Meet a Member

The following CCYC members have written articles for the newsletter describing their sailing experiences:

Mike and Bev Davis

My first sailing experience was in 1969. I was in my second year at college and a friend (who knew how to sail) wanted to join the school's sailing club. We joined and he taught me how to sail in the club's Penguin sailboats. After a year, we tried out and made the sailing team, so we got in a lot of sailing and racing for two years as we competed against other colleges.

After graduation, I went into the Navy. Between pilot training, moving every 2-3 years, and being on deployments, it didn't make sense to own a boat. I didn't get much of a chance to sail but the occasional day sail in a friend's boat or one from Special Services. One of those occasions was when I met Bev in 1984 when we were both stationed in Guam. We went sailing on her Hobie 16 and I impressed her with my exceptional abilities by submarining a pontoon's bow and turning turtle in the middle of Agana harbor.

She still married me, and we returned to the states but it wasn't until we both were out of the Navy that we decided to buy a sailboat. Our first boat was a 1995 Catalina 320, Chantilly Lass.

We cruised the Bay by ourselves our first season with Chantilly Lass. Then we met Sue Dennison at the 95 Boat Show and found out about CCYC. We have been members ever since.

We decided to move up to a larger boat and in 1998, we went to the Boat Show and bought a Catalina 42, Ayewash. Ayewash (pronounced aah' - wash) means wind in the language of the Nanticoke people of the Chesapeake Bay.

Our plans are to someday sail to Europe and the South Pacific, so we made the decision last year to buy a Catalina 470. We really liked the name Ayewash, so we decommissioned the name from the C42 and named our new boat Ayewash. We're still settling in but we already feel at home and are looking forward to all the raft-ups this year.

Walt and Sue Dennison

Walt and I got our sailing start on the Chesapeake in a 26' Clipper Marine which we acquired in 1974. On our first sail out, with a friend giving us a helping hand, Walt ended up racing with another sail boat. He was hooked. Four months later, at the Annapolis boat show, we bought a Catalina 27.

We joined the Catalina 27 Fleet 8 Club. The Club was into racing and we were encouraged to come out and just cross the starting line in this race. We were told it was not necessary to finish the race if we didn't want to. Fleet 8 was trying to establish itself as a one design racing fleet in Annapolis. We agreed and started the race but decided since we had come this far, we might as well follow the pack and continue to race. Lo and behold, on the final leg of the race, our crew - me, Walt and a friend, who was an experienced sailor, said "Hey, people, we are in first place," -panic-, "where is the finish line??" We had to let the boat behind us pass so we could follow him to the finish line.

As anyone who has raced sailboats can tell you, anything can happen. You will have to ask us sometime about one race where we actually passed another boat in the race while we had our anchor down, no fooling. We continued to race the 27 for the next six years. But after a very rough, wet ride coming back from an Annapolis to Oxford race we decided enough is enough and ordered our Catalina 30 Firefox. We ordered it with a tiller because Walt wanted to continue racing. He wanted to take part in the Governors Cup race, just once without getting wet and beat to death.

Rigging Foxfire to race turned out to be the very best thing for me, since then I could take the boat out alone or with our young grand kids. Each year I enjoyed taking our grandson's Scout Troop out for a week. I could dump the Main with a flick of the wrist thanks to a 6 to 1 purchase Walt put on the Main traveler, and with oversized self tailing winches, a ratcheting 2 speed winch handle, and other improvements, I was off and running, sailing five days a week. The weekends and holidays were reserved for Walt and I together.

I earned my 100 ton Coast Guard Captain's License (66 passengers) at age 55 and worked for a Charter Company one summer. All just for the heck of it. It's a good thing I sail so much with guests on Foxfire, because when Walt is on board, he is the Captain and I am the first mate, gladly letting him run Foxfire for all she is worth. We two can really make her hum.

Come and go sailing with us. We know all the best gunk holes on the bay!

Gerry and Jeanne Helldorfer

Our first boat was a Morgan 22, then an Irwin 31, an 18 ft. speedboat, a Catalina 30, a Gulfstar 44, a Tiara 31, and now the Catalina 42. That's 33 years worth of boats. We've covered most of the Chesapeake and most of it was on the Catalina 30 and the Gulfstar. We chartered boats in the Caribbean several times and made a few offshore excursions. I was co-captain on a Tartan 37 that sailed with the Annapolis-Bermuda race in the early 80s.

