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Cat TalesJuly 2004 |
Rich Miller, Commodore
Greetings to everyone. It's been a busy
month for the club with three big events in the books and our next raft up is
fast approaching. We've been extremely fortunate with the weather this year,
and all of our gatherings have been very well attended. I hope everyone has had
a chance to come out at least once, and if you haven't - well don't worry,
we'll be in your neighborhood soon. Make sure to see the articles inside to
help you make your plans. We'd love to see as many people as possible make it
to one or both events.
Big news in Catalina-land. During his speech at
the Rendezvous, Frank Butler announced that the company is building a new 440
model that will have a two-level main saloon. They are in the process of
completing the first boat, and their hope is to have it ready for a preview at
this year's Annapolis Sailboat Show. When pressed on the idea of coming out
with a 50+ footer, Frank was less enthusiastic, so those of you waiting for the
ultimate cruiser may have to be a little more patient.
Speaking of the
Annapolis Sailboat Show, we have discussed in the past having some sort of CCYC
presence there to promote the club and attract new members. It's never too
early to start thinking about it, so if anyone has any ideas they can
contribute, or if you have a contact we could use to organize something, please
feel free to mention it to one of the club officers so that we can put together
a plan. At the very least it would be great to try to have a club get together
in Annapolis during the show.
Other good news from the rendezvous.
Claire and I walked away with one of the grand prizes - a week's stay in Frank
Butler's four-bedroom condo in Puerto-Vallarta, Mexico (see our rendezvous
article inside). The minute we won it, the first thing that came to mind was to
have a Mexican "raft up." Because we only need one of the bedrooms, we are
going to hold a drawing to give away the other three bedrooms for the week to
three other CCYC club members. We hope to hold the drawing at the crab feast
once we have the schedule worked out with Catalina. So keep your eyes on the
club web site for more details.
More good news - our club is getting
younger! Younger, you say? How is that possible, and where can I get some of
that? Well, it's not what you think. We've had a wonderful turnout of children
at our last few outings. Our youngest member, Sammie Steer, took quite a liking
to your Commodore at the July 4th outing on Mill Creek. As nervous as that
makes me (it must have been the chin whiskers), I would love to be able to keep
a good thing going and attract more families who may just be getting into
sailing with their children. What better way to enjoy the adventure than to
share it with other families in our wonderful club? If you know someone like
that, be sure to tell them about us.
Just a quick reminder to our raft
captains with smaller boats. Fear not - you don't have to tie up to nine boats
and hold them with your 22-pound Danforth. As the raft captain, you are the
event organizer, and you have the responsibility to put the raft together in a
way that works best for the boats involved. There is no reason you cannot break
the boats up into multiple rafts or ask a captain with a larger boat to help
out and set an anchor. Don't let the size of your boat discourage you from
joining the ranks of CCYC raft captains. If you are scheduled to be a raft
captain at an upcoming event, or if you would like to be a raft captain in the
future, you can review our rafting guidelines on the club web site. That's all
for this month. Smooth sailing!
Pete and Kathy Bruzik, Pekabu III
Details are still being
worked out, so look for the post card with the final plans, as well as check
the schedule page on our web site.
Rich and Claire Miller, Exploring The Blue
June ended with
the arrival of the Catalina East Coast Rendezvous in Baltimore. The rendezvous
brings together owners of boats of all sizes with a wide array of different
experiences. A number of different fleets are represented, and sailors from
Alaska to Ohio to Florida are gathered. If you ever daydreamed about the
possibilities of sailing a Catalina, you only needed to see Alaskan Poor
Boy floating peacefully in its slip, packed from bow to stern with every
imaginable item one would need to survive a long boat passage alone.
The
Inner Harbor Marina proved to be an excellent location for the event, with
Federal Hill overlooking the docks on one side and the National Aquarium
flanking us on the other. All of the activities were held under the tent on
Rash Field across from the marina, and the rainy skies of the first evening
gave way to breezy early summer weather for the remainder of the weekend.
Friday night saw everyone gather in the tent for a dinner of crab cakes and
stuffed chicken breasts with all of the accompaniments. While some of us
wandered off to the Orioles game, everyone else gathered for a quiet social
evening.
After breakfast on Saturday, many of the group went off to
explore Baltimore's Inner Harbor and the neighborhoods surrounding the marina.
With Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Inner Harbor shopping and restaurants
within easy walking distance, everyone found someplace of interest to explore.
Others attended the Catalina-sponsored seminars under the tent. Of course, one
of the highlights of any Catalina rendezvous is the tour of the "big boats."
