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A rendezvous is a gathering of people with similar types of boats. That is the common thread between all yacht rendezvous. You can have a generic type such as a trawler owners or bluewater sailors, or a specific manufacturer like Bayliner or Catalina. Attendees pick and choose the ones that will impart to them the most good. In setting up the C-42+ rendezvous at Rosario Resort on Orcas for the past two years, my goal was to get 20 Catalina 42s and one of each of the other 38’+ Catalinas built. Those numbers did not happen, but what did was still very good. To encourage attendance we were able to advertise free in the local yachting publications and to get our rendezvous on their activities calendar. We also had access to the national Catalina organization’s database, which included e-mail addresses for owners of C-42s in the NW and BC, roughly 70 owners. There have been over 1,000 of these boats constructed since 1989 and they are still being built.
We sent out monthly updates via e-mail for four months to all registered owners, hoping to network on the docks, using that group of owners to try and get the larger non-42 Catalinas to attend too, since there hasn’t been a rendezvous for those boats in particular and they would have similar interests to those with the 42s.
The results of the 2007 gathering were good with 20 boats total. There were 14 C-42s plus four sets of owners staying at the resort since their boats were just too far away to bring. For ’08 we had 12 C-42s, and four other boats with one additional set of owners in the resort. The C-42 fleet usually has two rendezvous’ a year with one in the North and one in South Sound. We had the event early this year to take advantage of the low season dock fees. The early date has the advantage of low rates but with iffy weather potential. However, we had wall to wall blue for both weekends although it was a bit blustery getting there and a bit damp going home this year. The formal agenda for ‘08 had been expanded by an extra day so we had two days between arrival day and departure day and that was a good idea. We had a great Open Boat Day for ourselves and to the public, CG auxiliary inspections, a couple of maintenance demonstrations on windlasses and winches, a specialty tool sharing time with a huge torque wrench for tightening keel bolts to spec (which we all needed a bit), a tachometer check that found several boats off as much as 400 RPMs, there was a gourmet meal prepared and served aboard one of the C-42s done by the chef of the resort, an expedition to Mt. Constitution, a fleet officer election, wine and cheese party thrown by Performance Yachts, technical discussion, and a great potluck on Saturday night with too much good food. The formal agenda listed above does not mention the cool ideas found aboard other boats along with assistance on solutions for various problems we each needed help with. There was lots of networking too with a few of us considering a cruising partnership around Vancouver Island next summer. Why should one go to a rendezvous? It is a bit of an effort to schedule time off and get the boat ready, talk your crew into going out and then traveling, however far you need to go, to get there. That is the negative side. On the plus, one gets time off, you have fun showing off your boat, have your crew get excited about going out, and then have a ball going and coming and having a good story to talk about when and if you have to go back to the real world. The other boat people you meet are well worth the effort and the ones you keep meeting for a couple of years actually become friends, and friends in the cruising world just enhance the whole experience. Boating is just fun when done right! ...back to 48° North title page.
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