| |
| April 2007 |
|
Sucia Needs Our Help
As most of you are aware, Sucia Island had devastating damage from the winter storms. They are in need of a huge amount of volunteer cleanup this year. Many of us already do volunteer work at the State Island parks, but this year the islands need more help. We are proposing that as many yacht clubs as we can get, join together and help clear the storm damage on Sucia. A few members from Semiahmoo Yacht Club and the International Yacht Club plan to join our Birch Bay Village Yacht Club to do winter damage cleanup. If we could just get two or three boats from more of the yacht clubs it would be so helpful. I have talked to Ranger Ted at Sucia and we decided on SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2007, at 10:00 AM, FOSSIL BAY. Several of us will be going over on Friday to spend the night. All chain saws, safety equipment, garbage bags and other equipment will be provided by the state so there is no need to bring along any tools. Ranger Ted will be there to give instructions and supervise. This is a good opportunity to meet and visit with other yacht club members. We plan a group wide happy hour and potluck dinner Saturday evening. In an October, 2006, letter from Sarah Oldfield of the Washington State Parks Volunteer Programs, she said "As we approach our agency’s centennial in 2013, one of our goals is to double volunteer participation. This will not only dramatically improve our state parks system, but it will also allow citizens to be a part of this endeavor." Let’s all try to be a part of that endeavor! Yacht club members or individuals that would like to come along and help us, please let me know so I can give Ted a head’s up! Thanks. Anne Brown Commodore Birch Bay Village Yacht Club 360-392-0887 anneronbb@comcast.net It was the boaters who gave Sucia to the State and it’s good to see current boaters carrying on that legacy of concern.
CRACA on the Columbia Dear Catalina Owners, Being new to the Portland area, I’ve recently gotten involved with The Columbia River All Catalina Association and I just wanted to tell everyone what a pleasure it has been getting to know the CRACA family. Founded in 2000, CRACA compliments its active cruising schedule with a broad range of social and educational activities. Such activities include parties, workshops, the annual Columbia River Catalina Rendezvous, and monthly meetings that feature guest speakers covering important nautical topics from rigging and sails to cruising and maintenance. Last month Kerry Poe of North Sails Oregon, gave us all some wonderful advice on how to prolong the life of our sails. At this month’s meeting Capt. Shane St. Clair of River City Sailing Sailboat Brokerage (www.rivercitysailing.com) will be telling the group about his twenty-eight day solo Pacific crossing from California to Hawaii in his Catalina Capri 18. If you own a Catalina in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area come see for yourself the joys of being a part of such a wonderful group. Membership in CRACA is open to anyone who is the owner or part owner of a Catalina sailboat, while Associate Member status is available to non-owners. The Association’s charter, schedule of events, monthly newsletter, meeting times and locations can be found online at its website (www.columbiarivercatalina.org). Come to an upcoming meeting or join us on one of our many cruises, and experience all the fun you have been missing. Hope to see you soon, Justin Albano Owner’s associations are fun get togethers. Having been to a few Catalina, McGregor, Hunter and other owners club meetings, I know it’s a great way for folks to share information about like boats, and of course tell a few stories along the way. And it’s so much easier than walking the docks to find a like boat and check it out for good ideas.
Close Encounters of the "Schmuk, Schmuck" Kind Enjoyed the article in the March issue by Earl Gross (Close Encounters of the Wild Kind). We have experienced some of the same encounters. Last year we had two encounters with the "schmuk, schmuk" sound, once at Spencer Spit and another at Sucia. We have seen the swimming eagles twice, the first time off the east entrance to Gunboat Passage in northern BC and again just north of Sitka, Alaska in 2000. On our Alaska trip we saw so many whales and bears it got to be routine. Enjoyed every siting. Tom & Joyce Hawkins S/V Liberty, C-42 Image - seeing whales and bears becoming routine. That’s why people cruise north.
Andy Evans Receives Jim Tallet Trophy We had a little gathering to officially award Andy Evans, from Victoria, the Jim Tallet Memorial trophy. From the inscription, "Celebrating the spirit Jim Tallet a Seattle sailor whose enthusiasm inspired racers from beyond the region of the San Francisco Bay to compete in the Singlehanded TransPac by recognizing the first to finish on corrected time among non-SSS entrants." 
