2009 Texoma Lakefest Regatta

(2009 Second Star Racing team consisted of: JD Hill, Susan Hill, Ben Gray, John Kleineberg, Michael (Pirate Mike) Brooks, Angela Haar, Harald TenWolde, Scott Spurlin)

Well I haven't been home for 24 hours and I am writing the chronicles of another great adventure. Texoma Lakefest (website) a long standing tradition in North Texas has been recognized as the largest inland charity sailing regatta in the nation. 2009 was no different and a tremendous amount of effort was put in by the races sponsoring yachtclub the Texoma Sailing Club (website)! 47 boats and close to 300+ competitors came to battle it out on one of Texas' biggest lakes. Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, the 12th largest Corps of Engineers (USACE) Lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District. ¹

4 days of fund raising for a great charity; the Make A Wish Foundation (website). Thursday is the Chaos Cup where the corporate sponsors get to try their hand at sailboat racing! Teams are sent out to have a great time and get a chance to meet the sailors that will for the next 3 days battle it out with the famous North Texas weather and the top rated competitors that come from around the nation to try their hand at getting their name engraved on the ever sought after silver cup. Thursday had overcast but fair weather as we saw great sailing from the cast of competitors. Almost event free Thursday did bring about one casualty when 2008 3^rd place competitor Nelda Ray snapped their mast to end their campaign for the silver cup.

From first time newbie's to Amercia's Cup sailors Texoma Lakefest brings them all together in the spirit of competition and love of the sport. Friday is the first day of competition and typically is full of emotion and excitement as the boats get launched and the competitors look over the scratch sheets to see whom they will be battling it out with. This year Friday brought lightning storms and while we all went out to the battle ground not one race was started. After the high winds and lightning got within masts reach the races were postponed and we were sent in to wait out the weather. By the time the weather was past us night had fallen. Over the Eastern sky one could see thermal lightning giving everyone a great fireworks display. Dinner was a great Texan tradition barbeque catered in from a great Fort Worth practitioner. (Riscky's Barbeque)
The night wouldn't have been complete without some great dancing to a live band and Captain J.D.'s Lavaritas! Saturday started off well as the dangerous weather had passed us and we were hoping to get out on the proving grounds and play hard! Rain started to fall as the winds had given way to glassy seas. With light to nonexistent winds we got off one race that became extremely tactical as we raced for what seemed like an eternity. The multi-hulls and the spinnaker boats got off the course in reasonable time but the working sail classes extended the race for about 3 hours till there was no more wind or light to race. Coming back to the marina everyone was joyous and in one piece all wanting more wind and a chance to compete. Saturday night Riscky's came up with a great meal of fajitas while the headliner band broke out with some winner tunes. Lavaritas (margaritas that come from a ten foot volcano) were flowing again as the mountain starting erupting as soon as the competitors landed. In sailor style competitors bid silently for all kinds of trinkets of all kinds and values from a nice massage to a Donzi boat. Dancing went on till everyone was satisfied. Everyone went to sleep early as they knew that the race starting times had been pushed up an hour early so we could get in enough races to satisfy the regatta.

Sunday was the day, sunny cold and windy. Wind started off easy 8-10 knots as everyone got suited up for the insanity. When we got out to the proving ground out in the exposed main body of the lake the winds quickly bumped up to 20 knots. Everyone suited up in full armor as we awaited the starting sequence. 3 races convened that opened everyone eyes to the dangers of sailboat racing. From the many near misses and close calls to gear breaks and collisions Sunday was full of "Lakefest" spirit. Lakefest is always a serious competitors concern as the weather is always a big factor; proved again Lake Texoma brought forth serious conditions for the competitors to overcome.

From Terra Nova getting hung up on the judge's boat to God Speed having a serious collision and boom breakage to fishing sailors out of the lake to the sad personal injury on Predator. It was a busy day indeed, and the weather came back to revel her serious side to us. To the family & crew of the injured sailor we send our best wishes. We await the verdict on the injured sailor but from some reports someone fell and possibly broke ribs and collapsed a lung. We pray that he heals fast and comes back to win more races. As the sailor lay on the deck in serious condition some of the last reported words from his mouth were, "Finish the race!" Predator did manage even with a DNC to finish in 2nd place for class #2. Congratulations to all the sailors that made that win possible! (Consequently Predator was in OUR fleet!)

