As I mailed nearly thirty Fleet 20 renewal notices in December, I was struck by how amazing the Internet is.  Through this online village I've had the chance to "talk" with lots of folks, including those I was sending renewal notices to.  Even though I've never heard their voices or seen their faces, I consider them friends. 

Owning a Catalina 22 is much more than just owning a sailboat.  It's belonging to a community.  So whether we meet each other at a fleet meeting, the marina, on the race course, during a sail, or on the Internet, don't hesitate to say Hi and make that connection.

Thanks to the Volunteers

I want to thank everyone that volunteered to staff the Catalina Owners booth at the Portland Boat Show.  The response from Fleet 20, the Columbia River All Catalina Association,  and C25/250 Fleet 94 was great.  Everyone who volunteered should have their free admission tickets by now.  If not just let me know.

Portland Boat Show

The Portland Boat Show runs from January 8 - 16.  I'm planning to attend the show on Saturday the 8th, and I would like to meet other Catalina 22 enthusiasts.  If you'd like to meet at Elmer's for breakfast at 9 a.m., followed by a visit to West Marine (looking for after Christmas sales), and then onto the boat show when it opens at 11 a.m. contact me  at 360-260-4196.

Make sure you RSVP the breakfast thing, because if I haven't heard from anyone, I'll probably skip it.

Happy New Year, and may your sailing be great in 2005.

When Not to Pull the Boat
By Dale Mack

I had never met Gary McLean except via the Internet, but I felt like I knew him as a friend as we shook hands beside his boat Sunrise (#10868) at McCuddy's Marina.  Gary had called me about giving him a hand with retrieving his boat, since the process of dropping the mast was still new to him.  We arranged to meet at the boat on the morning of December 12th.

For those who have forgotten what December 12th was like, we had high winds blowing out of the East.  When I went to check on my Catalina 30 after helping Gary, the boat's wind instruments were registering 25 knots inside Tomahawk Bay moorage, which is very sheltered.

The plan was to pull the boat at the M. James Gleason Memorial Boat Ramp (also known as the 42nd St. Ramp).  Before heading over to the marina, I stopped off at the ramp to check out whether sand would be an issue and to see how much protection the breakwater was providing since the river from the I-205 bridge looked rough.  The picture of the docks at the ramp kind of tells the whole story.  The swells combined with breaking waves made conditions at the ramp treacherous.  While we might have maneuvered the boat to the trailer, the chances of having the boat come crashing down on the trailer's bunks was just too high.

I described my findings to Gary, who, although disappointed about the conditions, knew when not to pull the boat.  Instead of writing off the whole day, I suggested we drop the mast with the boat still in the water, and at least get the boat ready for the next time he could bring the trailer from Sandy, OR for the retrieval.

Despite the weather, it was nice meeting Gary and seeing Sunrise.

Outboard Motor Workshop, February 26th
By Dale Mack

My Honda 5 hp outboard motor is due for some routine maintenance.  Instead of going it alone, I thought I'd turn it into an opportunity for some of us to get together over coffee and donuts and enjoy some Catalina 22 fellowship while I tackled some routine maintenance procedures.  Even if your outboard is another model or brand, you should find the workshop informative.

Program

• Pull the propeller and inspect the sheer pin
• Replace the water pump impeller
• Replace the fuel filter
• Change the oil after warming the engine up
• Change the gear case oil
• Replace the spark plug (it's a one cylinder engine)
• Measure and adjust the idle speed

Where

Dale & Laura Mack
16405 NE 38th St.
Vancouver, WA  98682
360-260-4196

When

Saturday, February 26th, 9:00 am to Noon

RSVP

360-260-4196

Editor's Note:  This course is put on by the Oregon Women's Sailing Association (OWSA) and registration details can be found on their website at www.owsa.net.  In April, OWSA will be offering women the "On the Water Basics" course that teaches how to dock, raise/lower the sails, and anchor.

