The 2005 Catalina Yachts' East Coast Rendezvous Catalina Dreamin at the Newport Yachting Center in the historic sailing capital of Newport, RI, was a well-attended and high-spirited success.
Weather predictions for Friday, August 5th, our arrival date were iffy with a strong cold front expected to arrive in the afternoon. Though other areas were hit with thunderstorms that usually accompany cold fronts in the summer, we were spared. In fact it was quite sunny, breezy and warm as we arrived at the yachting center and the very professional dockhands maneuvered us into our slips, most of us rafted next to other Catalinas.
We were 95 boats in all ranging from a Capri 22 to 3 Catalina 470s. We represented 103 boats since a few people were only able to make it by land. And Eastern Yacht Sales brought their brand new Catalina/Morgan 440 DS (deck salon) for us to look at. We came from as far away as New Jersey and further north in New England. CANE (Catalina Association of New England), OSCA (Ocean State Catalina Association), LISCA (Long Island Sound Catalina Association) and Catalina 36 Fleet 5 Long Island Sound were all very well represented.
From Catalina Yachts were: Frank (President) and Jean Butler; Sharon (Vice President Sales) and David (Catalina Yachts Store) Day; Gerry Douglas (Vice President Engineering) and Warren Pandy (Director of Engineering, Largo FL). Special thanks go to Jim and Daisy Gilmore (Daisy C350) from OSCA (Ocean State Catalina Association) for being the Rendezvous Committee Chairs and helping Catalina Yachts coordinate the whole weekend. Daisy energetically assisted in the many tasks of setting up registration tables, giving out door prizes, helping with the children and much, much more.
The Newport Yachting Center was again a great venue, located in downtown Newport with its many shops and other attractions as well as nearby hotels for any people who were not able to attend by boat. The yachting center had plenty of slips for us providing us with electricity and water even though many of us were rafted. Shoreside were clean and adequate head/shower facilities as well as a huge white tent with beautiful chandeliers for all of our activities. The tent proved to be really nice from the get- go since Friday afternoon was so warm and there was a nice breeze blowing through to help cool us off.
Catalina Yachts set out an ambitious schedule of events for such a short weekend. As we arrived and tied up, many of us started greeting long-time friends at the docks. And we began to make new ones as well, especially as we rafted up with them. The camaraderie was instantaneous, as usual. We started off with registration from 4-6 p.m. on Friday when we received our wristbands and a canvas bag filled with hats, t-shirts, magazines, an events program and other goodies.
The four local Catalina dealers (Coneys Marine from Huntington, NY; Eastern Yacht Sales of Hingham, MA; Eastern Yacht Sales of Portsmouth, RI and Hellier Yacht Sales of New London, CT) sponsored the Friday evening cocktail party. And you know what a cocktail party can do for camaraderie! Cocktails were followed with an evening barbecue consisting of hot dogs, hamburgers, salad, corn-on-the-cob, chips and watermelon. In typical Catalina style door prizes were given out to many lucky winners. They were donated by many companies, too numerous to list here. They included hats, t-shirts, winch handle holders, VHF radios, gift certificates, and much, much more.
To help settle dinner down we were given an exercise: Lewmar Marine brought a professional two-person winch-grinding machine (the kind used on the large racing boats) for us to test our skill and endurance. It was set up with an electronic timer and a graduated scale of resistance. We were to grind the winch 28 times. As we got past the halfway point the resistance became more and more stiff and harder to grind. Categories of participants included singles, doubles, mixed doubles and seniors. Quite a number of us buffed and puffed our way through the exercise. The winners in each category received prizes from Lewmar. Even Frank and jean Butler gave it a spin. What fun!
Dinner was followed by a talk by Moe Roddy entitled "Take the Word Impossible Out of Your Vocabulary." It was a nice inspirational talk about how she learned to sail. Her first husband was typical in barking at her and ordering her around on their boat and never really teaching her how to sail. Later she took lessons on her own and learned how to handle boats by herself. She became so fanatic about it that she entered and competed well in the Bermuda One-Two Race (600 miles single-handed to Bermuda and double-handed returning). She is also a cardiac nurse and hopes to use her adventures in sailing to help raise the awareness of heart disease, especially in women. She illustrated her talk with a great slide show to emphasize her points.
On Saturday morning the seminars began. In past rendezvous' these lasted through the morning. But this year Catalina was able to bring enough people to keep them going throughout the day. And while the morning seminars were in session Catalina sponsored a "kids corner" where the young children were brought together to do art projects, the best of which was to make a banner to be displayed for all of us for the remainder of the rendezvous.
The first seminar was Sail Handling Systems and jib Furling Gear by Dave Anderson from Schaefer Marine. They make most of the jib furlers on our boats. Dave demonstrated how our furlers are constructed emphasizing how we can clean and maintain them. He also talked about how to make sure the lead angle of our furler line is correct going into the furler drum. And he also talked about how to prevent our jib halyard from wrapping around our forestay.