Our plan was to join the Caribbean 1500 race/cruise from Norfolk to the BVI. At that time we had the Gulfstar 44. It was probably capable of making the blue water trip, but it needed a lot of upgrades to do it. So, we looked for a more suitable boat, especially a Hylas 46 (my dreamboat). Unfortunately, the price for one of those babies was way beyond what seemed reasonable to spend on a vacation. It was on to Plan B. In the 1990s, several boats in the CCYC made annual trips to the Bahamas via the ICW. Plan B was to fix up the Gulfstar and do the Bahamas. In the process, we crewed for Bill and Liz Wesley on their C36 from West Palm Beach, Florida to West End on Grand Bahama. We had planned to go with them to Marsh Harbor, but the weather didn't cooperate and we ran out of time. Then in 1999, I took a Leave of Absence from work (I had a great boss). We packed up the Gulfstar and headed down the ICW with the Wesleys (C36 True Blue), the Gandys (Irwin 38 Luv It), and a trawler named Good Crews Inn. We spent two months in Key Largo with the Gandys and others in a great marina. Then we crossed over to the Bahamas with a buddy boat that was also staying in the same marina. We made the usual stops along the way and sailed much of the Exuma chain. We returned in May (I had to go back to work) and met Joan and Wayne Savage in Hilton Head with their new C36 Jubilee. The Wesleys on True Blue met us there, as well, and we all made the trip home together.

When we got home it seemed that we had motored more than we sailed. We had a buyer for the Gulfstar so we reluctantly said goodbye. But, we needed another boat, of course, so why not a powerboat. We bought the Tiara in Connecticut and brought it home offshore. That's another story. It turned out that we didn't adapt well to the powerboat lifestyle so it was goodbye Tiara. The next sailboat had to have everything the Gulfstar had and also everything it didn't have. A broker suggested we look at the C42 (now Ragtime). It's not a center cockpit boat, he said, but it has all the creature comforts and it sails really well. The rest is history.

Why Ragtime? Well, we had both "Stinkpots" and "Rag Heads". Before we left for our cruise to the Bahamas we renamed the Gulfstar. We were going to have nine months of rag(sail) time. We'll probably keep the same name on our next 5 or 10 boats.

Bob Klimek and Lucia Casale

My first sailing experience was in 1972. Prior to that, I had been a power boater and had no interest in slow! In 1972, I was stationed in the Pentagon in R&D and was invited to Annapolis by a contractor representative to "Sail the Chesapeake." I think the rep had a small marketing budget, because he only rented a "Rainbow" and we did not venture much beyond Back Creek. But, I recall it was an interesting first experience. A few years latter, I attended my first Annapolis Boat Show and bought a 1977 Morgan Out-Island 41. It was one of those "good deals" where the boat would pay for itself. The boat would be operated in charter in the Bay during the summer and in the Virgin Islands during the winter. I could use it or a sister ship at any time and so on. There was a lot of good salesmanship on their part and naiveté on my part.

The Morgan 41 was made in Largo, Florida. I took delivery after it was trucked to Jacksonville, avoiding Maryland Sales Tax (Maryland got me later). Thus began a 24 year love affair with the Morgan 41. At 44,000 pounds, full keel, shallow draft, small sail plan and guppy shape; sailing tended to occur at winds over 20 knots on a reach. I did a lot of motoring! But, I am ahead of myself.

A friend and I flew to Jacksonville and took delivery of the Tradewind. My friend's sailing experience was less than mine. I had sailed twice. Fortunately, we were not obligated to demonstrate our sailing skill or knowledge. After all, with the sails down, it was just a power boat. I had lots of power boat experience. Our skill at chart reading was also less than fully developed. On our second day on the ICW, we ran hard aground on a falling tide. It was an embarrassing experience to have a two-day old boat lying on its side high and dry on a sandbar. About 3 am the tide floated us off the bar. And so ended the first of many, many experiences with the Morgan 41. She was built like a battleship and in rough weather she was a cork.

After roughly five years, the charter company went out of business, I acquired two partners and over the next 15 years, we moved the Tradewind south down the ICW every winter. We spent three winters in St Thomas, VI; four winters at the Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo, FL; three winters in the Bahamas, and five winters in Islamorada, FL. We left her for days and weeks in every port up and down the east coast and never had a problem with vandalism or damage to the boat.

