SailTime

Omatu Sailors !

Chris Tucker — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:56:21 +0000

It was about eleven months ago, on the deck of a fine catamaran in Puerto Andratx, on the island of Mallorca, that the die was cast. Our intrepid sailing group would go the other way around the world to experience the South Pacific. We settled on French Polynesia because SunSail has a base there and believe it or not, as the crow flies, AA and all its hubs being the crow, it is closer to us than the Caribbean. Only an 8.5 hour plane ride will find us around 20 South.

So in this view, Los Angeles is on the top part of the globe and Tahiti is on the bottom part ! The Leeward Islands of the Society Islands will be our cruising grounds for two weeks. We will sail from Raiatea to Huahine, Tahaa and legendary Bora Bora. Our boat is a Belize 43 catamaran with 6 cabins. One of our members, is also getting a big cat for their first time and the other SailTime member Captains have a 47 and 50 foot Beneteau. All in all, there will be about 25 of us from SailTime Channel Islands and SailTime Virginia Beach who enjoy the 2nd Annual Captains Cruise.

I spent a lot of time pouring over boat logs of other people’s sailing adventures down there and talked with quite a few sailors who have already made the journey. So, I feel well prepared to lead this crew even though I’ve never been there either. We’ve got underwater cameras, HD video and more. So you can be sure we will do our best to capture a lot of the best moments which you will find posted here later in June. These flotilla vacations are great fun because you get to experience a far flung cruising ground with a bunch of friends. Much better than trying to tell them about it. At our SailTime base we offer members two trips a year. First timers get to experience the bareboat charter lifestyle in the BVI every Fall and then we do this type of thing every Spring. We’ll know where we are going next year when we all get down there and decide ! So stay tuned !

How Do SailTime Boats Stay So Clean ?

Chris Tucker — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:05:43 +0000

Our SailTime sailboats are always gleaming, perfectly clean and polished, waiting for a member to arrive and enjoy. This doesnt happen by accident. Colin is the Fleet Manager and he takes his job seriously. He takes great satisfaction is delivering a perfect product and I am most proud to call him my partner !

Here we see him on a dreary, foggy Friday with the tools of his trade. Neither rain, sleet nor snow keeps him from his Friday duties preparing the SailTime fleet for a weekend of fun for the members. We find keeping boats impeccably clean is not only good for our image. It also helps us monitor wear and tear and stay on top of the maintenance behind all the spit and polish. This year we are trying to transition to all natural cleaning products to help protect the environment. Simple Green is our mainstay and takes care of 90% of our needs.

If it looks like Colin is counting down the days, he is ! We are 10 days away from a two week flotilla to French Polynesia where he will get some time away from cleaning these boats.

Sea Angel Spotted in Oxnard

Chris Tucker — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:04:40 +0000

We have been the benefactor of a Sea Angel for a couple of weeks now. Leia called Captain Dan out of the blue one day and asked if he was looking for an intern. Apparently, she wanted to learn the fine art of keeping a ship. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, the Cap’n signed her on and turned her over to me!

Leia certainly has made my Spring chores easier. She sanded down both Sweet Deal and Wiley, our training boats. Then we taped them and I showed her how to apply the “working boat” varnish we apply to them,Cetol. The sanding was quite involved and tedious as depicted here, Leia can do it with her eyes closed at this point

Mermaid Found Sailing Off Southern California Coast

Chris Tucker — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:19:52 +0000

I couldn’t decide what the title of this post should be. “Nice Work if You Can Find It”, was the first thing that came to mind. But being a sailing blog and due to my obsession with search engine optimization, that just wouldnt do. Even though it is so true ! Anyway, from time to time, The Cap’n and I score some of our favorite duty, which is to escort a photographer and his latest crop of Valley beauties on a photo shoot.

Don’t think this is all fun and games… It was about 60 degrees out during the shoot with a nice cool breeze. Goosebump Olympics. Mermaids are known to be cold blooded though and willing to do virtually anything in pursuit of the perfect portfolio.

2008 Newport Ensenada Race Finishes Up

Chris Tucker — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:33:55 +0000

Despite Horrendously light winds, the 2008 edition of the legendary Newport to Ensenada Race is finished. We had two boats entered; Rainbow was a DNF after they had some mechanical problems and got towed into San Diego where they were fixed back up in a couple hours and then headed off to Catalina Island.