Jim Tallet sailed his J-33, Zapped, in the "02 and "04 Singlehanded Transpacs as well as many other Singlehanded Sailing Society events. He died in 2005 from cancer and a number of the sailors who knew him, came up with idea of this award to remember his contributions. Lucie Mewes from the SSS took charge and came up with the actual trophy which was awarded to Andy Evans from Victoria ( who sailed his Olson 30, Foolish Muse, and finished 2nd overall corrected time in the 2006 SHTP) because he was the top non-SSS finisher. Jim inspired Andy to do the race and after his death, Sharon generously allowed Andy to use lots of Zapped’s equipment. Andy knew he had won the award last summer. It took a little longer than anticipated to finish the work on the trophy, hence the delay from last July. But it also gave us the opportunity to include Sharon Lucas in the initial presentation. Jim was a long time NW sailor who championed singlehanded sailing in particular. He was well known for his helping spirit and will be remembered, at least by fellow SHTP participants, for climbing to the masthead and diving in to clear the keel on the Pacific. Sharon, his partner for 14 years was proud of Jim’s sailing legacy and was moved to finally present the award to Andy herself. Presentation was at Vince’s Italian Restaraunt in Burien. Al Hughes
Can You Add to the History of the Cal 40’s? Richard, I sent you an e-mail the other day about a letter you had printed back in 2000 from a Cal 37 owner seeking information. I would like to enlist your help, if possible, in getting information from Cal 40 and Cal 37 owners for a history of the Cal 40. I am in touch with the Roaring 40s Association, a group of Cal 40 owners. I’m trying to contact other owners who may not be members of that group. The letter writer, owner of a Cal 37 named Pacifier II, wanted to know something of the history of his boat. I can supply that. There is another boat in the Seattle area named Queen of Hearts that is actually one of the most famous of the Cal 40s under another name. In 1966 that boat, then named Thunderbird and a stock Cal 40, won the Bermuda Race and established the Cal 40 as something other than a "California downwind flyer." It was owned then by the president of IBM, a man named Vince Learson. He later took the boat to England where it raced in Cowes Week and the Fastnet race. He later sold it to Roger Fortin, his watch captain who owned it until 1980. During that time, the boat was modified by cutting 18 inches off the stern, converting it to a Cal 37, although that term describes two different types of boats. The changes to Thunderbird were made at Bob Derecktor’s yard on Long Island and resulted in a version that had a reverse transom. They kept the bowsprit that was added to many stock Cal 40s and added a boomkin to allow the backstay to clear the stock boom. In California, another series of modified Cal 40s was built in which the mold was plugged and the resulting hull had a plumb transom, unlike the east coast modified boats, and there were a small number of these built. It was a Lapworth suggestion, not a controversy as implied by the letter. Several of these modified boats won their class in the Transpac, among them Quasar, owned by Art Biehl, and Intrepid II, owned by Barry Berkus. I have traced most of the Cal 37s for my history of the Cal 40 and would be interested in hearing from the owners in Seattle of the two boats named above. One Cal 37 (The former Intrepid II) has been restored and is scheduled to sail in Transpac this summer. The owner has been assured that it will be allowed to race in the Cal 40 class. Here is a link to a photo site that includes pictures of the restoration of Intrepid II and a photo I took last fall of a typical east coast 37 with the reverse transom and boomkin. ?(http://new.photos.yahoo.com/mtkennedy1/) There are also photos of my own restoration of hull # 96, which did seven Bermuda races under an east coast owner, four of them with George Griffith in the crew, and was then brought to California.The photos include family, a previous Transpac in which I finished second in fleet plus the restoration of my boat and the Cal 37. It has taken two years to finish and we will be racing and cruising this summer. I restored it to do Transpac but we will have to wait another year for that. The history of the Cal 40 has taken a long time but I have former owners and their families researching stories for me and I hope to have a book in another year. Michael Kennedy Conquest Cal 40 # 96 Mission Viejo, CA mtkennedy1@cox.net Quite an undertaking, both the boat and the history. It certainly is a storied boat, a step in the evolution from heavier, bullet-proof ocean going yachts to the modern lighter boats.
