September/October 2007 Commodore Stephen Jensen 1803 243rd Pl SE Bothell WA 989021 425-483-3835 [email protected] Vice Commodore - East Mike Harrison Founded in 1971 2139 Perrytown Loop Rd New Bern, NC28562 Contents [email protected] Vice Commodore - Midwest Commodores Reports Neal Barkley National 3 2534 CR 5050 East Elk City KS 67344 Mid-West 4 [email protected] West Vice Commodore - West Chief Measurer Jon Richards Calendar 7 2293 McPherson North Bend OR 97459 Regattas 541-756-1768 Fleet Reports [email protected] Fleet Contacts 23 Chief Measurer Mike Chesser Publicity: Mike Robinson 7012 Leisure Lane 232 Farmwood Dr Disputanta, VA 23842 Statesville, NC 28625 704-883-8288 804 541 1124 [email protected] [email protected] Secretary / Treasure Editor: Calvin Guthrie Ken Gurganus 6 Stately Oaks Lane 211 Gloria Street Belleville IL 62220 Greenville, NC 27834 618-910-2164 252-355-6974 [email protected] [email protected] Past Commodore Jibsheet is a bi-monthly Don Olive publication of the San Juan 21 1635 S Dekalb St #203 Class Association Shelby NC 28152 Printed by: Bel-Clair Printing [email protected] Closing Dates: 15th of the odd number months Cover photo: Gains Grantham & crew at ENATS 2007 copyright 2007 San Juan 21 Class Association 2 September/October National Commodore Hi Everyjuan Fleet 1 had only 2 boats go over the hill for the Chelan Regatta. Rascal and Charmed Juan were two of about 7 or 8 Juan’s. Kermit was there and Rob Anderson with another Juan, not the one he got for free, rebuilt and won the Nationals with. Weather was good, winds were light to moderate. The Chelan curse is still in full effect against Charmed Juan. Saturday was a series of errors, mistakes, horrible spinnaker work, and topped off with the shearing off of my cabin top winch using only my body during a crash jibe. I was not having my best day. Sunday was a bit better as we placed close to Kermit in the first race although still 4th or 5th overall. In the last race, we actually lead around all three marks, but when rounding the last mark, a strange wind zephyr swirled around us and Kermit got around us and took first. Don’t forget our next race this Saturday the 22nd at Renton’s Coulon park. Start time is 12:00. I will need to leave early so someone else will need to pick up the marks and pins. We now have 8 boats confirmed for the Norm Blanchard Regatta. I have not heard from PGS Juan, Serendipity, BoB, Compass Rose, Hekla, or anyjuan outside of Fleet 1. In other news, Jim Miller who has been crewing on Habagat has just purchased his own San Juan 21. He is doing some rebuilding and says it will be ready for next year. We also have another person who is looking at getting Juan, Jim will be coming to the next race to see the difference be- tween the MK I and a MK II and see how easily we can rig them up. Maybe someone can snag him for crew? Fleet 1 is continuing to grow September/October 3 Midwest Vice Commodoe Where the heck has the summer gone! Just a couple of days ago, we drove out to California for the North Americas and now here it is October and we have completed the last regatta of the season. I should not be surprised, this happens every year. A lot has happened this summer; I guess that is why it went by so quickly. First of all, I want to thank the Fresno Yacht Club and SJ21 Fleet #3 for putting on a great regatta. They certainly made the out-of-towners feel welcome. Nancy and I made the 1755 miles trip in three days driving through mostly desert in July on Interstate 40. I am happy to say that the trip was uneventful (thankfully). The truck and boat made it over the mountain passes without too much complaining. My credit card complained about gasoline prices. A fill up with Needles, California gas and an empty full size Ford pickup practically requires a second mort- gage. Actually, I wasn’t sure they were going to let me into California. I guess they worry about zebra mussel hitchhikers. I assured them I dry sail and any waterborne critter that could live through New Mexico and Arizona in July would be a scientific wonder. They also wanted to be sure I was not harboring any apples or tomatoes. I guess it is a good thing our tomato crop drowned out this year, or we would have been smuggling a few for sandwiches. On the way to Fresno, we passed through Daggett, which is probably meaningful to no one but me. Daggett was the site of the first industrial scale integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant. Some heavyweights including Texaco, DOE, Cal Edison and Bechtel built this plant in the early 80’s to prove the technology. They per- formed years of testing, but at the end of the day, California Edison did not want it, a decision they may have regretted a few years ago when they had to buy power. In 1997, my employer bought the facility, carefully dismantled it, reconfigured it and re-erected it in Coffeyville, Kansas. I am the manager of this, the only plant in the world that makes nitrogen fertilizers from petroleum coke. That’s my day job so I 4 September/October can sail on the weekends. The flooding in Coffeyville (and my plant) is the reason I was not able to get away sooner and enjoy the High Sierra regatta on the weekend preceding North America’s. But enough about that, this is a sailing story. It was quite a relief to finally go over the pass in the Sierras and get into the central valley of California. It is astounding to me, a Midwest farm boy, to see all the acres under irrigation. It is a long climb up the mountain from Fresno, but when you get to Huntington Lake, it is another world. Tall pine trees and sparkling clear water set between mountain peaks was the perfect contrast to the desert we had driven through the previous days. We put the boat in the water late Wednes- day and tied it to the dock for the night. I have never before seen either the tip of my rudder or any of my keel with the boat in the water here in the mid west, but I could on Huntington. Thursday morning we had to run the heater in the camper to get warm. I worried I did not have enough clothes along to stay warm while sailing. I also worried there would be no wind, because at 9:00 am, there was not a breath of wind. There was no need to worry about either. As soon as the sun would climb over the mountain, it got warm and just like someone threw a switch, the wind started at about 10:00 every day. Now in the mid west, we can set a race course in any direction we want depending upon the wind direction. I could see that Huntington was going to have some short races in certain wind directions. I did not need to worry about this either; the wind came from the same direction every day. The yacht club maintains set marks in the lake and the numbered courses would tell you which marks to round and in what order and which direction to round them. Local knowledge said to cross from the start and then tack up the far shore as long as possible before crossing back. With all the tricky wind shifts, I have never lost or gained so many places sailing in my life. The other unusual thing for us Midwestern sailors was that the race committee was on shore. They were under an awning and had a perfect vantage point to see starts and finishes. It is sure cheaper than maintaining a committee boat. Huntington is a long lake and we had long races. I certainly see why the September/October 5 local fleet all sail with spinnakers, you go downwind forever. Others have written about the race and the results, so I won’t bore you my repeating it (besides, my sixth place finish is not something I brag about). Nancy and I had a fantastic time and will go back some day, next time with a spinnaker. The Midwest series is over. We had picked three regattas at the beginning of the year. Jay and I went to NA’s which occurred the same week as Whitecap, so we did not have enough boats for a fleet. CORN (Cheney One-design Racing at Ninnescah) on Labor Day weekend became our surrogate race with five boats competing. On Sunday, we had very light breezes and the race committee had a hard time deciding which shift to pick for the weather mark. We ended up with a single port tack to weather in the first race and a starboard tack to weather for the second. Thankfully, we did not sail a third race on Saturday. Ninnescah Sailing Association put on their usual great barbeque dinner and fireworks. Monday the breeze picked up to 8-10 knots and we managed to get in three races. The racing was very close, with two points separating third, fourth and fifth place. Results are as follows: 1st – Neal Barkley, 2nd – Gary Shepard, 3rd – Daniel Camp, 4th - Allen Johnson and 5th – Ron White.