NEWSLETTER - Fairwind Yacht Club

FAIRWIND 2020
FAIRWIND YACHT CLUB
NEWSLETTER
November 2004 Editor: Robert Baron Vol. 32 No. 11
COMMODORE’S
LOG
Imagine it is the year 2020. Where will Fairwind Yacht
Club be? Will the Club be the same? How will it be
different? It’s only 17 years from now. When you
consider the 38-year history of Fairwind, that’s not that
far.
The founders of Fairwind had the foresight to lay a
solid foundation. We enjoy the fruits of their hard
work. Without their initiative and insight we wouldn’t
be able to enjoy such a terrific sailing club.
Now its time for us to look into the future and lay a
framework on which to build upon this foundation.
Some of the issues we are looking at include:
Development: How large or small should FYC be?
How do we prepare for changes? Should other
areas be under the same club? Or separate, but
affiliated? Or completely separate?
Training: How can we meet the needs of the
members? Should Fairwind use more, or less, of
the ASA program? How can our instructors be
better supported?
Bylaws, Standing Rules, and Operating
Procedures: There is a gap between the written
bylaws and rules and some of the Club’s curent
practices. Should the bylaws and rules be changed
to meet the practices? Or should the practices be
changed to meet the bylaws and rules? Should
there be a separate operating manual that
describes specific procedures?
MONTHLY BOARD
MEETING WEDNESDAY,
NOVEMBER 17 AT
SHANGHAI RED’S
FYC’s monthly board meeting wil be 7 pm,
Wednesday, November 17 (this is not a typo) in
order to avoid conflict with the ASMBYC meeting.
It wil be at Shanghai Red’s located at 13813 Fiji
Way, Marina del Rey. A three-course dinner is
$16.95 plus tax and tip. Alcohol is extra. Please
consider buying a meal (so that we’l keep geting
to use this terrific space) but purchase is not
required. As always, all members are welcome to
attend! However, please do not bring your own
meals or drinks into the restaurant. Thank you in
advance.
Membership and Dues: Is an NCO to be counted as
an active member? Should the Hobies be counted
as part of the fleet? Does the present dues system
make sense? Should we simplify it by changing it
to day sailing (boats without motors) and cruising
(boats with motors)?
Fleet Needs: Which boats need to be replaced?
What boats should be added? Do we need more
small boats? Medium? Large? How about a
cruising catamaran? What are the priorities?
Sails: We need a plan. Rather than doing it one at a
time each month, we need priorities and a budget
for the year ahead.
Financial Planning: Our lease at Bar Harbor lasts
for 17 more years. Should we put some money
aside for a transition?

Some of these issues are being worked on by the
Planning Committee. Others are being developed by
board members responsible for that area of interest.
Still others by the Boat Selection Committee.
Our plan is to discuss a few of these issues each month
at the Board and General meetings. At the November
17 General meeting we will discuss some of these
issues. Specifically:
1. Channel Islands and the relationship with Marina
del Rey—Charlie Nobles will pose some questions
for us to discuss.
2. Membership levels and dues—Mike Fuller will pose
some questions for a discussion.
3. ASA and Fairwind training—Dave Lumian will
pose some questions for discussion.
Please attend the meeting and bring your ideas.
INSTRUCTORS
It has come to my attention that some of our training
guidelines need some attention. Here are some
guidelines to follow:
Anchoring: When training or checking out a
member on a large or medium boat, all students
MUST do an anchoring. This way a member who
goes through the training ladder will do a dozen to
a dozen anchorings as they train and check out.
Don’t skip this.
Docking: Members training on medium and large
boats must be trained to dock and undock with the
sails down and the engine on.
MOB: When training or checking out a member on
any boat of any size, the student must perform
(without coaching) a solid MOB return. The MOB
return must end with a pickup on a close reach
(not in irons) with sails luffing.
Checklist: All boats have a training checklist.
Please use them. Do not cut corners.
HOMEPORT REGATTA
The Homeport Regatta on Saturday, November 13 is a
chance for novice racers to get out and race. Last year
Fairwind skippers ‘swept’ the under 30’ cruiser class
(taking 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , and 4 th ) and taking 1 st place in the
over 30’ cruiser class. FYC race chair John Stephenson is
coordinating FYC’s involvement. Contact John at (310)
305-2076.
Page 2
HOLIDAY PARTY FRIDAY, DEC. 3
There will be a Holiday Party on Friday, December 3 at
7pm at Dave Lumian’s house. Al Fairwinders are
welcome. Friends and family too. Please bring food and
drink to share. Dave’s house is 652 Angelus Place,
Venice. That’s of Abbot Kinney near Washington.
Parking is tight on Angelus, so it’s best to park on
Abbot Kinney and walk in.
There will be a house decorating party on Thursday,
December 2. Volunteers needed!
EMAIL LIST
We have most members on an email list. This allows us
to send you updates and news between newsletters. If
you are not receiving emails, please email Bob Baron at
redbaron@mycondo.net. He will add you to the list.
FOUR HARBORS CRUISE,
OCT. 15–18, 2004
Participating were on the Catalina Mk 3, Skipper
Hartmut Eggert, Mya Borgman, and Leif Borgman. Leif
joined the crew in Catalina on Saturday Oct 16. And on
the Catalina 270 were Skipper Cheryl Peppers, Mark
Zyga, and Rick Weinberger.
Departure was on Friday morning in no wind and a bit
foggy so the entire trip to Avalon was done under
motor.
While waiting for a slip in Avalon, enjoyed the view.
While waiting for a slip in Avalon, enjoyed the view
After securing the boats at the mooring Mark, Rick,
Hartmut and Cheryl took off in the dinghy to check out
the city of Avalon