This year, the 400 and 470 models were on display, complete with margaritas and
munchies. Thanks go out to Sail Annapolis for providing the new Catalina 470 as
our happy hour destination - I guess they only wish they knew in advance we
were coming.
The party really heated up on Saturday night with dinner
followed by dancing under the tent. The sailors made the most of the shaky
electrical power to shake their sea legs on the dance floor. Like the truly
sedate group we are, we got tattooed, drank and wrapped ourselves up in glow
sticks. The limbo contest captured everyone's attention, and the competition
was fierce.
Breakfast and a few last comments from Frank Butler capped
off the festivities on Sunday morning. Our table got on a lucky streak and came
away with a number of the door prizes. When it came time for the last grand
prize to be drawn, our weekend was made with Sharon Day's announcement, "Would
Rich Miller like to go to Mexico?" I definitely wanted to go, so I went up and
collected our prize -- one week's stay at Frank's condo in Puerto-Vallarta. We
are looking forward to sharing the trip with three other lucky club members, so
stayed tuned for more information.
The club had great representation at
the rendezvous this year. Thanks to everyone who came out to have a good time
and to support CCYC. We saw the Davis clan (Mike, Bev, Diana and Copper) aboard
Ayewash, Gerry and Jean Helldorfer on Ragtime, Al and Vicky
Lohman on the shiny new Rhiannon (they didn't get the prize for
traveling the greatest distance to get to the marina; however, they did win for
the most distance traveled within the marina after arriving - glad you were
finally able to get settled), Brian, Hsaio, Grant and Julia Smith on Chili
Breeze, Ed and Connie Dooley from Surprise, Dave and Lois Zonderman
on WalkAbout, Bob Klimek and Lucia Casale on Lucia, and Wayne
Savage from Jubilee (good to see you Wayne, and give our best to Joan
and her father).
Richard Schatz and Diane Benyus, Scimitar
The day could be
described as "Squirrelly" - Lots of shifting and gusting winds, 9 to 19 knots
and every point on the compass. This made for an interesting challenge sailing
up the Severn past the Naval Academy and under its two bridges leading to our
destination. It was usually threatening rain but it held off until we were
finally anchored and even then, it did not dampen our spirits. It was an
unusual summer day on the Chesapeake. It wasn't muggy and there was plenty of
wind. The Severn, of course, is beautiful in any weather.
At the top of
the Severn, the river blossoms into a pretty and large circular bay. Hence the
name, Round Bay. Diane did research for just the right site and came up with a
spot just behind a good sized island called St. Helena (as mentioned in
Chesapeake Life magazine). It is very peaceful there and we wound up spending a
quiet night (except for our raucous happy hour) much to the general content of
those in our raft. In fact, except for a few locals cruising around, we had the
water pretty much to ourselves. This is a fairly unusual occurrence on the Bay
as we all know, especially for such a terrific place in the middle of summer.
We only had four boats, but there was no lack of gracious entertaining
in the group. Lucia not only was our anchor boat, but also became our
host for the evening. We had everything from Lucia's Gazpacho to Mike's Rum
"Pain Killers" ala Pussers, at the happy hour and a great deal of good company.
New members Martha and Dan Bliss of C400 Brunelle provided some great
history about the name of their boat whose ancestry goes back to the "square
rigger" days. The conversation covered everything from lawyer jokes to how to
achieve world peace. It was indeed a lively group.
Breakfast was hosted
on Mike and Bev's boat and featured two incredible sausage and egg quiches by
Mike (real men do eat quiche) and Martha and Dan provided the eye
openers in the form of Bloody Marys. Quite a fine way to start the day. We all
sat around quite contented enjoying the dawn of a fine day oblivious to any
possibility of rain.
It's nice to have large raft-ups of dozen or more
boats, but the intimacy of a four-boat raft is not to be denied. It was cozy
and comfortable, a nice balance. We could have been sitting in one of our
living rooms having a cocktail party except for the grand view around us
reminding us where we were and how lucky we are. Life is good!
Fair
Winds.
Mike Davis, Webmaster
As noted before, we now have a new web site
and address - www.SailCCYC.org. However, even though I host our web site, I
still use an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to get access to the internet and
for email. With the recent crackdown against SPAM by most of the ISPs (in my
case AOL), all my SailCCYC.org email aliases (Webmaster, Editor) have been
labeled as SPAM and blocked whenever I try to send an email to more than 3-4
people. That's why you haven't been receiving the email reminders about
upcoming events.
I am working an alternate arrangement but until you
hear otherwise, please continue to check the web site for the most current
news.