
Just to clarify, friends and neighbors, this has very little to do with sailing skill, although specific racing experience does help. Patrice is an accomplished skipper and I’m not totally clueless as a crew member, but this is about competition and there is something about men and boats and competition that very seldom mixes well in a marriage.
Debbie: “Patrice...”
Patrice: “Yeah.”
Debbie: “Do you see any other married couples out here racing?”
Patrice: “ .............errrr, no.”
Debbie: “THERE’S A REASON FOR THAT!”
So, we wisely decided, for the sake of our marriage and sanity, to put an end to the madness. I encouraged Patrice to continue without me, but his heart wasn’t in it (bless him) and with the exception of a one-off race on Taka Trois many years later in La Rochelle with Mathieu and Ian, our semi-professional sailing friends in charge (see below), we never raced again.
