Local Knowledge
It’s pretty rare when you race against the same boat with pretty much the same people for the better part of 12 years. I am speaking of the FT 10 Justice, first with my original FT 10 Anarchy, then with my Melges 32, and now with my recent FT 10 A4. (Yes, there was a Shaw 650, a GP 26 and the SC 33), but those don’t really count.
One reason why I got a second Tiger (besides absolutely loving the boat) was to take care of some unfinished business. When they first got Justice, we had our way with them pretty easily, but the owner is a good sailor and by the time I was fading racing the boat, we were beating each other pretty even, with maybe a nod to them. Fine.
And let’s be clear, they don’t like us and we don’t like them. I’ve never had a boat swear at us as much as they did in close situations. Kind of shocking, considering their alleged religion, but it is safe to say that we weren’t very pleasant in return. All’s fair in love and war, ain’t that right?
So 11 years later, when I found this FT sitting in a backyard, part of the motivation was to make the boat as fast as I could, and go out and not only pound them – which we convincingly did – but to punish the rest of the FTs. For the most part, mission accomplished. And hey, I’m no stud and certainly no rockstar, rather a fading mid level douche, and the racing we do is simply what is out there for our boat. You try to win wherever you race. Don’t fucking blame me.
A few people pointed out that Justice is now for sale, and while we don’t know why, we can’t say we blame them. We are not fun to lose to, but them’s the breaks. As Bruce Nelson once famously said, “Overbearing in victory, and surly in defeat.”
You’ll have to find it on your own, ’cause we’re not doing the broker’s work for free, but it is a quick boat, a bit of a beater, and at $32k, while it might seem like a deal, it ain’t. If you want it, go see it and figure out how much it’s gonna take to get it in fighting shape. We’ll miss them, but not really.
Great competitors, but no offense, by and large, those guys bounced between being halfway decent, and total dicks. Like a lot of us.
AMF.
