CATALINA 30 – FLEET 1

FALL ’09 NEWSLETTER

The C-30 Nationals Are Now History!

In case you missed it, the 35th Anniversary Catalina 30 National Regatta and Rendezvous was held on San Francisco Bay on September 18th, 19th, and 20th.  Hosted by Fleet 1 and the South Beach Yacht Club, it was a rousing success.  The driving forces behind the Nationals were Mike and Lorianna Kastrop of Goose.  The two of them scheduled the monthly planning meetings, brought much of the pot luck food, pulled together the volunteers, thought of and organized the multitude of details for the Regatta, and generally worked their butts off so we could host the Regatta on SF Bay.  My heartfelt thanks to them and to the many others who helped make this a great event and a great weekend.

The weekend started with a Skipper’s Meeting followed by a talk by Kame Richards about Bay currents and tide.  It turned out to be good information considering we had 4 knot currents all weekend!  Unfortunately I missed Kame’s helpful hints because I was down in SoCal with my job all week, and didn’t get to the boat until 5 a.m on Friday morning for the long trip down to the City Front.  The Friday races were scheduled for the South Bay, with boat in three division competing.  There were 7 boats signed up for the highly competitive spinnaker division, 5 boats signed up for the main-and-jib division, and 9 boats signed up for the cruising division.  As it turned out, the only difference between the main-and-jib division and the cruising division was that cruisers had to choose a single headsail for use throughout the entire series, while the main-and-jib’ers could change headsails depending on the wind conditions.  Because I have Bella set up for cruising, I entered the cruising division.  And because a 135 jib was the largest headsail that the cruising division was allowed to use and I didn’t want to give up anything,” I borrowed a 135 jib from a friend so I could be competitive.  Was I in for a surprise!

The Friday races started out in typical South Bay conditions, namely drinking beer and waiting for the wind to appear.  The race committee eventually set up a course and got all three fleets going.  The first gun went off with the spinnaker division boats “charging” to the starting line in 5 knots of wind.  Their start was followed by the main-and-jib division boats, and finally the cruising division boats in dying wind.  I put up the 135 so I would be competitive with the rest of the fleet.  Who was I kidding?  There wasn’t another boat out there on Friday with a dodger, solar panel, 2 anchors with chain, spare parts and tools, cupboard full of food and drink, and 6 fenders and a BBQ hanging off the stern pulpit.  But if the idea was to have a good time, that we did.

The first race called for the fleet to sail toward AT&T Park.  In a 4 knot ebb.  In 5 knots of wind.  As I drifted sideways/backwards towards the Bay Bridge, I saw other boats setting their anchors.  I just didn’t feel like putting out and then retrieving my 22# Bruce with 80’ of chain, so I just decided to enjoy the patio boat experience.  Fortunately a little wind came up before I hit the Bay Bridge, but I never did reached the first mark.  Nor did several other boats in the main-and-jib and cruising divisions.  Not to worry, there were still 4 other races to shine on.

Yes, there eventually was some wind on the South Bay, and eventually the race committee ran the second race, and this time I was able to round all the marks.  Of course I came in dead last.  But I had a good time, and my crew was happy to be out there and missing work on Friday.  After the race, we had a great meal at SBYC, and I motored up to Pier 39 to spend the night.  I was so tired that the barking sea lions didn’t even bother me. 

Ah Saturday, time to redeem myself on the Bay.  I had one returning crew member from Friday who had some sailing experience, and one day of experience on my boat.  And my daughter and her two friends said they would sail with me on Saturday.  So I was set to go.  Of course, none of them knew a rope from a line, a sheet from a halyard, or what a winch does.  This would be a little challenging.  Everyone met me at the dock on Saturday, and I started my Sailing 101 course.  “The pointy end of the boat is the bow, and the flat end is the stern.  The mast is the tall thing pointing to the sky, and the boom is . . . .”  Well, you get the picture.  We pushed off the dock and headed for the Berkeley Circle for the first start as I continued my instructions.  Eventually we the sails up and everyone working as a well-oiled team.  Well, at least we got the sails trimmed.  The wind was nice, the 135 was drawing fine, and I was real careful at the start since I didn’t trust my ability to tack quickly.  We got around the course, and even finished ahead of two other boats.  Not bad.  Then the wind picked up to typical SF Bay conditions, and I was stuck with the 135 up.  We ended up in the thick of thing at the start with my crew telling me that there were boats close by.  Welcome to racing.  The idea is not to hit any of them.  I put a reef in the main, and we were off to our first mark, a starboard rounding of Alcatraz.  The 135 was a little more sail that I would have liked, but Bella and the crew did just fine.  We had a great race, didn’t break anything, didn’t hit anything, no one got hurt, and we finished ahead of two other boats again.  So all in all, it was a great day.  We finished off the day with dinner and a couple of bottles of wine at SBYC, and then everyone headed home for the night.  I had to shag the sea lions of the dock again to get back to the boat, but I was used to that by now. 

