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

I've come to enjoy the distinction of owning a yellow-hulled Catalina 22.  I'm easy to spot when racing, cruising or at the dock.  C22's in general are pretty easy to spot on the river, and I've seen several out there this year I've not seen before.  If one of your fellow C22 dock-mates isn't a member of Fleet 20, please point them to our website.  Membership remains FREE, and it connects them with a network of C22 knowledge and help that they can tap into whenever needed.

Learning to Solo can Expand Your Sailing Opportunities

July was a wonderful month of sailing for me.  While racing dominated the regularly scheduled part of my sailing itinerary, it was the unplanned day sails that stood out as I sprinkled them amongst the C22 racing and C30 sailing with Laura.  Learning how to single-hand the boat expanded my unplanned sailing options.  Today I single-hand my Catalina 30, but I remember a time when the thought of just docking the Catalina 22 seemed daunting.  I learned to dock and undock the C22 by hanging every fender I had over both sides and then practicing boat handling skills while under power.  I experimented with bow first into docks, backing into docks, and tying up on the starboard side and then on the portside.  To avoid an audience I choose to practice in the very early morning.  Another couple of useful skills was learning how to back the boat, and how to steer the boat with only the outboard motor.  After graduating from boat handling, the next step along my solo career was to master sailing alone.  I enjoy going down to the boat after work and just going out for an hour.

Fleet 20 Overnight Cruise to St. Helens Oregon, September 8-9

What are you doing the weekend of September 8-9?  Please consider joining Don Bateson and I as Fleet 20 sails downriver to the Oregon town of St. Helens.  A description of the event appears later in the newsletter.  I really like this event because the sailing can be great.

New Members

Please join me in welcoming our newest members to Fleet 20:

Dick & Sandy Reynolds of Lebanon, OR

Bloody Mary, #4570
Catnip, #342

The Reynolds own two Catalina 22's and are members of the Catalina 22 National Sailing Association (www.catalina22.org).  John & Diane Clark also sail their C22 on Fern Ridge so maybe the Clarks and the Reynolds will cross paths.

After a hiatus for a couple years, Fleet 20 will once again be  sailing to St. Helens, located about seventeen nautical miles downstream of the I-5 bridge.  The plan is to rendezvous near buoy "39" (a green navigational aid west of the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge, downstream of the mouth of the Willamette River) and depart for St. Helens at 11 am.  Our destination is the city docks located in front of the courthouse.  For those who keep their boats downriver near St. Helens, why don't you consider joining the rest of us at the docks.

Our cruise is timed to coincide with the SYSCO fun race and cruise to St. Helens.  Fleet 20 members who are also SYSCO members may elect to take advantage of the race start (this is not a serious race, no prizes are awarded nor is anyone recognized for passing Buoy "4", a red navigational aid south of Warrior Rock first).  Non-SYSCO member don't need to worry about registering for the cruise/race with SYSCO, SYSCO will simply treat non-members as renegades and let them start in the last start as outlined in the Supplemental Sailing Instructions.

Fleet 20 will share appetizers shortly after arriving at the docks.  Everyone is on their own for dinner.  Even if you can't bring your boat, still consider driving to the event.

Sunday morning is a depart-at-your-leisure kind of day.  The motor back to Portland will take about 4.5 hrs.  We've usually been able to sail back part of the distance, but it's not real dependable, so plan on motoring.

MainBrace Magazine
One of the advantages of C22NSA membership
By Dale Mack

I'd like to let you know about one of the great benefits of being a member of the Catalina 22 National Sailing Association.  The MainBrace is the official newsletter of the Catalina 22 National Sailing Association (www.catalina22.org) and has been in continuous publication since 1972.  MainBrace is mailed to Association members six times a year (January, March, May, July, September, and November).   The magazine contains articles about cruising, technical tips, family activities aboard C-22's, racing results, regatta notices, and news from the more than sixty Catalina 22 Fleets spread across the country who conduct many local activities.  I really look forward to the arrival my copy every two months and particularly enjoy the technical tips, cruising stories, and reading about the adventures of other Catalina 22 Fleets.  Information on how to join the Association is available at www.catalina22.org.

Fort Vancouver Fireworks were Spectacular
By Dale Mack

Our trek down to boat to watch the Fort Vancouver fireworks display was rewarded with a spectacular display.  There was just enough NW wind to move the smoke away as we viewed the show from the cockpit of our boat.

I sail three to four times a week during the season, so I get pretty accustom to the rhythm of the marina.  The Fourth of July is always different.  Boats that never seem to leave the dock, let alone get washed, have people aboard them hoisting a cold one and barbequing their favorite grilled food.

After the sun went down, but before the show, Laura and I walked the docks enjoying the balmy night.  We walked down to the north end of "A" slip which provides a view out into the river.  Wow!  What a parking lot.  Incredible was the only thought that came to mind as I viewed hundreds of anchored boats.  I understand from members of the Rose City Yacht Club, that the only thing better than watching the fireworks is watching the carnage as skippers who had a little too much fun return to pull their boats out at the county ramp just upstream of the yacht club.

