Monthly: February 2010

15 Feb

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Havasu III

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Sunday February 14, 2010
Another beautiful day.  I know I sound like a broken record, but Sean must have put in his order early for this weather because it would be hard to get much better.  It’s starting off today in the high 40s and supposed to get to the low to mid 70s.  Right now the wind is about 8 and supposed to get to at least 15  again.

We had the skipper’s meeting at 8:30 this morning.  Today is the scavenger hunt, which is really scheduled in case there is a blow and sailing is not possible one of the days, as most of the hunt can take place on the land.  With the current wind and forecast, Sean encouraged everyone to just go sailing since that is what the event is all about.  That is exactly what most people did.  Only one actually went on the scavenger hunt, so she, of course, won.  Although I did have a couple of options of boats to go out on, I decided at the last minute to go with the powerboat sailing assist craft piloted by Nel Broce so I could get some good photos.  Nel is a great guy.  He knows the lake well and took me to a lot of the areas I hadn’t been to and then we started following the sailboats.
After about an hour we went back to the dock and picked up Sean and spent several hours out shooting photos and cheering on the sailors.  Several times I wished I was sailing but, then again, I really enjoyed this part too and saw some things I would not have seen otherwise.

As the day progressed the wind continued to rise.  I haven’t heard the official wind readings but I went online when I got back and what I found said it was currently at 24mph.  Great sailing day.

Some came back in for a seminar of celestial navigation put on by Jonathan Olenick from 1:30 until 2:30.  He did an excellent job with it.

Everyone was back in by 3PM for the awards ceremony, the final official event of the weekend.  Sean started by welcoming the local dignitaries again.  Mayor Mark Nexsen, Vice Mayor Don Callahan, another council person Margaret Nyberg and Dean Barlow, the City Manager,  and Greg Tryon from the Havasu Hospitality Association.
The mayor once again thanked everyone for coming and invited them back for next year.  He mentioned several of the goals of the city.

Greg Tryon also thanked everyone and ask for feedback on any issues they might have had and for any suggestions anyone had to make next year’s event even better.  He once again mentioned that he would be working on having more docks and also the minor problems that several had with restaurants and the discounts that had been offered.

After all of this, Sean spent a long time giving out awards.  Everyone participating in the event got something.  The sponsors had provided enough items to be able to do this.  Everyone seemed thrilled to get whatever they got no matter how large or small.

Just as Sean thought he was through, Larry Yake got up and said there was one thing left.  Clearly, Sean was surprised.  Larry got Jo to come on stage and join Sean and then presented them with a gift certificate of $1,500 to Elliot Pattison Sails so they could replace their “Ebay” sails.  This gift was made possible by secret contributions of everyone at the event. As you might have guessed, a huge standing ovation followed that almost never ended.  It couldn’t have been too long for all that these two did to put this together.

Later on at 6 PM, many went for a sunset cruise on the Dixie Belle paddle boat and then dinner at Martini’s.

I cannot even begin to tell you what a great event this has been and there is nothing we can ever do to sufficiently thank Sean Mulligan for what he has done for pocketcruiser sailors with this event!

THANK YOU SEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Owens J O Woodworks www.jowoodworks.com 

 

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14 Feb

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Havasu III

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February 13, 2010
 
Woke up to another beautiful day, probably in the high 40s.  It’s supposed to get to 72 today with winds building to around 15 by mid afternoon.

Sean had the captains meeting at 9 this morning so everyone could sleep in. Today is the poker run.  We all took off around 10:45 with basically no wind.  We motored south clicking pictures of several on the noted landmarks on the sail plan.  Most of the group motored or motorsailed south about 4 miles to Havasu Palms, the location of the most valuable item on our list.  A brief stop at the marina there to stretch our legs and answer nature’s call and we were off again headed back North.  While we were stop the wind picked up to probably 4 or 5 knots.  Not a lot but way better than nothing.  It was coming from a northerly direction so upwind we went.  The angle of the wind was such that we could make some pretty long tacks considering how narrow the lake is in this area.  The farther north we went the heavier the wind got.  I was sailing with Larry and Gary again today on Sean’s Monty 23.  I really enjoy this boat!  By the time we were about 2/3  of the way back I would guess the wind was up to about 15 so we took in one reef on the main.  It wasn’t long before we decided to change headsails from the 150 down to the blade.  This helped a lot and greatly reduced the amount of weather helm.  As we passed a lot of the boats that were just heading south we got to see the beautiful view on many very many colorful spinnakers.

