Subject: Re: [Catalina-22] CATALINA22 (general) (Fake snakes to Backhoes; the '07 sailing season)

From: "Pete Skalski" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:31:33 -0500

Thanks for the recap Jay. I'm not quite ready for haul out yet. Hopefully
I'll be able to stretch it to around the end of next month. Always a
bummer to do so. Almost time to look forward to those off season upgrades
and maintenance, and a better time next season. I'll echo Greg's comments
and I'll bet others on the list feel the same -- thanks for your input,
concern, and your generosity. Cheers,
Pete

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Greg Rohde"
  To: [email-masked]
  Subject: Re: [Catalina-22] CATALINA22 (general) (Fake snakes to
  Backhoes;the '07 sailing season)
  Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:12:06 -0700

  Great tale Jay,  I'm sure your boy will always remember that haul
  out.Nice to hear about  your  season, I have no doubt you'll become
  as accomplished a sailor as you wish. From web pictures your lake
  looks beautiful. How lucky you are to be able to enjoy it with
  friends and family.I'd like to once  again thank you for your
  generosity. I really appreciate it, and your friendship. Regards
  ,Greg I'm off  this weekend with my Son to San Francisco for the
  Rolex Big Boat Series (as a spectator). http://www.stfyc.com/

  On 9/12/07, Thomas Holz <[email-masked]> wrote:

