Instead we all said how much fun we had had, and the skipper talked about the things he liked from the day. The experienced crew members had some suggestions for the next day, which were in fact less like suggestions and more like orders to their 'muscles' to pay more attention to the commands. I was a little depressed at that, as it looked like we would have the exact same problems the next day as today. But at the very end of the circle-meeting I learned some great news. Our helmsman was going home and the only other person who were allowed to take the helm was our tactician. That meant the tactician's role would be open for me or Martijn. When I heard this, I confirmed that I had understood correctly (it was in dutch) with Niek and then did a "Yes!" gesture (at the part about me or Martijn becoming the tactician). That settled it and I got the role. I knew I would be able to make a big difference for our team in the next days race and I also trusted our new helmsman more than the previous one...