Sunday was a lay day for me while the rest of the fleet raced the fifth and final race fo the Regatta.  I had a five hour trip to get the boat back to Vallejo, and had to be up at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning to prepare for work.  So I decided to use the daylight hours to sail home and missed the last race.  I had a nice morning with my daughter, then she went back to her apartment and I had a wonderful sail home.  It was one of those picture perfect days when all is right and you know there is nothing better to be doing then sailing across the Bay in your C-30.  And I hear that the fleet had some great wind on Sunday as well.

The race results are posted at the SBYC website.  Congratulation to Jack McDermott of Adventure who took first in the spinnaker division followed by Mike & Lorianna in Goose and Laurie Miller in Starkite.  John Ford in Avalon took home first place in the main-and-jib division followed by Barry Keeler in Sailing Pair-A-Dice and Richard Casselli in Friday’s Eagle.  Finally, Dan Courter of Ross’ Dream grabbed first in the cruising division followed by Roger and John Tennyson in Grinnin’ Bear and Max Munger in Odyssey.  Yours truly grabbed sixth place.

I again want to thank Mike and Lorianna for all their hard work in pulling off a great Regatta, and all the volunteers that worked so hard to get things organized and running.  The many volunteers included Marcia Bever, Dan Courter, Tim Gaughan, Bill Dattola, David Hague, Mark Hecht (fleet measurer who went out of his way to measure the boats, even those of us who arrived at 11 a.m. on race day), Mark Hensley, Dudley Smolen, John Tennyson, Roger Tennyson, Emmanuel Uren (who ran the race committee), Harlan Van Wye, and Bill Woodruff (who got the website up and running.)  Thank you all for a first rate job.

Yep, you heard right, we have a website!  If you haven’t visited it yet, go to www.cat30fleet1.com and check it out.  Make sure you check out the Photos section.  Right now we have over 600 photos posted of the Regatta.  There are some great shots of Sunday’s race toward the Golden Gate in the fog.  And now that we have the website up and running, make sure you go back from time to time as we update it with the newsletter and more photos.

One other thing.  A big thank you to all the sponsors who helped make this Regatta happen.  We set up a Sponsors section on our website.  So make sure you check out all the sponsors, and mention that you saw them on our website when you visit them.

Fleet Week is Almost Here

Well, after having Bella sit in her slip for the past year, I am finally going to get to use her a little this year.  Of course spending more than a “boat unit” in money and several weekends at Napa Valley Marina may have something to do with it.  I got to the Nationals, and now it is time for Fleet Week in San Francisco.  Fleet Week this year is set for October 9th to 11th, and once again the Blue Angels are in town.  So it is a great time to get your C-30 out for a little weekend fun.

This year’s schedule has the airshow practice scheduled for Friday afternoon followed by Blue Angel’s practice at 3 p.m.  A couple years ago I was heading for Aquatic Park for the weekend when the Airbus super-jumbo A380 was out flying circles over the Bay and the Blues were out practicing.  I don’t expect the A380 to be out this year, but the Blues will be.  The parade of ships is scheduled for Saturday morning, with the airshow and Blue Angel’s performing both Saturday and Sunday.

Without a doubt, the best place to watch the airshow is from Aquatic Park.  The anchoring is easy, and powerboats are not allowed in the area.  So we sailboats (and kayakers and swimmers) have the place to ourselves.  I plan on coming down Friday morning (one of the few advantages of furlough Friday), and hope to be anchored before the afternoon practice.  If you can’t escape on Friday, come out in the evening or come over on Saturday or Sunday.  If you come on Saturday or Sunday, be aware that the Coast Guard closes off the City Front around 10 or 11 a.m.  I will be monitoring Ch. 68.  Hope to see you out there.

Spare Sails?

One more thing before I close out.  The Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors is looking for donations of usable C-30 sails.  BAADS is a non-profit organization that has a C-30 berthed at South Beach Marina.  BAADS gives disabled individuals the opportunity to experience the joy of sailing on SF Bay.  (They were out for the Nationals and took a fifth in the cruising division.)  If you have any sails that you would like to donate to their worthy cause, drop me a line and I will put you in contact with them.  You will be helping a good cause.  And thanks.

And remember:  “There are many fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances.  But the only time you have is the present.”

  -Grenville Klieser

Jim Sobolewski                                                                                                                           Fleet Captain, Fleet 1                                                                                                                      s/v Bella Luna                                                                                                    SOBOL748@aol.com                                                                                                    916.425.3469 (cell)

10.3.09