Saturday, July 17, 2010

Big Boat Race

Normally, I pay no attention at all to boat races. Brandon has been enjoying crewing for a friend this summer in Duluth, and various kids have sailed various races on the boats of their friends' families. But aside from asking whether they had a good time, I'm not much concerned with the results.

But one weekend a year, that changes. I live "within spittin' distance" of the start of this race, which draws boats from all over the Great Lakes and some from beyond. Furthermore, Bryan's dad (Arwen's FIL) co-owns and crews one of the boats which regularly participates. They don't win (OK they won their division once or so) but for these particular guys a "win" consists of finishing ahead of their uber-rival, a boat in the same division from the same boat club.

For some reason this has captured my imagination. So every year I go to the tracking site -- modern GPS technology is great! -- and breathlessly follow the course of "our" boat and "their" boat. And then it's over, and I sigh or cheer, and go back to being indifferent to boating for another year. Anybody who knows why, feel free to let me know!

1 comment:

Sarah in Ottawa said...

I think you reaction is a very common one, found in all sports. During playoff runs, for example, fans in cities will come out of the woodwork and cheer for the hometown heroes while normally they wouldn't give the playoffs a passing glance. Sentiment during the Olympics and the World Cup is also similar -- when you have a horse in the race (coupled with a rival! The drama!) it is so easy to get pulled in.

Good like to the Mosher crew!