Spring has arrived here in the USA, of course winter was almost a complete no show in my area. Ski season wasn’t good this year (warmest February on record) and Donald says global warming is a hoax. What planet is he on?
After five months of work, I finished my bathroom renovation project in March. It was the biggest single home improvement project I have ever done. We are happy with the results and it’s nice to be done with the dust.
The boat will be coming out of the garage soon as its almost sailing season. I took the trailer out first to do some work on it. Time to clean and repack the bearings, I also added a second storage box. I built a double rack for this trailer a little over a year ago so I can haul two boats at once but it was a little tight with just one box so I added another one. I still need to modify how a store my beach wheels as well as they used to sit in the space where the second box is going.
The regatta season starts here in May and I have my calendar filled with events now for the season. The beginning of the season is always a time of optimism as we look forward to the season. Up first is my closest regatta, about 45 minutes away at Gunpowder State Park. It’s been our traditional first event for a long time. For our first couple events the wind seems to be directly related to the temperatures, the colder it is the windier. Following Gunpowder we will be doing our annual trek to Syracuse for the Madcatter. Last year’s Madcatter was huge as it was their 40th anniversary. The host fleet always seems to have theme for the event, we’ll see what they have in store for the 41st.
This year’s Hobie 16 and Hobie 20 North American’s are in South Dakota? If you are not familiar with South Dakota it’s in the middle, they grow corn there. We try to follow a rotation for our events in North America and move them around to different parts of the region. The basic plan is to rotate, east, west, middle so every few years we go to the middle. Not too long ago we went to Iowa, all my coworkers ask me where we are going each year as it’s always somewhere different. I recall when I mentioned that we were going to Iowa, they were all shocked and said “they sail is Iowa”? Turns out yes they do sail in Iowa and we had a really good time at that event. It was a big lake surrounded by corn fields and classic small town America. It was also quite windy as there was nothing but corn to block the wind. I expect South Dakota to be similar and so far it looks be well attended. It’s pretty much a two day drive from anywhere in the North America. So yes they do sail in South Dakota and we are going!
Internationally the big event this year is the multi-worlds in the Netherlands and we are looking forward to a new experience there. My parents have decided to tag along on this trip and it will be their first international trip. See you there.
Rich McVeigh
