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Cat TalesFebruary 2004 |
Rich Miller, Commodore
If you are like me, your thoughts turn
back to your boat and the water as the February days get longer. For some of
you, those thoughts linger throughout the winter. And while someone cruelly
added an extra day to our off season this leap year, if we view it as one more
opportunity to think of all the great cruising destinations we will visit this
summer, I think we may just get through it.
Your CCYC officers took
advantage of that opportunity and met to construct a proposed event schedule
for this coming year. We are very excited about the prospect of revisiting some
of our favorite places and introducing some new destinations. Thanks to
everyone who contributed an idea or volunteered to captain an event. I hope you
will find that we worked hard to include your suggestions.
We have
published the proposed schedule inside this month's newsletter, so please take
time to review it. If you have any comments or other suggestions, or if you
wish to volunteer as a raft captain for one of the uncaptained events, please
feel free to contact me or one of the other club officers. We will be using the
first portion of our March member meeting as a time for open discussion and to
finalize the schedule.
I would also like to remind you to please return
your membership registration and your dues if you have not already done so. We
are putting together a club membership directory for distribution at this
year's Flag Raising Brunch, and we would love to be able to include your boat
listing. You may also want to order your club burgee at the same time. It is a
great way to dress up your boat and announce to power boaters as they fly by
that you are a proud sailor and member of CCYC.
Here's hoping that you
find the ice in your cockpit melting before we see each other again! Smooth
sailing!
It's still too early and cold to plan a sailing event but, thanks to an
offer from Bernie Poppert (Aire~Borne), we are planning a get-together
for Feb 28th. Bernie was a member of the team that restored aircraft for the
Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center,
located at Dulles Airport. He has offered to conduct a tour for us on Saturday,
Feb 28th, at 1:00 PM.
The Udvar-Hazy Center is south of the main
terminal at Dulles Airport and north of the intersection of Routes 28 and 50.
The facility has a large aviation exhibit hangar and a separate space exhibit
hangar, an observation tower to watch air traffic at Dulles Airport,
classrooms, an IMAX theater, food court and museum store. There are over 80
aircraft and dozens of space artifacts on display, including the Space Shuttle
Enterprise, an SR-71, and the B-29 Enola Gay.
We will walk
among artifacts on the floor and view hanging aircraft from elevated walkways
(skyways). Many engines, rockets, satellites, helicopters, airliners,
ultra-lights, and experimental flying machines are all on display for the first
time in a museum setting. Wear comfortable shoes!
Since the
center is located 10 miles north of our house, the plan is for everyone to meet
at Mike and Bev Davis' house at 12:00 and leave in car pools at 12:30-12:40.
You can, of course, go directly to the center and we will all meet there.
Parking is $12 per car and admission to the center is free. Following the tour,
we will return to Mike and Bev's house for a pizza and beer
party.
Directions:
Starting from the I-66 exit on I-495, take I-66
West (toward Front Royal). Stay on I-66 for 9 miles and take exit 55, Fairfax
County Parkway, to the south. Continue south to the second exit (1.5 miles) and
turn right onto Braddock Road. At the second traffic light, turn left onto
Clifton Road. After 2.8 miles, turn right onto Compton Road and go another 0.7
miles to Balmoral Forest Road. Turn left, go past Ivakota Farm Road and you
will find our house at 7030, the first house on the right past Ivakota Farms
Road.
Reservations are not required but we would like to get a feel for
how many are interested. If you could just send a note (SailCCYC@aol.com) or
call (703.802.0355), we would appreciate it.
Al Lohman, Vice Commodore
Well, Spring will be here before you
know it, so that means it's time for us to get together and make plans for the
upcoming cruising season. The meeting will be at the Italian Garden restaurant
in Crofton, MD on March 13th, starting at 4:00 PM. The restaurant is on Route
3, south of Interstate 97 in the Village of Waugh Chapel shopping center, near
Applebee's. The same gentleman who owns Cantina d'Italia in Annapolis owns the
Italian Garden, and he made me an offer we couldn't refuse. The Cantina, where
we've had the last two meetings, is being remodeled. After shopping around, I
think we get a good deal with these people and they've served us well in the
past. I chose Saturday so that those who have long drives don't have to worry
about getting home late on Sunday night.
Before we get down to the
schedule part of the meeting, we'll have a speaker from the Quantum sail loft
in Annapolis. Here's a chance to hear from an expert how to properly care for
your sails to preserve their sailing performance for as long as possible. We'll
also plan to discuss how to tell when your sails have reached the end of
service, what kind of information you need and what things to consider before
approaching a sailmaker about buying new sails, the cost and performance
trade-offs associated with the various sail fabric choices, and a discussion of
asymmetrical spinnakers. Of course we'll also be covering questions along the
way. The challenge will be to not spend too much time on this topic so that we
can get on to the main part of the meeting.
The main part of the
meeting, aside from dinner, will be our cruising season schedule. This year
we're asking everyone to consider where and when you would be willing to serve
as a raft captain. Pick one of your favorite places and pass your idea to the
Commodore before our February 8th preplanning meeting or just bring your plan
to the meeting. It seems like we had some good ideas being exchanged at the
holiday party, so now's the time to volunteer to host an event near your home
port or in a familiar place. Hopefully, this may be better than deciding on
places and then casting around for raft captain "volunteers." Of course, that's
still the default method and the commodore will have the press gangs standing
by. Anyway, here's hoping we have a mild winter and a big turnout for the March
meeting. Remember a good cruising season starts with a good plan.
Welcome aboard to the following sailors who have joined CCYC:
Robert
and Kanako Beringer, C34 Ukiyo
Tama and Bill Chalmers, C30
Fidelity
Brian Connelly, C34 Seacrecy
Belford Lawson, C310
Tashmoo
Gary and Carla Morgan, C350 Sassy
Rich and Tecia
Murphy, C320 Semper Fi
Elliott Oldak, C30 Frisky
Business
David and Sandy Rishell, C30 Palmetto Blue
Brian and
Hsiao Smith, C30 Chili Breeze
We look forward to meeting everyone
at our upcoming events.