Happy New Year!
Commodore
By Jim Turner, C380, soon to be "Makana Kai"
Happy New Year!
We really enjoyed hosting the holiday brunch for the club
and had a wonderful time with everyone who made it! For those of you
who couldn't make it, you were missed and missed a good time! It was
really considerate of Mother Nature to hold the snow storm till after the
party ended and everyone was safely home.
The new year arrived with a grand and memorable entrance,
dubbed the "Arctic Blast". Having grown up in the mid-west, I couldn't
help but laugh at the networks' overly dramatized 24 hour coverage of the
weather. However I found a new appreciation for the challenges that
extreme weather poses for us as boat owners. The duration of the cold
snap and heavy snow has me re-evaluating my choosing not to winterize our
boat. Since our area generally has mild winter temperatures, I've felt
pretty secure using supplemental electric heat as a safe-guard at a
relatively low cost. However should the temperatures really drop for
an extended period of time, coupled with a loss of marina power, this could
be costly.
Getting safely to our boats to check up on them can also be
quite challenging and down-right dangerous when ramps and docks are covered
with ice. During the Arctic Blast, I found myself clinging to the hand
rail of our ramp after slipping on the ice and nearly shooting straight
down the steep steel ramp! Yup, I reconsidered and decided to check up
on the boat some other day; what the heck... it's insured! An upside to
all this snow and rain is that we may actually have enough water to float
our boats this season. With a seven foot keel that would be a good
thing!
 
The 2009 Portland Boat Show is now in full swing. We really appreciate
all the members who are helping out in the membership booth. Rhonda and I
checked out the new Hunters and Beneteaus on display by "The Sailing Life".
While the boats are nice, we still prefer Catalinas! Sadly,
River City Sailing had no boats on display at the boat show this year, but I
understand they do have a couple in the water they would be happy to show
you!
Several members expressed interest at the holiday party in
Rhonda's suggestion of a "Land Cruise" or Caravan to the Seattle Boat Show.
Rhonda and I have made reservations for the weekend of January 23rd - 25th
at Silver Cloud Inn, located on the south end of Lake Union (206.447.9500).
The Inn is directly across the street from the Boats-A-Float show, and
provides free shuttle service and a continental breakfast. If anyone
is interested in joining us, please let me know,
jimturner@comcast.net. If
you make reservations early at the Silver Cloud Inn, where we're staying,
you should be able to get their Boat Show special discounted rate. The
Silver Cloud Inn is not pet friendly, but there is a hotel next door that is
- Residence Inn Lake Union, 206.624.6000.
If anyone wants to discuss the Seattle Boat Show Land Cruise, give me a call.
We can coordinate meeting up with those wishing to travel at different
times, at the membership meeting at Elmer's on January 21st, or earlier.
- Jim
Vice Commodore
By Jess Schefstrom, C42, Kira Lynn
Having shot off my mouth to
Jim Turner a year ago about “if you become Commodore I will serve as
your Vice”, I now find myself as CRACA’s new Vice Commodore. Mary and I
have gone through the leadership positions at our previous yacht club, so
we sort of “know the drill”. We are keenly interested in helping current
and prospective CRACA members enjoy their boating experiences as much as
we can. Coming from a yacht club where the art and craft of sailing was
uppermost, we find the Columbia River and its environs to be at times
frustrating (“why is the wind always in our face?”) and many times
challenging (“the current got us that time. . .”). Heck, at our previous
club we never even used our engine to leave or return to dock.
Jim and I are planning CRACA
meetings for the next several months at Elmer’s Restaurant at Delta Park. We
have a couple of ideas for meetings but need your help in coming up with
what might interest you. If you have any meeting ideas, make sure you mention
them to Jim or me. We promise we will be very receptive. One idea we have is
to find a way to share digital photos we take during the boating season. It
seems we take almost as many photos of other people and boats than our own.
In that vein, how about everyone who is interested and “computer capable”
bring a USB “jump drive” aka “flash drive” to the next meeting on which they
have photos they would like to share. We will provide the Windows laptop to
then “drag and drop” files from your jump drive to our laptop and vice
versa. Remember, it will have to be a “Windows” based flash drive moving,
hopefully, jpg digital photos. Additionally, the drive will need to be big
enough to “add” any new photos you want of mine or others people‘s pics.
Although, the Rendezvous is a
long way off, it is not too early to start thinking about what members would
like for this annual soiree. So….if you have any great thoughts about the
Rendezvous, let us know.
Mary and I are committed to
making CRACA a “user-friendly” club. At any time feel free to voice your
ideas and concerns about how the club is doing. Know, of course, that any
group is only as strong as the participation of its members. Together, we
can make our experiences on the mighty Columbia always gratifying and
memorable.
With the crappy weather lately,
it seems all I can dream of is cruising in warm locales with lots of Pacifico’s and sand.
- Jess
Secretary/Treasurer
By John Kerrigan, C30, Magewind
<No Submission>
Cruising Chairman
By Doug McClary, C309, Capriccio
Well, I must have been absent the day they
picked CRACA officers. I guess I’m your new Cruising Chairman! Jim Elieff
deserves some time off after serving for the last five years. I’m sure we
all appreciate the work he’s done, and I’ll do my best to measure up. Jim
will be helping me out this season, so I don’t fall flat on my face!
I hope everyone survived the cold weather. We
checked on Capriccio after the snow and ice melted and found her to have
come through with flying colors.
Jim and I worked out our 2009 Cruise schedule
and submitted it to CRYA for approval. You’ll notice the May Cruise to
“Sandy Beach”. This is the brand new dock being built to replace Government
Island West Dock, and it’s due to be finished this spring. Once it’s
completed, West Dock will be dismantled. If for some reason there is a delay
and Sandy Beach Dock isn’t done by May 16th, we will be using
West Dock instead. Hopefully that won’t happen!
We’re tentatively planning a
Down River Cruise this season. There will be two options: a two week cruise
to Astoria, and a one week cruise to Cathlamet. In both cases the cruisers
will meet in Cathlamet and end up at Salpare Bay for the Catalina Rendezvous!
Please let me know if you’re interested.
I’m looking forward to a stupendous Cruising
season for 2009! If you have any requests or suggestions, please call or
Email. My phone number is 503-997-4915 and my email is
doug.mcclary@comcast.net.
- Doug
Rear Commodore
By Alden Andre', C38, Fly Bye
I hope you have all had a very nice Christmas
and New Year. I spent the time playing in the snow and brushing ice and snow
off my boat. I can say I have sailed 2 times already in 2009; the 1st time
being on Jan 1st, and I even went sailing when it was snowing in Dec just to
say I have sailed in the snow!
I hope everyone's boats survived the weather
with no problems. There are races being conducted on Sundays - low keyed, just
running around the buoys. If any one would like to join in the fun, we start
at 1PM between RCYC and the red nun(14), channel 68. There will be a call for
5 minute warning and 1 minute warning. No spinnakers or whisker poles
allowed. I haven't just been sailing though, went snow boarding also.
The snow
is great lots of powder on Mt Hood. Attached are some pics of my boat after
the first storm with the snow. Have a great month, and hope to see you on the
water.
- Alden Andre
Communications
Officer
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Catalina Newsletters of
the Northwest
Checkout these links to Northwest Catalina newsletters and local racing:
Upcoming Events
January
February
March
See the calendar
The Columbia River All Catalina Association
newsletter is published once a month online at
ColumbiaRiverCatalina.org. Articles are the opinions of the authors
and don't necessarily represent the consensus of the Association.
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