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Spring Meeting 3/26/22 at Coyote Point YC |
We are back! A beautiful Friday and Saturday welcomed your I-36 fleet back to what felt like a traditional cruise-in Spring Meeting at Coyote Point Yacht Club. With other clubs not quite ready to open their venues, Jocelyn arranged for a buffet of fajitas/enchiladas with all the fixings that was delicious. But, like the last two years, things weren't quite "normal" for this one either. First, there was a -0.6' low tide, and second it was the grand finale of the 2nd season of Sail GP - essentially 8 of the 2013-style foiling catamarans racing on San Francisco Bay. The first slowed us down, and the second split us up. But all in all, it was a wonderful weekend for the I-36 fleet with a total of 38 people representing 18 boats. Here's the list, but read on for all the fun and pictures.
| Boat | Owner & Crew |
| Boats at Coyote Point Yacht Club | |
| Cali | Kerry Scott |
| Cassiopeia | Kit Wiegman |
| Falcon | Bruce & Donna + Maxine Hallberg |
| Freedom Won | John Melton + son Dan's family |
| Green Flash | Liz Munnelly & Mike Patterson |
| Gypsy | Matt Callahan |
| Kapai | Rick Egan |
| Tacoma Blue | Rich and Takae Watters |
| Vanishing Animal | Rick & Sandy Van Mell |
| White Horses | Ruby Wallis & Rob Blenderman |
| Wind Catcher | Dan Throop |
| Zingara | Jocelyn & Steve Swanson |
| |
| Boats at Sail GP | |
| Bella Luna | Bob & Maria DaPrato |
| ex-Ophira | Gary & Pat Salvo |
| Geja | Andrew Vik |
| Island Girl | Frank & Will Burkhart |
| Luna Sea | Dan Kox |
| Natural High | Dennis & Judy Bush |
The Friday plan was for Green Flash, Vanishing Animal and Wind Catcher to rendezvous for a potluck dinner at the Coyote Point guest dock. Knowing it was going to be a minus tide, Rick checked with his harbor master to be sure he could get out of Brisbane, never thinking about Coyote Point harbor because we hadn't encountered an issues there in the past. So Rick & Sandy departed Brisbane about 1050, with the potluck main course lasagna safely tucked in the fridge. Green Flash texted at 1100 that they had the salad, but were going to arrive by car, having decided they didn't want a long slog back to South Beach in Saturday afternoon's predicted 20+ knots on the nose.
After a delightful broad reach, sometimes under sail and sometimes under power, Vanishing Animal eased into Coyote Point Harbor and started down the long fairway to the CPYC guest dock. Plenty of bare mud was exposed to port, so we hugged the along the end ties as we went in. About half way down there was a big, beautiful green ketch with a fellow working on the club jib boom on the foredeck. We remarked how good the boat looked, which was easy to do as there was not more than two feet between our hulls. It was then I realized we were only going about 1.5 knots when we had been going about 3. Clearly were starting to plow silt, and revved up to 2000 rpm - usually good for 4.5 knots. We continued ahead making about 2 knots to the next fairway where Sandy looked in an spotted an open slip, 3 slips in. We slowly turned to starboard into the fairway, then to port aiming at the slip. The bow started in; more power; a little farther, then we stopped with the engine still at 2000 rpm. Two friendly guys came down the dock to help and I passed a long line to them and they put it on the cleat at the head of the dock. Sandy put the line on the big winch and started cranking while we tried pulling on the bow line to get us into the slip. We got the forward end of the cockpit to the end of the slip, but she would go no farther. We rigged fenders on both sides. It was now about 1245 so we had lunch. One of the guys offered us gate keys if we wanted to go up to the head on shore, and the other offered to connect us with the Harbormaster to find a deeper slip..
We had texted Wind Catcher about the situation, and also were expecting to connect with Matt Neuman, CPYC Port Captain about 1430. When we did connect with Matt, he connected with the Harbormaster (also named Mark) and was able to identify a 40' slip with 8' water at low tide for Wind Catcher. We texted that to Dan on Wind Catcher. We also decided that we would wait for the rising tide to get us to the CPYC guest dock in front of the club where we would be fine overnight as the low was at 3.3' of water, and the high at 0800 Saturday morning would be 5.5'. We realized we could depart then and go back to our slip in Brisbane, with plenty of time to change clothes and get back to CPYC for the meeting at 11:30. And, there would likely be lighter wind as well. So Matt passed us off to Mark who would be the Officer of the Day, arriving at 1700 to open the club and he would help us get to the guest dock.
While waiting for the tide to arrive, about 1600 a gal showed up aboard the boat in the next slip, works for United and stays aboard between flights. She also offered to help, and we said we might like that, given that there was a strong northwest breeze blowing, and backing out of the slip would turn us the wrong way. Long story short, Mark connected with us and about 1715 we were afloat, Jennifer held a stern line to warp us out against the prop walk, and we were neatly tied to the guest dock by 1745. We can't say enough about the friendly teamwork of the two guys on the dock, Matt, Mark, Mark and Jennifer. Compliments to the Coyote Point sailing community.
Meanwhile Dan had arrived with Wind Catcher in the designated slip and Liz & Mike arrived by car. Everyone having helped us, we went up to the CPYC bar and enjoyed two rounds before our lasagna and salad aboard Vanishing Animal. And, Saturday morning was bright and calm for our run back to Brisbane. All was well that ended well.
