You’ll have the choice of three fleets [...]]]> The 21st annual Shipwrights’ Race is coming right up on Saturday, February 25th. Round up your hibernating crew or pick up some fresh crew here on this site or at the skippers’ meeting and get ready for a fun race with wacky trophies and valuables prizes.

You’ll have the choice of three fleets — Racing, Cruising, and Inshore (small boats). Download your entry form here (Shipwrights Registration Form 2012) or pick one up at the Chandlery at the Northwest Maritime Center. Entry fee is $20 per boat before Feb. 16th and $25 thereafter.

The skippers’ meeting will be at 9 am at the Maritime Center commons, and the race is scheduled to start at noon.

There will be chowder, libations, and an awards ceremony at the Maritime Center following the race.

For more information contact Ace Spragg at 360 379-2759 ext. 103 or Piper Dunlap at 360 774-0819.

Proposed Weekend Cruises for the 2012 season.

They should be informal and a way to have fun on the [...]]]> Vince Townrow, Commodore of Port Hadlock Yacht Club is planning a couple of cruises this year and has invited all our members to join in the fun. Here is a lettter I recieved from Vince with the details:

Proposed Weekend Cruises for the 2012 season.

They should be informal and a way to have fun on the water.

Spring and Fall to ensure some sort of weather but not too cold. Reasonably close to Port Hadlock to reduce the logistics. I would plan to invite members of the clubs in Port Townsend and Sequim to join us in the good time.

Hunter Bay on Lopez Island, 2011

Spring Cruise to Hunter Bay

May 5 to Hunter Bay on Lopez Island.

A very pleasant anchorage, well sheltered with great views about 30 miles from the Port Hadlock moorings.  It is situated beyond the west end of Lopez Pass. Suggested that we would arrive around the 1700 hours leaving plenty of time for dinner (Pot Luck?) and socializing. Sunset is 20:30. There is a dock at the entrance of the bay with public parking and allegedly a deli 2.2 miles down the road.

Currents (at least according to C-Map) are the most favorable this weekend in the month. They show a favorable ebb thru the Straits past Point Partridge on Whitbey until midday with a flood to carry us up to Lopez Island till late afternoon. The current through Lopez Pass is favorable until 2000 hours. The return shows favorable current through Lopez Pass until 1300 hours and favorable current past Point Wilson from 1200 to 2000 hours. Now if the wind would cooperate it would be perfect…

In order to generate enthusiasm, challenge and to give the competitive something to do I would propose that the Skippers will publicly state the time they will arrive close aboard R4 situated at the west end of Lopez Pass. The Skipper who most closely achieves the arrival time wins Bragging Rights for the weekend. Perhaps we could find a nice stone on the beach as a trophy? All methods of propulsion are encouraged.

Fall Cruising at the PHYC

September 15 Mackay Harbor on the south side of Lopez Island, A nice reasonably sheltered harbor with a small dock at the north end. There is an excellent store just a short walk up the road. There are also blackberry bushes which hopefully will still be in season. The blackberries will go very nicely with the ice cream from the store.

You can contact Vince at 410-937-4997 or email at:  townrow80@msn.com

Hope to see you out on the water,

Satch

]]>

Needless to say, this is a joke. Don't do it.

]]> http://ptsail.org/2012/01/28/time-to-check-your-rig/feed/ 0 http://ptsail.org/2012/01/24/seattle-boat-show-starts-this-week/ http://ptsail.org/2012/01/24/seattle-boat-show-starts-this-week/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:57:35 +0000 JK http://ptsail.org/?p=4330 Seattle is slowly thawing after the big snow and freeze this past week, and boats are being prepped for move in to the Big Seattle Boat Show, Indoors + Afloat, opening next Friday, January 27 and continuing through Sunday, February 5 at CenturyLink Field and South Lake Union.

Despite the snow and ice around [...]]]> Seattle is slowly thawing after the big snow and freeze this past week, and boats are being prepped for move in to the Big Seattle Boat Show, Indoors + Afloat, opening next Friday, January 27 and continuing through Sunday, February 5 at CenturyLink Field and South Lake Union.

Despite the snow and ice around the Pacific Northwest, the Show must go on! With 1,000 boats of all shape, size, type and budget indoors at CenturyLink Field, another 150 world class boats and yachts afloat on South Lake Union, the West Coast’s Largest Boat Show offers something for everyone. For those who wakeboard, waterski, fish, kayak, cruise or race, under power or sail, on boats small or large, or simply want to outfit their boats with new gear or hone their skills at the 200+ boating and fishing seminars, this Show’s for them.

more information here and here

(Photo by Fritz Guerin)

It wasn’t until I first sailed on a boat with an engine that I understood precisely what is most seductive about sailing. Any who have cursed the din of a motor while afloat will know exactly what [...]]]> Lifted from WaveTrain, Charles Donne’s very literate sailing/boating blog.

(Photo by Fritz Guerin)

It wasn’t until I first sailed on a boat with an engine that I understood precisely what is most seductive about sailing. Any who have cursed the din of a motor while afloat will know exactly what I mean. We feel it the very instant we switch our engines off, as the awful over-riding sound of internal combustion dies away. I call it the orgasm of silence, that moment in which it seems all of our senses have suddenly been turned on.

