Beer Can Racin' - Not Slackin'... And Firsts All Around!!

I LOVE sailing!! And every chance I get to go sailing with friends, whether it's in San Diego CA,  down to Belize, or all the way up to Alaska, I take it! Sailing seems to be different everywhere I go - it's a weather strategy, water reading, wind reading, boat sliding and skipping, sail popping or luffing thing... I'm just happy to be on the boat!! Ballast, that's me!

In between official races there are unofficial, unsanctioned races called beer can races. Every yacht club has them, and they are good to test new theories or equipment before a 'real' race. This is where I find myself this week - ballast on a sailboat in a beer can race!

While not a great venue for plein air PAINTING, I took my sketch pad along with some colored pencils and tagged this action SKETCHING! Look for a painting in the near future as I LOVED this experience and I want to capture this excitement and use it for later works!

After turning around at the halfway mark, I started my sketching...

 

Notice that I captured the two boats on the left still raising their spinnakers, not quite to the top!! Oh, so cool!! It's always good to be in the boat at the front of the pack, hehe!!

This drawing only took me about seven minutes, which made the other 'ballast beer/wine drinking members' ask me how I learned to draw so fast. I briefly explained that what I did as a 'painter', mixing colors from the three primary colors and putting those colors on a canvas in the shortest amount of time possible, made me able to sketch things with pencil much, much faster.

Then I broke out my colored pencils... As quickly as I could, I captured the colors of the spinnaker sails and the reflections in the water...

The entire crew, with the boat I was on being as far ahead as it was, checked out what I was doing - including the boat's captain and owner. He and his wife offered to purchase the drawing for a substantial sum, as this was the first time their boat had won a race. I'll also be painting a handful of canvasses of this event, one for each crew member, courtesy of the owners - my first paid commission!!

Firsts all around - first time this boat had won a race, and the first time I'd been offered actual money for something I've created...

And I've received invitations to sail with a lot of other boats! I guess everyone needs ballast, hehe!

Good times, and a GREAT day!!!