    Hello Friends, From the moment that I slipped CjAndeai into the
    water of the Great Sacandaga, I knew that the '07 sailing season
    would fun and interesting.  It was.          As soon as I readied
    the rigging, and stowed things in place, as CjAndeai swung in
    place off her mooring, I took my first course of action against
    the mighty seagulls.  Remembering the wicked, nasty mess they
    made of fellow boaters covers, (pontoon boats, I found, are huge,
    easy targets), I brought out the troops....three, five foot long
    blow up fake snakes, (these worked great for me last year, all
    misses-no hits).  I hung and secured them at various places, one
    at the bow, one on the aft lower stay, and one on my new black
    boom cover.  On the second day back on the boat, I checked for
    hits...nothing...the snakes were doing their job. and I continued
    to have a clean boat all season long. My winter and spring
    improvement projects for the boat came together very well.  The
    pop-top lift kit, the E-Z glide lead block system, cabin top
    winches, spinlock rope clutches, all new lines ( except the line
    to the furler drum), my goosebutt/outhaul rigging, the adjustable
    double-ended mainsheet, compass change out, the C25 tiller with
    my tiller-matic, boom kicker, grab handles, and the single line
    reefing ( I finally got that tweaked in on the very last day )
    were all set and ready to go. I tried to get as much sailing in
    this summer as possible.  By myself, with my wife, with my kids,
    with other peoples kid's, with other people, and even some of our
    local scouts were on board to be transported to Scout Island for
    an overnighter.  Hell, I even took my pie friends for a sail! 
    And on the last day of sailing, I think I converted my brother in
    becoming a sailor.  The sailing was great at all times.  With my
    highest recorded gust of 49 mph (ok, that wasn't so great....but
    now that's it's done..)and , with my one son on board, and in
    the cabin, and having a flying four man rubber dingy at my stern,
    no port...no starboard, (well it was flying) that made
    it exciting, and very nerve wrenching, down to the day when there
    was  very, very, little wind with just myself on board, which was
    equally as challenging, to keep the boat moving forward.  I
    learned more about balancing out the boat that day,  than any
    other day.  That day was the first day to go "wing to wing".  On
    the last day of sailing, I felt that I improved so much from the
    first day of the season,  that, maybe, I'll be really good at it
    one day.  and it was this season, that I actually got to sleep on
    the boat, twice.  I found it to be pretty comfortable, but I had
    to quiet down the halyards that were slapping the mast, so I used
    a ball ended bungee cord, looped around the mast and halyards,
    and pushed up the mast to the spreaders by using my boat hook. 
    That worked well.      We had beautiful weather for most of the
    season.  Fellow sailors were helpful and friendly.  Dwayne was
    wanting to wage war on the local yacht club, after my family and
    I swam to their private island, and were told that indeed, it was
    a private island upon our departure.  No hard feelings.  Our
    beloved Commander Chip went south....literally.  A real fall from
    grace, that shorten his sailing season considerably.  But he's
    back, and doing good, and sailing about.  And Thanks to Kerry ( I
    believe ), filled his shoes ( size ten penny loafer, if ,I
    remember the shoe shot correctly), while Commander Chip sailed
    away for three days.  And many, many, more very eventful and
    entertaining things happened to list members, which was great to
    read about, on the off hours of sailing. and, that I was hoping,
    that they to were having a great sailing season as well. For me,
    and many, on The Great Sacandaga Lake, the season came to an
    early close this past Labor Day.  Our water level dropped earlier
    than we hoped.  Water was being released at a rate of 12" a week,
    then to 18" a week.  Boats, especially fixed keel sailboats, had
    to be hauled out, or, be at risk of being stuck there for the
    winter, in mud.  The water is released from a dam at the north
    end of the lake, which in turn flows over and down the Sacandaga
    River to the Hudson River.  The purpose, opinions vary, is to
    push back the salt water that flows from the ocean, up stream
    into the Hudson River.  Many communities along the Hudson rely on
    the River for their drinking water, and this back wash helps it
    from being contaminated with salt water.  So, to help our friends
    out in the south, we forgo, at times, the extended sailing
    season.  Last year my haul out was on Columbus Day. The Day
    After Labor Day Haul out was going to be interesting.  My Marina
    is in the south end of the Sacandaga, with many shallow spots,
    even when the water level is high.  On Labor Day, we packed up
    our camp, that was home for us for five days, in the northern
    part of the Sacandaga Lake.  My wife Christine, our daughter
    Andasia, her friend Megan, and our little nephew Jarrett, and I
    headed back to our mooring in the south.  It was a bright
    beautiful day.  A very nice time back.  Relaxed.  We had fun
    looking through the binoculars, at boats, at people, and at the
    many very tall teepee's of wood that would be burned that night
    for the Annual Ring of Fire, which many participate around the
    entire lake.  It's absolutely beautiful to see.  The lakes
    landscape changed in matter of days.  Islands grew bigger, and
    some islands just grew.  Unseen boulders, and trees were now
    visible and dry.  I could swear that on one boulder, I could
    see a chunk of my keel on it from the year before.  Caution was
    on my mind, as I picked my line of travel.  I relied on my trust
    in my depth finder, knowing that the keel offset gave me
    some room for safety.  As I came nearer to our Marina, a line of
    danger buoys lie ahead.  My usual course to enter the Marina had
    to be changed.  Very, very slowly we motored in. Six feet, five
    feet....the alarm goes off on the depth finder...four feet, three
    feet, back to four feet.  Slower yet, we make it to the dock. 
    Three, three and a half feet of water at the end of the dock.
     Maybe I can get it out, maybe not. I'll find out tomorrow.   We
    unloaded our gear from CjAndeai, and I placed her on the hook for
    the last time this year.  We drove back to meet up with friends,
    and to watch the Ring of Fire. The warmth of the fires, and the
    friends around us, was a very fitting end to a great sailing
    season. The next day, my son Devon and myself drove up to haul
    out CjAndeai.  We walked out on the dock to check the ramp.  The
    ramp is very long, but the water at the end of it was only two
    feet deep.  I was ready to drive my Ford F-250 in so far, that
    water surely would of have flooded the inside.  The owner of the
    Marina offered to use his Ford pickup, which he has been using
    all day to haul boats out.  I took him up on it.  We pulled the
    tongue extension out on the trailer, and pinned it in place. 
    Another eight feet,... maybe we can do this.  Lauren, the marina
    owner, backed the trailer in so far that it was ten feet past the
    end of the dock.  The rear pads on the trailer were still three
    inches above the water, but the lower bunks were just under.  We
    decided that we got this far, that we might as well give it a
    go.  My son and I rowed out to the boat, dropped the mooring, and
    motored very slowly to the trailer.  The winds were blowing
    around 10mph, enough to make me drift past the trailer,
    twice.   On the third attempt, I shot upwind of the trailer, and
    handed the tiller to Devon.  I jumped off, with dock line in
    hand, and pulled the boat toward  the trailer.  Quickly, I
    centered the bow to the middle of the trailer, and pulled the
    boat in fast, only to be stopped by the pads in the back.  With
    the boat two thirds over the trailer, I connected the winch cable
    to the bow and cranked.   I was able to draw the boat in most of
    the way, but again I was stopped.  The boat looked centered on
    the trailer...it has to go one foot more...I cranked the winch
    more, only to bend to handle and gears on the winch.  CjAndeai
    was still one foot short of her final resting place for winter
    storage.                   Lauren said he had an idea, and there
    was nothing else now, that we could do.  We couldn't move the
    boat off the trailer, we couldn't float her off the trailer, due
    to low water for the boat and high water for the truck.  Our only
    option was to pull her out of the water, and implement Lauren's
    idea.  Once out of the water, I saw the problem.  First, we had
    just enough water to do what we did, but not enough water for the
    keel to clear the carpet on the bed of the trailer where the keel
    sits.  It bunched the carpet up into a ball under the keel.  The
    second problem was that the boat was not centered completely,
    and the keel was wedged into the one side of the wooden  2"x6"
    keel guides.  I was trying to winch the boat through a piece of
    wood earlier, thus, bending the hell out of my winch. Up the
    hill, and on level ground, Lauren fired up his back hoe.  His
    son-in-law, Tim and I supported the long trailer tongue with wood
    blocks underneath it.  Lauren's face had a look of wanting to
    help, but not sure if it would, on it.  He drove the back hoe
    over, and centered the top edge of the bucket under CjAndeai's
    stern.  With the outboard off, and away to the side, we placed a
    board between the bucket and the hull.  With visions of my boat
    being folded up like a Hallmark card, Lauren carefully raised
    CjAndeai up, and, off the trailer.  Only the bow rested on the
    trailer.  Tim and I picked up the trailer and centered it to the
    keel.  It was still a foot away from the bow stop of the
    trailer.  Lauren now had a slight smile on his face, as he
    dropped the bucket and drove off.  I thanked Lauren and Tim for
    the extra help that they had given me, it was greatly
    appreciated.  By this time, it's nearly dark, and time for Devon,
    and myself to head home.  I wrapped my arm around Devon's
    shoulder, and thanked him as well, "a good job well done, my
    son", I said to him, " good hand on the tiller".   He smiled, as
    we walked away, but looking back at CjAndeai, our boat. Jay
    Thomas Jay Holz
    Amsterdam,NY
    1989 WING KEEL (CjAndeai)
    CTYH5021E989
    www.cjandeai.blogspot.com

  --
  Greg Rohde
  C22 "Criosaidh"
  Laser 19353
  Placerville, Ca
  http://criosaidh.blogspot.com/

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