Rear Commodore's Log
By Dale Mack, C30, Celtic Myst
Summer tends to be a quiet time within CRACA as many members are off cruising or enjoying some shore-side family adventure. As mentioned in the June newsletter, this year's rendezvous will be a casual affair with the emphasis on sailing, and camaraderie. Sand Island, makes a great venue for the event. One advantage for Portland moored boats is that it usually means a great sail to St. Helens.
Besides the weather being weird this season, I've managed to log more hours sailing my Catalina 22 this year than my Catalina 30. What's up with that? Weird was sailing in the Catalina 30 Nationals June 25-26 in Seattle with only six other C30's, and then counting nearly forty Catalina 30's berthed at Shilshole Bay Marina, the venue for the regatta. Weird was surviving the near sinking of my Catalina 22, and then going onto win the race (click here to read the story).
I'm off to sail in my first Six Pac which starts on the 23rd of July. I'll be sailing with a former colleague from work, who I first met when both of our families were living in Boise, Idaho. Laura, Sean, and I encountered the Six Pac in 2003 when our separate itineraries had us in Cathlamet at the same time. It looked like a fun event then, especially with the Cruising Class, and I'm looking forward to a wonderful week of sailing this year.
New Burgee on the River
By Dale MackCatalina 25/250 Fleet 94 has created a burgee for its members. Fleet Captain Gary Bruner mentioned that the burgee drew lots of interest at the Catalina 25 National Regatta held July 8-10, in Wichita, Kansas. Requests for burgees easily outstripped that number brought to the regatta.
It's my understanding that the blue represents the Columbia River, and the green represents the Washington and Oregon shores. The two pairs of blacks arcs represent the Interstate Bridge (I-5) and the Glenn Jackson Bridge (I-205).
Secretary/Treasurer
By Kathleen Lewis, C42, Wind Raven
At present we have 40 Catalina owners that have renewed, rejoined or are brand new to CRACA.
Anyone with questions about membership, “Mainsheet” subscriptions, burgees, BurgeeWear, etc. should contact me.
Kathleen Lewis, Secretary/Treasurer
sewingmaven@msn.com
Cruising
2005 Cruising Schedule
| Date | Destination |
| July 16 - 17 | Government Island, East Dock |
| Aug. 18 - 21 | Beacon Rock (Thursday – Sunday) |
| Sept. 17 - 18 | Sand Island, Upper Dock (Catalina Rendezvous) |
| Oct. 22 - 23 | Government Island, East Dock |
Beacon Rock Cruise
By Dale MackAugust 18 - 21. Nestled amongst the slopes of the Columbia Gorge is Beacon Rock State Park just downstream of the Bonneville Dam (the last dam on the Columbia River). Part of the Washington State Park System, Beacon Rock features, wide docks, picnic and camping sits, BBQs, sandy beaches, a launch ramp (popular with the local fishermen), excellent restrooms with hot showers, and potable water. New in 2005 is the addition of power on the dock floats, and a marine head pump out station. One of the added benefits of Beacon Rock is that you can have family and friends meet you there by car.
Reachable aboard a Catalina 22 in six and half hours motoring upstream from the I-5 bridge, the trip to Beacon Rock can sound intimidating if you haven't cruised that long non-stop before. Although I've gotten accustomed to motoring straight through, many I know split the upriver trip up into two parts, spending the first night either at Government Island - East Dock (2 hrs), Parker's Landing (Washougal, 3 hrs), or anchoring at Reed Island (3.5 hrs). One of the treats about staying at Parker's Landing is going to the floating Puffin Cafe for dinner. Washougal has fuel, launch ramp, and guest berthing available. The return trip from Beacon Rock takes about 4 hours.
This is an easy three-day weekend cruise, although some I know have done it in a Saturday/Sunday. I recommend planning to get to Beacon Rock in the early afternoon, because the late afternoon wind blowing East can sometimes generate a considerable swell.
Notes on Beacon Rock:
Moorage at the dock $.50/foot per night.
Bring quarters for the showers (3 minutes for 50 cents).
Great place for dinghies, kayaks, or small sailboats.
Running water is available at the top of the ramp.
Ice is available about a mile's walk from the moorage.
There is a one-knot current that runs south passed the docks.
Campsites, boat ramp, and picnic area available.
The walk to Beacon Rock is very doable if you want to hike to the top.
