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Sailing in the San Juan's
San
Juan Sailing Club Newsletter-
August/September
1997
Don’t
have a cardiac arrest--it’s a real newsletter (well, maybe surreal would
be a better description!)
“It
ain’t long before it’s gone, might as well have a good time...”
Betty Sampson --MERRYEYE
Sad,
but true--summer is rapidly drawing to a close, just as club participation
seems to be peaking. The past couple of weekends have been some of
the nicest of the summer--nice wind, nice weather (dodging the occasional
thunderboomer), great racing--too bad it has to end.
Lots
of news to cover, so we’ll start with upcoming events
LABOR
DAY WEEKEND--The First Annual Jimmy Buffet Classic. Gather Saturday
evening at 5:00 p.m. at Turtle Cove for a beach BBQ. Bring
your own everything. There should be spaces to pull up even deep
draft boats, or anchor out (if you don’t have a dinghy, someone will come
by & ferry you in). Bring your favorite Jimmy CD, too.
And maybe, if we’re real good boys and girls and aren’t too hung over,
we can try for a race Sunday morning in that lovely morning breeze (see
race notes, below).
The
Annual He-Man Cup and Brunch--September 13&14th--It’s our annual endurance
exercise (a few would call it masochism, but hey, we’re tough). Are you
ready for the annual endurance contest? the prayers for wind?
swimming to push the boat (not!)? the race which is grounds for divorce
in any court?
For
all the griping about lack of wind, etc., we sure seem to have a great
turnout for this one, so start getting ready now (hint--your esteemed commodore
even unloads his cheese grater). Here’s the schedule.
Skipper’s
meeting (and cocktails):
7:00
p.m. at the mooring cove dock, Friday, September 12. Mandatory except
with “papal” dispensation. (Call Jerry at 247-7702 or Dan at 259-1160
if you can’t make it--you must attend or make advance arrangements!)
He-Man
Cup on Saturday, September 13 (note change from previous years--not Sunday).
Racing fleet (spinnaker class), which will sail around the buoy at the
mouth of San Juan Arm past Sims (about 16 miles one way), will start promptly
at 7:00 (10 minute gun at 6:50). Starting line at mouth of mooring
cove; finish line is “no wake” buoys in mooring cove. Depending
on number of entries, cruising fleet may start at same time or 10 minutes
later. Cruising fleet (non-spinnaker) sails to La Jara buoy, about
12 miles one way. (Need to start early to catch what breeze we can,
ha-ha.) Entry fee $10 members, $15 non-members.
Brunch
for all members & guests (not just the He-Man racers) on Sunday
the 14th at 10:00 a.m. (again, note change from previous years),
at Mooring Cove Dock. Club provides champagne, rest is potluck.
Bring yourself and enough of the following for your crew and guests: Orange
Juice (to go with the champers, naturally), eggs, bacon, and breakfast
rolls. We’ll combine all of this and have a cookout! Awards
at brunch. Please RSVP to Jerry at 247-5607, Dan at 259-1160,
or Janet at 247-5607 with how many plan to attend.
A
few reminders...
SAFETY
FIRST! Make sure you have required life jackets & safety equipment--nav
lights are required by racing rules if sailing after dark. Food &
water (and beer!) strongly recommended. Race Committee reserves right
to prohibit small open boats from competing, depending on weather.
Boats are expected to go to the aid of any boat requiring assistance--see
time allowance provision, below. Pushing the boat while swimming
is not allowed, and the first mate’s decision to start the motor at any
time after 8:00 p.m. is final.
Any
boat not keeping track of its own time is an automatic DNF.
Either use a stopwatch or keep track of your own start and stop times.
Time allowance during race (you must give us the start and stop times)
for emergencies or threatening weather--note cause. (Inventive excuses
about spousal reconciliation not acceptable.) Race committee may
halt or cancel race due to weather, but each skipper is expected to use
his own judgment!
A
big thank you to Frank and Marilyn for letting us use the mooring cove
dock. Please do not tie up at the dock--slips are all reserved.
