Notice to OPO Mariners, January 1, 2008
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Hank Schmitt, P.O. Box 2032, Halesite, NY 11743
631-423-4988, 1-800-4PASSAGe, Fax 631-423-9009
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Editorial
A Happy New Year to all. Now that the Christmas and New Year Celebrations are over we can get back to planning our sailing adventures, but not without at least mentioning one more celebration early this year. More than a handful of our members have sailed with Captain Murray Jacob who is one of our more popular Swan skippers. He made ten Swan deliveries for us before signing onto a Swan 56 for a full time job followed by one year aboard a Swan 60 in which some of our members were able to sail. Murray is getting married January 19th in his native Australia to Jackie Tomlinson. Murray will be back in the States in the Spring and will be living in Newport. If anyone wants to send them a card you know Murray will get a big kick out of it. Jackie e-mailed me while Murray was sailing the Sydney-Hobart Race last week that it is way to expensive to mail a gift so if you want to send more than just a card she suggests amazon.com gift certificates. But really just a handful of cards from OPO members would tickle Murray to death and as we know Murray, will give him another story to tell. Their address is
Murray & Jackie Jacobs
Unit 3, 150 Power St
Hewthorn Vic 3122
Australia
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New OPO Gold Card Membership
In the next few days some OPO members will get their new Gold Cards and information about our new Gold Card Program in the mail. There is no fee to join this first year, but you still must fill out and return one page of the mailing to start your Gold Card membership and get your e-mail address into the new address book. More information about the program will be on our web site this month. So if you get the mailing make sure you send back the signed form right away so you do not miss the first e-mail notice being sent later this month.
In the next two or three weeks the new web site for the re-vitalized American Swan Association will be up and running. I will let you know when. The web site has a Questions and Answer section about our new services and an invitation for Swan owners and their skippers to contact us when they need crew. We also invite them to join our NARC Rally in the fall.
If you do not get an invitation to join OPO right now, you can work towards Gold Card membership by planning to sail with us soon. To become a Gold Card member you need to be a competent sailor, have a good personality, and swear that you will take good care of the boat and be very mindful whenever you crew on a Swan opportunity that we send your way. All new Gold Card Members have sailed with me or one of our Swan skippers. Plan to join us on a Swan trip or look to make a delivery with me or one of our skippers so we can get to know you and add you to the Gold Card list. You may very well be a great sailor and a great person, but until we get to meet you and confirm this we can not add you to the list yet.
It will take a few months to get the Swan Program going as the word gets out to Swan owners and their skippers. They move their boats once or twice a year, and the middle of the winter is not one of those prime times. We need to make very sure that we only send very good crew to the Swan owners as we get the program going so do not fret if you are not a gold card member yet. We are a very patient organization and have no problem spending time and resources planning sailing opportunities for our members.
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YBAA Annual Convention
OPO is an affiliate member of YBAA (The Yacht Brokers Association of America) and have been since 2001. We advertize with a 1/3 page ad in their annual journal and quarterly newsletters. Brokers are one of the best sources of delivery opportunities which greatly expand the number of OPO sailing opportunities for our members. We also get to pass along more captained delivery opportunities to our Swan skippers who always call us for crew when they get delivery opportunities.
The annual convention this year is in Baltimore MD after Nashville TN last year and alternating between FT Lauderdale, Annapolis and Newport. As YBAA has grown from a mostly East Coast organization to a Coast to Coast and International organization with many new organizations and Canadian brokers joining, our pool of opportunities also expands. We pay for a "Vendor Table" to exhibit our free crew network to the brokers during the convention and follow up with mailings during the year. As I often half-jokingly tell the brokers at the Convention, I spend over $3000 a year to give away a free service to them. They are responding by calling us more and more for deliveries and crew.
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Winter & Trans-Atlantic Swan Opportunities
The holidays are over and the long winter stretch is ahead of us. What better way to get through the winter than to plan a winter getaway. I just got an e-mail from Jet Blue Airline that they are starting direct service between New York and St. Martin for $154 each way. If you live near a city that Jet Blue services, you may be able to take advantage of their new route. We are based out of St. Martin for the winter. We have only a couple of berths left for the Heineken Regatta in early March. The BVI Regatta and Antigua Sailing week are half full with 4 or 5 crew berths left. For many of the Caribbean regattas you can fly into and out of St. Martin and then sail with us to the sailing venue. If you have not already contacted us about sailing in one of the Caribbean Regattas this winter please do send us an e-mail or give us a call and sign aboard.
Trans-Atlantics - We have two Swans sailing from St. Martin to Europe departing April 23rd. The Swan 46, with Gareth Hughes as skipper, is sailing to Palma via the Azores and plan to be there by June 1st. The Swan 37 Coscoroba (Spanish for Swan), which I delivered to the Caribbean from Newport three years ago, is also departing St. Martin and sailing to Barcelona Spain . Both opportunities cost less than sailing aboard Avocation, (which is already full for the trip to the Med in June) with the 46 costing $4000 per person and the 37 only $2500 per person for over a month of sailing. These two trips include everything except your airfare. A $1000 deposit will secure you a berth. We do have one berth left for the ARC next November and we are already signed up for the event.
