After much thought of balancing the old with the new. The pure sailor vs the hybrid. Trying to finish fast vs just finishing. The time seemed right to make the switch from Big Red to a Hobie tandem. I had raced on one in the 2010 NCC and again in the 2011 ECC. While not as fast from a sailing standpoint, it is a better balance for me knowing that there are no more fiberglassing days. That I can launch in 15 minutes from my dock and do not have to rent storage space any more. Training with my son-in-law, wind watcher, Alex starts this weekend. We have a sharp learning curve to catch up. But , we will be ready. The boat will be ready. And with 11 tandems on the beach on March 1st, we have a class of our own. So the playing field levels. No more trying to match the tricked out race machines. Just finishing is winning.