Securing the boat at the mooring.
Mark, Rick, Hartmut and Cheryl off to check out the city of Avalon.
Mya enjoyed life onboard and checked out the
surroundings.
Checking out the surroundings.
Leif arrived on the ferry Saturday morning.
While checking out Avalon city life, Mya and Leif ran
into some divers next to the casino.
Cheryl and Hartmut enjoyed the afternoon onboard the
270.
Mark dropped his handheld radio in the water during
the mooring procedure and on Saturday decided to
retrieve it, despite the cold water. He was successful.
Mark recovering his handheld radio.
Some entertainment from a restaurant that we enjoyed while relaxing
onboard..
Sunday, the 270 got underway to Isthmus. The Mk 3
got a lot of company from dolphins on the way to
Isthmus, they were all around for quite a while.
We enjoyed the view of Shiprock at the entrance of 2
Harbors.
Page 3

The 270 underway to Isthmus.
Dolphins!!
Monday morning we left 2 harbors at sunrise to go
back to MDR.
After Hartmut got a bucket over board during cleanup
of the dinghy, we spent some time practicing retrieval
of object overboard and were successful at the end.
Sunday was a nice sail from Avalon to Isthmus. On
Monday we just made it back before the rains hit.
Hartmut lost a bucket overboard on the 270, giviing us practice in
retrieving an overboard object.
Page 4
A NEW “FOLDING”
TRIMARAN
It started out as a whim and as an outgrowth of my
severed relationship with Corsair Marine: design and
build an “entry level,” trailerable trimaran. The top
design priorities were: easy trailerability, solo
rigging —launching —sailing, low cost, simplicity, and
speed. Additionally, it would be nice if it could be
stored in a slip, be suitable for minimal pocket cruising,
and make a nice one-design racer. That’s a lot to ask for
but we thought we’d give it a try.
The first design problem to tackle was the folding
system. The Farrier folding system is great but it did
not fal into the criteria of inexpensive and you can’t
slip the boat without utilizing a hydro-hoist or boat
bath or “botom” painting the sides of the floats. To
make the boat simple we decided on a system we call
the “sliding aka system”; the akas (cross-arms) are
slightly offset and simply slide past each other, through
the main hull out the other side of the boat. When the
amas (floats) are fully extended the inboard end of the
akas are on the centerline of the main hull.
Once that issue was settled we set up to design the
floats and mainhull and work out the technical details.
Most of this work was done on a cross-country drive. I
needed to bring a trailer full of house parts from Los
Angeles (my home) to Miami (the stepping stone to my
property in the Bahamas). Dave Licata, a Stanford
product engineering grad, volunteered to help with the
drive and the design. Five days of uninterrupted
driving with no distractions and voila! the basic boat
was born.
We built the prototype L-7 (Leneman, Licata, 7 meters
long) in 6 months, working halftime with two people.
How did we do it in such a short time? The following is
a breakdown of construction techniques and short cuts.
Floats: We started with Nacra 6.0 hulls, which were a
gift from Mark Michelson –Sailing Pro Shop. We
wanted very buoyant floats so we cut the decks off,
removed the daggerboard case and most of the
bulkheads. Then we forced the shear width out with a
bunch of athwartship sticks to a shape we liked. We
lengthened the hull in the stern, changed the transom
shape and then raised the freeboard with plywood and
glass. A new deck from ½" plywood and we were ready
to move on in a few weeks.
(Continued on page 6)

