You may recall that last Spring CRACA voted on and approved a charter change to elect our officers in the Fall like most clubs.  I'm happy to announce that our officers for 2006 are:

• Commodore: Bob Gales
• Secretary/Treasurer: Kathleen Lewis
• Cruise Officer: Jim Elieff
• Communications Officer: Dale Mack

Most absent in our election was a candidate for Vice Commodore.  Aside from getting to fly a nifty officer's flag below your CRACA burgee, the Vice Commodore is the Commodore's right-hand man or women when it comes to planning activities.  Most importantly the Vice Commodore traditionally succeeds the Commodore.  Beyond what our charter describes as the role, you pretty much make it as big a job or as small a job as you have time for.  Please approach or email Bob Gales or myself if you'd be willing to help out in this role.

Please join me in thanking Bill Simon (C270, Windswept) for volunteering to be our 2006 Portland Boat Show Chairman.  Bill is handling the details associated with securing CRACA a booth location.  I've volunteered to lead planning CRACA's booth design, setup, and teardown along with booth duty sign.

The Portland Boat Show is providing CRACA a pair of tickets for each time slot.  Bill hopes to have the CRACA booth located amongst the other sailing associations and preferably next to the Oregon Women's Sailing Association (OWSA) booth since many CRACA members will be staffing that booth also during the run of the show.

To sign-up for a time slot please contact Dale Mack at:

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

Note:  Dave Peoples has volunteered to wait and cover an unwanted time slot.

From the Secretary/Treasurer
By Kathleen Lewis, C42, Wind Raven

Invoices for dues will be mailed out by the end of the month for the 2006 year.  Michael has been in Texas with FEMA, so I may be a bit late with the invoices.

Kathleen Lewis, Secretary/Treasurer
sewingmaven@msn.com

Cruising Plans for 2006
By Jim Elieff, C30, Fortune

The time went by so fast on the Halloween cruise to Government Island, East Dock.  I forgot to write down all the boat names and couples. I think there was a total of fourteen boats for the two days and two nights, GREAT turn out!!!!!!

We've submitted our proposed CRACA Cruising Schedule to the Columbia River Yachting Association (CRYA).

2006 Cruising Schedule (proposed)

Sailing with Pumpkins
Enjoying the last 70 degree weekend of the season
By Dale Mack, C30, Celtic Myst

In planning this year's Halloween cruise , Laura and I decided to try a new destination.  Instead of going to Coon Island, we choose Bartlett Landing (Government Island, East Dock) as the venue for the weekend's festivities.

October is pretty iffy weather-wise.  It can be cold and wet, not exactly the conditions attractive to most crews.  This year the weather surprised us all and provided a weekend of 70 degree temperatures and sunny skies.

Activities for the weekend include:  101 Uses for Pumpkins, the Flotilla Follies where crews created a floating object from Halloween decorations that the river's current, and wind could move, and contests for best decorated boat, best carved Jack-O-Lantern, and best costume.

One of the craziest contests was stuff the snake in the bag.  Terry Annis brought his mesh bag and coiled water hose he’d purchased from West Marine.  The objective of the game was to get the hose back into the bag in the shortest amount of time.  The conscience after the game was that West Marine won’t be selling anymore coiled hoses to the cruise’s participants.

The afternoon’s potluck appetizers were followed by dinner.  At 8 pm everyone migrated ashore for the marshmallow roast, and Smores.  While we enjoyed the campfire, awards were presented for the winners of the day’s various contests.

Reflections

Bartlett Landing worked out great for the cruise.  The creativity with the pumpkins was extraordinary.  Laura and I had a great time and enjoyed meeting with everyone.

The Catalina's that joined us at Government Island included:

1. C22, Kartusch
2. C25, Wind Borne
3. C25, Lematike, Terry & Kathie Annis
4. C25, Leucothea, Nate & Margaret Hanson
5. C25, Encore!, Gary Bruner
6. C27, Sydera, Jerry Sampson & Karen Clouse
7. C27, River Rose, David & Sylvia Keller
8. C27, << missed the name >>
9. C30, Celtic Myst, Dale & Laura Mack
10. C30, Sunchaser, Dave & Julie Thomas
11. C30, Fortune, Jim Elieff
12. C310, << no name >>, Doug Alexander
13. C310, Cats Paw
14. C42, Jammin, Dave & Helen Peoples

Terry Annis - SYSCO Sailor of the Year
By Gary Bruner, C25, Encore!, C25 Fleet 94 Captain

Editor's Note:  Many CRACA members race their boats or crew for others during the course of a season.  Local racing is managed by volunteers and Gary's tribute to Terry spans more than just the Small Yacht Sailing Club of Oregon, since SYSCO sponsors so many races during the year.

Gary Bruner (L) presents Terry Annis the SYSCO Sailor of the Year award.

Terry served as SYSCO race captain this season, organizing and running the Spring Regatta, the Spring Series, the Summer Series, the One Design regatta and the Long Distance Race/Cruise to St. Helens this fall. He did a remarkable job!

In addition, he has been extremely important to our little Fleet 94 as a quiet, behind the scenes leader who leads by doing and helping, whether it be cooking burgers or shiskebobs, designing burgees or arranging awards for the Nationals. Terry also represented our fleet in Kansas at the 2005 Nationals, along with Steve Eldred and me, who came in 5th on a borrowed boat that was rather known as a “slug” on Lake Cheney.

Terry sacrificed sailing Lematike a lot this summer in order to race with a friend on a Catalina 22 of Fleet 20.

He is the kind of guy who, after I completely missed the finish mark on Sunday of the One-Design race, sailed over to my boat unasked, and gave me a copy of the “new” race courses.  I was able to sneak out a close win over him in the next race and win on a “tie-breaker” even though our scores were the same.  Terry is competitive as hell, but winning is not more important to him than helping out a fellow sailor. I appreciate him and know you do, too.

Catalina Newsletters of the Northwest

Checkout these links to Northwest Catalina newsletters and local racing:

Catalina 22 Fleet 20 of Portland www.C22pdx.org Sail Portland www.sailpdx.com Oregon Women's Sailing Association www.owsa.net

Catalina Assoc.  of Tacoma and South Sound (CATSS) home.earthlink.net/~catss/CATSS Web Page.htm Catalina Association of Puget Sound (CAPS) capsfleet1.com/News Letters.htm Small Yacht Sailing club of Oregon (SYSCO) www.sailpdx.com/sysco.htm

November

• 5, OCSA Beach Party at PYC (open to all sailors)

December

• 10, CRACA Holiday Party @ Rose  City Yacht Club

See the calendar