I survived a lot of harrowing experiences and learned a lot of lessons. A couple are that any time I am out of sight of land for 24 hours, I am lost at sea. That is not true today, but there was no GPS back then. I learned the value of an autopilot in stormy weather off-shore with a short-handed crew.

After 24 years, I still loved the Morgan 41 and I knew her every whim. I had bought her with the premise that I would get a boat big enough that I would not want a bigger one (Of course, we all dream of the bigger boat - my dream years ago was of a 51' Pearson). But, I was content with the Morgan. Having learned my lesson and sticking to my initial premise, I avoided Annapolis Boat shows!

Then in the fall of 2001, Lucia talked me into attending another Annapolis Boat Show. Once I stepped aboard the Catalina C-400, I was hooked. I bought out my two partners and traded the 1977 Morgan 41 for a sleek new 2002 C-400. On our first sail we learned that the C-400 is a REAL sailboat. At half the weight of the Morgan and a full sail plan, she does not need 20 knots of wind. In fact, our first experience with over 20 knots of wind was scary.

We are into our sixth sailing season with the C-400 and our fourth season with CCYC. Both Lucia and I appreciate the opportunities afforded to us by the CCYC to socialize with other sailors. I still dream of going south again for the winter. Some day.

John and Betty McElderry

We got into sailing by accident back in 1980. We spent a day or two on a friend's O'Day 25 on the Bohemia River in the Northern section of the Bay. Shortly after, he decided to sell the boat and we decided to buy it. We had the boat for 3+ years and we knew that we were hooked. Here is what I remember of those days:

We sold the boat in 1983 - my job had taken us to Long Island for a time. I tried golf - but sailing seemed a better fit. In 1986, we moved back to the Philadelphia area and in 2000 the itch to get back into boating started again. As luck would have it we got the opportunity to move to the Annapolis area and in 2002, and before we had finished furnishing the house, we bought a Catalina 350 (hull #59) and named her Andiamo, which translates to "Let's go!" And go we did.

In 2006, I thought about getting a second home at the shore and on the way down to Ocean City; Sail Annapolis was having their winter (February) Open House at Jabins and we thought we'd stop by. While I was looking at the 470, Betty and Julia (our daughter) were looking at the 440. Now I have a second home and a sail boat all rolled into one in the C/M 440, and we couldn't be happier.

We took Andiamo to the 2006 Catalina Rendezvous at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and had the slip next to Bob & Lucia (S/V Lucia); they introduced us to the CCYC. We are proud and happy to be sailing with such a great group of people.

In the next few years we hope to follow the ICW to Florida and then to the Bahamas - but for now, just give me those sunny and warm days on the Chesapeake.

Wayne and Joan Savage

The water has always fascinated me. My first sailing experience was with a member from our church. I was 15 and it seemed like a huge boat, but I think it was only about 26 feet. We sailed on a small lake in Northeastern Ohio. I loved it; my Mother hated it. When I moved to Maryland in 1976, 1 didn't realize what a great asset the Chesapeake Bay was, at first. Eventually, I met people who had sail boats and would invite me now and then. Again, I loved it.

A former boyfriend had a manager, Don Jenkins, that lived in Westport, CT who had a Columbia 26 and we would go up there once a season for some sailing. We both loved it.

My roommate at the time, Sue, had a manager who, with her husband, owned a beautiful Choy Lee yawl, Snow Shoe. Sue and I would be invited to sail with them. We both really enjoyed sailing, but soon realized we really didn't understand the entire sailing process. So we went to the Chesapeake Sailing School.

Finally it dawned on me that I was always waiting to be invited to go sailing. I was at the mercy of acquaintances and that just didn't sit too well with me. Snow Shoe's owner worked on boats for a living and found a sad little 26 ft Clipper Marina just sitting in Smith's Marina on Round Bay. He told me if I bought it, he would help get it into sailing condition. So for a relatively small some of money, I had my first boat, Cavalier.

Basically it was a daysailer, with a center board and pop-top. Now I was the Captain, in search of crew. Several of my girl friends also liked to be on the water and I become a mini sailing instructor for my friends.

In the late 1980's, the Jenkins, who had the Columbia 26, moved to Annapolis from Connecticut. Luckily they called me and for the next 3 years, I was a constant weekend fixture at their house. With the Jenkins, I started to really sail. We would sail to St Michaels, Fairlee Creek, and the Rhode and West Rivers. Then I thought the cruising thing was much better than tacking back and forth on Round Bay. My quest for a real sailing vessel started.