ALL HAD A GRAND TIME AT THE BRUNCH!!!
Fairwind brunch organizer extrodinaire Cheryl Peppers welcomes
everyone.
Fairwind Yacht Club community partners left to right: Pat
YounisBridge Group, Captain Sam DacusMdR Sheriff station,
Representative Jane Harmon, Dave Lumian, Willie HjorthMare
Co Sails, Jeff JanasuchWest Marine, MdR.
Getting ready for those opening days: FYC Board members pick
sailing ties.
Heavy Weather Fashion: FYCers get ready to model West Marine's
latest stylings in outer gear. L-R (Bob Check spellings) Cathy
Hutton, Mark Zyga, Marc Levine, Hartmut Eggert, and Shar
Breitling.
Hartmut has zipper problems.
Warren Smith swears in the new Fairwind board.
Page 5

Fairwind members Mike Leneman and David Licata’s L7 prototype
beat almost all of the bigger trimarans with a 2 hour 35 minute sail
from West End to Marina del rey at the Indian Summer Splash!
Crossarms: Off the shelf, pultruded fiberglass I-beams
were used as cross-arms. Only the outboard ends were
modified for aesthetics. Here we cut out part of the
shear web and glued the top cap of the I-beam down to
the bottom cap.
Mainhull: This took the most time. We had to build the
mainhull from scratch. Frames, stringers and then 4mm
Okoume plywood diagonally planked. The shape
though is too complicated and curved for this
methodology. So, after the first layer, we gave up
planking. We faired the first layer with polyester filler
and pour foam, and then we diagonaly “planked” the
hull in the other direction with uni-directional glass
and epoxy. The decks were made from surplus carbon
fiber/honeycomb floor panels courtesy of the
expansive aerospace industry-junk shops. The cabin is
plywood with a composite “hatch-back” top.
Rigging: Rafi Franke (Cats-to-Fold) donated his
Supercat 20 mast to the project which we stripped of all
parts and re-rigged with a single spreader, double
diamonds, and synthetic shrouds. Additionally, we
installed masthead, running backstays. We modified
this rig and built a base for it in less than one day’s
work.
Page 6
ADOPT A HIGHWAY EVENT
An environmental opportunity for interested
members: Santa Monica Baykeeper is having an
Adopt a Highway event to pick up trash before it
reaches the storm drains.
9:00 AM–noon November 20 th and December 11 th .
Meet at Baykeeper office 3100 Washington Blvd. on
2 nd floor
CONTACT: Jennifer Thompson, Program
Assistant, Santa Monica Baykeeper, (310) 822-4522
Sails: In keeping with the design philosophy of low cost
and simplicity the boat has only 3 sails: a main and jib
(Dacron, cross-cut) and a maxi-screacher for downwind
sailing. All three sails are roller-furling. Skip Elliot
(Elliot-Pattison Sails) who went from my plan
measurements made them and they fit perfect, right
“out of the box.” Total retail cost of al thre sails was
less than $4K.
Performance: The L-7 turned out to be a “kick-ass”
boat, performing way beyond our expectations. At the
annual Indian Summer Splash, the largest gathering/
race of multihulls ever on the West Coast, the pocket
rocket finished 5 th overall on elapsed time going to
Catalina Island (36 miles in 6 to 12 kts. of wind) and 3 rd
overall on the way home (15 to 25 kts.). The boat was
faster than al the Corsair 24’s, F-27’s, Corsair 28 R’s, F-
25C’s, and most of the Corsair 31’s. Only the new
Reynolds 33 catamaran and a few “turbo” Corsair/F-
31’s beat us. Note, this wasn’t the result of any tactical
brilliance on our part… these races were strictly “drag
races.”
Additional features: The L-7 needs no additional
“parts” or accessories to raise orlower the mast. The
daggerboard acts as a gin pole, the running backs as
temporary shrouds, and there is a permanent pushpit
that doubles as a mast support. The motor pod is
adjustable and height so that regular long shaft
outboard motors can be used. Harder to find, extralong
shaft outboards are generally used on similar
boats. The trampolines are very flat, easy to walk on
and make a comfortable sleeping platform. There is no
combing between the cockpit and the trampoline,
which gives the boat a very open feeling. The cabin
hatch is like a “hatch-back” car –no sliders or pop-tops.
Again, simplicity guides the design. The cockpit is very
large and uncluttered with travelers or rigging. Six
adults can sit and sail in the cockpit with ease.

