Thursday, February 1, 2007

200702




From the Commodore

By Eric Rouzee, C36, Legacy

I read with sadness yesterday where experienced singlehander Jim Gray of San Francisco was reported missing while making a presumably simple sail to the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco Bay. Gray, who is also world-renowned as a prize-winning computer scientist for Microsoft, has a reputation for being overly safe on the water, always wearing a harness when singlehanding and taking all necessary precautions, including an offshore liferaft and EPIRB. The Coast Guard launched a massive search to try to find Gray, but as of this writing (February 2nd), no trace of him or his C&C 40 “Tenacious” had been found.

I bring this story up as a reminder to every one of us who goes out on the water in any kind of boat. It’s an unforgiving environment out there, whether you’re making an offshore passage or simply taking a day sail on the Columbia River. Too often during the busy summer boating season, I hear Coast Guard Portland announce over channel 16 that someone is missing off a pleasure boat on a seemingly gentle day. So make sure you take any and all precautions when you’re out on the water, and remember the old adage: “One hand for the boat and one for yourself.”

On to other topics. We’ll be announcing several club membership meetings in the very near future with some outstanding speakers. Our vice commodore, Alden Andre, is working on a series of speakers that we think you’ll find both interesting and useful. Our cruise officer Jim Elieff will have some updates for you on the season’s cruising schedule, and Jim, Alden and I are putting preliminary plans in place for the September Rendezvous. Our historian, Alex Andre is working hard to gather together photos and information from past cruises and events, so you can look forward to seeing the fruits of his labor in the near future. And finally, Safety Officer Michael Lewis will have some information regarding upcoming safety inspections that I highly recommend taking part in.

My days are split between work-related travel and getting Legacy ready for both the Oregon Offshore and the 2007 Swiftsure Race. If you’re interested in taking your boat north for the summer and want to do it in the company of 20+ other boats, contact me and ask about the Oregon Offshore. And if you’re planning on spending the upcoming sailing season in the Columbia River, remember to have fun and stay safe!






What
  • Boat Show Survivors Party
  • CRACA will be hosting a pizza party and providing non-alcoholic beverages along with plates, cups, napkins, utensils, etc. for all you Boat Show Survivors.  Bring your own beer, wine, and an appetizer to share.
  • Don't forget your photo albums.
Where
Holiday Inn Express - Janzten Beach
2300 N Hayden Island Drive
Portland, OR  97217
503-283-8000

On the road that leads to Schooner Creek Boat Works.
When
  • Saturday, February 17th
  • We have the room booked from 4 pm to 9 pm
  • 4:00 pm, Doors open, appetizers
  • 5:30 pm, Pizza starts arriving
RSVP
Alden Andre'
503-929-8814
alden642@comcast.net


Vice Commodore

By Alden Andre', C38, Fly Bye

Hello CRACA members.

January was a slow start for me in the boating world. Alex and I attended the boat show two times manning the CRACA booth. We noticed more attendance at the booth and more interest in the club this year than last year. I met a couple who also purchased a Catalina 38 last year about the same time I did. That makes a total of four Catalina 38 S&S design boats on the great Columbia River. Now my goal is to get them all signed up. As I sat at the booth and couldn’t keep my eyes off of the Hunters and Beneteaus, the urge came over me and I was sucked in to go look at them. After crawling over all of them I decided that Catalina’s are the only way to go. I met a lot of Catalina owners that were not part of the club that expressed interest in getting involved.

It seems like this year is already making my head spin with work and not enough time to do all my boat honey due list items. Every time I go to my boat to do a project I get seduced by the river and wind calling me to go sailing. I succumb to my personal gratification and go sailing then I feel bad and ashamed when I am pulling into my slip knowing I didn’t lift a finger on one project that I had intended on doing that day. What am I to do? I just can’t help it. I know there are things to be accomplished on my boat but freedom and bliss awaits me on the water. It is a dilemma I need to over come.

I hope every body stays safe and I look forward to seeing you on the water.

Alden Andre'
503-929-8814
alden642@comcast.net




General Membership Meeting
Date & Time:  February 28th, Wednesday, 6:30 pm

Location:  Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay

100 Columbia Street
Vancouver, WA 98660

Tel: 360-694-8341

Program:  AIS Basics by Larry Brandt

An Automatic Identification System (AIS) used for identifying and monitoring maritime traffic.



Historian

By Alex Andre', C38, Fly Bye

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Hopefully some of you got pictures of the snow while down at your boats. I haven’t had any pictures sent to me yet, so maybe this would be a good opportunity to start a collection; Snow week Jan. ’07. Send them in whether they’re of the boat or not. Any other pictures you have are great too.

Alex Andre'
(503) 819 9998
alex@teamimpact.org



Safety Focal

By Michael Lewis, C42, Wind Raven

Interesting Safety Note!

