From the Captain
By Mike Hibbs

Another beautiful month for sailing. Well the Spring Series is over and the Summer Series began June 13th. Don Bateson on Crocus won the Spring Series this year, but I think he will see some more competition in the Summer Series. Blaine Dickerson (Gromit) is gaining experience fast and there will be some old hands out there with Solus in the hunt. By the way, I am looking for a ride if anyone is interested in helping out a newly boatless captain.

Fleet 20 hosted a race committee night on May 21st. I understand all went well. We are also responsible for another race committee night in July. Those of you interested, please contact Mike McGrath so he can set you up.

I had an opportunity to go sailing in the Puget sound last weekend. A friend of Fleet 20 invited Terry Annis and myself up for what turned out to be a beautiful weekend of light to moderate winds and pleasant skies. We sailed from Olympia up to a small cove southwest of Tacoma. We had a chance to fly the spinnaker and did a minimal amount of motoring up to the cove. We saw seals and harbor dolphins along the way. The cove (Jarell Cove) was a nice place with mooring buoys and a nice small store that had everything that we needed to continue to cruise in the manner befitting the occasion. I also noticed a dock off on the east side of the cove that was large enough for several good sized boats. The dock was connected to a state park with campgrounds. All of which were nicely kept up and included restrooms and water. A nice place and something to keep in mind for later travels.

May the winds always fill your sails and your days be long.

Items For Sale on the Fleet 20 Website
By Dale Mack

The Fleet 20 website helps Catalina 22's find new homes.  Folks wishing to sell other sailing related gear can also use the service.  Ads will remain posted for six months.  A link to the service can be found on the home page.

Delta Cruise
By Dale Mack

Laura and I never got our Catalina 22 below St. Helens on the Columbia River, because our traditional summer cruise was to trailer up to Anacortes to launch, and then spend a week or more cruising the San Juan and Gulf Islands.  With the purchase of our Catalina 30 mkIII earlier this year, we began looking forward to a delta cruise since taking Celtic Myst north was going to have to wait until our skills and confidence with the new boat grew.

Hearing that the official CRACA Delta Cruise had been cancelled, we decided to proceed anyway with our plans, despite having never visited by boat or anchored in any of the destinations on our itinerary.  I figure between now and the planned departure date, I will gather as much detailed information about specifically where to anchor, how to navigate some of the channels, and where to stay and what to do, that some the anxiety of doing it on our own should be diminished (he says hoping not to run the boat aground, or spending a night worrying about dragging the anchor).  While we would have liked to tag along on the SYSCO Delta Cruise, it starts about the time we have to be coming back from cruise in order to pick Sean up from camp.

If you are also cruising that week and don't mind hanging out with a boat crewed by a couple who freely admit their inexperience cruising the lower Columbia River, then look for us.  Here is our tentative itinerary for the cruise.

Congratulations Don Bateson
By Dale Mack 

Congratulations Don Bateson for sailing Crocus to a clean sweep of the five race Spring Series.

I also want to congratulate all the other skippers and crew that came out and enjoyed some fantastic Columbia River sailing.

Summer Series Looking for Crew and Skippers
By Dale Mack

If you missed the Spring Series, here's your chance to join the excitement of One-Design racing on the Columbia River with a group of friends who love messing about in Catalina 22's.  We've had good luck putting people aboard boats who were looking for a ride, or finding experienced crew for skippers looking for some help.

Even if you have never raced before, I'd like to encourage you to consider coming out and race.  We can place aboard your boat past Series winners and former Fleet Champions who can provide you all the assistance you need.

Anxious about starts, mark roundings, or when boats meet?  Don't be, Fleet 20 races are competitive but causal.  What I mean is the emphasis is on sailing well, having a good time, and learning something new every time we go out.

Electrical Switch Panel Cover
By Dale Mack

If you have an old-style Catalina 22, then you'll appreciate this do-it-yourself project.  Catalina Yachts got a lot of things right on the the C22, but one of the things they missed the mark on was the placement of the electrical switch panel.  Prone to having someone accidentally step on the toggle switches and break them off, the switch panel was eventually relocated to the starboard aft bulkhead when the new-style Catalina 22 was introduced in 1985.

If you're one of the 13,000 owners of the original C22 layout Vernon Hollins' (Zephyr, #9353) home built switch cover might be the solution you've been looking for.

See the calendar

The Fleet 20 newsletter is published online once a month. Articles are the opinions of the authors and don't necessarily represent the consensus of Fleet 20.