Times When a Depth Sounder Doesn't Help
By Dale Mack

Those of us that sail rivers, like the Columbia, are very familiar with wing dams; those string of pilings stretching from the shore two hundred feet or so out into the river.  Designed to redirect the river's current to control erosion and keep channels navigable, they are also famous for catching unsuspecting boaters who try to cut between the end of the wing dam and the shore.  During the Spring runoff when the river's level can be at it highest, it's common for the wing dams to be completely submerged.  To the prop shops and vessel towing and salvage services, the wing dams are a regular source of income.

Like the Columbia River wing dams, there are something's a depth sounder just won't warn you about.  Please enjoy reading the following story I saved from a 1998 email.  The story's author is now the webmaster for the International Catalina 27/270 Association.

The bridge story takes place in our home waters of Folsom Lake, CA.  But before I dive right in let me give some local background.

Our family of three is quite active in Fleet 4.  Home for us is the western slope of the Sierras between Tahoe and Sacramento. Our normal annual sailing venues cover Monterey Bay to see the whale migration, SF Bay, San Pablo Bay, Tamales Bay, Suisun Bay, The Delta, and Tahoe but home water is Folsom Lake.

Folsom Lake plays a major flood control role for Sacramento and is purposely lowered to 40% of capacity every year.  That wouldn't be so bad if the harbor didn't go dry at 42%. From a depth standpoint the harbor shuts down around 400 ft. Which is 394 ft more than the users manual says I need.

When Folsom Lake is low we hitch-up and join Fleet 4 on their monthly (away) cruises.  Except one year we decided to hang in for the last few feet of harbor usage.

Typical to California reservoirs, before the first fill the trees were cut off but the building and structures stay.  In the case of the Salmon Falls Bridge, the approaches were bulldozed to keep folks off the structure if it ever surfaced and the rest is right across the south fork with it's road deck at about 410 ft. A new bridge is in place about a 1/2 mile further up the south fork to connect Salmon Falls Road out to Pilot Hill.

Our goal one sunny August day was to see if we could get beyond (make that under) the "New" Salmon Falls Bridge (a fixed span). The other skipper and I thought with a pair of boats we could line of sight from one boat to judge bridge clearance for the other.

Oh, Also 12-15 knots of wind is pretty typical in the south fork when you can stay out the lee of the hills. A little sun and some fun sailing and we turned the last dog leg now on a downwind run picking up speed heading deep into the south fork.

What's this, two new hazard marks thirty feet from each shore? Depth meter reads 40-50 feet here and it's more than hundred feet between the markers, split'em.  Bamm! (keel on something really solid, but we roll over it) thunk! (keel drops back down on the cable).  I turn my head in astonishment to see what I hit, only to see a double yellow line glide buy.  What? Bamm! - Thunk! The second concrete railing goes by.

Seems we found the bridge on the day after the Park Rangers had found the bridge but before they brought out the dozen or markers to really mark it. Pop Quiz! If the keel is 5 1/2 ft and the rudder is 3 ft, and we had no rudder damage. How deep was the bridge? It's not often a lake bottom does a 40 ft vertical raise in a few inches.

Hope you enjoyed this . . . If you can't be good, be lucky!

Phil Agur C-22 # 13828 Northern Light

I'll Never Master the Rules
By Dale Mack 

After the "my boat isn't setup to race" myth, the second biggest myth about racing is that the rules keep you off the water because they are too complicated.  Technically, there aren't that many, and they are published in a fairly small booklet.  We're not talking tax code here, we're talking about enhancements and refinements to the nautical Rules of the Road we're suppose to know when we operate  any vessel on the water.  Where racing rules differ from the Rules of the Road, is in the amount of detail they go into for situations like mark roundings and passing.

