HUMBOLDT YACHT CLUB AUGUST 2019

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C O M M O D O R E ’ S C O M M E N T S- b y L a r r y F o x -

T H E

N E W S L E T T E R

July started with a bang (literally) at the fireworks raft up. Thanks to Rich Robletto and Marc Borde for s e t t i n g t h e a n c h o r ! C l e a r skies greeted the bombs-bursting-in-air so it was quite the show!

We've had some beautiful sail ing on Wednesday nights this summer with sun a shinning. Continued thanks to Brad and Angie McCabe for cooking the BBQ for the "FOG" race (no fog in sight). Mario started a new tradition of the slower boats starting 10

minutes early on Wednesday night making for a closer finish. It's been fun with closer racing on the course.

Coming this month is our Arts Alive Social on Saturday August 3rd, with Brad and Angie sharing their favorite beverage, and Bridge and Nancy will host our August Potluck on the 6th. We've also got a couple of races scheduled for August, and our Clean-Up Day for the Redwood Regatta on August 17. The clean-up is a week early this year to allow us to schedule the Trinidad Race near the end of August when winds should be fair but not extreme.

Yes, it's been quite a summer, but it's not over yet!

See ya out there!Larry

WELCOME ABOARDSean Palmer

Sean is eager to learn to crew on a boat,so please say hello and invite him out to sail.

P O T L U C KTuesday August 6 at 7:00 pm

Hosted by Bridge and Nancy Randall

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BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Commodore: Larry Fox

Vice Commodore: Rich Robletto

Rear Commodore: Joe Hough

Co-Secretaries: Mari & Stephen Pepper

Treasurer: Garrett Coonrod

Port Captain: Bruce Braly

Members At Large: Bridge Randall Wesley Hodges Brad McCabe

Past Commodore: Stacy Lane

Newsletter Staff: Richard Hendry, Editor

Lee Braces Mark Rounding

HUMBOLDT YACHT CLUB Post Office Box 445

Eureka, California 95502

humboldtyachtclub.org

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SOME RACE REPORTS by Bruce Braly, Port Captain -

After the Carr Fire, the Whiskeytown Regatta was weird. It was run from the Oakbottom at the West end of the lake.  Light air.  Sunday rain.  

Firecracker Regatta at Klamath Lake: a big shallow lake with one inch water visibility because of the algae.  Like sailing in split pea soup. Whatever, the wind there is often quite consistent.  Good wind this time.  I blew it on a weather mark rounding where I tried to bear off to block another boat and didn’t get the Vang off.  Jibed the boom into my head, capsized, swallowed algae laden water, got her back up, sailed on.  All in all, pretty fun, who cares, its just a race.

The club is a big two story Quonset hut.  Bar on top made from a 20’ Lightening (1939 Sparkman and Stephens) cut in half, the bar is the starboard deck.  The bartender, Suzy, is one of the greatest I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a few!  They’re into meat there, vegans beware.

On to Huntington Lake for the High Sierra Regatta.  Put on by the Fresno YC.  A great sailing lake.  7000’ on the West side of the Sierras.  Wind fills at 11am, blows all day in the teens, 70+ degrees, shifty.  Heaven.

This next weekend is Cascade Locks on the Columbia Gorge about 40 miles east of Portland for the Laser Masters Pacific Coast Championship.  Blows like heck there.  I’m equal parts excited and scared.  85 degrees.  Can’t wait.

Bruce

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Redwood RegattaAug 31 - Sept 1

On-Line Registrationhttp://www.regattanetwork.com/event/19378

(Clean-Up is Saturday Aug 17th at 1000 hrs)

RACE TO THE WHISTLER BUOY- from the Commodore -

We had a beautiful day for the second Whistler Race of the season July 28th with plenty of sunshine and good wind for much of the day (except for the complete calm that caught my boat in the jaws, which prompted us to turn around and drift back down the entrance channel until the wind picked up). Of course, then we had to partially furl the jib. Ah, the vagaries of sailing!

Flying Their Kites!(L-R) Ed Mattson, Mario Kalson, and Garrett Coonrod.

AMERICA’S CUP UPDATE-

- - by Mark Rounding -

The America’s Cup is once again reinventing itself. Each time this happens, we are left in a never-never-land until the day when the curtain rises and the boats splash down. That day for the 36th edition was to be March 31st, but delays in building what the designers imagined have set back that reveal even to this day.

The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is working on the AC75, Emirates Team NZ’s still-secret monohull that will half-sail, half-fly its way to win, if all goes to plan, at the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland harbor come March 2021.

Team NZ boss Grant Dalton has already warned that the 75-footer could roll. There’s no keel to keep the boat upright and it’ll be screaming along at 50 knots or more, two meters above the water. It will only take on mistake! Grant says that the boat that foils 100 per cent of the time will win.

Whistler #2

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“By Way of the Lubber’s Hole”

The lubber’s hole was an opening in the main-topmast platform through which the more timid of the crew could climb or descend. More experienced hands went aloft the manly man’s way via the futtock shrouds (meaning they climbed over the outside of the platform). As such, “by way of the lubber’s hole” came to be synonymous with anything cowardly or less than the hundred percent a true sailor would give.

…from Jack Tar and the Baboon Watchby Captain Frank Lanier

I’m not sure which came first, the El Toro Challenge or the Wizards of Orick. The former has a long history for people who like to sail on their knees in less than eight foot of waterline boats, with a blunt bow and originally made from just a single sheet of plywood. The El Toro was designed in a committee process at the Richmond YC after WWII.  The process was lengthy and it is reported that the boat’s sail emblem (a short shovel) appropriately reflected the amount of BS flung about in the boat's development.  

Wizards of Orick (last held in the late ‘70s) appealed to these same pre-arthritic skippers as a once a year HYC competition with the Crescent City Sailing Club and usually held at either Stone or Big Lagoon. The losing team had to host the event the following year - pick the spot, date and bring a BBQ)

The Challenge is a double elimination format held off the docks at Eureka Public Marina and held most recently at Big Lagoon. Like most annual HYC races in ages past, there was a trophy that might be somewhere in the trophy case.

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El Toro Challenge 2019- by John Bradley -

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keeping a weather eye:

August 3 Social Hour - 1700 hrsAugust 6 Potluck - 1900 hrsAugust 11 Great Bay Race #2 - 1200 hrsAugust 13 Board Meeting - 1900 hrsAugust 17 Redwood Regatta Clean-Up - 1000 hrsAugust 21 FOG Watch BBQ - 1700 hrsAugust 24 Trinidad Race North - 1100 hrsAugust 25 Trinidad Race South - 1100 hrsAugust 31 Redwood Regatta - 1200 hrs

Last year we had six competitors and this year there were eight. You pick a boat and get a couple minutes to bend your knees and adjust your weight and the single sail. We called audible 30 second countdowns and each pair was away to race again or retire with a shrug. On shore comments were more colorful than the America’s Cup and the short courses made up for a lack of graphics as every missed tack or parking in irons was duly noted - mostly within hearing distance of the skippers. 

This year Ed Mattson defeated last year’s champion Brad McCabe.  Also rans were Mario Kalson, Joe Hough, Larry Fox, Wes Hodges, Skip Staley, and yours truly.  

El Toros are fun to sail and especially suited to kids.  Big kids, too.  The club has its own El Toro available to loan and several members have them tucked away ready to car top or trailer.   Big Lagoon is close by and full of clean, weed-free water this year. Bring your kneepads!

El Toro Challenge 2019(continued from page 4)