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SSC Spring Newsletter, April 2013
Ocean Sailing | Announcing Tom Claydon as New Head Instructor | New Website Launch | Fun at Rolex 2013
Open House-Fundraiser | Fleet Positioning Time Has Arrived
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Experience Sailing in the Open Sea
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Journey at Sea | Join us for our Ocean Sailing Class
We are offering our Ocean Sailing Class cruise, with at least three to four days spent offshore, for over 80 hours of instruction. St. Thomas to Bermuda (first leg), Bermuda to Norwalk (second leg) Please contact Eileen at [email protected] for more information. Hurry, St. Thomas to Bermuda almost full with a few spaces left for second leg.
P.S. I sailed Bermuda to St. Thomas in December and it was an experience of a lifetime. -Eileen Preston
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Announcing Tom Claydon as SSC's Head Instructor
Many of you will be pleased to hear that Tom Claydon, who has been teaching with Sound Sailing Center for over 10 years, will be taking over the duties of Head Instructor. Many thanks to Tom for helping out as always.
Free parking, free admission!
We will display and demo one or two of the Sound Sailing Center boats and probably the brokerage Hanse 540 'INDY' that we have for sale.
This May boat show kicks off the season in New England and is being held at Milford Lisman Landing Marina in Milford, Connecticut. Sound Sailing Center will offer Free Discover Sailing rides. Members who are interested in delivering, skippering or helping out at the show, please contact us.
This fun and family oriented show is organized by Snyda. Snyda is a group of top professional sailboat dealerships in Southern New England that have joined together to promote the sailing lifestyle. Snyda's mission is to offer new and exciting experiences for the boating enthusiast, including "SailQuest", a unique boat show that ran for the first time in April 2008.
The show will feature new sailboats, trawlers, downeast-style powerboats and select brokerage yachts for sale from 20 to over 50 feet long. A variety of companies will be on-site offering small boats, gear and other products and services including financing and insurance. North Sails will demonstrate sailmaking and children will get a chance to make their own sails out of real sailcloth.
The docks at Milford Landing will showcase a wide range of models from quality manufacturers including (2012 list): Cutwater, Catalina, Hanse, Jeanneau, Island Packet, Hunter, Lagoon, Beneteau, J Boats, X-Yachts, Minor Offshore, Nordic Tug, Ranger Tug, and North Pacific.
SailQuest Boat Show will be held at Milford Lisman Landing May 17-19, 2013, 10-5pm daily. For more information call WindCheck Magazine 203-332-7639 or email [email protected].
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New Website Launch
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new website which is easier to navigate, communicate with fellow members and purchase services. We are in the works to launch our new Boat Scheduling system that will simplify your sailing experience. We appreciate your feedback. Please email Eileen Preston at [email protected]
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New pricing for Pearson 37 and Hanse 400 memberships
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new website which is easier to navigate, communicate with fellow members and purchase services. We are in the works to launch our new Boat Scheduling system that will hopefully make things easier for you. Please feel free to give us your feedback at [email protected]
Open House Party|Fundraiser
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Our annual open house will be on Memorial Day weekend, Saturday, May 25th, 2013 (rain date Sunday the 26th). Besides being able to view all our boats, we are offering our members the chance to sign up to do demo sailing rides with the proceeds benefiting the charity of their choice! Martin and Lars van Breems will be collecting money for the Relay for Life.
Want to try out one of our boats? Make a small (or large) contribution, and off you go! Afterwards, enjoy a drinks and and food at our SSC cookout! Hope to see you there.
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Fleet Positioning Decision Time
Please help us figure out which boats should dock in Mystic. If you have not filled out our survey yet, please do so by Monday, since we need to finalize our slip arrangements. Last year, we kept our Oday 240 on a mooring, along with the Contest 36 in a slip at Mystic Shipyard. We have already confirmed the same big boat slip at Mystic Shipyard, which has a great swimming pool and lots of other amenities like free bikes to use. We are planning on using either Sweden 340 or Contest 36, both of which are getting new diesels this year, or maybe the Pearson 37. The Sweden 340 has features like beautiful lines and an amazing refrigeration system that make her very attractive, while the Contest has a much larger cockpit and a more spacious interior (with tons of storage) and a solid rub rail, great for coming in between pilings.
Some members got great use out of the Oday, including one member who sailed her to the Newport Jazz Festival, while others had problems with the gas outboard motor. We are reluctant to put an Ensign in Mystic since the strong tides and ocean waves could sweep an electric powered Ensign into a dangerous situation if the winds were to die. The options for a smaller boat include an Ensign with an electric motor and maybe a gas engine backup, the Oday 240, or possibly the Sabre 30 with a new diesel. Both Sabre 30's will have new diesels this year. Instead of a mooring, we might keep the Sabre 30 and/or Oday 240 in Mystic Shipyard east (no available small boat slips in the west yard). The east yard is a short walk from the Amtrak station and will be much easier than keeping her on a mooring. Main issue is the draft - only about 3' at dead low for in the channel heading in, which may restrict when the Sabre can arrive or depart. While the east yard does not have a pool, Mystic Shipyard west is only a short boat ride away. Filling the survey below will really help us make our decision. Thank you in advance for your opinion.
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St. Thomas International Rolex Regatta, 2013
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The crew gets ready to prepare Bermuda High for Rolex
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Well, at least we were consistent!
Rolex Cup Regatta kicked off with two races on the first day, a downwind run to Charlotte Amalie (which we typically do very well in) followed by an upwind beat back to the east end and the Yacht Club. Unfortunately, the forecast was for very light winds, 7-8 knots, which would slowly build during the weekend. Light winds favor the lighter boats, and we knew the 4 J boats in our class would be tough to beat. We finished seventh out of nine in the first race. During the second upwind race, the winds were stronger in the harbor so we flew, keeping in front of the fleet after a good start but the winds lightened and we ended up finishing fourth on the return leg.
Saturday's race proved to be very challenging. The initial upwind segment off Buck Island, followed by a fast reach down Pillsbury Sound, saw us in a strong lead. Less than 500 feet from the mark, the wind completely died for us, and the boats behind caught up. We slowly worked our way through the dead zone, but our lead was gone. We ended up with another fourth place finish-pretty good, but not good enough.
The excitement built on Sunday, with 15 seconds between us and #3, and less than a minute between us and #2. We finished with two more fourth place finishes putting us in fifth place in front of the Swan and the Santa Cruz 70 (and 3 points out of 2nd place). The Rolex parties were really great but even better was our crew, who worked extremely well together and had a great time.Check out our pics on our Facebook page or visit the Rolexcupregatta.com/media
We will be back!!!
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McCabe brothers relax after another tough day at sea
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Thank you to all of our members and customers. We welcome your feedback. If you would like to learn more about a particular facet of sailing, please let us know.
Sincerely,
The Gang at Sound Sailing Center
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Sound Sailing Center | 54 Calf Pasture Beach Road | Norwalk, CT 06855
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