Notice to OPO Mariners, September 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
It has been a quite two weeks since I have been in Sardinia Italy getting ready for the Swan Worlds and the arrival of OPO members for the event. It took me a few days to get set up with e-mail with a Satellite hook-up and European account. Now that we are in e-mail contact and have Skype phone service we are back in business.
Also as hurricanes churn up off our coasts and people enjoy the end of summer, boats do no go venturing offshore or make passages. Any skippers and boat owners looking for crew now are planning to depart after hurricane season which is why we were able to save the opportunities at the end of this newsletter for the September 1st Notice and not have to send them out earlier.
Porto Cervo, the site of the Maxi Worlds next week and then the Swan Worlds September 7th to 15th, is a great place to sail. It is famous for big winds and calm seas because of the location below Corsica and sailing in the lee of the Magdalena Islands. However it is ridiculously expensive. A single dish pizza is $20, to launder one sheet is $10 (but the pillow case is free) and a rental car is $100 a day. We do have a great villa overlooking the bay and our OPO crew start arriving this weekend for the race and then another crew for the passage from here to Malta.
Boat owners are starting to contact us looking for crew for the migration south this year and we are starting to list free opportunities at the bottom of this monthly’s “Notice to OPO Mariners”. We check e-mail everyday and the phone at home through Skype when we can so we are very much open for business.
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Annual OPO Dues
Annual OPO dues are due by the end of this month. We start the new address book with the October 1st Notice so as long as you pay your dues before then there will be no interruption in e-mail notices. Annual dues remain the same as last year which is $125. Next year they will increase to $150. However we offer members the chance to avoid next years increase by electing to pay for two years this year. Gold membership is $150 rather than $125 and may also go up next year as we develop the Gold Card Membership Program to include more elite opportunities crewing for private Swan owners and full time Swan delivery skippers. You do not owe annual dues if you joined recently. If you joined for $100 this past winter you do owe dues. If you do not get the October 1st Notice you will know that you did not pay dues and need to contact us if you want to stay active for the 2009 season.
Simply stated:
Pay $125 to stay active until the end of Sept 2009
Pay $150 if you are a Gold Card Members
Pay $250 for 2 years and miss next years increase.
Pay $300 for Gold Card membership to avoid a possible large increase in GC dues.
Please make check payable to Offshore Passage Opportunities and mail to PO Box 2600 Halesite NY or you can pay by credit card. All we need is the number, exp date and the mailing address that the bill is sent to. We do not need the 3 digit security code on the back.
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Web Site Plans
Our new web site and new features are taking longer than expected. A combination of my being away this month
and my web person having four sons under age 7 are possible reasons for the delay. I am sure once school
starts and I am back things will move along more quickly. The new section for members to post their resumes
and sea time will only be needed for active members anyway so we will start having people fill in their
information after the October 1st deadline. In-active members need not sign up. If you have started
a new job or know you will not have time this year to sail, it is ok to go in-active. You can re-activate
your membership at any time by simply contacting us and paying your annual dues. Otherwise please make sure
you send in your dues and stay active. With the new web site section you will be able to update your personal
section of the web site as you make more passages and be able to instruct potential skippers to go to our web
site and enter a code to get access to your resume to make it easier to sign aboard with a skipper or boat owner.
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Narc Rally
This will be our 8th annual NARC Rally departing from Newport October 27th or best weather window afterwards. If anyone knows of any boat owner heading south please do tell them about the rally. We can not afford to spend any money on advertising for the rally since we keep entry fees so low.
However as a board member of the American Swan Association I was able to include an invitation to Swan owners to join the rally and to also offer or members for crew if they are sailing south this fall. The NARC Rally falls under the category of “creating” offshore opportunities by running the event and controlling the crew placement for the event. The past two years I have offered to do the same for Steve Black and the Caribbean 1500, but he pays us lip service and says he will tell his participants to call us, but we have learned that we do not get any calls. We hope to see many of you in Newport for the start of the rally. If you want to join and do not get a berth by Mid October, please give me a call and we will see what we can do.
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Swan Opportunities
Annapolis Boat Show - Avocation will be re-rigged and ready to sail this October. Our first sail will be from Newport RI to the Annapolis Boat Show and back to New York. We only have two berths left for the leg from Newport to Annapolis and four for the return passage, (Or two berths for both legs). The Price is $750 for one leg and $1500 for the round trip which is a great price for 4 days which includes seeing the boat show in Annapolis and having a place to stay right next door to the show. (a hotel room near the show would cost half that much.) The price does not include provisioning or docking in Annapolis, but split 6 ways will not be a lot of money. If you are interested in sailing and meeting me (which can help for a personal reference to another skipper in the future) and seeing the Annapolis Boat Show on Thursday, Red Carpet Day when the crowds are down, please contact me via e-mail and ask for details and information about sending in a deposit. The balance will not be do until the end of September when I get back to the states. The dates are from Sunday October 5th to Sunday October 12th with crew change Thursday night after seeing the Boat Show. We plan to spend one night in Manhattan on the return trip.
NARC Rally – There will be free berths in the NARC Rally and for other boats heading south this fall. Likely candidates are members that have made the trip in the Swan Program or who have good offshore sailing experience. For those that want to make sure they have a berth or who want a more instructional offshore experience, you can sign up for the passage on a Swan. Avocation is already full but we have at least one other Swan and perhaps two that will be in the Rally and making the passage south this year. The dates are to be in Newport Saturday October 25th and fly home from St. Maarten November 13th. The price of $2565 includes everything except your transportation to and from the boat and meals ashore. If you compare this to any other offshore sailing school given my competitors you will see what a bargain this is, almost less than staying home. If you are interested we will tell you more about the Program and how to sign up.
NARC Rally aboard an Oyster – If you have always wanted to sail an Oyster offshore or are interested in maybe buying one in the future, one of our OPO skippers is joining the rally in another member’s Oyster 53 for the NARC Rally. Captain David Appleton is a very accomplished skipper who has taught the USCG Captains Course for the Mariner’s School and is a regular skipper for the Maryland Sailing School. He is looking for three or four paying crew to join him in the NARC Rally. He normally charges more than we do but for OPO members he will reduce the price to match our Swan Program. The starting dates are the same but he will be sailing to Antigua rather than St. Marten which is about 18 hours further south. If you are interested you can contact David at dwapple@verizon.net or call him at 215-862-5721 or cell 215-262-2075.
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