Dinghy in, or a couple of dinghies (and the Dinghy Lady) will be available
for shuttle service--call on VHF (we’ll have a couple of hand-helds at
the dock).
Pray
for wind and start whistling and scratching those backstays. . . .
(“It’s
deja vu all over again”--Yogi Berra. The above may look a little
familiar, but hey, it’s tough to improve on last year--thanks, Janet.)
He-Man
trivia--Old timers remember past He-Man Cups with nostalgia (isn’t it amazing
how your memory blocks out unpleasant events? The first He-Man was
in 1988, with a diverse fleet, ranging from Crazy Kid’s predecessor, Flying
Eagle, and Candle Dancer to a Catalina 22’s, Cat’s Paw, Blue Parrot,
and Mike Hagan’s Cyclone 13. Mike achieved immortality when asked
what provisions he had aboard. In reply, Mike held up a banana and
a can of Coke. This had the best wind of any He-Man, with most boats
finishing before sunset (all but two with an uncorrected time of less than
10 hours).
Then
there was the year of thunderstorms. Only 4 boats participated that
year. Don Aarvold doesn’t often retire from a race, but that year
he was single-handing aboard his Merit 25, Blue Ribbon. After almost
being struck by lightning and then running aground (it took Cat’s Paw and
Hagans’ Flicka 25, Columbine, to pull him loose), he understandably threw
in the towel.
At
least three skippers have single-handed--Hagan (at least twice), Aarvold
(at least twice), and Dickinson (unless a basset hound and two cats count
as crew). Betty commented that when Don single-handed, she
wondered if he yelled at the autopilot. Any others?
Longest
finishing time--25+ hours for Loye Hilton, giving birth to the Tenacity
Award. (It seems to me that we once had a boat finish at 10:00 the
next morning, but I couldn’t find mention in the old newsletters.
Loye has won this twice. The last time,he was last seen motoring
off for home with the turtle trophy proudly displayed on top of the cabin.
Unfortunately, the lack of sleep kicked in, and he fell asleep and ran
hard into the shoreline!
Two
years ago, it was a real drifter, even worse that usual. Janet Dickinson
& Jenny Wolff, along with assorted crew, were committee aboard Cat’s
Paw. Dementia was drifting around in with no wind just above the
narrows about dusk. Jerry had managed to ghost in on the last
of the wind about 4:30 The crew called Cat’s Paw to see what the wind was
like. The reply was, “Flat calm.” Before the transmission
was over, you could hear the starter grinding!
Best
fleet ever was seventeen boats in 1991. Unfortunately, that was the
year we tried to start the race over by Island Cove on the east shore.
The wind shadow hit big time right at the start, and only eight boats made
it around the first mark. After bobbing around for two hours and
being pushed into the rocks, the rest called it quits and had a beach party.
Willis E (Roger and Jo Beachy) and Boatique (Ron & Beryl Seabourne)
got the Tenacity Awards that year, with Boatique finishing at 3:30 a.m.
and Beachy’s finally throwing in the sponge at Euell Canyon about 10:30
the next morning. (They were afraid that all the champagne would
be gone before they got in.)
Is
this fun, or what?
MEA
CULPA--One of these days I’ll remember to get all the dots, tildes, and
other assorted characters in my URL’s (internet website addresses, technically
a Uniform Resource Locator) and to proofread my work. Betty’s website
address, where the club newsletter & other useful poop may be found,
is http://www.frontier.net/~merryeye/sjsc.html (see that pesky little tilde,
the squiggly mark in front of “merryeye”? I sort of left it out.)
Site is up and running. Thanks again, Betty.