Jocelyn and Commodore Egan, plus Cruise Chair Matt Callahan, were setting up tables and getting organized when we arrived about 1045. The sign-in sheet and name tags were laid out and folks started arriving for a delightful Attitude Adjustment pre-lunch gathering. Jocelyn's buffet was great with beans, rice tortillas, enchiladas, fajitas, and plenty of sour cream and guacamole.
Commodore Rick Egan began the business meeting at 1300 by welcoming everyone and thanking CPYC for a fine lunch, and recognizing new member Dan Throop, Wind Catcher, and relatively new member Matt Callahan (Gypsy) who is also our new Cruise Chair.
Jocelyn brought everyone up to speed with our new membership in Pacific Inter Club Yachting Association (PICYA). By joining as the Islander 36 Association we each become members of PICYA which has reciprocal priviledges with the other 100 clubs and associations that are also members. PICYA organizes Opening Day On the Bay (mark your calendars, it's Sunday, April 24th) and puts out a yearbook with all of the organizations listed, including their memberships. Liz & Mike printed out individual membership cards and passed them out to those present and will be mailing them out to you all in the coming days. Here's what it looks like:
(click to enlarge)
Next up was Matt with a Cruise update. With the latest COVID requirements loosening up, Matt hopes to finally get confirmation from various clubs about hosting events. He extolled the virtues of the Petaluma Cruise for Memorial Day weekend. The Pirate theme should be great fun and there are number of activities planned. Gypsy is heading up on Thursday, and Commodore Egan is heading up Friday, and they will coordinate the D Street bridge opening for those traveling with them. You can sign up at Petaluma Memorial Day Cruise. Then plan to celebrate Monday, July 4th with an I-36 cheering section to watch our 3 Islander 36s cross the starting line and head out the Golden Gate in the Pacific Cup race to Hawaii. Mid-July plan for a Delta Cruise, and for Labor Day we're aiming for at least one day at the Presidio Yacht Club near the base of the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Treasurer Mike Patterson advised (as Pat Salvo so famously once said) "We have money." But more important we have a fresh new stock of I-36 burgees. The smaller 18" ones are $36 and the 9' beauties are $72. Both are all sewn, not printed, and the large 3I6 logo reads correctly on both sides. You can order one on this page.
Commodore Egan then advised that the start of the Inter Club series, scheduled for April 2nd, might be revised as sign-ups have been less that desirable -- yet another fallout of COVID fatigue.
Our main speaker was Kerry Scott, skipper of Cali who is racing in the Pac Cup. Kerry did an excellent presentation of the many things that he has done for strengthen the boat for offshore conditions. Major items included, building in a bridge deck across the companionway to prevent water from flowing from the cockpit into the cabin. It also add storage space and reduced that volume of water that could be in the cockpit. Two additional 2" drains were added to the back of the cockpit to help drain water from any breaking seas. He added a beefed up collar round the mast at deck level, plus large structural knees between the hull and the deck at the main bulkhead, and mast tie-downs, all as part of making the main bulkhead area more ridged. The boom gooseneck was swapped out for a heavier one too. Then, anticipating some heavier upwind weather on the return trip, he added a staysail stay, halyard and tack for a staysail. Another fun toy was adding a quickly-installable bowsprit for a code zero or asymmetrical chute. The nav area was rebuilt with a seat facing forward and the electrical panel moved to the port side. He also is turning the galley sink to be closer to the centerline of the boat. And then he replaced the pull out table with a watermaker on a panel, and added a pull-up TV for enjoyment. Here is a link to an 18 megabyte PDF with 50+ pictures of the changes. (Be patient, it's large.)
Finally, as we noted at the beginning, we had 6 Islanders represented up on the main Bay helping run or just watching the amazing foiling cats race at close to 50 knots. It was a great day to be on the water. Enjoy the pictures.
Derparting Brisbane
Friday |
Clearing SFO |
Nice sailing |
Sandy's on watch ... |
going fast. |
Approaching ... |
Coyote Channel |
Nosing into slip ... |
Winching us in ... |
other end. |
As far as we got. |
Note mud showing. |
Finally at ... |
the guest dock. |
Coyote Point YC ... |
looks good. |
Harbor pan ... |
center ... |
left. |
New Burgees ... |
look great! |
Liz, MIke, Sandy ... |
plus Dan. |
Dinner ... |
dessert. |
Saturday 0800 |
Nice and calm. |
Heading out ... |
past the shallows ... |
out the channel. |
Flying high. |
Arriving SFO ... |
departing SFO. |
Into Brisbane. |
CPYC Welcome table |
Getting set up. |
Freedom Won ... |
John Melton ... |
arrives. |
Jocelyn, Maxine & Donna. |
Bruce & Steve |
Dan, Rick, Matt, Kit |
Rich & Takae |
Line for ... |
good food ... |
and plentiful. |
Nice gathering |
You don't say! |
Melton clan |
Maxine, Bruce,
Donna, Dan |
Kit, Rick, Liz & Mike |
Takae & Rich |
John & Ruby |
Jocelyn & Steve. |
Foiling cats ... |
Cool cats ... |
Cheering cats -
Judy & Dennis
Gary & Pat
Bob & Maria |
Australia 1 |
France 1 |
Great Briton 1 |
New Zealand 1 |
Spain 1 |
USA 2 |
USA 3 |