As we headed into the channel more and more power boats came into play.  There were a lot of them pulled to the bank on the beach but a lot in the water too.  As we got closer to the docks at the resort it got to be quite a traffic jam with many of the power boats not understanding the restricted maneuverability of sailboats, but as far as I know there were no wrecks, so all is well.

At about 4 Harry Pattison from Elliot Pattison sailmakers gave a very interesting sail seminar that lasted about 2 hours. 

At 7:30 we all joined again in the convention center for the grudge match between North and South.  This was a game of nautical jeopardy hosted by Neil Dorf.  Four people from each side played and much to my dismay the South lost.  Oh well, there’s always next year.
Looking forward to another great day of sailing tomorrow.

 

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13 Feb

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Havasu II

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Friday February 12, 2010
Well, as expected, today was a lot better than yesterday.  We woke to a beautiful clear sky, temperature probably in the high 40s.  Before the day was over I would guess the temperature got up close to 70 if not even higher.

Everyone met at the convention center and the resort provided breakfast burritos.  At 8 AM Sean got up and started making his official welcomes.  Vice Mayor Don Callahan welcomed everyone saying how enthusiastic the city was and thanked us all for being here.  Greg Tryon with the Lake Havasu Hospitality Association got up and spoke for a few minutes about their goals to support our group in anyway possible.  He pointed out the list of supporting businesses that would provide discounts on meals to any of our group showing their badge.  So far the only place I have eaten or had drinks at on the list is the Martini Grill here at the resort and I can assure you they when they say discounts they really mean it!  He also mentioned that they were working on the possibility of portable docks for next year so more sailors at the event could dock their boats here at the resort.  Jennifer Johnson from the London Bridge Resort also welcomed us and I will point out that this lady really went over the top  making things work out nice for us. Sgt. Burns with the police department also got up and welcomed us.

Sean then recognized the sponsors for the events and pointed out the ones that were hear.
One of the guys then pointed out that Sean had failed to mention the most important person here—Sean Mulligan.  Without him this would not be possible.  With that, the group stood and gave him a huge well-deserved standing ovation.

A little before 10 we all took off for the circumnavigation of the island.  I was able to sail with Gray Hyde and Larry Yake on Sean’s Monty 23 Dauntless.  Really nice boat.  There wasn’t much wind but we all had an enjoyable “controlled drift”.  It was pretty amazing seeing this many pocket cruisers  in the same place and, get this, there were no wrecks!!!  After a little while we motored to ahead towards the SW part of the island and caught some decent wind.  It wasn’t heavy or as much as we would have liked, but we enjoyed about an hour of good sailing before motoring on around the island and under the bridge back to the docks.  Most everyone was back by 12:30 for the boat show.  A lot of people from town came down and spent a lot of time looking at the boats and the captains were thrilled to tell them anything they wanted to know about their boat.  I was able to spend a lot of time meeting everyone since I didn’t get the opportunity last night due to my late arrival.

At 5 PM today there were still more sailors arriving.  Don’t know exactly how many are here now.

After dinner about 7 PM Sean once again welcomed everyone and introduce Stan Sussman from Interlux/ Awlgrip Paint who gave a very good talk about their products both old and new discussing their uses and application methods.  He then spent quite a few minutes answering a lot of questions from people.  I think the crowd really enjoyed it a learned a lot.  I spent a long time later with Stan discussing a few of the items in great detail as to how they would best work on my products that I make.

After Stan, Jerry Montgomery got up and with a nice slide show went over the details and ideas of the new 16 he is currently designing.  It was very interesting seeing how the actual work of building the mold for the hull was done.  There were a lot of questions which he gladly answered.

Following Jerry, Larry Yake got up and gave rather interesting gag gift awards for countless accomplishments such as farthest distance someone pulled their boat, shortest boat, most sailboats owned and still married, and the list went on and on. 

Finally Sean had the long awaited Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Contest and boy am I glad I wasn’t the judge because there we a lot of really really really ugly shirts.  I won’t even start to talk about the wig and headgear that Sean put on.

Everyone then visited for awhile and slowly went back to their rooms for a well deserved rest.
I think tomorrow will be even better and has more wind forecast as the day progresses.

 

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