Considered purely on an aesthetic basis the sensuality of sailing is hardly unique. Any mode of transportation, particularly when raised to the level of sport, necessarily creates sensory stimuli, and those engaged in it will attune themselves to these. Sailors may argue that stimuli experienced while sailing are inherently more aesthetic–that the caress of the wind and the hiss of a wake must, for example, be more sublime than the roar of an engine and the smell of fuel–but this, I think, is mere prejudice. And, of course, many of the stimuli we enjoy while sailing are also experienced in other modes of boating. A canoeist or kayaker–even that lowest form of mariner, the floating motorist–may share our affinity for wind and wave, and, like us, they are subject to their dictates. But, unlike us, they are not wholly dependent on them. To other boaters wind and wave are most often obstructions; to sailors they are sustenance.

Read more here

A lot!  But the biggest thing missing is the  keel, which was removed early in January. MARTHA is in the Shipwright’s Coop building across from Admiral Marine Supply undergoing restoration, the largest part of which is the rebuilding [...]]]>

MARTHA's in the Boat Haven yard getting a new keel, rudder and foremast.

A lot!  But the biggest thing missing is the  keel, which was removed early in January. MARTHA is in the Shipwright’s Coop building across from Admiral Marine Supply undergoing restoration, the largest part of which is the rebuilding of a new lead keel. Robert D’Arcy is leading the project with the help of numerous local marine tradesmen and volunteers. Meanwhile, over in the Northwest Maritime Center’s boat shop, a new foremast is being built for MARTHA under the guidance of Steve Chapin.  Both the keel and the mast are works of art, combining old world woodworking knowledge with modern CAD design tools and machinery.  These are arts that are practiced by very few tradesmen in this day and age. Port Townsend is one of the few locations in the world that can craft these  kinds of projects.

If you arfe interested in volunteering time, money, or a few hours of work, contact Holly at 360-385-2150. You can truly say that you were a part of historty by working on this project.

For more information and pictures of the project, go to schoonermartha.org.

We are putting together a list of skippers that need crew occasionally for the PTSA races (well, for any races really.) We hope to have an influx of new crew members, both experienced sailors and new ones, and would like to help them connect with skippers who can utilize them. If [...]]]> Calling all Skippers

We are putting together a list of skippers that need crew occasionally for the PTSA races (well, for any races really.) We hope to have an influx of new crew members, both experienced sailors and new ones, and would like to help them connect with skippers who can utilize them. If you are interested in being on this list, please send your name and phone and e-mail to Kathy Grace at bonz@olympus.net (or 301-4938.) The list will be on the ptsail.org website. If you do not wish the information to be on the website, but still are willing to take on new crew, just designate that when you reply.

We are working on “rewards” for those of you that are so generous with your knowledge and boat. Your willingness to encourage new sailors is appreciated.  Stay tuned for more information.

Thank you,

Your PTSA board

In the video below, [...]]]> The first event of the year, the Shipwrights Regatta on February 25, 2012, is coming up at a good clip. Time to start thinking about what you need to do on the boat and to get your head back into the very basics of sailing a race on the Bay.

In the video below, Greg Fisher, former North Sails One Design star and now a college coach, goes over the basics. And if your goal is just to get the boat out of the slip a couple times more in 2012, or maybe give racing a try, consider joining the Port Townsend Sailing Association and being part of the fun.

From Ballard Sailor’s report on the 2012 Duamish Head Race on Pressure Drop.

By 2pm the mid raters were crossing the finish line en masse, but amongst them was a little 26 foot boat sailed by one of those old Des Moines Sea Scouts – [...]]]>

NIMBUS formerly known as IMPULSE of the PTSA

From Ballard Sailor’s report on the 2012 Duamish Head Race on Pressure Drop.

By 2pm the mid raters were crossing the finish line en masse, but amongst them was a little 26 foot boat sailed by one of those old Des Moines Sea Scouts – Mark Harang on his new Evelyn 26 NIMBUS (formerly IMPULSE). Now Harang is no stranger to this race, having won the South Sound Series overall in the Thunderbird 26 Rev back in 2000. But in his first race on his new boat Mark, with Kathryn Burnette and Brad Baker as crew, pushed this little boat hard. Crossing the finish line just in front of a much faster rated J105 and almost 25 minutes in front of the next boat in the large class I, NIMBUS not only won its’ class but corrected over all 79 boats that made it out racing on the Duamish Head to take Overall corrected honors by over 6 minutes over the next boat! “Those Sea Scouts of the South Sound learned a thing or two back in the day,” smiles Stephanie Schwenk, “and old age and treachery have only made them more wily. So, the South Sound heroes are back again and on their very first race ever on the boat they took the overall. They squeaked out a start, from out of nowhere. If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t have believed it. Littlest and leeward boat of the fleet, blanketed by a crowd with an ebb that should push them over the line and into the pin, they jam it through and spin to port, hoist and take off… leaving the rest of us in the dust. Be on the lookout for the Evelyn 26 NIMBUS. Unassuming name, but looks like trouble!”

You can read the entire story here.