All in all it was a typical Lakefest averaging about 15 knots from days at zero to days with gusts over 30. The official results will be posted on the Lakefest website
and on the Texoma Sailing Club's website.

I learned a lot and am grateful that we only had a few mishaps and no serious injuries. I am blessed to have met Scott and Harald two passing experienced sailors that graced us with their skill for this special journey. I look forward to our new J122 and learning how to use it as the weapon that it is. To everyone out there, fast sailing…

Pirate Mike.

"Sailing doesn't make a man but it reveals him to himself. His strengths, his weaknesses, his fears and his accomplishments. Sailing is a culmination of everything he knows, thinks, and feels. It brings all the senses together and like the rest of nature shows us how small we really are. Sailing puts things into perspective but yet allows us to be supernatural if even just for a moment." – Pirate Mike…

1 Reference pulled from Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Texoma

Driven… to excellence or failure

You know over the years I feel like I had less to do with myself than I used to give myself credit for. I back in my 20's used to think that I was the sole "destinator" of where I would end up ultimately. Well a few years later and a lot of emotional circumstances, both wins and losses have shown me that I was but a guest in the grand scheme of things. Just a light gust of wind on a breezy sunny day.

What I mean by that is I did have free choice, and I did exercise it on many occasions. But both good and bad decisions that I have made that still seemed to bring me to the same place where regardless, (or should I say in spite of myself) of the choices that I made I ended up ok. The opportunity presented itself and I acted; now I may have been able to act better but as you will see later I knew that if I didn't do something quick I may do nothing at all. I am a firm believer that success happens when opportunity and preparedness meet. Success is a 2 part offer. The sad thing is that many of us would have had more success if we would have had been prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.

Have you ever said to yourself, wow just think; I thought of that years ago, or man if I could have saved my money just a few months longer, or …. Well that is where preparedness comes in. Many times we wander through our life like a leaf in the winds of time. As a sailor I am quite aware what happens when you put your sails up without checking where the wind is and at what angle the sail is to the wind. Many times we think we are ready for an opportunity and we put our sails up, but we did not prepare ourselves and like the sailor that put his sail up incorrectly and went nowhere with a full sail.

Now how sad is it to watch someone we love struggle against the tides of indecision or even worse make choices that they would later regret. One thing that I know is that the tide goes out and if you are patient the tide surely will return. Knowing timing is important; this is a component to being prepared. You do not want to get in a narrow pass during a tidal exchange, especially if you are trying to sail against a current when the tidal exchange is dramatic. Why you might ask? Well when the tide goes out or even comes in (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a low or high tide) and the exchange of water is great, currents form that head out to sea or come back at great speeds. (Tides come and go, also referred to as flood tide(high) and ebb tide (low)

Trying to sail 6 knots against a current that is 9 knots is futile. You will end up going backwards at a rate of 3 knots. But if your timing is right and you head out at the slack tide (a time in between tides when the water is neither going out to sea nor coming in) you will make headway and get to your destination.

Knowing timing in our life is very important, as we identify our desires we need to make sure that we are prepared to make the decisions that have to be made in order for those desires to come true. And many times also must know when to not act on a desire due to lack of preparedness. Surely if we take off to tackle a great desire and yet have bad timing, we are sure to fail. This can be seen in relationships when people didn't finish with themselves and yet moved forward too soon with the right person in a deep relationship that they were incapable of maintaining. How sad it is when they lose the relationship only due to lack of preparation and not due to lack of opportunity.

I have had many opportunities in my life. Many that I took on at or near the right time and several opportunities that I took on way before my time. I have also been a part to and witnessed people that had a desire and prepared themselves for it. Waiting for the tide to go slack, got in their vessel to take on the opportunities and just as they left the slip let go on the sheets that held onto their sails and sabotaged themselves due to fear of the unknown.

One of our greatest enemies many times is ourselves. Many times in our subconscious we are scared of winning/success. We are scared that what happens if I achieve this great new job, or this great new relationship. I will be required to work hard to maintain, or earn it. The fear of what will I do if I get this, or achieve this. When we sit down to identify our desires and spend the energy and time to prepare ourselves for opportunity we must also be ready to stave off the fear that will settle in as we approach our new goal or desire. We must be ready to reestablish new goals to replace the one that has been achieved so that we can like the sails set properly can maintain forward movement in a desirable direction.

