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Commodore's Column from November 2006 Mainsheet
By Dennis Stovall
Catalina 36 International Association
Ahoy, everyone. This is my 8th and final column as your commodore, and I feel like I’m approaching the harbor after a 2-year voyage – exhausted, glad to be returning to my home port, and looking back on the past two years as an adventure.
Like any adventure, there are good memories, and difficult ones. And like any adventure, the most challenging and difficult events from the past two years are the ones that will remain the most memorable as I look back on this.
First, I should say that I never remotely imagined myself EVER becoming commodore. I guess this is probably true of nearly every association commodore, but I turned down the position many times, and finally accepted it only with much reluctance.
Over the past 18 months the association has focused almost entirely on member service, creating/increasing services in every way possible. We offered our own maillist, wrote books specific to the C36, came out with a technical CD, expanded the ship’s store, revitalized the website, made incredible improvements to membership and to our financial accounting system, started lending specialized tools to members… basically, if we saw an area to explore, we explored it by discussing and creating new services that members might find helpful. Our tool lending program, the technical CD, website, the mapping added to the owner registry, our books, the email list, improving membership, updating our financial accounts, adding the Supporting Membership option – these are not just programs, but they’re developments that took hundreds of hours of work.
I cannot say this enough -- the services provided by the association are really nothing more than the products of our officers and our membership. Members step in and help on the message board, the maillist, and with valuable suggestions (like Jesse Wells who helped out with membership, and Duane Ising, Jerry Stadulis, and all the others who regularly help members on the message board and the email list.). Officers serve specific functions, voluntarily, on a year-round basis. And in recent years we’ve been seeking new C36IA officers to revitalize the association. Over the past two years we’ve brought on board six absolutely outstanding new officers –
January 2005 – Alex Lynch, from Toronto, Canada, became the association’s new Webmaster
August 2005 – Chuck Reed, from Michigan, became the association’s new Membership officer
September 2005 – Bill Harvey, from Florida, became the association’s new Treasurer
May 2006 – Tom Sokoloski, from Connecticut, agreed (reluctantly) to take over as the association’s Vice Commodore. Tom became an officer in the association in 2004, and served as the Mainsheet Editor for the Mark I.
July 2006 – Lin Bass*, from Florida, became the association’s new Mainsheet Editor (replacing Brian Giersch).
August 2006 – Glenn “Chooch” Jewell*, from Florida, became the association’s new Mainsheet Editor for the original C36 (replacing Tom Sokoloski in that position).
The C36IA officers are all volunteers, and the time/talent each officer brings to the association is beyond comprehension. The officers each have their own jobs, their own families/friends, and making the time necessary to keep up their association duties is often difficult, but we find the time so we can help others, and for the joy of sailing, and the devotion to our Catalina 36s.
* Former Mainsheet Editor, Brian Giersch, is writing introductions for our new officers Chooch Jewell (as new Tech Notes Editor) and Lin Bass (as new Mainsheet Editor) – following my column.
Email from member
What’s normally a favorite part of each commodore’s column takes on a solemn tone this edition…
First, more lost boats from Katrina
Since the last Mainsheet we’ve received reports of two more C36s lost/destroyed from Hurricane Katrina:
· Hull 224, a 1984 model named Cheers, owned by Edward Goodwin. Cheers was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
· Hull 1499, a 1995 model named Windsong, owned by Ron Richards. Ron said Windsong was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan, and while in the process of being repaired, Windsong was finished off as Hurricane Katrina ripped her from supports in a boatyard.
And a bad-but-could-have-been-worse report from the UK
“There's one born every minute and June 1, 2006, 0530 hrs, was my moment of infamy. A few minutes after taking a plot having left Portsmouth an hour earlier and thinking we were now safely on our way to France for a 3 week cruise in our C36 - OSPREY - we were brought to a very uncomfortable and abrupt halt on what's known here in the Solent as the Bembridge Ledge.
“It was of course entirely my own stupid, tired, and inattentive fault. In the stigeon gloom I mistook an east cardinal for a west. My poor wife was injured and I had to call the inshore RNLI lifeboat (whose crew were fantastic).
OSPREY refloated – but after nearly nine hours! And most of those nine hours was on her ear. I can't begin to tell you the degree of self-flagellation which begun and continues. The wife's on the mend thankfully and the boat is being repaired (about $20,000 in your money...).
“The point of this e-mail is to show you what a C36 looks like on her ear, and to reaffirm, as if it were needed, the absolute strength of the Catalina. The surveyor told me that the 3 tonne keel saved the day. It dipped about 1.5mm at the fore top end and as a result needs to be taken off for checking - but being solid lead there was virtually no outward damage to it. The furniture in the main cabin detached from the hull as the energy had to go somewhere. But it's all repairable. Had it been a new Jeanneau, Beneteau or Bavaria of a similar length, 'the chances are high', it was alleged, that the keel would have detached completely, such was the force of the impact. And the forces as she laid over would have certainly done more damage to a lesser craft. The kedge anchor held her off the rocks about 4 feet away as the tide rose. So here, as a change from the idyllically mouthwatering images generally associated with ‘yottie’ photos is a less than flattering one which is now being used in the Bembridge Lifeboat shack as a screensaver!!
“The lesson is - never leave early unless you're firing on all cylinders!” – Peter Cockle
Peter’s email made me wince, thinking of some of the close calls I’ve been in. Just a few days before I received his email, my wife and I were on a sailing weekend when we dodged into a cove to escape the wind and rain. I went forward and dropped the anchor, but neglected to set it, figuring I’d go below to dry out and set it later if we chose to remain in the cove. The rain and wind was relentless. I occasionally popped my head out to check our position and we had not moved, so I just let it go. Just after 5AM I was awakened by not-too-distant voices shouting, “HEY! HELLO! WAKE UP!” I opened my eyes and thought THE ANCHOR! Storming into the cockpit half-dressed and seeing a fishing boat about a boat length away and coming closer, and the cove drifting further and further away, I fired up the engine and took an evasive course. “The basics,” I grumbled angrily to myself, “I didn’t follow the basics.” A slight twist of fate and I could have wound up on the rocks or crashing into another boat. Fortunate for me, that incident became a What could have been, and Peter’s email reaffirmed that those most basic skills of sailing can never be ignored.
Growth in the membership continues
At the time this article was written, the C36IA was just over 860 members. To compare, we had 535 members one year ago. Our current goal is to reach 900.
Birthday
The C36IA maillist turned one year old on November 9th. The total list has settled about 170-175 subscribers, and it’s processing about 750 emails/month.
Turning over the helm
I had many more goals than I was ever able to accomplish. I tried -- I just couldn’t get it all done.
So, it’s with great pride I’m turning over the helm to Tom Sokoloski. Tom is known for being the Tech Notes Editor (original C36), for the technical CD, and for all his efforts assisting members on the maillist and the message board. There is no one I know of better suited to lead our organization into the next great adventure.
And to all of you – be safe out there. We must remember to follow the basics, and let’s all remember to maintain membership and involvement in our common family, the Catalina 36 International Association.
- Dennis
Commodore 2005-06