Saga sailing

My old man is 79 this year and races a full rig Laser, but picks his weather.

The great thing about our sport is that you can remain competitive for many years ... the downside is that because of that there are not many people happy to administer the sport as they'd rather particiapte.

If you think about football or rugby ... by 45 or 50 you'd be not playing so you'd coach, ref or run the club to stay involved ... that dosn't happen in our sport.

We got a past 505 world champion called Marcel Buffet still sailing very well at 84 or so ! He is still able to win a french level with its fiveohh.

Yesterday we sailed 3 races in the venerable old Tasar. We won twice on the water and gained 3 second places on handicap in a gusty wind, probably a 4, on our small lake. At the end of the afternoon it was an effort, but not impossible, to raise a pint to my lips. What interests me is the age of those sailing, us 61 (me) and 54. A 62 year old in a Supernova and a 70 year old, with a teenage crew, in a GP14. We were the only crew not to swim, for once. How old is the oldest person racing boats on a regular basis? There was a wonderfull gentleman racing a Lightning in open races. He was sailing in last years nationals at 83 and is still quick in light stuff. I have heard of a 65 year old racing an RS300 on the circuit. Can anybody top that? Or has any one got any good tales? It is apparent to me that some of the contributors to this forum are very young and it may give them some indications of how much sailing they can look forward to before they shuffle of this mortal coil!