Many times fear of success is as great of a detriment to our future as apathy and laziness. Nothing is ever static we are either moving forward or backward. We are born and we immediately start the dying process. In life we are in a constant state of evolution. Just like the seas, they are in constant motion and only slow down for a moment, many times the way we do only to start back up again, moving forward or backwards.

It has been proven many times that people will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. Therefore in the sense of motivators, we will many times go way out of our way to avoid something we are unfamiliar with. Unfortunately many times this thing we are not familiar with is success. All too often we are more comfortable with where we are at then where we really want to go. Typically where we want to go is somewhere that we are not and have been not. This uncertainty is what creates the emotion of fear and doubt. This is where the uncertainty comes in, once the uncertainty has grasped the brain, the emotions that come from that are death. Death to the new ideas, Death to the new dreams, Death to the new job, Death to the new relationship, Death to the new move across the country, Death to the hopes and goals that you have lived a lifetime to never achieve. Fear becomes our greatest motivator, and with fear no good thing can be accomplished. Knowledge is the great dissolver of fear. Therefore the second half to being prepared other than timing is knowledge. Knowledge is power this old saying is true, and knowledge with great timing is success.

Don't allow fear to grasp you in this way. I am no different. I have fears. I have found that sometimes I must not use too much "common sense" as if it is common and shared by the general public it probably is laden with fear and insecurity. The problem with Common sense is that it is common and is easy to get a hold of. So in that, I am a bit of a gambler. I have a tendency when something I want is at risk to take chances. I am always looking for an uncommon knowledge, the same knowledge that created men like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, William Churchill, etc.

Normally if it will not kill me, won't financially ruin me, or mar me for life. I will just give in to my passions and desires. Try it and jump with both feet in. That way if the water is really cold I cannot back out of it due to doubt and insecurity. Living this way is not for everyone, you could end up with many regrets. Most people do not realize that they shouldn't regret anything, because at one point that was exactly what you wanted. Be grateful that you were able to have it, and many are not so fortunate, their fears have kept them from experiencing anything.

I would rather look back are realize that I would with 20/20 hindsight maybe have done things a bit different, but I would hate to look back and realize that I did nothing. That is my biggest fear, is that I will get to the end of my journey, and realize that when the wind came I never put my sails up. How sad, to never have used all that was given to you.

So as for me, I am taking chances every day. I am meeting new people. I am conquering and overcoming my fears. I am enjoying learning to love new activities. I am experiencing touch and being tactile in new ways. I am exploring my mind, and my senses. I am challenging my natural tendency to be scared of things I am not familiar with. I match that fear with the knowledge of self discovery. I get a hold of new ideas and facts and apply them to new problems and issues. I am a problem solver, I am a lover, I am an explorer, I am a learner and in the world of high dollar technical sales you can not afford to slow down or take a break. Learning is the foundation for future success. And knowledge without action is futile.

The reality is that many times we must face our own demons. We must prepare and we must use good timing, but without the hard work it is all in vain. And too often we look to find fault with others actions, when indeed it was our own inappropriate or lack of action that brought us to a particular junction. I was talking to one of my old sales managers that has moved on to become incredibly successful with his career. He said to me "Michael, usually when the grass appears greener on the other side of the fence is because of a lack of watering on our own side." - Zack Jones

Again, I must agree. It is funny how I agree more and more with the man that I used to yell at and almost get into fights with every Friday afternoon at approximately 5pm. Amazing how a few years along in the industry will change perspective.

Typically when things are slow and our pipeline empty, this simply means we have not been diligent with what has already been given to us to tend to. I look forward to the new opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. I am watering my plot of land and am planting seed. But I have drawn my sword should someone stumble onto my land, lest I find a quick meal and a handful of coin.

I am a hunter, and as a hunter I kill what comes by, but I will also tend my land; as a hunter in winter becomes a busy farmer by the late summer with the proper planting. The cycle of plenty will come back around and I do not want to miss my chance to live off the land either by plow or by the sword.

Well it is true now more than ever when we look on the other side for greener pastures it is typically becuase we have not been watering our own side. Activity begets success almost in everything. Without the sowing their can be no reaping. Without the lying in wait their can be no great surprise or great kill.


The ever evolving rambling of Pirate Mike…

"The seas never stop; they come and go bringing to their inhabitants the substance of life, so is the tide of our life's, people come and go and with them they bring us the substance of life… don't ever give up on people, as you will have given up on your yourself…" - Another original from Pirate Mike…