Dinghy
Report— Motor is temporarily out of service. Apparently, the waves
from a storm shoved the dinghy’s gunwale under the dock, and the motor
slamming against the dock broke the magneto mounts, part of the cylinder
head. We’re checking to see if it can be fixed (or if it’s worth
it). The motor guru has known for years that the lower unit leaks,
but Trembly’s Marine says as long as you drain it each year so it doesn’t
freeze, it will probably keep going. If it can’t be fixed, Board
will decide whether to replace it. If you know of anyone with an
old used motor, 4-8 hp., contact a Board member. Also,
someone (the guilty party knows who he or she is) dropped the lock in the
drink--it will be replaced.
The
racing Corner--Starting with this issue, we’ll try to have a regular feature
on racing rules & tips. Guest columnists are welcome, as until
a few years ago I knew about as much about yacht racing as I do about astrophysics.
We’ll start off this month by taking a look at one of the major changes
under the new rules and a situation which arose in the last race.
As
most of you know, the
CAN
WE DO ANYTHING ABOUT PWC’S? Editorial Comment As cruising
sailors, most of us don’t have much use for personal watercraft (jet skis
and jet bikes, collectively personal watercraft or PWC’s). All of
us have grumbled from time to time when an evening sail or a quiet anchorage
is disrupted by the damned things buzzing around. Why does
it seem that many operators of PWC’s range from the inconsiderate
(or imbecilic) to the outright dangerous? My personal theory is that
there is some sort of boat attractor built into the damned things which
causes them to buzz around every boat in sight, even if the rest of the
lake is empty.
In
recent weeks, a couple of incidents have been more than mildly annoying.
On the 4th of July, PWC’s being operated by juveniles repeatedly circled
Dementia, Cat’s Paw and other boats rafted or anchored in Turtle Cove.
This probably was deliberate. The previous evening, a polite request
to a jet bike in the same group not to start a water skier within 50 feet
of the boats met with obscenities. The jet bike, incidentally, had
no observer and was operating without lights after dusk.
The
past two weekends, a jet bike (yellow SeaDoo, no one has gotten the registration)
has been running around with a straight exhaust, which can be heard clear
across the lake. This clown also was pulling a skier without an observer.
Unfortunately, attempts to involve State Parks have been unsuccessful.
We’re trying to work with the Arboles State Park Office to determine which
New Mexico statutes apply and can be enforced. New Mexico is less
strict in many areas--no speed limits, for example. Colorado has
an 86 dbA limit on noise 50 feet from the vessel (our friend on the jet
bike wouldn’t make this 500 feet away) and also requires a factory muffler
or underwater exhaust (he flunks that one too). State Parks, however,
apparently has only one db meter, which is passed around from park to park,
and no enforcement units were on the water this weekend.
It’s
more that just irritation, though. PWC’s cause a disproportionate
number of accidents and injuries. Recently, in Florida, a national
champion jet skier jumped a wake and landed on another PWC, killing the
driver. He is charged with manslaughter. There have been at
least two serious accidents involving rental PWC’s at Navajo. How
many of us have had to make a sudden course change to avoid a PWC (or water
skier) who fell right in front of our boats?
What
to do? The best article I have seen on the subject is “The PWC Plague”
by Tom Neale in the May 1997 issue of Cruising World. Neale
correctly points out that an outright ban on PWC’s is probably not legally
nor politically possible. I am always hesitant to suggest government
regulation--it might be used on us next! As the saying goes, be careful
what you ask for--you might get it.
Neale
argues that the principal problem with PWC’s is the number of inexperienced
operators (especially rentals) and operators under sixteen. He suggests
that PWC’s aren’t boats and should be in a separate category, like ATV’s
and snowmobiles, and that the key to solving the problem is mandatory education,
age restrictions, and restrictions on speed or operation in sensitive areas
(along with improved enforcement). Get a copy of the article and
forward it to your friendly state legislator and to the Division of Parks
and Outdoor Recreation.
And
while we’re on the subject--I’d like to shove a db meter up the transom
of some of these power boats with straight pipes or megaphone exhausts.
