What's New January 25, 2008 I have two small speaking engagements about offshore sailing coming up this month. They are nothing grand, but if you live in the area (and we know 95% of you do not) you are welcome to come join us. Both are free. The First one is this Saturday at the Seaview Harbor Marina in Long Port New Jersey located at 300 hospitality Dr in Long Port NJ 08403 if you want to come and need to mapquest or google directions. The second speaking engagement is at the Doyle Sail loft in Huntington NY located at 1345 New York Ave., STE 2, Huntington Station, NY 11746 Here is the e-mail Notice that Mark Washeim sent out to his customers yesterday. Mark is the sailmaker that sails with us at the Heineken Regatta and who makes sails for Avocation. He had over 100 people at the talk last week given by Eric Forsyth. If you live on Long Island and want to come please do. Regards, Hank OPO Following up on Eric Forsyth’s very successful presentation on his ocean sailing adventures, we thought is would be great to have Hank Schmitt of Offshore Passage Opportunities talk about how you too can take that next step towards becoming an offshore sailor. Hank would like to entitle his presentation: Sailing Offshore, It’s not as hard as you think. Hank’s presentation will take place here at the loft on Thursday, January 31st at 7:00 pm. (That’s right, only 9 days away.) Hank Schmitt has sailed over 200,000 as a delivery skipper over the past 20 years. Raised locally in Huntington, many of you may already know or have heard about him. Hank will outline his own start in sailing and how he has worked to create a lifestyle where he continues to sail over 100 days a year and has helped hundreds of other achieve their own sailing goals through his company called “Offshore Passage Opportunities”. Every year since 1998 Hank has made the annual delivery migration from Newport RI to the Caribbean. This is his third year racing in the Caribbean Big Boat Circuit skippering his Swan 48. He is sailing the boat to Europe this June (His 7th Trans-at) to participate in the Swan Worlds in Sardinia Italy. An RSVP via email would be nice, but not required. Please feel free to email this around to friends and club members. There will be no cost. Hoping to see you all on the 31st, Mark Washeim Doyle Sailmakers 1345 New York Ave., STE 2 Huntington Station, NY 11746 Loft - 631-673-5055 Cell - 631-235-8999 doyleli@att.net www.doylesails.com ______________________________________________________ Dear OPO Members, Here are some dates to think about over the Holiday weekend. We have several options for you to think about if you want to go sailing with us aboard Avocation this winter or a longer trip next year. A few of the opportunities are very limited due to space. Our transatlantic in June, our ARC Rally return from The Canary Islands to St. Lucia and even our trip back from St. Martin to NY in May are almost full and have only two berths left each. The Heineken Regatta already has 7 deposited crew members. Not only do you want to decide soon if you want to join us to make sure we have room, but also to get the best airfares. I just booked my one way flight to St. Martin for Antigua Sailing week and paid only $154 for the ticket. Book early and make sure you get good rates. Heineken Regatta Monday March 3rd to Monday March 10th $2200 BVI Festival & Regatta March 31st to April 7th. $2000 Antigua Sailing Week April 26th to May 3rd $2200 If are not into racing we also have three opportunities to join us for a week of sailing, tack it onto one of our regattas and join us for two weeks in the Caribbean this winter. The first two opportunities are filling up quick since I posted them at $100 per person per day plus a share of the expenses. The first opportunity from Feb 11th to Feb 17th flying into Beef Island Tortola on those dates has only two berths left. The 2nd opportunity from 25 February to 3rd March starting by flying into Beef Island the 25th and f;lying back from St. Martin on March 3rd, also has only two berths left. One crew is joining us for a week before the Heineken Regatta and then for the regatta for two weeks, one cruising and one racing. The third charter opportunity is wide open because this is the first time we are mentioning it. This opportunity is to fly into St. Martin Saturday March 22nd and then sail over to the BVI’s for ten days until Monday March 31st. The BVI Festival & Regatta crew arrive on the 31st and you can stay the week and spend two weeks in the BVI, one cruising and then one racing. You then would have the option to sail back to St. Martin and fly back April 8th for a round trip airplane ticket to and from St. Martin.. The Regatta is $2000 but you could join us fore the extra two weeks of sailing for $1300. If you want to join me for the week and sail from March 22nd to March 31st and fly back from Tortola before the BVI Regatta then you can join us for $1300 for the 10 days. All you need to do is send a $500 deposit for any of these opportunities and the balance is not due until 30 days before the trip. We take credit cards now so you can book online or by calling our 800-472-7724 number (800-4-PASSAGe). Don’t miss out by procrastinating. Many members have said they wanted to join us this year, don’t miss out by waiting. The December 1st Notice will also have information about a couple of other trans-atlantic opportunities on a Swan this April. ______________________________________________________ All the opportunities have been going out as they come in since this is the busy season and we are not sitting on any long range opportunities at this point. Cathy will be sending out more opportunities while I am away and I will be back Nov 16th to plan winter opportunities for our members and tom work on the exciting new announcement offering more great sailing opportunities to OPO members after the new year. ______________________________________________________ Important note to all active OPO Members – If you are looking for a passage south this fall especially in the NARC Rally please let me know. I will be in or near the office for the next week through next Thursday and then I am driving up to Newport for our departure. I will be out of the office for 3 weeks. Cathy will still be sending out notices while I am gone, but you will miss the personal attention and help I can provide so please let me know if you want to go with us and I will see what I can do or what comes up in the next week. We have several opportunities waiting owner’s final decisions and if I know you are looking for something I may be able to help put things together. Hank 631-423-4988 Remember if you need to make travel arrangements you can call our travel agent connection Shane in Arizona at 602-870-0294. We have been using him for years and he specializes in one-way tickets for OPO members. ______________________________________________________ Monday morning after I send out the October first “Notice to OPO Mariners” I will be putting the new active member address book in place. If you have not already mailed in your annual dues of $125, but plan to in the next few days, please let me know so I do not delete you. It is more work for me to delete the in-active members and then have to enter them back into the system. If you do not want to stay active now, but plan to re-activate this winter or spring, the membership cost is still $125 then as it is now so you will not save any money. We also take credit cards if that makes things easier. Thanks, Hank Blue Water Sailing magazine asked the following question in their free weekly newsletter. If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter I have included the link below. If any OPO members wants to send an answer to the question from past NARC Ralllys, please do so. It would be good to let the folks at Blue Water Sailing know that there are more rallies besides the Caribbean 1500 and ARC. Besides we depart from their hometown so they should be more excited about departing from Newport than Norfolk for the trip south every year. Thanks for sending in any stories about our NARC Rally to them. The editor is George Day if you want to address your reply to him. What is your rally experience? If you've sailed offshore with a rally, share your experience with the rest of the Cruising Compass community! Send us a few paragraphs and maybe a photo or two about what rally you sailed with and when. Was it a good experience? Would you do it again? Any tips for other cruisers? Email your short stories to comments@cruisingcompass.com ______________________________________________________ Newport Boat Show update: OPO will have a booth at the Newport Boat Show. Whenever we have a booth at the show I get offered to purchase show tickets at a discount from the show management. I can not and do not resell them to you, but I do offer a free boat show ticket to any OPO members that are planning to go to the show. I therefore want you to know that if you are a paid up member in OPO for the 2007/2008 OPO calendar year then I will mail you a show ticket or place it in the will call office under “O” for OPO in an envelope with your name on it. Tickets on opening day cost $25 and $16 other days so it is a nice saving. Annual OPO “invoices” are being mailed out today so you will have two weeks to pay your OPO dues if you want to request a ticket for the Newport Boat Show. If you do not get an invoice you have either joined up recently or are one of a handful of members that overpaid last year so we have you already listed as paid until September 2008. If you do not get a letter in the next few days and are wondering you may e-mail me to make sure. We are also sailing up to the boat show aboard Avocation, our Swan 48. We have two berths left for the trip up and more room for crew to sail back. If