My needs were simple: a boat with a shower in the head, a galley, sleeping room, a wheel and a diesel engine. Don Jenkins was at a dinner party and sat next to a man who was moving to San Juan who had a 1980 Catalina 30 for sail. It had an atomic four gas engine, but it was in good condition and affordable. It was also docked at a private house in Spa Creek. The slip and boat ended up being a package deal. Well, I got 4 out of the 5.

The former owner had a friend, Milan, who became frequent crew on Second Wind. Milan spent a season or two in tutoring me about the subtleties of my new boat. Monthly I would read Chesapeake Bay Magazine in search of a Catalina sailing group. I would find the Tartans, Pearsons, Hunters, Albergs, everyone but the Catalinas, until one fateftil day at the boat show, there they were.

I forget who I met at the boat show, but the first event I attended was the Holiday party which was held in the afternoon at the Treaty of Paris restaurant in the Maryland Inn. I strolled in all alone, a young, single woman with her own Catalina 30. The club, as it is now, was mostly couples. No one quite knew what to make of me. In the winter, we met on the each month at the Fleet Reserve Club in Annapolis. I diligently went to all the meetings because I really wanted to understand more about my boat and sailing. Did I mention I'm not the least mechanically inclined and changing the oil, water filter and other basic maintenance chores were Greek to me.

I remember at one meeting Sue Dennison took me aside and told me about a club which she thought I might find interesting, Singles on Sailboats. I wasn't sure if she was trying to be helpful or trying to send me on my way. If you know Sue, she was trying to be helpful and was actually very proud to have a single woman boat owner in the club. Eventually I was asked to be treasurer and served for almost a decade until 2002, except for 1995, when I served as Commodore.

I would bring my single lady friends to raft-ups and a few men friends I met in another sailing group. But then I met my husband Wayne and he became my permanent sailing partrier. He gave me my engagement ring the night of the CCYC Holiday party in 1993.

Not long after our marriage, along came our beloved Shar Pei, Winston, and we clearly needed a larger boat. So in 1998 we bought our 36, Jubilee, in Hilton Head, SC. Thanks to the thoughtfulness of the Helldorfers and former club member, Bill Wesley, they let us tag along with them up the ICW on their way back home from the Bahamas. Wayne and I couldn't take time off together so I started the trip in Hilton Head with some of my women friends and Wayne and former member Bill Weeks took over in Beaufort, NC. With the helping hands of fellow club members, bringing Jubilee home, which could have been an ordeal, was a fun and interesting sailing experience.

Some of our best sailing trips have been combined with our other favorite past time, golf.

With my elderly Father living with us for the past 3 years, we haven't been as active as we would like, but belonging to the CCYC does make all our sailing experiences much more fun and interesting.

Mike Vaccaro and Debbie Smith

I had been around the water and sailing most of my life but never sailed. I had many hobbies - I was an avid golfer, bowler, and private pilot. I enjoyed hiking, camping, canoeing and rock climbing. But never sailed.

My first sailing experience was in 1978. I was on a cruise and at a port in Jamaica. I convinced them that I knew how to sail and they rented me a Sunfish. After a while, I was drifting out to sea and they came and towed me in. Undaunted, two years later, I went to rent a sailboat on Mission Bay in San Diego, CA. I think it was one of the small Catalina day sailors. This time, I accepted the 15-minute lesson and had a wonderful sail for my allotted time. I even sailed it back to the dock myself this time.

I sailed rather infrequently in the coming years on an 8 meter S2 with relatives on Lake George, NY and in 2002, after a great sail, I was really hooked. I began sailing seriously with the purchase of my first vessel in 2003. She was a MacGregor 25 (Acushla) that I slipped at Codorus State Park (Lake Marburg) in Hanover, PA. In 2004, I took my first trip to the Chesapeake Bay. A friend from the lake invited my family to join him at the Columbia Rendezvous. His previous boat was a Columbia 36 but he was trailer sailing a MacGregor 26 at the time. We put in at Sandy Point State Park and sailed to Bodkin Creek to meet the group. After a great night of eating and drinking at what was then the Cheshire Crab, we retired for the evening.

At the end of the 2004 season, I couldn't pass up a good deal on a bigger boat so I purchased a MacGregor 26 (R&R). Memorial Day 2005, I trailered with my friend back to Sandy Point and sailed single-handed to Chestertown for the annual Tea Party. By then I was obsessed with sailing and hooked on the Bay.

