2011 Lake Havasu (AZ) Pocket Cruisers Convention

[Don Guillette]

Last week I was tooling around on some of the message boards and saw a thread about the above convention. The convention and Lake Havasu caught my attention. I bought my first sailboat (Mac22) at Lake Havasu and we had a second home there for many years. Anyway, I contacted the event organizer (Sean Mulligan) to see if a sail trim seminar would fit into their schedule and it will.

I love small boat sailors and that is where most of us got our sailing start. I loved it so much, on days when there was not much wind and I didn't want to put the boat in the water, I'd hoist the main and jib in the driveway and turn the trailer so I was closehauled and try to figure out what all the sail trim controls for the main and jib were all about. I had no idea what their function was but it was fun pushing and pulling lines. The neighbors thought I was nuts. One day, when the wind picked up unexpectedly, I almost sailed the boat off the trailer!!

The seminar is free and I'll be there all week to answer questions and just hob nob with the skippers.

The dates are 2/14/11 - 2/21/11 and the website is www.sailhavasu.com. This should be a fun event.

 

[Alan]

One day Don, I hope we get the opportunity to meet. I'd love to do some hob nobbing. You have been a great help to all of us mortals that visit this forum. The folks in the Havasu area are lucky to have you.

 

[Don Guillette]

Alan; Thank you for the kind words. Participating in Catalina30 National event I've met a lot of guys who know me from this forum and my book and chart. I wrote an article for the MAINSHEET (Catalina magazine) a while back titled "who are those guys?". It was describing the final C30 race at Santa Cruz where we were fighting for first. The question came from the Butch Cassidy movie. Anyway, these guys came from nowhere and it was neck and neck to the finish line where they edge us out. Later at the bar, we were talking about the race and they told me how they did it and the skipper shows me my book and chart. About 6 months before the race he bought the book and chart and practiced and practiced as a crew and they got very good at it. I thought our crew was very good. Our crew of 6 comes from all over the US to sail in these events and we know our position but that day we were beat by a better crew. The Next year the race was held in San Diego and the same crew did it again to us!!

I digressed a bit there but I feel I know RichH, you, Stu J, Joe from San Diego and a few other regulars on this forum even though we've never met. Sailors I talk to on the phone will mention your name or RichH and I say oh yeah I know those guys and we go on like old home week like we are one big sailing family, which we are.

I was scheduled to sail in the C30 National Regatta this Sept in San Diego and had hope to meet Joe and buy him a beer but a schedule conflict developed on my end and I can't attend. In fact, I was schedule to conduct a short version of my sail trim seminar. All that would have done was create more competition!!

I hope to put faces with names at the Lake Havasu event.