Unofficially it looks like our newest boat, 1421, finished in 8th place in their class, which would be a fabulous showing. The Andrews 80, Mag 80, which also won the recent San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race, competing out of Long Beach Yacht Club finished in just under 17 hours, some 7 hours behind Roy Disney’s 2003 standing record. Dennis Conner, on his Stars and Stripes, a Farr 60 finished in 8th place in a little over 20 hours. Two local boats finished in first place in their class; 5150, a hot SC50 took PHRF A class and Jerzy Poprawski from the Anacapa Yacht Club on his Flying Tiger, Superluminal took honors in the Sprit B class

Mike Harker is a Sailing Hero

Chris Tucker — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:39:24 +0000

I guess I am a Mike Harker groupie. I qualify because I’ve heard him present his story several times now. One of the reasons I made the sojourn to Oakland last week to the Strictly Sail boat show was to hear about his latest round of adventure; circumnavigating the world in only 11 months !

Mike, who is a film maker by trade, is an inspiration to anyone for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the story of his recovery from a hang gliding accident that left him paralyzed below the knees. As a kid, he was a high speed waterskiing champion and used to laugh at the thought of a sailboat going 6 miles per hour. In his early adult years he was a pioneer of the hang gliding sport. During that period he did enough crazy things to officially call him certifiable ! After a decade of recovery from his accident, he gained partial use of his legs and bought a sailboat without knowing the first thing about actually sailing one. He sailed out to Catalina island and then had to figure out how to turn around. He didnt kill himself or destroy the boat so he decided to join the Baja Ha-Ha, an annual rally for cruisers from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. It was on this trip he got bitten by the cruising bug. Interestingly, Hunter marine caught word of his feat and asked him to do some filming for them and become a spokesperson when he upgraded to a larger boat that he sailed most of the way around the world. As he neared home, Hunter asked him to come down to Florida and help them design a 49 foot, true blue water cruiser. He got hull #1 and took off on a whirlwind tour that saw him show the boat at the Sydney Boat Show in Australia and the Miami Boat Show on the other side of the world, a few months later. His presentation about that trip, that I heard in Oakland occurred about 25 days after he completed it !

Sailing Stars of the West Coast

Chris Tucker — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:30:10 +0000

About this time last year, my partners, Captain Dan (L) and Dennis Dreith (R), had the opportunity to take an artist and a writer out to Santa Barbara Island. The result was some great paintings and a monstrous article in Sailing magazine’s April 2008 issue.
Here we see Cap’n and Dennis beaming with pride at the mast of Sancerre with a copy of the article in question.

Strictly Sail Pacific

Chris Tucker — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:46:00 +0000

We made the annual pilgrimage to Jack London Square at the Oakland waterfront this week to see the Strictly Sail boat show. Not only is it the largest sailboat show on the West Coast. It is the only show out here that brings out all the goody and accessory purveyors, worldwide charter companies and more.
I went up with John and Jane McKinney, SailTime Channel Islands’ 2007 Member of the Year. You can see Jane’s method of testing boat comfort ! Here, we were checking out Hunter’s new 49 foot sloop. it was a nice warm sunny day, we saw alot and we even got to take in some world class food and music at Yoshi’s where we saw Billy Cobham’s quartet tear up some straight ahead jazz !

Blessing of the Fleet

Chris Tucker — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:17:42 +0000

Captain Dan and I spent the morning with our fleet of eight boats getting them inspected for 2008. We do this each year to make sure we are conformed to USCG standards.
Here we see USCG volunteer inspector Rafael Francke applying the inspection sticker to Imagine, signifying that the inspection has occurred. Mr. Francke was a very interesting fellow who is the originator of the folding catamaran among other accomplishments. This is the second year we have done this and it is quite remarkable how the volunteers treat this part of their duty. This is a no fooling around process and we passed with flying colors once I ran to West Marine quickly to replace a mysteriously missing fire extinguisher. The annual inspection also gives us a chance to change the smoke detector batteries (not required) at the same time we check the dates on our flares, etc.

Anacapa Yacht Club Opening Day 2008

Chris Tucker — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:06:07 +0000

It was “Opening Day” here in the Channel Islands Harbor, last weekend. The festivities included a breakfast event at the Anacapa Yacht Club. It was a perfect day weather wise and the harbor was deemed clear of ice and ready for the season ! “Opening Day” is kind of a funny situation here in Southern California, because our sailing season never really ends. None the less, yacht clubs cant pass up the pomp and circumstance of tradition.
Here we see, our own Jerry Roth, the owner of “Rainbow” in our SailTime fleet, raising the flags during the ceremony. We were all singing the National Anthem. This was a truly heartfelt ceremony as it was our public proclamation that AYC would never hold a Opening Day in this facility again. It is slated to be torn down during redevelopment next Winter and a new facility will be built in its place, taking up to two years to complete.