Notice to OPO Mariners, November 1st, 2005
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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
The November 1st Notice is going out early this month since I will be departing for Newport in the morning and our annual trip south to Bermuda and St. Martin. We have 14 boats in the fleet, six Swans, and about 25 OPO members on 11 of the 14 boats. In fact, one of the main reasons why we organize the rally each year is because it creates more opportunities for our members. This is our 6th annual rally and as many of you know, this year we are being filmed by a California Film crew for a segment on a TV show. We will let everyone know when it airs and for those that do not get the channel in their area we will have DVD's to share.
While I am away Cathy will check the phone and e-mail once a day and send out e-mail notices. She is in charge so be nice to her or she may get even by forgetting to send you some information.
The Rally budget is very small and we in fact are happy if we can break even each year. We cannot afford much advertising in the magazines and rely more on word of mouth to make the rally grow and create more opportunities for our members. The DVD and TV Show should help. The one exception is a full-page ad in Blue Water Sailing Magazine in their summer issue highlighting crew options and charter companies. We have been running the full-page ad each year for the last 5 years.
Does anyone get Blue Water Sailing Magazine? If you do you will notice in the November Issue that just came out that they have an article about Rallies and a sidebar about rallies that people can join. Well guess whom they forgot. In fact this is not the first time they forgot us in an article about rallies. The last time I called George Day (the editor) and asked what's the deal. He apologized and let me right a "letter to the editor" for a future issue correcting the fact that they missed our rally. (Even though we run a full page add they forgot about us!!) So this is the 2nd time in a year that they have forgotten us. Not only that but the November Issue has a sidebar about how Steve Black and the Caribbean 1500 is running a feeder leg from Newport to Norfolk so boats in the Northeast can sail to Norfolk to join the Caribbean 1500. This is from a magazine that is based in Newport; yet support the idea of sailing to the Chesapeake to start their passage south to the Caribbean from a much more westerly starting point. I did call George Day up immediately and asked what the …..? He apologized and said they would cover this years NARC Rally. Blue Water Sailing magazine is supposed to be about offshore sailing. George Day sailed around the world. You must wonder why they would then tell people to sail to Virginia first from the Northeast to make their trip to the Caribbean. In fact this is pretty dumb. For one, you loose a lot of easterly by sailing to the Caribbean. They have a saying when leaving from the Middle of the East Coast of the US heading to the Caribbean and that is to "head east until the butter melts and then turn south" to help pick up the trades. Many boats in the Caribbean 1500 (who plan to sail rather than motor to the Caribbean) will set a waypoint just south of Bermuda, before turning south. In fact the Caribbean 1500 (Should now be called Caribbean 1300 since it moved from Newport to Hampton Rhodes VA) used to go the Bermuda first. In 2003, almost half the Caribbean 1500 fleet ended up in Bermuda and we invited them to stay at the dock with us at the Dinghy Club and invited them to our Party. Of course never a thanks you from Steve Black.
Another stupid reason about making the passage from the Chesapeake to the Caribbean is that it is one long leg that can take from 7 to 11 days. You may be able to get a reliable weather window of 5 days and a 5-day forecast, but you cannot get a 10-day forecast. By sailing from Newport to Bermuda we have a 4-5 day passage and then from Bermuda we wait for the next weather window and have a 5 to 7 day passage to the Caribbean starting much further east than if we had departed from the Chesapeake. As I mentioned, I have already called George Day. However I think it would be better if we had a lot of OPO members e-mail him and ask the rational for recommending boats from the Northeast sail to the Chesapeake to join a rally heading to the Caribbean when he has a rally that already starts in his own hometown, Newport. If you are creative enough using some of the facts I have expressed hear and adding your own, he may even publish it in a letter to the editor. At the very least I ask every OPO member to e-mail George Day and kindly ask, what about OPO and the NARC Rally? Let him know that OPO matters!! Georges e-mail address, which you can click on and reply to him from hear, is george@bwsailing.com . I thank you in advance. Building up the NARC Rally helps OPO create more opportunities for our member and it would be nice to one-day break even.
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Swan Winter Program
Many members know we started an OPO Race Team (OPORT) and have been practicing for the winter regattas in the Caribbean this year. You do not need to me a member of the team or even have racing experience if you want to join us for one of the regattas this winter. We do not yell, we emphasize learning and having fun, and we had a great time in three regattas last year.
But before we even get into the race schedule since more members do not want to race. We are reserving a full week in January to sail aboard Avocation, our Swan 48, out of St. Martin. The dates are to fly into St. Martin on Saturday January 21st or Sunday the 22nd and stay aboard until Sunday the 29th. I will be the skipper onboard. We will depart Sunday for the Virgin Islands and spend most of the week in the British Virgin Islands. We have room for three couple or six individual OPO members to join me. The first couple to respond can reserve the owner's main aft cabin. The cost will be $1400 for individuals and $2500 for couples. OPO members are allowed to bring a non-OPO member spouse or friend. The price includes captain, fuel, and partial provisioning, but does not include dock or mooring fees, or tourist taxes in the BVI. St. Martin is the easiest and cheapest island to fly into and we will be back in St. Martin to fly home on Sunday mid day.
Back to Racing - Hear is the schedule for three of the major events this winter. The December issues of the sailing Trade magazines will start advertising the opportunities to join us to the general public, but we want to first offer OPO members the chance to fill the crew slots, especially for the Heineken Regatta which will fill up fast. OPORT Team members have until December 1st to get first dibs on any of the regattas, but we are already starting the list for OPO members who will have priority over new callers that respond to the ads. If you are interested in joining us for any of the regattas listed below, please let us know soon. Cathy will start a list while I am gone and I will get in touch with you when I get back and we will start to finalize plans and book flights. You do not need to send in a deposit until I contact you after I get back. Some of the regattas are only 3 days of racing, others are 5 days. We turn all the events into at least a week's vacation with practice before the racing starts. There are also options to join us a couple of days earlier or to stay a couple of days after to help sail the boat from St. Martin to whatever Island is hosting the race that month.
The dates for the three major regattas are:
Heineken Regatta - 3-5 March St. Marten (Thursday,Fri,Sat)
Fly into St. Martin on Monday Feb 27th and depart the following Monday March 6th.
BVI Spring Regatta - 31 March - 3 April
Fly into St. Martin March 28th or into BVI March 30th, race for 5 days until April 3rd and fly home from BVI April 4th or St. Martin on April 5th.
Antigua Sailing Week - 30 April - 5 May
Fly into St. Martin April 27th to sail to Antigua or fly into Antigua April 29th for one day of practice before racing starts on Monday May 1st. Fly home from Antigua May 6th or from St. Martin after May 7th or on the 8th.
Please take a good look at the dates and let me know which regatta(s) you would like to participate in. Some OPORT team members have already responded and I have noted the regattas they have picked. I will contact everyone by the end of November and we will start making firm plans and reserve flights. Last year we put together an all-inclusive package so people did not have to worry about booking hotels and renting cars. In St. Martin we rented a villa with a private pool and maid service. In Antigua we chartered a big Catamaran to follow us around. We also rented a van to get us to and from the Villas. We will be looking into booking the villas or charter boats in the next month and setting up the car rentals so we will know how much the week of sailing will cost. We do have a new set of racing sails that will be delivered before the first regatta.
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For more information please call us today at 1-800-472-7724
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