I spent most of the first half of 2005 single-handing until I met Debbie in June. Debbie was just as obsessed with sailing as I was with one exception, she had never sailed. She grew up around the water and powerboats but yearned to sail. We met at the lake and I took her for her first sail. I invited her to join me at the Columbia Rendezvous that August and she agreed. We arrived at Sandy Point on Friday, one day ahead of my friends. We rigged and spent the day sailing mostly in the Magothy River. Our first anchorage was at Purdy Point. The next day, we met my friends and sailed to Bodkin Creek where once again we had a wonderful time with the Columbia group. We were rafted to a Columbia 40 and sat in the cockpit thinking "this is more like a boat." At dinner we met a couple from Buffalo, NY in a Coranado 42. They left NY in April after selling two houses and most other possessions, left the important things with their children and cast off. They were spending their time exploring the Bay and "practicing anchoring" until October 1 when their insurance would allow them to head south. Where?…they weren't sure……How long?……(and this is my favorite quote)…"until they got tired of it". They instantly became our new heroes. The rest is history. I decided to buy a bigger boat and experience the Bay on a full time basis.

I bought a Catalina 30 (Frisky Business) in October of 2005. I joined the International Catalina 30 Association and a long time member of CCYC and the IC30A's treasurer; Max Munger, emailed me and said I should look up the CCYC group. We showed up for our first event at the Van Tassell's for the Holiday Party. After a few minutes, we knew this was the group for us.

We have been sailing on the Bay and with the group ever since. We learned a lot from our 30 and really loved her but we were hooked on cruising and eventually want to move aboard and head south. So in preparation we purchased Resolve last spring. She is a 1995 Catalina 42 Mk II 2 cabin. In 2008, we spent virtually every weekend and two separate week-long vacations cruising to some Bay destinations and learning the ropes of our larger vessel. We are not quite ready to cut the dock lines yet so you'll have to put up with us a couple of more years. We have been known to add a day before or after some of our events. Email us if you have the same idea.

Jon and Marilyn Van Tassell

My first boat was a Jon boat built by my dad that I took single handed on long cruises down a vast river. Ok, it was a 5 foot flat bottom double ender made out of plywood and the vast river was a creek a foot deep and 2 mile longs. It did begin a love of boats that has never stopped to this day.

Marilyn and I sail as a team and we have owned two Catalinas. The 30 we sailed from Boston to Maine and south to Connecticut/Long Island. We had good weather and bad - but mostly we had good times. We had talked about selling SOLUS a few times but never really made a decision. One of my students in a navigation class I was teaching expressed an interest in a boat around 30 feet long. I talked starry eyed about the adventures we had aboard SOLUS working our way through the fog before GPS and with a Loran Chain down, once again. I showed pictures of Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island one of the most beautiful places on the East Coast. We talked about how we had used a depth line to follow along the coast in New Hampshire because the fog was so thick I had missed the narrow entrance. The embarrassment was that I missed the entrance by 100 feet but traveled a mile along the coast until I found a marker so that I knew where I was!

Yes, it is true that I kissed the dock when we finally made it into a safe harbor.

In 1995, we purchased a new 42 MKII and named her RESOLVE. Marilyn came up with the name but I loved it the first time I heard it. As with most boat names the meaning behind the name may give some insight to the owners. Yup, think about that when that power boat goes by with a name that well……

For Marilyn and me, we had "resolved" a number of issues in our personal lives. One was that we had decided to not take a 3 year overseas assignment in Hong Kong. This was a hard choice for us since we love that city so much. Ah but much has changed since then. The other meaning is "Resolution," an optical term to judge the image quality of a lens system. My profession has been in optics so this just seemed to fit nicely. RESOLVE allowed us to stretch farther up into the Bay of Fundy and further south also. We were also making new adventures delivering boats up and down the East Coast. Over 100 boats later we have seen much of the coast but only 100 yards deep! It has given us an appreciation for the two Catalinas we have owned. Some of the boats we delivered were way more expensive but I wouldn't trust my life in most of them more than I would in my Catalinas.

So if there is a message here, it is stretch, look forward and don't be afraid to try something new. You never know what you will learn or how many new friends you can make unless you try. I know that watching reality shows on TV just doesn't seem the same to us anymore.