you are planning to go to the boat show and need a place to stay, it makes sense to sign up for the sail up to or back to Huntington NY aboard Avocation. It is a 4 day package either way. We will depart Huntington NY Tuesday afternoon, September 11th to be in Newport on Wednesday evening before the show starts on Thursday. (Newport Boat show is from 13-16th of September) The boat will stay in Newport until at least Friday and if the weather is bad until Saturday morning. I will be the skipper up and Nick Popovich from the Hylas 66 deliveries will be sailing back since I will have a boat show booth until Sunday. The costs for the 4 days for the trip up or the 4 days trip back, staying aboard the boat for the show, is $600 per person. Please let me know soon if you want to get a good sail aboard Avocation in along with a visit to the boat show. The $25 Thursday Boat show ticket is included in the fee. Hope to see some of you in Newport, call for the sail up or back, and don’t forget to pay your OPO dues the month of September. Regards, Hank Schmitt OPO ______________________________________________________ Info missing from Aug 1st Notice I finally got pricing information for the Thursday Night Crew Change day in Newport for the Boat Show this September 13th. Pearl’s Of Newport is a very nice B & B complex spread out over 5 properties all very near the waterfront so you do not have to drive. We though about including the room rate into the price of the trip, but although we did get a good discount for Newport Standards, it was not so great to have us reserve 6 rooms. But if anyone wants to treat themselves or their spouses with a nice boat show stay ashore combined with your time at sea on an overnight sail in the fall to or from the show, then please do make reservations at the Inn soon and confirm with us by sending in a $300 deposit for the boat trip. The price at the Inn are: Suites $275 and Deluxe $225 complete with gourmet breakfast in the main house and a complimentary bottle of wine. (Some rooms are in suites with 2 bedrooms and a shared bath.) Any OPO member can call or e-mail in the next few days if they are planning to come to the Newport Boat Show and want to stay close and the price may be good for other days, but theses prices may not hold for the weekend. You can call Lisa at Pearl’s of Newport at 401-848-0061 or e-mail Lisa@Pearlsofnewport.com The Old Christies (Now called 41 North) is still working on an off season rate and may not know what to charge us until we arrive since it is their first year in business. Presently they charge $7.50 a foot per night, so three days would be a little expensive. However it is a great place to stay for a couple of days if they can give us a decent rate we may stay. In the mean time we need to set a price for the trip so we will call dockage in Newport extra which will be split 5 or 6 ways. That way the price for the trip for 4 days from Huntington to Newport (with 2 days in Newport) or the 4 day opportunity back (also with two days in Newport for the Show) will be only $600 per person. So look at your calendars and see about joining us. The berths will fill up pretty quickly at this rate. ______________________________________________________ The 7th annual NARC Rally will depart Newport Rhode Island October 29th 2007 for the 1500 mile sail to Bermuda and then to the Caribbean. We have posters to mal to you if you have a place to post one that you think will be worthwhile. (Your Yacht Club or local Marine Store or Marina?) Just let me know how many you need and I will mail you copies. It is always our intention to attract private boat owners that will need crew for the trip south and will take advantage of our service that we provide free for NARC Rally participants. I have offered OPO services to the Caribbean 1500 to assist with their crew needs. Steve Black has included a flier from us offering our services for free to any Caribbean 1500 skipper that needs crew for their event. We will let you know when we hear from skippers and boat owners that will need crew for either event. We like to work with everyone to make more opportunities for our members. If you have any suggestions please feel free to let us know. Newport Boat Show - We have a booth at the Newport Boat Show this year and look forward to seeing some of you there. We have not had a booth since 1999 in Newport. We will be in the big tent to the left as you come into the main gate. Make sure to come by and say hi and see where we will be after the show for a drink. Other OPO members may wish to sail up to Newport and visit the show by water. See below for details. Sail to the Newport Boat Show - Fall Boat Shows - For the past three years we have organized a sail to both the Newport and Annapolis Boat Shows. Think about joining us this year. All you need to do now is send in a $500 deposit and the balance is not due until September 1st for the