From the Poop Deck
Seaworthy Ideas and Stuff
Paul Kurkowski
Ahoy Mates, a very happy Spring to you all! It has been great seeing so many of you around the Yard. It is nice reacquainting among the sights and smells of a fresh boating season. It is tiring work, but you just don’t really get tired of the washing, waxing and painting. After all, it is our great privilege, as sailors; the Rights of Spring.
So, starting right about now, the May Showers that bring June Flowers also, I hope, continue the rise of the lake water levels.
Let us all hope that the Sailing gods show us their favor, allow it to rain mainly during the weekdays and nights, and keep the weekends clear and pleasant. That will make all those cruises we go on, all that much more fun to attend.
Now we get into the mode of checking batteries, fluid levels, belt tightness and standing rigging tensions. All this is done, while tracking our favorite sports team progress in their Playoffs. [GO WINGS]
Speaking of Playoffs and in case you have forgotten: the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Races are underway for the 32nd Americas Cup. The Semi-finals are a couple weeks away yet but, so far the top challengers (most points awarded) are; (USA) BWM Oracle, (ITA) Luna Rossa, (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand and, (ESP) Desafio Espanol. For instant results and race watching check it all out @ www.americascup.com/en/ you will have hours of browsing. You gals may interested in the fact that within the crews of the Challenger Series boats there are three female crew. Additionally, two women in the Tech & Design section are responsible for keeping the carbon fiber AC boats afloat and intact. They are listed as Boat Builders.
Casting off all lines. Color me gone.
Paul Kurkowski “Space Hunter”
From Member at Large, Steve Smith
If you plan on leaving your inflatable in the water for the summer, you should consider applying some inflatable bottom paint from Petit. I painted mine last year and fall cleanup of the bottom was extremely easy compared to years in the past that I did not paint.
In the interest of putting more Knots under the keel, and having more boats on the water on Thursday. I am going to be participating in the Thursday night racing program, I am going to be racing/sailing our 34. The biggest problem I have in racing is getting crew to show up. (Hope it is not me).
I am also planning to participate in the Wednesday night "Fun Sail Series" sponsored by North Star Sail Club. This is a great excuse to go out for a sail without the pressure/excitement of the start. I sailed in that program last year and had a great time. They had 16 races and if you showed up for half, the skipper received a shirt embroidered with the boats name. No racing flags were awarded for the Wednesday series. Check out the North Star Web site for more info.
I am going to be leaving the dodger and bimini up, to avoid damage, for both of these races. My main crew bought a bigger boat in Seattle and will be moving to cruise the west coast. If you would like to go out for a race/sail on either of these nights, please call or email. My main goal is to have some fun and put some knots under the keel. Beginners welcome, I may even volunteer my boat to an all female crew for one or more races. The goal is to sail. I will let you do any task: steer, trim, be ballast, or be the beer boy (girl). Tequila is on me. I put nearly 800 knots on the boat last year, I am going to try to go over that this year.
Speaking of email. You can have your own boat email account. Contact Erv Zimmerman and he can set you up and help you make it work very easily in outlook or outlook express, or other mail readers. This would be good to use if you have a business card with boat information on it to give to people you meet when cruising or other boating/sailing related activities. My new one is twiceblessed@crcasail.org
Now for the business end. Member at Large has a function of finding officers for the club. According to the constitution, the committee is to have two additional members that are not on the board. If you have any suggestions for officers, or feel that you would like to make a contribution to the club, please don't be shy. This is our club and we make it what we put in to it.
Steve Smith “Twice Blessed”