The Future: By the time this story is published we hope
to have secured a builder interested in manufacturing
this boat. You can check for the latest information on
our website www.multimarine.com
SOME THOUGHTS ON
WATER:
One of California Yacht Club's Past Commodores, Dick
Squire, recently returned from Ireland and shared this
with everyone. Have fun out there, Bill Watkins.
From the Royal Saint George Yacht Club News Letter
(Dublin, Ireland).
Leaving the dock is optional. Every return is
mandatory.
If you turn the wheel towards the shore, the
houses get bigger. If you turn the wheel away from
the shore, they get smaller. That is, unless you
keep turning the wheel, then they get bigger again.
Sailing isn’t dangerous. Sinking is what is
dangerous.
It’s alwaysbetter to be on shore wishing you were
out there, than out there wishing you were on
shore.
The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when
you’re on fire.
The sail is just a big awning used to keep the
captain cool. When it rips to shreds, you can
actually see the captain start to sweat.
When in doubt, stay out to sea. No one has ever
gone aground on a wave.
A good return to your slip is one from which you
can walk away. A “great” return is one after which
they can use the boat again.
Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live
long enough to make all of them yourself.
You know you’ve hit the dock hard if it takes al
your bilge pumps running at full power for you to
step on the dock.
The probability of a boat’s survival is inversely
proportional to the speed of the arrival. High
speed arrivals, small probability of survival, and
vice versa.
Never let a boat take you somewhere your brain
didn’t get to five minutes earlier.
Stay away from clouds. The silver lining everyone
keeps talking about might be a hail storm. Reliable
sources also report that lightning has been known
to hide out in clouds.
Always try to keep the number of departures you
make from your slip equal to the number of
returns you’ve made.
There are three simple rules for making a smoother
return to your slip. Unfortunately no one knows
what they are.
You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag
of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of
experience before you empty the bag of luck.
Catamarans can’t sail; they’re just so ugly the earth
repels them.
If all you can see out of the window is water that is
going round and round and all you can hear is
commotion coming from the cockpit, things are not
at all as they should be.
In the ongoing battle between objects made of
fiberglass going tens of miles per hour and the
shore going zero miles per hour, the shore has yet
to lose.
It’s always a good idea to keep the pointy end
going forward as much as possible.
Keep looking around. There’s always something
you’ve missed.
Remember, buoyancy is not just a good idea. It’s
the law. And it’s not subject to repeal.
l
The Fairwind Yacht Club Newsletter is published
monthly, Jan.–Nov. Submissions are accepted on a
space available basis. Deadline for publication is
workday. To send me a contribution, you may (in
order of preference):
E-mail it to me at redbaron@mycondo.net
Mail hard copy to the editor
Leave hard copy on the clipboard with the
attendance list on workday.
Page 7

FAIRWIND YACHT CLUB
Robert Baron, Editor
1425 Stanford St., No. 3
Santa Monica, CA 90404
CALENDAR
Date Activity Location
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004
Note change in
date!!!
Board Meeting 6:30 PM
General Membership Meeting 8:00 PM
Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004 House decorating party for the Holiday party
at Dave Lumian’s house. Volunteers needed!
Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 Holiday Party at Dave Lumian’s house at
7pm. See article on page 2.
Saturday, Dec. 4, 2004 Workday / Club Sail Day
Dockwalker Training
FAIRWIND NEWSLETTER
Nov. 2004 Vol. 32 No. 11
Visit our Web site
www.Fairwind.org
Shanghai Red’s
13813 Fiji Way
Marina del Rey
Dave Lumian’s house
652 Angelus Place, Venice.
Dave Lumian’s house
652 Angelus Place, Venice.
Dockside 9:00 AM till ???