The plain truth is you can get by for a long time racing knowing just the Rules of the Road for sailing.  Your understanding of racing rules just sort of develops over time.  When I started, I purchased an illustrated copy of the racing rules and poured over them before my first race.  Once out on the race course the only rules I could remember was that the starboard tacked boat had rights over the port tacked boat, and when they were going the same direction the leeward boat had rights over the windward boat.  Every time I found myself in a situation where I couldn't easily apply the only two rules I had any confidence in, I yielded to the other boats in the race.  Once back at the dock, I'd remember those instances where I yielded and I'd go searching through the rule book to find the rule or rules that applied or talk the situations over with more experienced friends.  Slowly I began yielding less and asserting my rights more.  Oddly enough it's not the Catalina 22 sailors you find yourself having to assert your right against, but instead its some of the more aggressive members of the J/24 and Cal 20 fleets who are hoping you'll just get out of the way, even when you have the right of way.

I'll never master the rules, but like the rest of sailing, I learn something new every time I go out.  My experience is that the vast majority of racers are true sportsmen and sportswomen who exhibit the best traits of the Corinthian spirit.  We're all out there to have fun, win or lose. 

If you have any questions about racing, need crew, or would like to crew to gain experience, please don't hesitate to contact me at 360-260-4196.

Bottom Cleaning Tool
By Dale Mack

One thing you learn from sailboat racing is that it frequently is the little things all working together that can lead to success or failure.  Take for instance boat speed.  Even a 0.05 knot difference in speed between two boats can translate into 33 yards of separation after just twenty minutes of sailing.  Now consider the drag caused by algae on the boat's bottom, and you start to understand why so many club racers are seen scrubbing the bottom of their boats before a race.

I've had good luck with Pettit's Trinidad SR and Interlux's VC-17 on the Columbia River.  Both are non-ablative paints, meaning they dry to a hard finish.  Some maintenance is required and one of the manufacturer's data sheets included the statement:

Maintenance

Lightly scrub the bottom with a soft brush to remove anything from the antifouling paint surface. Scrubbing is particularly important with boats that are idle for extended periods of time.  The coating is most effective when the boat is used periodically.

The data sheet never defined "extended", and my experience with the paint is that "slime resistant" doesn't mean slime free, but it does seem to slow the growth.

To scrub the bottom without removing the paint, I've enhanced a tool originally created by Don Bateson. The pole is an eight foot long piece of 1" OD aluminum tubing that has been bent.  At one end of the tubing, a hole has been drilled through both sides to accommodate the locking pin of a standard boat scrub brush attachment.  The aluminum tube near the end has also be flattened a little to better fit the diameter of the scrub brush attachment point so the two pieces lock securely together.

The process of cleaning the bottom takes a lot less effort if the brush holds itself against the hull instead of me trying to stand at the end of an eight foot pole and force it up against the hull.  While the scrub brush has some buoyancy, I added some closed cell foam near the brush.  I cut up an old camping pad I had, but you could also use pipe insulation foam sold at the hardware store.

I found that being able to increase and decrease the amount of foam was an added benefit.  For the hull, lots of buoyancy was desirable in order to minimize the effort expended.  When it came to cleaning the keel, a little less buoyancy seemed about right.

Although the photos show a pretty aggressive brush, what I did was cover it with a synthetic lambs wool sleeve I made.  What this did was soften everything so that cleaning the bottom was a lot like going over it with something just slightly more aggressive than a terry cloth towel.

For those whose paint manufacturers who recommend an occasional light scrubbing, this project might be just the thing you're looking for.

Catalina Newsletters of the Northwest
By Dale Mack

Checkout these links to Northwest Catalina newsletters and local racing:

Columbia River All Catalina Association (CRACA) www.ColumbiaRiverCatalina.org Catalina 25 Fleet 94 of Portland home.comcast.net/~fleet94/ Small Yacht Sailing club of Oregon (SYSCO) www.sailpdx.com/sysco.htm

Catalina Assoc. of Tacoma and South Sound (CATSS) home.earthlink.net/~catss/CATSS Web Page.htm Catalina Association of Puget Sound (CAPS) www.capsfleet1.com/News Letters.htm Sail Portland www.sailpdx.com

January

• 8-16, Portland Boat Show
• 14-23, Seattle Boat Show
• 14-23, Lake Union Boats Afloat Show

February

• 26, Outboard Motor Workshop

See the calendar

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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.