Bea Likes Boats. Who Is Sailor Bea?

Some kids spend their money on shoes, video games, or even a new phone. But Jemicy junior Bea Waterman spends her’s on boats.
Bea likes boats. Specifically Racing boats. She currently is racing a Beneteau 40.7, a J22, and Nacra Inter 20. For those of us who speak English, the Nacra Inter 20 is a 20-foot racing catamaran. The Beneteau 40.7 is about a 40 foot long (“on a good day”) Racer/Cruiser. And finally, the J22 is a 22.5-foot racing keelboat. Essentially she races one big boat and two small boats.

Bea started boating at the age of 12. For the next couple of years, she really didn’t do much with it until she started volunteering at Downtown Sailing Center located right next to the Baltimore Museum of Industry and Bea’s second home, Royal Farms. After a while, she became a CIT (coach in training) and started doing some races for fun here and there. After she won a couple races, she started to realize that she liked winning and that “winning is fun” and then it all just took off from there.

Upon being asked about the rules for racing a boat, Bea chuckles and explains that there are quite a few. In fact, she has a 3-inch binder just for them. Instead of having her teach all the minutiae of sailing, she went over one example.

“Racing isn’t fair, sailing isn’t fair.”

-Beatrice Waterman, 2021

We started with fouling. In sailing, fouling is called a “protest”. Say two boats collide. One of them can protest. The way that one protests depend on how fancy the race is. If it’s a fancy race it’s either called by VHF (radio) or flags. However, on the bay, it’s really more of the honor system, except during starts and finishes. Once your protest is noticed, the race committee (the referees) will agree or disagree with your protest. Some consequences of fouling could be doing a circle, or that you need to stay a certain distance from the other boat.

She also noted that “racing isn’t fair, sailing isn’t fair.” This is because there is something called “Handicap Racing.”. Handicap racing is when different types of boats race each other. For example, say a really fast boat races a really slow boat. When the faster, lighter, more capable boat crosses the line first, it has to have beat the “disabled” boat by a predesignated amount of time to actually win.

Bea typically does distance racing. Distance races are between 5 to 60 miles and last anywhere from 3 to 18 hours, but it really depends on the racecourse and wind speed. Bea is typically a headsail trimmer.

“I make sure the sails are at the right angle to the wind so we go fast!”

-Beatrice Waterman, 2021

Wednesday nights are boat nights, it’s like Sunday night football, but on Wednesday. Races are on Wednesday, no matter what. However, while Wednesday nights might be the big race nights, Bea still races on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Tuesday nights are Catamarans, She does “pretty well, either 1st or 2nd place.” on Tuesday nights. On Thursday night races in J22 boats, Bea usually doesn’t do that well or just does not Finish due to the fact that they don’t have a lot of experience racing that type of boat. Wednesday is pretty much the same story as Thursday nights. However, “on Bay races, we kick butt! And that’s where it counts.”

Bea also recently purchased her first boat, An A-Cat Class Catamaran. There are a couple things that make this boat special. First, it’s fast, really fast. The One Bea bought (during a Saturday Play rehearsal mind you) is a 16-foot carbon fiber boat weighing only about 165 pounds. Add Bea, a person built like a green bean, and you got a seriously fast boat. Another thing that is special about A-Cat Class Boats is that they race together, in a class system where you’re free to modify your boat as long as you follow the rules and stay within your class. Think drag racing classes, but for boats. 

To tie it up, Bea’s latest sailing season has had some good moments and some bad moments, but hey, some days you win, some days you swim. Unfortunately, the sailing season is just about over, so Bea will not be able to really experience her new boat this season. However, she can’t wait for the next season to start.