Joe Joyce gave a good talk on maintaining our Universal and Westerbeke diesel engines. He brought parts with him to demonstrate how to clean our heat exchangers, replace our Racor fuel filters as well as various other aspects of engine maintenance. He explained what needed to be done for routine owner maintenance and what should be left to the professional mechanics. There was a lively question and answer period as well.
Representing Edson Marine, our steering people was Will Keene. He, too, discussed the various aspects of maintaining our steering cables, chains and pedestals. He demonstrated what to look for to prevent problems, explaining that second to keeping the water out of the boat, steering was the second most important system on our boats.
We broke for a box lunch provided by the local dealers. The new Catalina/Morgan 440DS was available for us to climb aboard at that time, which a number of us did.
Jim Holder, publisher and editor of Catalina/Mainsheet Magazine, gave a talk about the origins of the magazine, inspired by Frank Butler, to instill customer satisfaction, enjoyment and return business. [We think the results speak for themselves]. He explained that the philosophy of the magazine was to be a means of sharing technical help about our boats and news about our one-design and all-Catalina fleets. Being an owner-based magazine still remains a unique feature. And after the first few years being sponsored by Catalina Yachts, the magazine has been able to sustain itself and continually improve in quality. Gerry Douglas expressed the sentiments that we all felt that Jim and his wife Carol VandenBerg have done a tremendous job that we all appreciate issue after issue.
Perhaps Randy Blanton of Lewmar Marine gave the most popular seminar. He brought several winches with him and demonstrated how to disassemble and reassemble them, instructing us on their care and maintenance. He told us how to watch out for those little pawl springs that are attracted to water. And he told us how to grease and oil our units to keep them in good working order for many years. He set up a couple of them on a side table (without grease) for us to practice on them. He also talked about the Lewmar hatches that many of us have on our boats. He told us how to treat them and how to replace the plastic, if necessary.
Richard Mastry from Mastry Engine Center brought a Yanmar engine with him and talked about its particular maintenance. Since many of the newer Catalinas now incorporate these engines, his talk was particularly meaningful. He too followed with a good question and answer period.
Cliff Evans represented Raymarine Electronics and talked to us about the latest in their electronic gear. He brought along their latest chart plotter that also included radar and gave us a chance to operate it. With this unit we could navigate using the chart plotter and have the radar image superimposed directly over it. A lively question and answer period included questions about equipment interfacing our depth, wind and speed instruments to chart plotters and what the latest advances in the industry for VHF and other electronics.
Gerry Douglas who moderated the daylong seminar session then opened up a question and answer session of his own in which he fielded questions from us about our particular boats. The discussion was lively including questions about certain "brokes" that some of us had to what we should do about lightning prevention. It always amazes us that after so many years and so many models of Catalinas, Gerry was able to focus in on any aspect of any model of any year it was built. How does he remember it all? Catalina Yachts is truly fortunate to have such a great designer and engineer.
During most of the day three vendors maintained displays of their wares for sale and information. They were: Garhauer Marine, the makers of much of our sailing hardware; Gori and Autoprop propellers, two popular models that many of us use; and Catalina Yachts Store, their line of soft goods and other sundries with the Catalina logo on them.
On Saturday evening we again had a full cocktail party, this time provided by Garhauer Marine. Bill and Mary Felgenhauer were on hand at their "booth" and have sponsored this party for many years. These two wonderful people realty exemplify what good business is all about with good prices, friendly service and 10-year warrantees and quality exceeded by none. They have become good friends to many of us Catalina owners. Group pictures were taken of all the people from Catalina 36 Fleet 5, LISCA and the Catalina 400 owners.
A Steak House Grill dinner followed with rib eye steak, grilled onions and mushrooms, salad, corn-on-the-cob and cookies. Daisy and Warren continued raffling off more door prizes during the dinner. It was followed by a very lively DJ with Sharon Day leading in the dancing. The children were included with a bunch of beach balls thrown onto the dance floor for them to play with. Since many of us were baby boomers the music featured many good memories of our youth in the 50's and 60's. Interspersed with a train dance and a chicken dance we otherwise grooved to the music well into the night.
On Sunday morning we were served a full breakfast with scrambled eggs, French toast, bacon, sausage, ham, home fries and muffins. Sharon, Gerry and Frank finished the event with their remarks about how they appreciate our business and our friendship. Sharon and Frank especially had fun with jibing remarks about how long they have been working together. And they helped with the final door prizes which included a couple of those very popular folding steering wheels and three (3) free week-long vacations in Puerto Vallarta for eight people each. Loud cheers rang out as each winner was called.
We all said our good-byes having had a wonderful weekend with good friends, good food and good cheer. The folks from Catalina Yachts pulled off yet another great rendezvous that helped make us yet again thankful to be Catalina owners.
The sun still shone and the wind, though relatively light, was out of the SE as we left the yachting center and headed our various ways home or wherever the winds would take us, happy in our hearts about the great time we just had.