March 14, 2023
Rear Commodore’s 2023 Bulletin #2
“Storms draw something out of us that calm seas don’t.”
- Bill Hybels
We enjoyed an excellent turnout of 37 members and guests at our station luncheon on February 16th at Long Beach Yacht Club. Doug Jorgensen had his beautiful lobster boat cruiser there to inspect, and he and his wife, Margaret, provided a summary of the building process as well as his cruising in New England waters after the launching last summer.
Watch for an email invite coming out next week for our next station luncheon scheduled for Thursday, April 20th at Los Angeles Yacht Club. Our guest speaker will be the author of the new coffee table book to be published in June about the iconic sailing yacht “Windward Passage”. Randall Peffer is a CCA member from the Buzzards Bay station and has a long resume of writing other nautical books and articles about classic yachts. Plan to attend and hear the many stories about Windward Passage and the colorful owners and crews who sailed her.
Before I leave the topic of lunches, I want to comment on the concern that our station leadership has over the ever rising costs for these lunches. In this day and age, it is almost impossible for us to hold a luncheon at one of our yachts clubs and keep the cost below $45 – $50 per person. For a typical lunch, line items typically include not only the meal, but a room fee, audio visual fee, and a waiter fee. After looking at our station finances more closely, we have concluded that we have the funds to partially subsidize future luncheons. That should keep the total per person cost in the $40 - $42 per person range. We think we can do this with the cash distribution we receive from the national CCA on an annual basis. Our station has a strong cash balance, which we want to retain, but feel it is prudent to offer a break to our members who attend our station events. One last comment – when we send the email invites out for the lunches, typically we don’t know the per person cost for the event, until we get closer to the actual date. We are now going to push the venue to provide us with an estimated per person cost, so we can advise you at the time you receive the email invite. But our realistic goal is to keep the per person cost for a typical luncheon between $40 - $42.
My wife Amanda and I attended the CCA annual meeting at New York Yacht Club on March 4th. It was a great event as always, with close to 180 people for the annual dinner in the beautiful NYYC model room. No question that is a room that every one of us should visit some time. Numerous awards were presented, and I was humbled by the skills and commitment of the recipients. One in particular really caught my interest. David Tunick, the former rear commodore of the New York station, owns a 1967 55’ Sparkman & Stephens Yawl, “Night Watch”. He has owned her for more than 30 years and has sailed her extensively, often single handed. This last summer, at the age of 78, David single handed “Night Watch” from Spain to Connecticut, a distance of approximately 5,000 nautical miles. For that passage, he earned the 2022 Far Horizons Award. I was very impressed by his accomplishment, and as I have gotten to know David over the last few years, there is no doubt in my mind that he was up to the task of single handing his yacht across the Atlantic. It makes one realize that we are part of a very unique club of boaters who are skilled at handling their boats, and possess that “adventure gene”, that allows us to do what others only talk about.
Plans continue to come together for the 2024 CCA Sea of Cortez Cruise that our station is heading. To gauge the level of interest by our station members, the cruise chairs, Gary Davidson and Dan Gribble, have requested that I send you the link below to the brief survey on the cruise. It would be helpful for us to know the level of interest you might have to participate in the cruise, whether on a charter boat, or your own boat. We would sincerely appreciate your feedback on the link below.
The site is at https://cruisingclub.org/event/sea-cortez-cruise and there’s a link there to take you to the survey which is at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdW3HsbcF4O-9PE8xboh6Jd0RC8Sx2mR9Sy_mt6gUn2xBJdOw/viewform
Lastly, I attended the celebration of life for Gil Jones at Newport Harbor Yacht Club on February 20th. Many from our station were there, and it was a great send off for Gil, honoring his full and impactful life. I offered some remarks on Gil at our annual meeting on November 30th, but was remiss for not reflecting further on Gil’s life in my last communications to you in January. Gil covered many thousand of miles under sail with his friends and family, and was recognized as a great shipmate. Gil touched many people, as was evident by the great turnout at his celebration of life. As I said at the annual meeting last November, Gil enjoyed life as much as anybody I have ever met. May he rest in peace and enjoy sailing in the great beyond.
Smooth Sailing,
Steve Calhoun
CCA Southern California Rear Commodore