I trust all skippers are having a wonderful Holiday! This is a perfect time to reflect on last seasons highlights and plan for a fresh 2022 sailing season. Get those boat repairs and rig tuning issues knocked out early and don’t forget to update your Argonauts membership and AMYA enrollments.
Lets get started on our pond with a fun 3 day IOM MIDWINTERS REGATTA, Feb 18, 19 & 20! The days are starting to get longer and winds typically reliable. Registration is now open.
IOM and DF95 skippers finished the 2021 sailing season with a perfect fall day on our Mission Bay Model Yacht Pond. It looked like a good group of sailors considering the many commitments we navigate this close to the holidays. Thank You to all participants and volunteers that made this event possible.
Congratulations to First Place IOM Skipper Ken Campbell and First Place DF95 Skipper Dennis Rogers. FANTASTIC SAILING!
Saturday seven Soling 50 and seven ODOM skippers wrapped up the 2021 sailing season with an afternoon of challenging pond conditions. The initial wind forecast was hopeful, with upper single to low double digit winds predicted . We actually experienced much less with just the first few Soling races getting an 11mph push here and there. The thick cloud layer and weak variable flow became the force of the day as fleets painfully accomplished six races each.
Dennis Rogers, our RD, managed to keep our sailing efforts relegated to daylight hours by running short course early on. Thank You! Bob Williams was on hand with coordination and registration. Mark Hallberg with the finishing count and emotional support. Ken Campbell is as fast providing results as he is on the water – Thank You Ken!
Bob Williams, Vice Commodore of Sail, continues to reach out to Santa Barbara skippers for renewed participation in the 2022 sailing season and event calendar.. San Diego Mission Bay Model Yacht Pond is the perfect setting for launching and sailing these elegant craft.
CONGRATULATIONS to Ken Campbell and Gerry Wold for an excellent season of RC Sailboat racing.
I trust all Argonauts had a wonderful Thanksgiving.. We certainly have been experiencing exceptional fall weather!
This report comes as a lump sum-up of all activities for November, so lets dive right in. WE have elected new club officers, initiated annual registration with updated forms, called out to ALL Santa Barbara skippers for participation in 2022 sailing schedule and lots of sailing scores.
CONGRATULATIONS to our 2022 Officers:
Mark Hallberg – Commodore
Ben Reeve – Purser
Bob Hirsh – Secretary
VC of Power – Bill Bridge
VC of Sail – Bob Williams
VC of Scale – Rob Wood
This looks like a great team for the Argonauts, for 2022, as we anticipate another fun year of pond activities. Our officers are important for our clubs direction and intentions but also need constructive support and input from all club members. Don’t be shy if you have a good idea that builds a stronger organization.
This is also the time of year for recruiting and sustaining membership. If you have friends interested in RC hobbies, related to our unique pond, please reach out to them. If you are already a member now is the time to refresh your dues. Ben Reeve, our new Purser, will be happy to take care of this matter. The updated membership and dues must be mailed or directly provided to Ben pond-side. If you would like to pay via PayPal please send Ben an email purser@sandiegoargonauts.com
This past year we experienced a dramatic reduction in the Santa Barbara fleet. As the the 2022 calendar and sailing schedule needs to be finalized. We greatly need input from Santa Barbara skippers with a genuine commitment from at least 3 skippers or we risk the loss of this elegant sailor on our racing schedule. Please contact Bob Williams, VC Sail with your input.
DF95 Thanksgiving Regatta
Thanks to Bob Williams and Ben Reeve this was a fun event. Ben Reeve was the RD and documented the event with this brief:
Today was exceptionally fun day. Fifteen skippers showed up to race in unforgiving light winds from 3-6mph. Consistency was the name of game as it is most days. We attempted to get 12 races in, but after the 7th race we took a break to hope the wind would come back up. We were able to get another race in and then the skippers voted to call it a day. Which was a good idea as within minutes of that decision the pond went to a glassy smooth finish. Before I get to the finish order a big shout out to Bob Williams for doing a lot of work today to assist me, and another shout out to Kerim Baran for assisting us with the boat clean up and put away.
Master RD – Ben ReeveCongratulations Jon Rogers – 1st PlaceCongratulations Ken Campbell – 2nd PlaceCongratulations Scott Harris- 3rd Place
As premonitions of ghosting conditions for the Argonauts ODOM Halloween Regatta haunted anxious pond skippers, the sorcerers of wind cast a gloomy spell and weird circumstances of breathless conditions.. None the less, seven courageous skippers challenged the odds with radio, craft and wireless determination in an effort to outwit the demons of the pond!
WOW.. where did that come from?
Indeed, we were all challenged with extraordinary sailing conditions.
Thanks to Ken Campbell, who shared critical ODOM measurements and tuning advice, our skippers gathered greater insight to our boat rigging and tuning. Our support team: Ben Reeve, Pat Nevitt and Steve Ross. These guys made it happen! Open the shed, launch our trusty committee boat, set the marks, RC the racing, score the races, present trophies, pull the marks, clean the boat and hardware, lock her up! A huge round of appreciation for their efforts and service!
Our optimistic team had hoped for a twelve race regatta. Wind started out in the hopeful category and we actually managed to complete two long races in 6-8mph. Wind deteriorated as the day progressed and the medium course became the norm. By early afternoon we were sailing short and modified short (shorter weather leg) courses in wind speeds of 0-5mph. A drifter!
Despite the difficult sailing our top notch skippers managed to thrive and drive in the light winds. Congratulations to First Place winner Gerry Wold. Second Place Kerim Baran and Third Place Kim Robbins.
Congratulations! Kerim, Gerry and Kim
Ben Reeve has a clean green ODOM ready for racing action. He made the first start, but unfortunately due to electronic failure had to drop out. Our fleet looks forward to his future participation. Thank Ben for contributing the photos on the post.
SPECIAL NOTE:
Fellow Argonauts, THIS COMING SATURDAY, We have a conflict with our Nov. 6 Sail Points and the Kaiser Permanente Marathon… Stay tuned for possible rescheduling.