ABYC Requirements for Diesel Fuel Filters

Recently we learned a disturbing lesson from a very experienced local marine surveyor. It seems that an obscure reference in the ABYC Standards mandates that all fuel filters used on diesel engines withstand a heat requirement if they are mounted in the engine compartment. We started to become more concerned when one of our technical writers, who lives aboard his Catalina 30 sailboat, got a package from his insurance company. It contained a survey for him to fill out, asking among other things, about Dahl and Racor filters with plastic bowls. The insurance company included a disposable camera, and requested photos of the filter. After researching this situation with the folks at the ABYC and at Racor we discovered the following:
ABYC standards for inboard fuel filter installations for gasoline or diesel engines require that filters installed within the engine space must be able to pass a two and one-half minute heat test as defined by ANSI/UL 1105. Unfortunately, Gasoline and diesel filters that meet this requirement are generally equipped with a metal bowl. Filters with plastic sight bowls must be equipped with a metal heat shield to pass the test. Boaters with diesel engines who prefer a filter with a see-thru bowl should select one of the Turbine Series by Racor, which includes the heat shield. Racor spin-on filters (with metal bowls) are also available.
This information is a courtesy of West Marine and was brought to my attention on the Catalina 42 web site.

We are always looking for ways to spend more boat units($$$$).

According to Alison Mazon, a local Marine Surveyor:
“The lack of a flame shield is the least of worries on many boats. I fight 30 year old hoses, vinyl tubing used for fuel hose, junk hose used for fuel hose, fuel withdrawal fittings without valves, gasoline tanks with fuel withdrawal fittings at the bottom, cracking and leaking hoses, chafing hoses, lack of flex hose between copper tubing and engines, traps in fuel fill and vent hoses, lack of bonding, lack of double clamping on fill hoses, over-tightened clamps extruding rubber through the slots in the clamps, fuel tanks that aren't secured, fuel tanks that are corroded, fuel tanks with standing water on them, old stale fuel, etc., etc., etc.!”
Alison Mazon, A.M.S.®, A. Mazon & Associates, Marine Surveyors, Portland, OR
What is a Vessel Safety Check?

It is a free check of a vessel’s equipment for compliance with federal and state safety requirements. The vessel examiners performing this service have been trained to look for some of the more common problems, which might occur in your boat or its associated safety equipment. Some of the items we check are:
  • Proper display of numbers
  • Registration/Documentation
  • Personal Flotation Devices; Life Jackets
  • Visual Distress Signals
  • Fire extinguishers
  • Ventilation
  • Backfire flame control
  • Sound producing devices
  • Navigation lights
  • State requirements
  • Overall vessel condition

If a vessel meets all of the Vessel Safety Check (VSC) requirements it is awarded a VSC decal.


CRACA members need to get a VSC each year to meet the requirements of membership.

I, the CRACA Safety Focal and a member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, will be available March 24, 2007, the Saturday before the first cruise of the year to Hadley’s Landing March 31-April 1, 2007 to do a VSC. I will be walking the docks at Tomahawk Bay and Hayden Bay to perform VSC’s and I will also be available at the cruise if you come.

So lots of opportunities to get your VSC done before the boating season! If those days don’t work out, just give me a phone call or e-mail to work out a day/place that will work.



Communications

By Dale Mack, C30, Celtic Myst

I subscribe to a couple of email discussions groups.  So it's mid-January and this email arrives from a guy that just moved his sailboat from Schooner Creek Boat Works to Tomahawk Bay Moorage that morning.  He's describing having had to played icebreaker inside Tomahawk Bay because the fairway between "D" and "E" docks was completely frozen over with 1/2" to 5/8" of ice.  Now I remember hearing stories when I moved to Vancouver that about once every twenty years things would get cold enough for the river to freeze so people could actually walk on the ice around their boats.  Well, if things were frozen I had to see this.

It's January 15th, the Martin Luther King holiday, the day before all the snow landed on the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area.  The sky is clear, the sun shines brightly, and nothing about the Columbia River looks strange as I cross the I-5 bridge on my way into Oregon.  I'm down at the boat every couple of weeks to check things out so except of the absence of gray skies and damp streets everything looks normal.  As I pull into the moorage parking lot nothing seems out of place. My graze travels across the grass to the first boats set out from the shore resting peacefully in their slips.  There's no wind, the water is like glass, and if you're standing in the sunlight it actually feels very comfortable.  I grab my camera and head down to the docks.  During the walk down the ramp I'm fixated on what looks like signs of wind on the water about two-thirds up the fairway between "E" and "F" docks.  That's no wind, it's ICE!


The ice really was 1/2" to 5/8" thick, and it really extended across the fairways.  Some boats were frozen in the ice and other boats had a small amount of space between the hull and the ice where I assume energy was being bleed into the water from some sort of heat source aboard the boat.  For those of you who didn't get down to see it, here are a few shots of Catalinas in the ice.








Catalina 42 Fleet 12 Invitation


Special Invitation to: The owners of C-38s, C-39s, C-40s, C-44s, C-47s and C-50s.

