From the Captain
By Dale Mack, Crocus, #8244
celtic-myst@comcast.net

Sorry for the delay in getting out this month's newsletter.  Between landscape projects and Sean's high school graduation, the first half of the month kept me busy when I wasn't on the water.

The month of May turned out to be wonderful for sailing.  In addition to the racing on Thursday evenings, I was out there hosting members of the Oregon Women's Sailing Association as they crewed for me for the OWSA Wednesday Night Sails, and I managed to get in some nice day sailing single-handed.

I almost always have my camera with me when I sail.  When the opportunity presents itself for me to snap a picture of someone on their boat I'm usually ducking into the cabin to grab my camera.  The picture to the left is just one such example.  It's May 28th, Laura and I are returning home after being out for a week on our cruise to Beacon Rock.  Heading upriver is the Catalina 22 Wayward Star of Fleet 20 member Julie Schumann.

If you ever see a picture of your boat in the newsletter and you'd like a higher resolution version just let me know and I'll email you a copy.  Likewise, I you ever snap a picture of me on my boat please send it along (I have a Broadband).

On the topic of photos, checkout the website of Dena Kent (Martin 242 owner).  She has been publishing photos of boats racing in some of the recent events.  The link to the site is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/denakent

Racing

Congratulations to Dan Dugan and the crew of Harmony (#14286) for winning the SYSCO Spring Series.

Hands down, Dan has the best starts of all the Catalina 22's out there.  I'm notorious for getting to the line late, so in the Summer Series I've been staying closer to Dan before the signal.

Dan's favorite view of the fleet during the Spring Series had to be looking back over his shoulder.  What Dan describes as luck I attribute to consistency.  Like all the crews sailing each week we get a little better with every race.  What helps set a particular crew apart is making fewer mistakes than the next boat.

Please join me in congratulating the Harmony team for a series well sailed, and for appearing to have a lot of fun while doing it.

I want to thank my race crew for sailing with me so far this season.  Onboard Crocus helping me out are:

Tim Taylor

Karen Maynard

Diane Stanford-Clark

I also want to thank the crews sailing aboard Harmony, Togarty, and Promiseland for joining us as we keep Catalina 22 racing alive on the Columbia River.

Racing the rest of the Season

As you read below about upcoming events like the Gold Rush to St. Helens and the CYC Summer Series in July/August, I'd like to encourage you to bring your boat out and join us.  The Catalina 22 folks that are racing are wonderful, helpful, and place a heavy emphasis on everyone having a good time.  From a learning standpoint, having a built in excuse to get out on the water every Thursday evening with your crew is a great way to further your skills.

Contact me if you have questions.

Dale Mack:  360-260-4196 or celtic-myst@comcast.net

Boats For Sale

The fleet's For Sale page has several boats for sale that were recently listed with us.  Columbia River All Catalina Association (CRACA) website also has a for sale page which currently has a pair of Catalina 25's listed.

I'm planning on entering Gromit in the Gold Rush race from Portland to St. Helens in July on the 21st.  It would be great if there were a couple other Catalina 22's competing.  It takes three boats to make a one-design class in this race.

Contact me if you're interested

Donald Maywald
S/V Gromit, #12286
maywald@pacifier.com

Fleet Captain's Note:

I'm going to enter Crocus.  The Gold Rush Notice of Race and Supplemental Sailing Instructions can be found here.  The race starts at Daymark "40" just downstream of the mouth of the Willamette River and ends at the St. Helens' court house after rounding the downstream end of Sand Island.  The sail from Portland to St. Helens can be one of the best on the river.  This is a Saturday only race with a motor/sail back to Portland on Sunday for those that moor their boats upriver.  Essentially treat this as an overnight cruise.  While it's technically a race, it's much more of a cruise for groups like Fleet 20 so I encourage you to come along and enjoy the weekend.

Dale Mack, Fleet Captain

Don Woodhouse (Togarty, #7260) and I (Crocus, #8244) need at least one other Catalina 22 skipper to sign up to participate in the CYC Summer Series so we can race one-design.  The CYC Summer Series is new for us this year.  As always you don't have to race in every race.

Here's the Catalina 22 race schedule for the series:

1. July 26
2. August 2
3. August 9
4. August 16
5. August 23
6. August 30

Fleet 20's racing page has a lot of information on local racing.  Everything from the entry form to the sailing instructions for each race are available.  You may also find the material targeted at race committee very informative because it explains in simple straight forward language what the race committee is doing to start and finish races.

Hope to see you on the starting line.

Dale Mack
celtic-myst@comcast.net or 360-260-4196

Summer Series Racing is Underway
By Dale Mack

With two races still ahead of us, the summer series (June 7 - July 12) has been noted for its wonderful winds.  While the first two races of the Spring Series saw the wind die to the point where we couldn't finish the races, the summer series has been blessed with a steady NW to NNW breeze in the 8-10 knots range with gusts in the first race to 15 knots.