Time
| Location | Speed (knots) |
Distance
(nm) |
| 8:00 | Tomahawk Bay Moorage Entrance | 0 | |
| 8:16 | Buoy "14" | 4.8 | 1.4 |
| 8:47 | Buoy "18" | 4.5 | 3.7 |
| 9:00 | I-205 Bridge | 4.5 | 4.7 |
| 9:26 | Government Is. West Dock | 4.7 | 6.7 |
| 9:36 | Government Is. East Dock | 4.6 | 7.5 |
| 10:03 | Chinook Landing | 4.6 | 9.5 |
| 10:21 | Overhead Power Lines | 4.3 | 10.9 |
| 10:42 | Parker Landing (Washougal) | 3.5 | 12.3 |
| 11:21 | Reed Island | 4.4 | 14.6 |
| 11:57 | Buoy "65" near Rooster Rock | 4.5 | 17.5 |
| 12:31 | "67" at Cape Horn | 4.5 | 20.2 |
| 12:50 | Phoca Rock | 4.7 | 21.6 |
| 1:17 | Buoy "76" near Skamania Island | 4.5 | 23.8 |
| 1:25 | Multnomah Falls | 5.0 | 24.4 |
| 2:30 | Beacon Rock Entrance | 29.1 |
Note: Data collected via GPS on a past trip aboard a Catalina 22.
Catalina 25 Cruising Up North
By Gary Bruner, C25, Encore!(C25/C250 Fleet 94 Captain)
Terry & Kathie Annis (C25 Lematike) and Nate & Margaret Hanson (C25 Leucothea) have pulled their boats and will be spending the last two weeks in July up north.
Have a good one!
Racing
Two Days Before the Mast
Crewing at the Catalina 30 Nationals
By Dale Mack, C30, Celtic MystI spent the weekend of June 25-26 crewing aboard Bob Gales' and Gail O'Neill's Catalina 30 Imagine as we competed in the 2005 C30 National Regatta in Seattle. I had originally intended to trailer my Catalina 22 Crocus up to Shilshole Bay Marina and compete in the annual Northwest Catalina Regatta, hosted by the Catalina Association of Puget Sound (CAPS). When the regatta got changed to a two-day event to run in parallel with the C30 Nationals, I decided that crewing would be more fun than two days of C22 racing followed by pulling the boat and then trailering home three hours.
The racing started at 11 am on Saturday with three races scheduled to be run, followed by two on Sunday. In the very light wind, the Race Committee was too timid to start the race so we sailed around for four hours waiting. And yes I do mean sailed. Despite the light wind we managed to sail the entire course even with the tidal current. Considering that Columbia River Race Committees start races in just the slightest hint of wind, even with our constant 2.5 knot river current, it was fascinating to see how cautious the committee provided by the Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle was. One possible influence behind the cautiousness is that unlike the Columbia River where anchoring during a race is not uncommon when the wind dies, the race venue for the regatta was in 500+ feet of water, unlike the Columbia's 20-40 feet. Another interesting practice of the CYC Race Committee was ignoring the use of the "Come Within Hail" flag once the course was posted. You had to keep sailing around and around the RC boat just to make sure you didn't miss the course.
The lack of racing on Saturday was followed by a catered dinner, silent auction, and a raffle at CYC's two story floating club house. The social event was quite enjoyable. It was nice talking about local sailing, and cruising the San Juan Island and the Canadian Gulf Islands with folks that call these cruising grounds home.
Sunday was overcast but nice. The winds were steady at 12-14 with gusts to 16-18. Racing was scheduled to begin at 10 am, with three races planned to make up for Saturday's lack of racing.
Sailing Sunday was an absolute blast and reinforced for me my desire to bring Crocus to the Catalina NW Regatta in 2006. While it remained overcast, it never got cold and it didn't rain. The courses placed the RC boat between the windward and leeward marks, with competitors having to make one or two laps.
Gail O'Neill managed the helm for the regatta while her spouse, our Commodore Bob Gales, tended to sail trim along with Terry Annis (C25, Lematike) and Gail's sailing friend Carrie. I was the deck ape on the bow helping the Genoa through tacks, setting and dropping the whisker pole, along with coaching sail trim and tactics.
While our performance may have been hampered by the two months of cruising supplies and gear Bob and Gail had aboard, we didn't care, the sailing was great. I liked Bob's idea that everyone should have a BBQ mounted to the rail while racing and perhaps get extra credit if you were actually cooking on it during the race;-)) Kind of gives you an idea where the crew of Imagine was on the serious to not so serious racer scale.