The Place to Be: Join the C-42s for some fun and tech talk on Orcas Island in the San Juans.

Fly in, drive in, or preferably sail in on your Catalina 42 and join Fleet 12, we will be having a Spring Rendezvous April 27-29 on Orcas Island in the San Juans. We have arranged for the Rosario Resort to be available for a special dock fee for this weekend. We would like to see more Catalinas show up even though we had 12 C-42s last year. The more the merrier.

The resort has full spa facilities and dining support within short walking distance from the docks. There is a small store also along with beautifully maintained grounds. For those who would like to shop for a C-42 or other large Catalina, there are many cabanas and rooms available from the resort but you would have to book that yourself. This is a protected private dock in East Sound and is very easy to get to.

The agenda for this rendezvous is much the same as previous ones. Arrive on Friday, hang out on Saturday with technical discussions and open boats for inspection of all, and then take your time going home on Sunday.

We had the Coast Guard stop by last year and give a short technical insight on what is required aboard to pass tech inspections and we could arrange that again if there is interest. There was even a suggestion for a double handed race (NFS).

The discussions that occur between boat owners are the priceless part. Solutions abound in other boats for various problems both small and large. Multiple mainsail controls, various anchor systems, each boat with different electrical solutions (eg… wind, fuel, solar generated), electronics are all different, dinghy solutions, furnaces, mattresses, and whatever else you can imagine is on a boat. As you can imagine some boat owners are not shy about expounding on the benefits they have come up with.

You should come away with contacts of other owners, ideas on how to massage your own boat closer to the ideal, insights on maintenance issues, local knowledge of various boat yards and services, and a full weekend of yachting with some of the best designed boats on the water.

The Bottom-line:

What: Catalina Fleet 12 Spring Rendezvous
Who: Any owners of C-42s and other large Catalinas noted above.
When: April 27-29, 2006 (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)
Where: Orcas Island, East Sound, Rosario Resort
Why: To have fun and compare boats and notes.
How: For information and reserving a dock space please contact Count Enrico Ferrari at Enrico_Ferrari@juno.com (there is an underscore between Enrico and Ferrari) or call at 360-435-4869 (Griffin Hill Farm) and leave a message.


Cruising


Cruising Chairman

By Jim Elieff, C30, Fortune

Hello CRACA members,

Happy New Year Fellow CRACA Members, we start another year of cruising. It snowed earlier this month and has been clear and below freezing the last half of the month. We have a great schedule this year. I am getting the new schedules at the CRYA meeting this month and they will be sent to you all.  I have also made arrangements with Shenanigan's at the Red Lion to tie up our boats at their docks on Friday nights during Happy Hour , then stay at Tomahawk Bay and go sailing on Saturday.  This will be on the weekends that we are not going on a cruise in June and July.

The locks at Oregon City have a study going on to see what it would take to keep them open. They are the oldest locks in the U.S.. Built in 1870. The boat show past out 3302 life jackets to kids under 12 years old.  A terrific feat to save our children this coming summer.

We are having a club meeting on Wednesday , Feb. 28th. Look forward to seeing everyone there.

James M. Elieff C. D.



CRACA Cruising Schedule

  • Mar 31 - Apr 1, Hadley's Landing
  • April 21 - 22, Government Island - East
  • May 26 - 28, Martin Island
  • June 9 - 10, McCuddy's Landing
  • June 23 - 24, Coon Island - East
  • July 14 - 15, Government Island - East
  • July 21 - 29, Downriver Cruise
  • August 4 - 5, McCuddy's Landing
  • August 16 - 19, Beacon Rock
  • Sept. 15 - 16, Catalina Rendezvous
  • Sept. 22 - 23, Hadley's Landing
  • Sept. 23, Sail for the Cure
  • October 20 - 21, Government Island - East



Cruise to Hadley’s Landing with the
New 2007 Catalina 34 MKII!

Provided that River City Sailing (RCS) receives and is able to commission the boat in time, RCS will be bringing our new Catalina 34 MKII along for the cruise. This will give us from RCS a chance to become better acquainted with the CRACA members, and it will give you all a chance to become better acquainted with this beautiful new sailboat.


The Catalina 34 MKII has a masthead rig with fore and aft lowers. The inboard shroud base leaves more room for secure footing on the non-skid deck while providing for narrow sheeting angles and the ability to carry larger genoas. The rigid boom vang and the double ended mainsheet system make sail handling easier and more secure. The new wider aft cabin has an even larger berth, ultra-leather upholstered seat and new bureau. Included on the boat will be speed, depth and wind instruments as well as the C-80 LCD chart plotter, a stereo/CD player with cabin and cockpit speakers, VHF, autopilot, a safety and equipment package, a North Sails spinnaker and a dodger made by Hayden Island Canvas.


I look forward to seeing you on the Hadley's Landing cruise.

Justin H. Albano
River City Sailing
503-313-3599 (cell)
jhalbano@yahoo.com


Local Sailing Associations



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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