All in all it was a wonderful day.

I and my crew of fellow C22 owners are having a blast racing this year.  Our performance is all over the map, but the joy and laughter have been wonderful.  The Catalina 22's are racing one-design which means that enough of us choose to race this year that we get to race against other Catalina 22's.  We are in the same start as the Ranger 20's, so it's always fun to see how many R20's we can beat to the finish line.

The SYSCO Summer Series ended in July and the CYC Summer Series started near the end of July.  I've never done the CYC series, but after last year's racing withdrawal I thought I'd give it a try.  So far the Catalina 22 fleet is enjoying the series but we are finding the courses a little wacky.  Normally race committees try to spread the various fleets out to avoid congestion at the mark roundings.  CYC race committees seem to like congestion.  A typical CYC downwind mark rounding looks like this to the Catalina 22 fleet:

• J/24's from the first start have rounded the downwind mark and are coming straight at you.
• Cal 20's from the second start have about half the fleet around the mark heading at you and about half the fleet in the process of rounding the mark.
• Catalina 22's and Ranger 20's from the third start are about 100 yards from the mark running a gauntlet of J/24's and Cal 20's.
• The Cruising Fleet from the fourth start, made up of twenty-eight foot and above sized boats, have caught up to the Catalina 22's and Ranger 20's and are slowing them down by blanketing much of the wind.  The leaders of the Cruising Fleet are starting to sail through the Catalina 22 and Ranger 20 fleets.

Despite the wackiness, the CYC series has been fun.  The series runs through the end of August.

I believe that the name Gold Drifter might be a better choice for the 2007 edition of the Gold Rush race to St. Helens.  We were teased by light winds at the start, but that was about all the wind we had.  It was enough for the lighter boats to use and they soon disappeared downriver leaving the boats that started in the second group to drift down with the current.

By 3:00 pm Gromit had drifted to within 1/2 mile of Warrior Rock. I had to be back home by 4:00 pm and knew from experience that with such a light breeze if I were to continue down to the mark, and try to work my way back against the current it would be 6:00 or later before (or if) I could make our way back to the marina.  I called it quits and motored the last back to my slip. 

Later, after taking care of the things I had to do, I went back down to the waterfront to see where the fleet was at. I believe it was around 6:30 pm and only the fastest boats had finished, other than some that had probably also called it quits.  I have to admit that this was some of the strangest weather I have seen in July for some time.

Failure to Launch
How I missed getting to the Gold Rush starting line
By Dale Mack, Crocus, #8244

The strangest racing experience this year didn't even happen out on the race course.  I and my partner in Crocus, Don Bateson, were scheduled to race in the Gold Rush to St. Helens.  A fellow Catalina 22 owner (Don Maywald, Gromit) from St. Helens brought his boat up to race back against us, so we were looking forward to a fun day.  I arrived at the boat early and discovered that our Honda 5 hp outboard was gone, stolen, pilfered.  I called Don and let him know not to bother coming down to the boat.  I later found out that a Honda 8 hp outboard was stolen from a boat two slips away at about the same time.  Today, $1,500 later, Crocus has a brand spanking new Tohatsu 8 hp outboard that is three pounds lighter than the Honda 7.5 hp outboard I had on my pervious Catalina 22 before Crocus.

Outboard Motor Thief Prevention
Securing the outboard to the motor mount
By Dale Mack, Crocus, #8244

Having your outboard motor stolen gets you thinking about lots of "...should have done..." ideas.  On my previous C22 I used two forms of security for the Honda 7.5 hp outboard.  The first secured the motor with a cable and padlock that also served as a safety lanyard should the outboard ever come loose from the outboard motor bracket.  The second was a bar that slide over the handles of the clamp screws.  Unfortunately on Crocus, only a cable and padlock was securing the motor.  I suspect the motor's thieves made pretty quick work of the padlock with a bolt cutters.

For Crocus' new outboard I decided to go with three locking devices (oddly enough all from Master Lock).  The first is a cable with a built-in lock.  Bolt cutters don't like cutting through stranded material so I figure I'll at least slow them down.

The second method is a bar slide over the clamp screws.  Now this is going to drive you nuts with the rattling sound while motoring so bring along some closed-cell foam to jam into the voids.

The third deterrent was an inspiration that came to me while looking at all the various locking devices for sale at Boater's World.  Master Lock makes a stainless steel trailer coupler latch lock that just happens to be long enough to make use of the outboard's through-bolt holes normally used to bolt the motor to the transom of a boat.  After drilling through the motor bracket's plastic block and the stainless steel plate, the pin portion of the lock easily slipped into the hole, and the locking assembly clicked into one of the preset notches on the pin.

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