It was a fun weekend racing outside of Shilshole Bay Marina, in wonderful company. Thank you, Gail and Bob, for a great time. You were gracious hosts.
The Catalina 25 Nationals
Local Crew Takes Fifth on a Borrowed Boat
By Gary Bruner, C25, Encore! (C25/C250 Fleet 94 Captain)Lake Cheney is a pretty big lake with good winds without much fetch, so the waves were not like the way they can be here when the wind is blowing 20 knots. We entered a Beer Can race on Wednesday night and got creamed by Kansas Twister, a local guy with TONS of racing experience (3rd in a SJ 21 Nationals just 2 weeks earlier) and he had a suit of brand new sails, including a Kevlar 155. We beat two other C25s flying our 135, so we thought maybe we could compete when we pulled out my "new" used Mylar "WHOMPER". It was not to be. Come race time on Saturday, the wind was up and we just could not stay with the fastest boats, most of whom were flying pretty new Kevlar's/Mylar's, etc. The fastest boats all had 4-5 crew aboard which I think really helped them in the big air. The fastest boats also were all fin keels, which have about 300# more in the keels, we think. We just could not quite find the boat speed we needed, nor the correct sail shape. We have lots of "excuses", including the fact that the fastest boats had quite small outboards, 4 hp or so and we had a 9.9 hp on the transom. Some of these guys were definitely prepared and had GREAT crews, including a sailing instructor at the Naval Academy! Anyway, given one gear failure before one start, one over early (all my fault), we did have a couple of good starts, but could not compete with the fastest boats. Live and learn. It was thrilling to see what a well equipped, well-sailed C25 could actually DO!
As it turns out, Derek Crawford on "This Side UP" was the National champ of the Tall Rigs. He had towed his dry sailed racer up from Texas and had a couple of brand new sails, including a Kevlar 155. Kansas Twister, a SR, fin keeled, local boat, was sailed very well and had a very experienced crew and a new suit of hi-tech rags as well. He got five bullets and was the overall champion. Turtle Herd was a fin from Oklahoma with a crew of five and a newer suit of Kevlar, both main and 155. They were consistently a close second to Kansas Twister. Bill Meinert from Indiana was third and the only swing-keel boat to beat us. He, too, has a high tech 155 and sailed well. As it turned out, there were 10 boats registered, but one did not show, I heard, so there were 9 boats racing, three of which were Tall Rigs. We could do no better than 5th. But, it was a learning experience and I think we'll eventually be glad we went, although we were all disappointed a bit that we were not more competitive.
Beer Can Racing on Friday Evenings
The simplest way to ease into racing
By Dale MackEvery summer the local sailing clubs rotate sponsoring Friday evening Beer Can Races on the Columbia River. This year's races started on June 10th and will run through August 26th.
Designed to be just-for-fun, the races are more about getting out on the water on Friday evenings with friends and family, than they are about racing. The race committee will drop a couple of race markers, post the course on the committee boat, and then send everyone on their way by 6:30 pm.
Each Friday has a different theme, where participants are encouraged to dress up. Themes ranged from sports night, hat night, western night, flag night, toga night, tropical night, formal night, pajama night, reggae night, pirate night, to fiesta night. There is a social held after each race at Pizza Mia, where various crews are recognized for the creativity of their entry.
These races are free, but you still must submit an OCSA form to the Race Committee boat before you start. Introduce your family and friends to sailing. Practice flying your spinnaker.
Although geared toward those racing in the Spring and Summer Series, I've placed on the Catalina 22 Fleet 20 website a slide set I prepared for use at the SYSCO Race Clinic for beginning racers. The slides cover some of the basics of local Columbia River racing from entering, and starts, to how to finish the race. Download the slide set from the SYSCO website:
Local Sailing Associations
- SailPDX (hosted by Oregon Corinthian Sailing Association, OCSA)
- Small Yacht Sailing Club of Oregon (SYSCO)
- Oregon Women’s Sailing Association (OWSA)
- Portland Yacht Club (PYC)
- Rose City Yacht Club (RCYC)
The Columbia River All Catalina Association newsletter is published online once a month. Articles are the opinions of the authors and don’t necessarily represent the consensus of the Association.
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