It was the weekly Thursday night JAM, and the second race of the summer series at the Nepean Sail Club on the Ottawa River and my first season with Waltzing Bear, too; sail number 797. I’m not a very determined racer and my crew and I are out to have fun and a post race beer on the water (just one each but still against Canadian Coast Guard regulations). The wind was blowing across the river gusting to 24 knots leaving plenty of white caps but no swell as there is little fetch across the relatively narrow river.

We had one reef in the main and some furl on the jib which left us in control in the gusts if the traveler guy was paying attention to the degree of turn on the wheel. The plan was to cross the start at the non-preferred end on starboard tack; which would leave the bulk of the keen racers battling for position and clean air on the better end of the line. We had been at the preferred end on the same tack the previous week running the line before start with plenty of boats pushing us from the port side…I needed to check the shorts for stains after that one and decided I’d never do it again.

Single-handed Circumnavigation of the World

by Patrick Childress

The great solar radiator brightened the horizon and warmed the cabin. I took off the oil skins, no longer needed for their warmth, and collapsed in the bunk. As the sun rose higher, the wind died, The barometer began to drop as well. Afternoon found me refreshed and awake, reading a book in the cabin. The hatch was open to a pleasant, cool day with a perfectly clear blue sky. The light wind had shifted to southwest, putting Juggernaut close hauled and poking along like an old lady on a stroll.

The Big Step by Patrick Childress

A singlehander sets off aboard his modified Catalina 27 for a non-stop crossing of the Indian Ocean.

The tumble of propellers and thump of heavy engines woke me with a start. I bolted to the companionway to face a singlehander's nightmare: the unforgiving face of a freighter bearing down on my small boat, full speed ahead! Quickly I disengaged the self-steering vane and steered Juggernaut, my Catalina 27, from the path of disaster.

Across the North Sea to Norway Part 1

By Alec Blanc, Figment II, #212

(reproduced with permission of Mainsheet, the Catalina and Capri Owners Magazine)

The crew assembled at Dover Marina on the evening of Friday 28, April. Figment II was already there, having been delivered from The Solent earlier in the week.

The crew of four had all sailed on figment before during our "shakedown" weekend in the Solent in March, so stowing our gear didn’t take as long as we knew all of the nooks and crannies aboard although lots of them were now crammed with food. On our shakedown we had experienced 45 knots of wind and snow in the English Channel, and the crew was interested to notice that since our last stay on board I had fitted lee-cloths to stop them from falling out of bed if the boat was heeled over and an EPIRB, an electronic gadget that uses satellites to send an automatic distress signal to the International Search and Rescue Authorities. Did I know something that the crew didn’t?

By George F. McCanless, Jr.

(reproduced with permission of Mainsheet, the Catalina and Capri Owners Magazine)

Webmasters Note: This is an excerpt of an excellent article George submitted. Please contact me if you would like an unedited copy. It is an excellent story.

In the Beginning

In November 1997, my wife Christel and I bought a Catalina 320 new out of the box. This is the story of bringing her from Mobile, Alabama, north up the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway to the point where Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee all come together. Then we turned east on the Tennessee River and brought her to our marina on Guntersville Lake near our home in Huntsville, Alabama. The trip consumed most of December 1997.

By Ilene Brandon, ILENE 3 (#445)

(reproduced with permission of Mainsheet, the Catalina and Capri Owners Magazine)

It was one of the final weekends of a spectacular season - the first with our new Catalina 320. We had traded up from a Catalina 30, which was preceded by a Catalina 25. (Guess we're a Catalina family!). We simply loved the new boat. It had all the features we wanted for our type of cruising: an enormous cockpit, a roomy aft cabin (we had always slept in the v-berth on the 25 and 30), more room in the head, a comfortable galley and spacious salon. And if our sons (ages 21 and 23) ever decide they want to spend time with us, which seems unlikely with their social calendars, there's even room for them.

By David King

Callisto, Hull No. 490

(reproduced with permission of Mainsheet, the Catalina and Capri Owners Magazine)

It was too much fun to stop. With long, rolling seas, a 15-knot breeze on our back and sun in our faces, Callisto was boiling along at 6.5 to 8 knots. Our course, from Cape Porpoise, Maine, to the Annisquam River entrance at Gloucester, Massachusetts, demanded a dead downwind course that just wasn’t going to work. No matter, twenty degrees to port made a world of difference, filling the cruising chute and generating the speed to make the Labor Day weekend passage back home from Maine’s fabled cruising grounds more fun.

By Tom and Sheryl Young, Forever Young, #660

(reproduced with permission of Mainsheet, the Catalina and Capri Owners Magazine)

My wife and I just completed a 1200 NM trip on Lakes Huron and Michigan. It was a great trip with just a few bad days.

It had always amazed me how people got caught out in storms. Didn't they listen to the weather before they left? Didn't they ask other boaters coming in what the weather was like out there? Didn't they use their eyes and common sense to see what was coming?

Sailing To The Bahamas

Peter J. Clancy

AROBAN C320 #222

( reproduced with permission of the Mainsheet, the Catalina and Capri Owners Magazine)

Quietly slipping across the Gulf Stream in a cool southeast breeze under full moon and star-filled skies, we enjoy a distinct sensation of gliding, not sailing, through an ethereal scene reminiscent of a Van Gogh’s famous painting "Starry Night". We are startled by a brilliant shooting star that is brighter and closer to earth than any of us has ever seen. Trailing behind us, our bubbly, phosphorescent wake slowly fades from sight. On these special nights we never need to assign watches. No one wants to go below and sleep....