Wow - this is my last official column in Mainsheet. We just closed the ballot box today and Lloyd Clauss is our new Commodore with 55 votes vs. 28 for Bob Flemming. Martha Bliss is Secretary and Dave Cherry will continue as Treasurer. The other tentative candidates for these positions withdrew and were removed from the ballot. I'm going to hang around as Vice Commodore for at least part of the year, but I intend to resign before the end as I may wind up selling the boat. It seems to be up to the EPA - the god of dredging, and what they will allow Punta Gorda to do. I will also continue as Technical Editor for as long as needed.
I wound up serving as Commodore, etc. for 10 years, mostly single handed, and probably started to get burnt out towards the end. I apologize for some of the slightly negative tones I may have started to emit it's not me. I much prefer having a rum drink in my hand, spouting "no problem, mon", while Buffet and Marley are playing on the stereo. Frustration in finding help, support and enough articles for Mainsheet finally started to set in.
I'm hoping that we find a new site for the 2006 National Regatta, other than Long Island Sound (two previous Nationals) and the Chesapeake Bay (one National). I tried to enlist some entries through the various Catalina and C400 email lists and got some mild interest. If it hasn't been decided yet and you think you have the place and the boats, please contact Lloyd (or me) immediately. We've had 3 of these over the last 10 years, the last being around 4 years ago in Long Island Sound. It's fun and should not be,nearly as competitive as what you might see at some of the local clubs on the average Wednesday night. Some of these boats take no prisoners. The boats on the Chesapeake will probably wind up doing it if no one else steps forward.
We've been using Sailnet as our web site host and for our email list for around 7 years. They went bankrupt early in 2005 and a new entity founded by the previous Sailnet owners, Sailjazz, assumed a number of the association email lists. Two other things recently happened, Sailjazz started to charge a registration fee to belong, and Sailnet was bought out by Marine.com and brought back to life. We also started a C400 list at Yahoo while we waited for the dust to settle. I think Sailnet has the most members by a large margin and it would seem to be the logical choice. For those C400 owners who have email access, you should join this Catalina 400 list at www.sailnet.com. You will wind up getting a relatively small number of emails each day on subjects concerning the boat and its equipment, sailing it, cruising grounds you many know, and possibly some association business and announcements. It can be very valuable, especially for newer owners. If you want to get inundated with email about all Catalina's, you've also got that choice at sailnet. We seem to need a new host service for our web site as Sailnet seems to have stopped supporting it. It was free for all these years and we may have to start paying now. I am trying to contact them to see what their intentions are.
It's been mostly fun over the last 10 years. I hope to see many of you on the water either in my C400 or maybe in a shallow draft multi-hull replacement for it. The EPA will decide which one.