Four boats are racing the series

• Dan Dugan (Harmony, #14286)
• Scott Ferre (Promiseland, #12982)
• Don Woodhouse (Togarty, #7260)
• Dale Mack (Crocus, #8244)

We hold one race each Thursday evening, and we are the second start of each race.  The first start is the J/24 fleet at 6:30 pm, then the Catalina 22's and Ranger 20's in the second start, followed by the third start with the Cal 20's, and finally the Cruising Class in the fourth start.

The crew of Crocus continues to enjoy a downwind advantage with their symmetrical spinnaker when they have things under control (which wasn't the case in race #1 when a gust hit the boat when Crocus was reaching with the spinnaker).  Dan Dugan's comment from  Harmony was "...from my viewpoint it looked like Crocus was parasailing for a while".  Despite that pulse intensifying moment, everyone continues to have fun and keeps coming back week after week.

The crew on Harmony has been having good success with their cruising spinnaker.  What the asymmetrical cruising spinnaker gives up in terms of performance when compared to the symmetrical spinnaker, it makes up for in simplicity (no spinnaker pole) and its ability to get the boat moving upriver (downwind) in light air when the standard wing-an-wing configuration with the Genoa becomes such a challenge.  Contrary to "official" rules regarding flying sails like spinnakers, Catalina 22 Fleet 20 racing allows the use of a whisker pole with a cruising spinnaker.

Although still not flying spinnakers on the downwind legs, both Togarty and Promiseland have been showing some very good upwind performance and are typically among the leaders at the first mark (both C22 and R20).

 

Report from the Lemon Island Rendezvous
By Dale Mack

Don Bateson, co-owner of Crocus, in the cove between Lemon Island and Government Island.

Fleet 20 held its annual Lemon Island Rendezvous on Saturday , May 19th.  The weather forecasts leading up to the event were all over the map.  Some predicted rain, some said it would be dry but overcast, and others said sunny skies.  As the day drew near I knew I was going rain or shine.  Anything short of a full on gale was OK with me.  Having a set of decent foul weather that Laura gave me as a present one year has definitely changed the way I feel about sailing in less than perfect weather.

It had rained during the night, but as I headed off to the Tomahawk Bay Yacht Club swap meet at 6:30 am the pavement was dry and the skies didn't look threatening despite the overcast.  The TBYC swap meet is always a good social event mixed in with lots of browsing and the occasional bargain purchase. I ran into lots of folks I know from Fleet 20, CRACA, OWSA, and the local racing scene.  Whether you were buying, window shopping, or just out looking for some boating conversation the swap meet once again fulfilled many purposes.

By 10:30 am Don Bateson and I were underway for the 11 am rendezvous near buoy "14".  This was also the starting line for the second running of the Rose City Yacht Club's (RCYC) Medium Distance race upriver and then back to buoy "14".

When 11 am arrived and no other Catalina 22's were present, Don and I figured the iffy weather had scared them off so we tagged along with the racers.  What a great front row seat we had.

We reached Lemon Island about thirty minutes later.  May's high water made getting into the cove between Lemon Island and Government Island easy.  We headed for the downstream end of Government Island and hugged the shore as we entered the cove.  Once anchored we settled back to enjoy the surroundings.

The cove is one of those jewels in the Portland area that goes unnoticed and is inaccessible to most.  Except for the faint white-noise of I-205 to the east, all you hear is the birds in trees, the wind through the leaves, and the lapping of water at the boat's waterline.

Don and I ate our snacks, enjoyed talking about family, kids, home projects, and future sailing adventures.  After a couple of hours we pulled up the anchor, motored into clear water, and then hoisted the sails for the return trip to Tomahawk Bay Moorage.

What a day!  Most enjoyable five hours I can recall.  I emerged from the marina into totally calm conditions.  There was barely enough wind to tack.  Itpicked up and then what a sail.  I beat down the river to the end of Sauvie Island, came about and managed to fly the spinnaker.  After getting the whisker pole set I had a nice downwind run all the way back.  Just enough wind to make sufficient headway against the current.  Single handing was challenging.

An epic sail.  This C22 is the best.

Checkout these links to Northwest Catalina newsletters and local racing:

• Columbia River All Catalina Association (CRACA)
• Sail Portland (hosted by Oregon Corinthian Sailing Association, OCSA)
• Small Yacht Sailing Club of Oregon (SYSCO)
• Oregon Women's Sailing Association (OWSA)
• Catalina Association of Tacoma and South South (CATSS)
• Catalina Association of Puget South (CAPS out of Seattle)

See the calendar