From the Poop Deck

Seaworthy Ideas and Stuff

Paul Kurkowski

Ahoy mates. Spring is darn near here.

By my count, it is officially here in about fifteen days. That means in like thirty days, we will be gathering at the boatyard. Once again, I cannot wait for those boatyard smells. Oh, the allure of bottom paints, waxes and teak oils. Barb and I have been working hard on those household projects that we all seem to have every year. By boat launch time, we should have completed of all our land chores and will be ready for life on the water again. Then too, March tends to be a month of drastic weather changes that would normally hold me back from the yard until April.

Digressing, you have to admit that it has been an unusual winter. No major deep freezes and, at least in S.E. Michigan, we have had only thirty inches of snowfall. Our norm is sixty inches of snow. To my knowledge none of the Great Lakes froze over so, they’ve been evaporating all winter long. I hope the snowfall was at least average in the Great White North so the water levels remain somewhat the same.

Last month, Barb and I, while in Florida, had the opportunity to attend the “Miami Strictly Sail Boat Show”. Now that’s a boat show and, it’s in the water. Coupled with lots of sunshine and near hot relative air temperatures it was a lot of fun to attend. Catalina Yachts had a dock to call their own. That was where the debut of their latest designs occurred. The 440 Electra is one of those dual wheel (helm station) jobs. Only this vessel’s auxiliary power plant is a “Whisperprop” diesel-electric propulsion system. Yep, just like them big cruise ships many of us have vacationed on. A diesel generator provides power to a bank of batteries and an electric motor for cruising under power. Ideal for the serious cruiser giving a significant increase in range per (the 100 gallon) tank of fuel and a decrease in power plant weight. Depending on the success of this new design, Catalina-Morgan may offer the Whisperprop for the other boats of their fleets.

In addition, what could follow the classic 30-foot design? Only the new 309, with two enclosed cabins. And now, as standard equipment, Catalina has mattresses in all their cabins.

I hope to see you all, at the Ball.

Casting off all lines. Color me gone.

Paul Kurkowski “Space Hunter”

C22 Fleet Report

Mike Bracket

Erv Zimmerman trailored his boat Adventuring to the Catalina 22 Midwinter Regatta in Sanford FL, 24-26 of February. I went down to crew for him. The regatta started at 11:30 on Friday with three spinnaker races. Only four boats were registered but the fleet was pretty large as the Silver and Gold fleets also had practice races.

First race we had 12 Kts of breeze, partly cloudy and fairly flat water.

Adventuring had a great start but an errant Gold fleet boat whose skipper hadn’t attended the skippers meeting and didn’t know the sequence for starting, barged onto our weather hip and blocked us from tacking immediately after the start. After a brief discussion, Erv convinced him to move and we tacked and stretched out for the windward mark. When we rounded the windward dogleg mark, the spinnaker set went OK and we were in a tight battle for third heading for the gybe point. That is when the wheels came off the train!! The agile foredeck crew got the pole gybed across but couldnt get it "made" on the mast. Shortly after, the pole end raised to near vertical when the down haul was released and the spinnaker wrapped around the head stay. Erv tried to release the new sheet but he had a stopper knot in the end of the sheet. He tried to release the halyard but it was jammed. I managed to get a hold of the bottom of the sail and began to collect the sail. The halyard ran OK when it was pulled straight down onto the deck but was wrapped around the head stay. I got the sail down and disconnected the halyard and the sheets. By this time we had sailed to the leeward gate so we had to clear the deck and raise the genoa. We got it up but still had fouled spinnaker sheets etc that kept us from being able to tack as quickly as we wanted. In spite of the Chinese fire drill, we managed to hold onto 3d place.

We went to pack the spinnaker and discovered it was ripped along one side, low, probably from the head stay. The next races were sailed with Genoa and whisker pole.

In the second race, we had a good clean start and were holding our own downwind on the second lap when the skipper sailed across the start/finish line before we completed the course. Sailing Instructions called for a closed Start/Finish line. DSQ for second race.

The third race was a good solid 3d place with no significant problems. The crew slept well on Friday night.

Saturday we sailed 3 races with 23 boats on the line for the Gold Fleet starts. Plenty of exciting maneuvers at the starts but overall no serious NASCAR stuff. Adventuring was over early on the second race. We circled back and re-started but the other two boats didnt. All three races were sailed with no repeats of the drills from Friday. Erv’s new sails helped a lot but not enough to get us too far up into the standings. There are some serious crews at the Midwinter's.

Sunday racing was cancelled due to rain and high winds. Trophies were awarded and everyone helped each other haul out and head for home. I think we qualified for the crew that