You know the ones I’m talking about--when they fire them up in the marina,
conversation instantly becomes impossible, and they hurt your ears when
they’re ½ mile away. Why is it that at the lake, where everyone
comes for peace and relaxation, exhaust systems are allowed which would
be illegal on any city street?
asjsc
bd mtg 8-25
DLD
secy
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Last
Month's Newsletter:
San
Juan Sailing Club- Event Update
August
1997
Sorry,
folks, for the abbreviated newsletters lately! The following note
from Betty helps explain what’s happening.
To
the Board and Members of the San Juan Sailing Club...Ahoy and greetings!
This
note is to let you know that I am going to be unable to continue as secretary
for the San Juan Sailing Club. As much as I enjoy the challenge of
making stuff up for the newsletter, not to mention the bribes I get for
making up finish times for the races, (er uh did
I say that out loud?) it is difficult reporting on on the water events
when
we're
not actually on the water. As most of you know, MERRYEYE has gone
sailing to the San Juan Islands without us; reports are she is having a
wonderful time and enjoying her new crew. However, without a boat
(sob,whimper, heavy sigh) it is difficult keeping up with Club activities
and David Dickinson has done an exceptional job (as always). So,
David, tag... you're it. Betty Sampson--Merryeye
Thanks
for the great job, Betty. Betty will continue to mail our website
postings at http://www.frontier.net/merryeye/sjsc.html. (P.S.--Betty,
when I tried to access this today, I got the “server is down” message).
San
Juan Cup Rescheduled!
Due
to weather and conflicts, it appeared that we were going to have a very
low turnout for the San Juan Cup, so it has been rescheduled for August
16. Skipper’s meeting at 2:00 at the mooring cove. Hope to
see you for the last scheduled “round the buoys” race of the summer.
Upcoming
events:.
August
23-24th Tres Equis Race -- Bicycle-Swim-Sail Triathlon. Ride your bike
to the shore, swim to your anchored boat, & sail a race. Making rules
up as we go...Contact: Jerry Pope 247-7702
Aug.
30-Sept. 1 Labor Day Jimmy Buffet BBQing, guitar playing, sail and
play day. Impromptu at this point. Beach party & potluck on Sat. p.m.,
maybe a little racing, maybe a cruise to La Jara--who knows? Call Dan Wanstrath
259-1160 Watch this space for updates.
Sept.
13, 14 Shhhh Don’t tell the wind! He-Man--no matter when we have
it no wind! Scheduled for a full moon, hope to have better wind,
better participation than earlier in year. He-Man Brunch on Sun, race on
Sat. Call Dan Wanstrath 259-1160.
Beer
Can Series
Betty,
I’m in no better shape than you--I’ve had to miss the last two!
If anyone knows results, give me a call. Which reminds me--
If
you want it in the newsletter--please fax, e-mail, telephone, telegraph,
carrier pigeon (on second thought, maybe you’d better not send it UPS right
now) or whatever your news and notes to David Dickinson, (h) 247-5607 (w)
259-3002 (fax) 259-3003. email: dld_law@frontier.net.
La
Jara Cruise--Great turnout for the cruise --Kemo Sabe, Restless, Romance,
Crazy Kid, Sabbatical, Venturess, Lady Wayumi, Candle Dancer, Doubloon,
Dementia (seems to me I’m missing one). Some sailing both going &
coming, water was great (clear and 75o), lots of fun and relaxation.
Heavy wind Saturday evening made beach ties difficult, so most of us wound
up swinging on a hook. Maybe do one more before the end of
the year?
Passage
Notes--Just got a nice postcard from the Mohrs, who were sailing to Catalina
Island.
And
have you paid your dues yet? We’ve been sending out a number
of courtesy copies of the newsletter. Due to high cost of postage
and (donated) photocopying, we’re going to have to trim the mailing list
back to members and subscribers. Need a registration? Call
259-3002.
Happy
sailing! David Dickinson
Unassistant Secretary
Past
San Juan Sailing Club Newsletters
San
Juan Sailing Club Registration Form
Duty Free Shopping
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If, by some International chance, some New
Zealander reads this... we want the Cup back!!!
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