Home	Nationals Regatta & Bylaws Meeting October 1, 2011

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

What great fun Islanders have when they put their minds to it! 26 boats were represented in person at this year's Nationals Regatta. Yes, we only had 13 boats scheduled on the water (and actually 11 sailed), but when you added up the extra boats represented by other owners crewing on the boats that sailed, the total quickly soared. Add in those that drove in to enjoy the fun and you had one really great day. Oh yes, the proposed changes in the bylaws also passed with 31 out of 33 boats represented in person and by proxy voting for them.

The very best of the Islander spirit permeated the whole day. The split start / finish locations posed some challenges for crew pickup, but everyone adjusted and began to converge on the Golden Gate YC starting area an hour before the start. That in itself was fun because we got to watch the first-rate GGYC Race Committee send off the Lightship Race fleet. (Credit our very own Gary & Pat Salvo (Ophira) among that RC!)

It was, by SF Bay standards, an unusual start because we had southerly, rather than westerly winds. That meant that instead of having the starting line perpendicular to the wind it was parallel to the wind! And, with about a 2 knot flood current running across the line, all bets were off about a typical start. If you were on starboard tack, you couldn't cross the starting line. If you were on port, you were close hauled and aimed at the first mark - no tacking required. However, if you were trying to time your start, when headed away from the line you were going 2 knots faster than when you were approaching the line. Try to time that one!

But everyone got away and it was like the start signaled the end to the dark, and almost rainy clouds that had greeted us an hour earlier. It was SF Bay sunshine from then on. With the southerly to southwesterly, it was much lighter than typical with no winds much over 10 - 15 knots. And when the fleet got south of the Bay Bridge to make the run into the Estuary and the finish at Encinal, it went both very light and variable. Add in bout a 1.5 knot tide running across the rhumb line, and it was a challenge worth of any Nationals Regatta.

To echo the first paragraph, one of the things that made this event so special was the number of I-36 owners who sailed on other boats. We don't have an exact count, but here's a good sample. Roy Samulson (Some Day) and Michael Daly (Laughing Matter) sailed on Vanishing Animal. Bob Knickerbocker (Woden) sailed on (Kapai). And Steve Douglass (Renaissance of Tahoe Vista) sailed with (Cassiopeia). Then you've got to give Kit Weigmann credit for taking Lou Zevanov (Diana) aboard Cassiopeia - no waonder they won! That alone is five more boats (in some way) on the water.

Now, as organizers, there was a certain trepidation about calling for a "potluck", or hors d' oeuvres after a (GASP) race! Cruise Rendezvous are so used to this that it's (Twitter) NBD. Well, cinch up your saddles kids, 'cause them Racers know how to deal! Just consider the Prosciutto ham wrapped around asparagus that the winning Non-Spinnaker boat, Kapai, brought to the table. Say no more - they know how to play with the best!

The warp-up for the day included the meeting to consider the proposed Bylaws changes to clarify voting procedures, eliminate the keel measurement requirement (no longer possible to measure), and a modernization of the sail materials requirements. With (at the time) 31 boats represented in person and by proxy, the vote was 30 in favor and 1 against. On Sunday two more Proxy votes by eamil were found that changed the totals to 31 in favor and 2 against. The changes were passed.

Commode Aston ran the above meeting with aplomb, and then turned it over to the Race Committee Team of Gary & Pat Salvo. Gary read off the winners of this first-ever multi division Nationals. Here are the well deserving winners:

Spinnaker Division:
1st Cassiopeia
2nd Windwalker
3rd Freedom Won

Non-Spinnaker Division
1st Kapai
2nd Nantucket
3rd Petit Sirah

Cruising Division
1st Vanishing Animal
2nd Brigid (by default)
3rd The Irish Rogue (for sailing the "big boys" course!

On the surface, that wraps up the I-36 nationals Regatta. But there is one more link that, almost by magic, and certainly in spirit, binds our entire Association together on a scale that spans 1000 miles.

On Monday, 9/26, your writer received some pictures & videos from our great Canadian members Bert & Cary Vermeer (who had the original idea for an All Islander Rendezvous) about their summer cruise to the (challenging) paradise of the British Columbian Gulf Islands and the exquisite beauty of Princess Louisa Inlet and Chatterbox Falls. (See a separate web page for that great story.)

Bert & Carey had a great cruise and included pictures and video of the really special yellow boat where the husband & wife did acrobatics around their boat for a performance. If you watched carefully, a complex blend of Laurel & Hardy (ready for this) and Cirque du Soleil materialized before your eyes. Walking a spinnaker pole over the water; climbing the backstay; swinging by halyards; and then dipping gently down on deck. It was the Voilier spectacle http://www.voilierspectacle.com Now, here's the (October) spooky part.

When Vanishing Animal tucked into the last remaining dock space at Encinal on Friday afternoon, there was this yellow boat in front of them. It was the same La Loupiote in the pictures from Bert! You can visit their web site at http://www.voilierspectacle.com Go there, look at the details - here is a family that goes around the world making their living doing acrobatics on their boat while raising two daughters - one who is already in their shows, and the second 3 year old that your writer saw walking the boom, then hanging down until her feet tickled the deck - only to walk forward to the mast and try to climb on to the boom again.

They put on incredible displays on both Saturday and Sunday at 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM , but, unfortunately, the fleet was out to sea. So go follow the links above and enjoy how our wide-spread net of great Islander 36 owners share their special adventures.

There's time for one or two last great events for 2011 -- who's going to pull it off?

Enjoy the 2011 participants, pictures & videos!

Pictures by Lou Zevanov & Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Friday evening ...	John & Dan ..	Dan's crew Sandy	Corky's great pasta
makes everyone happy.	Michael, Roy & Suni	Racers round Blackaller	Kit leads
Golden Gate show ...	just for us??!!!	tuckered out.	Let's get some ...
wind.	Cassiopeia ...	closing in ...	finished 1st.
Windwalker's got ...	a big shadow ...	spinnaker down, but ...	John's right behind ...
finished 2nd	John was 3rd.	Here comes ...	Luna Sea.
It shrank!	Thanks Charles.	1st Non-Spinnaker ...	is Kapai
2nd Nantucket	3rd Petit Sirah	BAADS's Orion	Next it's ...
The Irish Rogue ...	looking good.	Fleet's in ...	flags fly.
Distracted from ...	taking goodies to ...	the party.	Table full of fun
Betsy, Rick & Art	Terry & Kathy	Robert & Dan	Carol, Harry & Linda
Happy crew	Mara made cool ...	I-36 Picks!	Bob, Corky & Judy
Lou arrives	Happy campers from ...	Petit sirah	It time to celebrate ...
on Kapai!	End of Day ...	thank you Encinal!	The prizes!

Here are Videos of the finishes so you can see beautiful Islanders gliding across a finish line. (Volume is a little loud, so, just turn it down.)

Cassiopeia is 1st - Spinnaker Division	Windwalker 2nd & Freedom Won 3rd Spinnaker Division
Luna Sea 4th - Spinnaker Division	Kapai 1st - Non-Spinnker Division
Nantucket 2nd & Petit Sirah 3rd - Non-Spinnaker Division	Orion 4th - Non-Spinnaker Division
The Irish Rogue 5th - Non-Spinnaker Division

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