I has been a busy month since my last post. this is a long bit of writing so have a good cup of coffee at your side –
The Havasu Pocket Cruiser Convention (HPCC) was a wonderful experience. great people, a nice ‘weather break’ from Seattle’s cold winter rain (and snow), sailing, and again – GREAT people. Sean Mulligan did an outstanding job of coordinating the activities and making each person feel welcomed.
I arrived prior to Sage 17, so I assisted Sean for the first few days in putting together the ‘welcome bags’, hanging some of the convention and sponsor signs, collecting lunch for folks, and putting on a chauffeur’s hat.
Sage 17 and Jerry Montgomery arrived on Tuesday evening. About 75 people ‘rushed’ the boat to get a look at the latest pocket cruiser to be designed and built by Jerry. Some were so excited they climbed up on the trailer’s fenders to get a closer look in the cockpit.
(Jerry is in the green shirt and wearing the ball cap.)
Wednesday morning a helpful group assisted in Sage 17’s first full rigging and launch. We were under a time crunch as the first HPCC race was about to start.
Jerry and I were still heading for the start line and laying on the sails when the race began. Crossing the line about five minutes late we found Sage 17 to be well behaved in the 15 knot wind. We quickly caught up with the boats of similar size and chased down the larger, and supposedly faster, boats. When the boat ratings corrected for time we ended up finishing in second place! A great showing for a boat that had never been on the water 30 minutes before the race started!
Thursday there was a course race. The winds were under five knots … mostly under two knots … and we crossed the starting line a few seconds after the gun. Jerry did an excellent job finding at using every breath of wind on the lake.
We finished FIRST for our class size! By my watch, if the race had used ratings, we would have beat the fleet as the fastest ‘big boat’ beat us by just over five minutes (the ‘big’ boats started ten minutes earlier).
Friday I crewed on Dorthy and Eldor Eisen’s Montgomery 17 (fixed keel) Motu Iti. The wind was about 10 knots with some 15 knot gusts at the windward mark. We hit the start perfectly and stayed with the fleet during the upward let. Downwind we lost some ground and found a ‘hole’ in the wind just before the leeward mark. Tacking for the finish line things didn’t look promising … but we were in the right place when a rising wind lifted us to the line with only a 50 yard tack required to finish. The ‘wind gods’ required the majority of the fleet to make one more long tack to finish the race. For the effort Eldor collect a third place trophy.
Friday night though the late morning Saturday it RAINED. Yes, it does rain in Arizona. This forced cancellation of the boat show and parade of sail under the London Bridge. The weather did improve beginning about noon. The partly sunny noon-time provided a 10 to fifteen knot wind, and I proved two groups of people a demonstration ride on Sage 17.
Sunday was again partly cloudy with a nice breeze. I sailed SAGE 17 two more times and then met with my folks to have a late lunch.
The closing banquet had an enjoyable prime-rib buffet and good company.
Monday morning Sage 17 was put back on her trailer. I was sorry I couldn’t take my folks for a sail, but was able to give my Mom a motoring ride from the London Bridge Resort’s marina to the boat ramp.
Tuesday morning I departed rode with Larry Yake to the Las Vegas airport. Gary Hyde was good enough to give us a ride … so we had a proper ‘taxi service’ that was towing a Montgomery 17.
link to my HPCC ‘blog’ posts –
link to videos of Sage 17 –
link to more pictures –
www.sagemarine.us/gallery.html
– dave
M17 #375 - SWEET PEA 