Sail the BVI's on a Swan - We have already filled two Swan Charter weeks with Avocation this winter so we added one more over the Easter Week. Spend ten days in the BVI's just before the BVI Festival and Spring Regatta or plan to stay and sail in both. You would fly into St. Martin on Saturday March 22nd and stay aboard until Monday March 31st. On the 31st you would fly back home from Beef Island Tortola. This 10 day trip is only $1300 per person, plus a share of the expenses for the ten days. I will be the skipper and we can go anywhere we want the week before the regatta starts.
If you want you can also stay and sail with us for the BVI Festival and Regatta which would take you to the following Monday April 7th. If you wanted to really make a go of it and then sail back to St. Martin so you can fly to and from St. Martin on a round trip airfare then you could sail back with me and fly back from St. Martin as late as April 8th.
Race Regattas - We have only two berths left for the Heineken Regatta March 3rd to 10th. We once again have sail maker Mark Washeim aboard to help run the crew and teach about racing and sail trim. He is also bringing a new spinnaker. Bowman Todd Willis, who sailed with us in the BVI Regatta last year is also coming back. There are more berths open for the BVI Regatta the 31st of March to April 7th and the Antigua Sailing Week from 26th of April to May 3rd. You can add a couple of days to both ends of Antigua Sailing Week and fly into and out of St. Martin and sail to Antigua and back with me. There is no extra cost for the added days.
Avocation is a very competitive boat and we do more than sail around the buoys. We have even had podium finishes and a couple of near misses over the years. You do not have to be a racer to join us since we have a couple of days to practice and all you need to do is learn one or two positions. We are there for the fun and the experience and we do not yell. Racing is a great way to learn and practice sail trim and to get used to being close to other boats.
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Swan Worlds Sardinia Italy
Every two years the Swan Worlds are held in Sardinia Italy on the Northeast Coast called the Costa Esmeralda in the town of Porto Cervo. Famous for big wind and no waves, this one week regatta sees more than 100 Swans in 4 divisions. There is no cruising class and Avocation plans to be very competitive with some new sails and a light boat. We have been racing for the past 3 years (this will be our 4th) in the Caribbean. Many members have sailed with us over the years and several have been asking about this pinnacle event. We have finally signed the dotted line on accommodations in Sardinia for the event. We have a 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom villa right near the town. We will also have a van and a car, so you do not have to worry about anything except booking a ticket to come join us. The event begins the weekend of 6th and 7th, but crew will want to arrive before then so we can practice and get the boat ready. Plan to arrive as early as Monday September 1st and stay until Monday September 15th. That is when we give up the villa. After the event we will have a month to sail around before going to Malta for the Mid Sea Race so you can elect to stay and sail with us longer after the regatta.
The cost for the Regatta is the same as for the Heineken Regatta and Antigua Sailing week $2200, plus $1000 to $1500 for sleeping accommodations. (The villa is very expensive!!). You can bring a spouse for the additional housing allowance only. Some crew will stay on the boat, some may end up on an air mattress, but everyone will have a great time and be privileged to compete in one of the greatest sailing events in one of the greatest venues in the World. This is the same area and Yacht Club that hosts the maxi-worlds. If you are interested you can call our travel agent Shane at 602-870-0294 to get an idea of what flights will cost and then contact us to send in a deposit and secure a berth to plan to join us next September in Italy.
Opportunities
We have been sending out the notices as they have been coming in so there are no additional opportunities at this time. OPO members living near CT. may be interested in attending one of the following free workshops organized by OPO member and delivery skipper Bernie Weiss.
These free boating workshops, all at the Halloween Yacht Club in Stamford, may be of interest to other OPO members. They are hereby invited! Would you please distribute the invitation to members? Coffee, donuts, and door prizes, too!
For further information, OPO members should call (203.329.2503)
or email (bw@pro-pub.com) me directly. Thank you, Bernie
Sat Jan 26, 10 a.m. Spring Commissioning: Can You Get It All Done In Time? Joe Gerace, owner of Dockside Marine in Stamford, explains the ins and outs of Spring commissioning: O/B and I/O engines; seals, fluids, and repairs; bottom prep; hull repairs; how to negotiate with your boatyard and its management.
Sat Feb 23, 10 a.m. Navigating Your Way Into The 21st Century Mark McNamara, sales director of Landfall Navigation in Stamford, focuses our debate on paper v. electronic charts, raster v. vector charts, PC-based chart- plotters v. dedicated chart-plotters, POD charts v. downloading charts off the internet, and other timely topics. Mark will also demonstrate some currently popular charting programs and explain their optimal applications.
Sat Mar 15, 10 a.m. Can I Go Cruising On That New Boat Without Owning It ? Yes, if you lease a share of it, you can call it "yours." Fractional sailing, a new concept in boating, has come to Long Island Sound. Ian Treibeck, owner of WindPath Yachts, and his staff explain how you can sail a new luxury yacht with none of the expense or hassle. You share your time on board with others, avoiding mortgage, maintenance, dockage, insurance, and cleaning (the not-so-fun stuff).
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