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Membership Report

Bill Lundy

Hello out there, you are out there, aren’t you? So far we have 20 ‘04 members. I hope you haven’t all moved to Fargo. It’s time to send in your membership application and dues. In this issue you get a preview of events planned for Spring and Summer, won’t you please join us? Hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Your friendly Membership Chairman

Bill Lundy - “Deanna J”

From the Poop Deck

Seaworthy Ideas and Stuff

Paul Kurkowski

Ahoy mates, happy almost spring. It has been a long cold and snowy winter. I cannot wait to get back in the boat yard. Now I know that I’m not the most energetic person you may know. However, prepping the boat for another season of sailing seems to make my spirit soar. Ah, the smell of cleaners, wax, polishes and paints to me, like the line in the movie, is the smell of victory. The gray skies and the short daylight days will be behind us. The warm breezes of long sunny days will be just over the horizon. I will feel whole once again.

Have you seen the lastest edition of Mainsheet? There is an article written for the 34s regarding forestay (and backstay) tension. I think it’s pretty good. I read it three times. After you get through all the trigonometry and drawings, the author finally says he set his backstay for 600 lbs. and had a great sailing season. How he figured out where the 600 lb. mark is on a Loos gauge is anybody’s guess. Now, if you have a 30 all ya gotta do is: compute the T3 which equals T1 + T2 x (F1sin + F2sin) & C. See it’s simple. On my Loos gauge that means the pointer should be @ Arnold Schwarzenegger for a perfectly square rig.

A second article was written about the ICA30 Nationals we sponsored last season. It’s a very nice article by an unknown author, perhaps the ghost of Nationals Past.

Finally, as reported in Sail magazine, comes the story form Portsmouth England of the worlds largest sloop.

At 247 feet LOA with a mast height of 290 feet this colossal mega yacht can be chartered for twelve persons for a mere $250,000 per week. Why was this ship built? “Because they could.”

Hope to see you All at the Ball.

Casting off all lines. Color me gone.

Paul Kurkowski “Space Hunter”

The Social Review

Pat Morrel & Sandy Bousum

By now everyone has received the invitation to the Ball. Please be sure to send in your response as soon as possible if you haven't already.

I would like to remind everyone that signed up to obtain door prizes to please do so and bring them to the Ball if you are attending. If you will not be able to attend, please contact me to make arrangement. As always, it takes everyone to pitch in to make the Ball a success.

Thanks in advance for pitching.

Pat Morell “Bittersweet 2”

Sandy Bousum “Stinkin’ Gringo”

CRCA, the Sailing Resource

At the January Board meeting one topic of discussion was how the club could attract and retain new members. It was agreed that current club member’s many years of sailing and Catalina experience was a major asset. Most of us wouldn’t hesitate to call a fellow member and ask questions, but what if you’re new to the group? Who would you call? Would you call at all? It was suggested that a resource person be designated to help new members find an appropriate mentor. Ken Bousum volunteered to be the club resource coordinator.

Ken will be available to help members connect to others who can assist with a particular question. Say, for example, new members George and Sally are also new to their 198X boat. Ken will find a club member with a similar boat to work with them. Help could include; checking rigging, going for a sail or just giving pointers on Lake St. Claire and Clinton River boating.

So, if Ken calls on you, take it as a compliment and try to help. Participation is certainly not mandatory but those at the January meeting agreed it could be a pretty enjoyable experience.

More about the Star Clipper

Ted Wing

The Bear Paws crew joined the Flying Duchess crew on the Star Clipper cruise. We agree with Jack (see Commodore’s Corner) that it was a great trip. I thought I would relate some things I particularly liked about life aboard this ship.

The top thing on my list was informality. There were no formal diners (you were asked to wear long pants but I don’t think they would have evicted you if you didn’t.) Compared to to packing and wearing a tuxedo or dinner jacket, this was great.

Next on the list was accessibility of ship and crew. You could wander the deck just about anywhere and talk with officers and crew whenever they were around. I helped raise one of the sails by hand. It took about 15 of us 3 or 4 minutes to do it (the crew had electric winches to use when there weren’t any crazy passengers available.) The captain held a couple of 2 hour lectures on sailing and sail history that were really interesting.

Another plus was incidental pricing. In the first place there wasn’t much, and second, what there was was quite reasonable. Drinks were about the same price as you would find here in an ordinary bar. Even laundry was quick and inexpensive, really unusual for a cruise ship.

I also appreciated that when you went ashore in one of the delightful little towns on these windward islands, you were not part of an influx of several hundred tourists as you might be if on one of the giant ships.

This was a Jazz music themed cruise and the band that played each night was quite good. The band also held seminars if you wanted to sing jazz style or play drums. All in all, it was a most relaxing and enjoyable way to spend a week in January.

Ted Wing - “Bear Paws”