Yes, I Do Begrudge the P-30 Class To Bill Schafer of Ohana who responded to my letter about the P-30 class.... Actually, Bill, I do begrudge the sailors of the ?P-30 class, particularly when that class leaves a vacuum around my PHRF rating and I end up racing against boats 30-40 seconds (and in one instance 50 seconds) faster or slower than me. If there were enough boats in the Puget Sound, then I wouldn’t have an issue. WIRW (Whidbey Island Race Week) is a great example. I have no qualms if the boys want to get together for a level-rated class because there are 100+ boats at Whidbey. Likewise, on distance races, the rating isn’t as critical because the course is so large, and boats get so spread out, that it is a different competitive game. But at regattas like PSSC and PSSR, I race the buoys so I can race around other boats. For that, I need boats near my rating, and we are agreed that ratings within 20 sec./mile make things interesting. But when a P-30 class takes out all the boats around my rating, I am left an orphan. And that, my friend, is no fun. I am glad you had a competitive WIRW. We did also racing a gaggle of J-29s. I am nowhere being a naval architect, so I don’t know what the hull configuration of a J-29 is like. I would venture to guess it is nowhere near my Beneteau 375. As for displacement, well, the J-29 weighs just 35% of my Beneteau (6,000# vs. 17,000#)! And length? That’s an easy one – 22% shorter. So despite all these dissimilarities, we raced these boats like it was the Farr 40 Worlds, with the last race deciding it all! So I don’t buy into your argument about "overall length, displacement or hull configuration" needing to be similar. I’ll agree with you that on a reach the Jenneau 37 will fare better than the Wavelength 24. But how much reaching is there on a buoy race? And on a big wind day, that Wavelength might plane right past the Jenneau...until it rounds the corner. Then that light cork of a boat will be sailing up-and-down while the Jenneau pounds through the waves. At the finish line, they’ll be overlapped!! PHRF, in all its simplicity, works just fine without race organizers trying to out-think it. KISS! You can be sure I will "give some slack to those who have put the effort into improving their own competitive arena"...until their efforts undermine my competitive arena, which is exactly what the exclusivity of the P-30 class has done! If these skippers (and you) really want to race level/one-design, then why not go out and buy a one-design boat? If a J-105 is out of the budget, what about a Melges 24 or a dinghy? I have been racing the Hobie 16 for 20+ years and when I need my one-design fix, I go hop on that. But when I pony up the big bucks to prep and race the Beneteau, I want a competitive playing field. The P-30 class in buoy racing (other than WIRW) compromises that for me and for others. "Winning isn’t everything...it’s just that losing really sucks!" Rocky Horror (Peter Nelson) Time Warp Obviously, you don’t really believe that last quote. You’ve been pretty successful so it’s not the winning but the close racing you like. Let’s revise it to "It’s not having close competition with boats around that really sucks!" What can I say, if you can’t beat "em join "em, then maybe you can beat "em.
Farewell Jon 
Jon Feldman of Eugene Oregon passed away March 12 of cardiac arrest, aboard his beloved Bristol Channel Cutter, Gertrud, near Loreto, Baja California, Mexico. Jon, a retired physician, and partner Cathy Ellis had just pulled up anchor and were underway when Jon began experiencing chest pain. Cathy, an experienced RN, issued a Mayday, began treating Jon, and altered course for Loreto. Jon suffered cardiac arrest a half hour later, and despite CPR from Cathy, could not be revived by the time additional help arrived. Cathy and Gertrud are now in Loreto. Jon and Cathy purchased Gertrud in Seattle roughly seven years ago, and had sailed extensively in the Pacific Northwest, including a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island in 2004. They sailed south to Mexico in the fall of 2005. This was their second season cruising in Baja. Jon was only in his mid-50s. Photo: Jon and Cathy on Gertrud at Roche Harbor in June of 2003. Mark Reed s/v Southern Cross Portland, OR
|
|
We welcome your comments. Letters must be signed to be published. 48° North Letters 6327 Seaview Ave. N.W. Seattle, WA 98107 email: richard@48north.com |