Newport Show and Oct 1st for the Annapolis Show passage. Newport - For the Newport Show we will depart Huntington NY Tuesday September 11th and be in Newport on Wednesday the day before the show. , we will depart the show on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning depending on the weather to be back by late Saturday or early Sunday September 16th. It is an 18 to 20 hour overnight sail both up and back to the show from NY. Most people want to sail up to or back from the Boat Show so we offer two options to join us for the first 4 days or the 2nd four days. Folks joining us for the 1st leg will sail up on Tuesday and stay aboard until Friday. You can see the show on Thursday and go back on Friday of you wish. We plan to stay at the old Christies dock which is now a very high end Marina called Forty 1 North www.41no.com . Their summer rate is $7.50 a foot, but if they offer a decent off-season rate we will stay there. We are also going upscale on this trip by including one night at a Bed and Breakfast place around the corner from the show for Thursday Night only. Folks making the return trip can come to Newport on Thursday to see the show opening day and stay ashore in this great Bed and Breakfast and then move aboard Avocation on Friday. We will depart Newport on Friday or Saturday depending on weather and consensus and be back in Huntington BY Sunday. So both legs are 4 days. Pricing will be in the about the $800 range for the 4 days either the first four days or a little more for the 2nd four days (I am waiting to get confirmation on room rates and dockage rates before committing to a price for the 4 days). However this is a great way to see the show and share it with a spouse with some time ashore and then a nice overnight sail back. I will e-mail the final costs in the next few days, but if you want to plan on joining us for the show please let me know now. Annapolis Boat Show - This year's departure date is Monday October 1st from Huntington NY for the sail down the East River and the Manhattan Skyline, down the Jersey Shore and then, depending on weather, decide to take the Delaware Bay route or keep sailing to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and then up to Annapolis. The trip will take from 36 to 48 hours depending on which way we go. We plan to arrive in Annapolis by Wednesday Oct 3rd, the day before the show starts. We depart for Annapolis Mid-Day on Friday and will be back in Huntington on Sunday October 7th. It is a great first offshore passage and a good way to see the Annapolis Boat Show and have a place to stay right next door. You can join us for the entire week for $1500 and make both legs and see the show for two days, or you can join us for the 4 days down or four days back which will include a day and a half at the show for $800 per leg. Both the Newport trip and the Annapolis trip include everything except 1/5 share of provisioning. When we split food costs for these costal trips we save a lot of money and do not waste food since we know we will be eating ashore for half the time and do not need to spend a fortune to eat well for a day or two on the passages. ______________________________________________________ 8th Annual Swan Sailing Program Some members like to lock into dates early and be assured of making the passage this fall. They do not mind paying to be on a Swan with one of our skippers. If you are planning to join us this year aboard a Swan it is not too early to let us know and get in a $500 deposit now. In September we will formally start making plans for the fall (It feels to early to be speaking about the fall and winter already), but we already have 4 people signed up and those that sign up early get first call on which boat and which skipper they want to be with. We depart Oct 29th with crew arriving in Newport Saturday October 27th. We allow 18 days to allow for WOW (Waiting On Weather).Anyone signing up before September 1st will get a $200 OPO member early discount. For both legs or $100 discount per leg if they are making just one leg. The price is the same as last year which is $2665 for the 18days and $1400 for one leg. Name: ______________________ Please keep me active for another year_________. Annual dues $125. I have included a $500 deposit for the ________________________________ Passage this fall. New contact information only. If you have not moved, gotten a new e-mail address or phone number, you do not need to fill out any more info other than your name. If you have new info please include it below and we will change our records. New Address: _______________________ New E-mail: _______________________ New Phones: _______________________ Make all checks out to Offshore Passage Opportunities and mail to: OPO PO Box 2600 Halesite NY 11743 Home | Membership | Message Board | About OPO | Upcoming Rallies | Contact Us For more information call 1-800-4PASSAGE (1-800-472-7724)