The Cat's Tales

Catalina 36 Santa Monica Bay—Fleet #1

September 2002

John Celick — Newsletter Editor\Treasurer

http://www.catalinasmbay.org/

From the Captain of the Fleet:

“Well, this summer seems to be wrapping up. Marci’s Champagne Dinghy Cruise was a blast and we are looking forward to the White’s Cove Outing mid-October. But first, you should all plan to come to the meeting next Tuesday. I don’t know why, but our September meeting is the most attended event of the year next to our Holiday party and this meeting will be very interesting. See you there.”

Your Fleet Captain, Gene Levinthal

Jim Cash on His Atlantic Crossing at our Next Meeting:

Jim Cash, is a retired marketing executive and forty-year sailing veteran. Last year he purchased a new Wildcat 350 MK2 cruising catamaran from the factory in Durban South Africa, and sailed it back to Marina del Rey. In an informational and humorous photo presentation Jim will share with us his first time crossing the Atlantic under sail. If you have ever thought you would like to make a serious ocean passage you won't want to miss this presentation. Jim is also looking for people that would like to make a similar crossing in the near future.

Charlie Segal

Cherry Cove: The Scene of the Dinghy Cruise and Wine Tasting…

Hello Fleet 1 wine lovers…the BIG moment you have all been waiting for…the final results for the 2nd annual “First, Ever, Dinghy Wine Tasting Competition,” one of the headline events of Marci’s Champagne Dinghy Cruise weekend at Cherry Cover. But first, a couple of words about the weekend cruise itself…IT WAS GREAT! 9 boats made the trip despite some early concerns about hurricanes off the coast of Mexico and some small rain clouds scooting around Southern California. As it turned out, those that attended were rewarded with possibly the best weather weekend Catalina has seen this year.
 
Now, let’s get down to business. At the 2nd annual “First, Ever, Dinghy Wine Tasting Competition” raft up, we had 11 different wines to taste and evaluate…this does not include the bottles of champagne that preceded the judging with an appropriate toast by Garry Willis. The champagne also accompanied a seemingly endless assortment of gourmet appetizers that were constantly making the rounds.
 
Now, let’s really get down to business. We started off our Herculean judging assignment with 4 whites: a sauvignon blanc from Santa Ynez, a pinot grigio from Italy, a chardonnay from Santa Rosa and a chardonnay from Temecula. With votes tabulated, the top prize in the white wine category goes to Bob and Marlene White for their 1999 sauvignon blanc from the Bridlewood Winery in Santa Ynez. In second place…a tie…is shared by Brian and Tannis Frankish with their pinot grigio from Cantine Pirovano Calco in Italy and John and Nancy Celick with their 2000 Russian River Valley chardonnay from the De Loack Vineyard in Santa Rosa.
Now, turning to the red wine category, our difficult work continued as we took on 8 entries: 3 merlots, 2 Australian shirazs, a valdiguie, a cabernet sauvignon and a French Bordeaux.
 
I must add that half way through the red wine judging our burdensome task was momentarily lifted with a pause to savor delicious pastry prepared by Marcy Willis and cheesecake and dark chocolate cubes provided by Jan Polancic. With taste buds renewed we finished our work which turned out to be a very tight race in the red wine category. With votes now counted, the top prize goes to Gary and Marcy Willis for their 1999 Merlot from the Beringer Vineyard in Napa. They narrowly beat out Gene and Joan Levinthal who won second place with their 2001 Banrock Station Shiraz from Australia. And very close behind were Eric and Cinamon Sorensen with their 1997 cabernet sauvignon from the Castle Rock Winery in Napa and HalAvery with his wildflower valdiguie from the J. Lohr Winery in Paso Robles. 
 
The Grand Prize winner…the white or red wine that received the most votes cast for any wine…goes to Gary and Marci for their Berringer merlot. The red wine First Price goes to Gene and Joan for their Australian shiraz and the white wine First Prize goes to Bob and Marlene for their sauvignon blanc. Prizes will be awarded at an upcoming Fleet 1 dinner meeting to be announced. And judging from the wild and continuous laughter coming from our flotilla of wine connoisseurs, I think a good time was had by all…even though we may not be allowed back in Cherry Cove next year. Congratulations to the winners and everyone else for making this cruise a great success.

Jim & Meryle Mitchell

TECH TALK: What IS That BAD Oder? Headology… or would you rather not talk about it?

As some of you may know, my spouse, Nancy, has been pressuring me to buy a new boat. Or so I thought. What she really wanted was for me to fix the head smell. The worst part of it was that I thought I had fixed the head smell. I had replaced the holding tank and put in new white hoses and put in a vent filter. But, it wasn’t enough. Such a sensitive little nose!

First, it turns out that there is “white” sanitary hose and then there is “white” sanitary hose and the prices range from $3/ft. to “YOU’RE” kidding $$$’s” per foot. As it turns out, the very expensive hose really works. The old black hoses stink within weeks and the less expensive “white” sanitary hoses stink within months. We’ve tested them and the new, very, very expensive “white” sanitary hoses don’t stink after over one year. To test for hose stink, wrap your hand around the hose and then smell your hand… ugh!

Now, about that head vent. A simple charcoal filter mounted in line, behind the medicine chest in a C36 works great… until it gets wet. Yup, it get’s wet during a washdown via the vent hole in the stanchion. I really don’t have a fix for this problem. Anybody got a fix?

Fresh water flush is better than salt water, but it uses valuable and scarce fresh water. It really works because it eliminates that exterior entrance where all the nasty bugs live. It is worth adding the bow water tank. In fact, this may be the most significant fix in this discussion.

Finally, there are tank additives and here there is controversy. We’ve been trying the yeast, bio-friendly stuff, and we aren’t that happy. It seems that in order for this to work, you need additional tank venting so the little beasts don’t suffocate (we added a 1 ½ inch vent). And, then you need to incubate the little suckers

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(Excuse me for this pun) in warmish water for thirty minutes before adding them to the tank. And, then you

must add new yeast to the tank periodically… read: very often… and some add new yeast daily while cruising… and after a year we aren’t that happy. Actually, I’m very seriously thinking about re-installing the “blue tablet” dispenser into the flushing system. That seemed to be the best system we had… but it isn’t bio-friendly.

I hope this little discussion wasn’t too offensive and was a little bit helpful. We have actually made quite a bit of progress and I have been able to avoid a new boat mortgage. Sorry, Charlie! 

John Celick, editor

TECH TALK: Want New Sails?

Ullman Sails have made a very attractive offer to our fleet. If we order a minimum of 5 new sails among us we’ll get an additional 5% off of the already discounted Winter Price List. Contact me and I’ll e-mail you the prices. 

John Celick, editor

Coming Events

Date:	Event:	Remarks:
Tuesday, Sept. 17	Meeting	SMWYC Restaurant Take-Out, Speaker Jim Cash
Tuesday, October 15	Meeting	SMWYC Pot Luck Dinner, Speaker TBA
Fri-Sun, October 18-20	Cruise	White’s Cove, BYC Facilities,

Meetings are on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at the Santa Monica Windjammers Yacht Club, 13589 Mindinao Way, cocktails at 6:30, Dinner at 7:30