Coming Events

          12 AUGUST              General Meeting    SMWYC    8:00 PM

                                                         Speaker - Leif Beiley, President and Designer, Bravura

                                                         Designing a Boat for Singlehanded Racing

                                                         (Board Meeting - members welcome)      7:00 PM

17 AUGUST              Paradise Cove Layover Race

General Meeting 8:00 pm at Santa Monica Windjammer's Yacht Club. 13589 Mindanao Way, Marina del Rey, CA Board Meeting 7:00, all members welcome.

Pacific Singlehanded Sailing Association

PO Box 9523

Marina del Rey, CA 90295

Home Work Email

Commodore:                   Charles Ray         (310) 391-7812     (310) 206-6652     searay@ucla.edu

Vice Commodore:           Chuck Spear       (818) 952-0053                                   seaspear@yahoo.com

Jr. Staff Commodore:      Carlos Sanchez    (310) 612-9265     (310) 841-0123     commodorecarlos@yahoo.com

Fleet Captain:                  Rod Percival       

Treasurer/membership:     Joel Gober          (310) 544-9754                                   joelgo1@aol.com

Directors:                        Rich Creviston     (800) 501-1378    

                                       Phil Habegger                                    (818) 884-4511     PHabegger@aol.com

                                       David Angers

                                       Frank Ross          (714) 491-8712

SOLO Editor                  Chuck Kite          (916) 332-9647                                   mrckite@yahoo.com

Webmaster                      Nick Barran        (818) 416-2427     (310) 256-6660     nickbarran@earthlink.net

PSSA Website                www.pssala.org

The August Speaker

Leif Bailey tried to escape the world of sailing and surfboarding with a straight job, a post-college stint as an engineer in the aerospace industry.  That lasted until 1975, when he quit to join Islander Yachts as an in-house designer and draftsman.  At Islander, he was instrumental in the design of several of the company’s most successful offerings, including the Ilslader 28, the Islander 32 and the Freeport 36.  In 1977, Leif went out on his own, offering yacht design and construction services and specializing in performance cruising yachts, building Caramba, a 17,000 lb. 43 foot racer/cruiser, and designing the Gryphon 26, Viking 34 and Celere 47.  In 1986, he designed and launched Vapor, the prototype for his very successful B-25.  Leif founded Bboats in 1988, built the B-25 and later the B-32 and raced these boats with great success, winning Key West Race Week twice, Trimble North Race Week, the inaugural NOOD Regatta, the Santa Barbara – King Harbor Race, Annapolis Race Week and the Cabo San Lucas Race.  Leif sold Bboats in 1995 and formed Bravura Yachts to build the current line of Bravura Sportster boats.

Recognizing a growing interest in short handed sailing, Leif Beiley has given a lot of thought to the design elements that this particular yacht racing variant requires and will speak to that subject at the August meeting.

A special thanks to Carlos Sanchez for arranging this presentation.

The Commodore’s Letter

Our July meeting was interesting and informative, with Mike Espinosa lecturing on life raft deployment, servicing and other abandon ship issues.  He gave a great demonstration with the inflation of my old eight man Avon life raft.  PSSA members and guests were able  to look inside and go over aspects of the deployment that we would normally only cope with in the worst case situations.  I once read that a life raft is best entered by stepping into it from the top of your mast.  I think there might be something to this advice after hearing Mike talk about how easily most rafts tumble, spin and flip over in breaking seas.

This month, the renowned marine architect Leif Beiley will speak on his ideas for a thirty three foot yacht designed specifically for single handed sailing.  This should be a very interesting talk for PSSA sailors and guests.

In the coming months, we hope to have Jim Tallet return to Marina del Rey to lecture on his experience in this year’s single handed Trans-Pac.  The final results are not in yet, but it seems that Jim did quite well.  He has told me that it was an exciting race, featuring several trips to the top of the mast, but I’ll let him fill you in on the details.  Jim is a great sailor and really livened up the competition in the PSSA Dan Byrne series last winter.

Last month’s Malibu and Return Race had a great turnout.  It was a lovely day for a very competitive race.  In regard to racing, at the Board’s last meeting, Larry Travis called to our attention a discrepancy between the race instructions and how we actually carry out a start.  This was very helpful and it reminds me to remind you that all members are invited to the Board meetings and that this kind of input is very helpful.  Our Board meetings begin at 7:00 P.M. on the days of our general meetings.

I hope everyone is looking forward to the Paradise Cove Layover Race on August 17^th.  Usually we have a get together on one of the boats for drinks after the race.  On Sunday, it is fun to have a casual race back to Marina del Rey.  Paradise Cove is a nice anchorage not far from home but far away from the problems and stresses brought on by our hectic urban lifestyles.  And yacht racing can relax away the accumulated tensions.  I’ll see you on the 17^th and I hope to beat each and every one of you on corrected time, so help me God.

PSSA Race Results

Nine boats came to the line for the start of the second race of the Dave Wall series, a twenty eight miler to Malibu and back.  Four boats were entered in the single handed class and five contested the double-handed race.  The order of finish was as follows:

Singlehanded

Finishing position Yacht Skipper

1.                                                               Rubicon III                   Rod Percival

2.                                                               Skimmer                    Charles Ray

3.                                                               Maria                          David Angers

4.                                                               Shiloh                         Michael Hibon

Doublehanded

Finishing position Yacht Skipper

1.                                                               Surprise                     Larry Travis

2.                                                               Thriller             Phil Habegger

3.                                                               Cumbanchero            Carlos Sanchez

4.                                                               Johnny G                    Rich Gelfand

5.                                                               Celeste                       Bill Schwartz

Mariners

Finishing Position Yacht Skipper

1.                                                               Surprise                     Larry Travis

2.                                                               Thriller             Phil Habegger

3.                                                               Rubicon III                   Rod Percival

4.                                                               Skimmer                    Charles Ray

5.                                                               Maria                          David Angers

6.                                                               Johnny G                    Rich Gelfand

7.                                                               Cumbanchero            Carlos Sanchez

8.                                                               Shiloh                         Michael Hibon

9.                                                               Celeste                       Bill Schwartz

Other Race Results

Recognizing the growing popularity of short-handed racing, many yacht clubs are adding single and double handed fleets to their racing programs.  An example is Santa Monica Windjammers, which added a double handed fleet to their recent Marina del Rey to San Diego Race.  Congratulations to Commodore Charles Ray, who won this division in his Olson 40, Skimmer and finished fourth overall in PHRF A, sailing against fully crewed yachts.

An Advance Look at the Calendar

Mark your calendar for the following upcoming events:

September 9 – PSSA General Meeting.

September 14 – the King Harbor, Palos Verdes, MdR Race

October 14 – PSSA General Meeting

October 19 – Ship Rock Layover Race

The Lipton Cup

Each year, the yacht clubs of Southern California gather to contest the Lipton Cup, a race that is sailed in identical boats.  In the recent past, Schock 35s have been used, but the race shifted in 2002 to J105s.  For 2003, Chuck Spear would like to offer his J105, Twelve Bar Blues, as the PSSA  entry.  It is a regatta requirement that all crew members be members of the sponsoring yacht club by the end of the preceding year, so if there is insufficient crew interest within PSSA (J105s race with a crew of six and a weight limit of 1060 lbs) then some of Chuck’s regular crew will join PSSA before year end to qualify.  But he’d prefer a crew comprised of the current membership. Please let him know if you would be interested by calling him at (818) 952-0053 or emailing to him at seaspear@yahoo.com.