Dear Friend of CHARIAD:

This past weekend while celebrating our nation’s independence the CHARIAD community had: a Social Sail on Saturday; a Gathering of Friends Saturday night and, by the way, a race on July 4th.

This was the sunset on Marblehead harbor July 4th. Words can only diminish the beauty and the wonder of the evening.

That morning.

July 4th Race

Monday July 4 was a terrific day for sailboat racing. Winds were 8 – 12 knots from the S but changing during the day. The Eastern YC hosted the race which was W/L twice around with 2 mile legs. We were in first or very close to first on corrected time at both the first windward mark and the first leeward mark. Unfortunately, there was a large wind shift as we were coming to the first leeward mark. We were set to jibe the spinnaker and put the jib up before taking the spin down at the leeward mark. With wind shift, we did not have time to adjust to what we call a Mexican take down with a jibe from starboard to port at the leeward mark. By the time we got all of this sorted out, we had fallen back in a very competitive fleet and finished 6th out of 7.

We have had extensive discussions about what we learned from the experience. After the race was over and everyone else was heading to the harbor/bar, the CHARIAD crew went back out to the race course and set the spin again. We talked through how to do the Mexican jibe take down from a starboard approach to the pin – pole down, jib up, jibe both spin and jib at the mark, spin down. We executed that take down before retiring for the day.

The spin is just going up and the jib is about to come down.

CHARIAD Shirts & Hats

If you have not already done so, let Melisa and Elisabeth (email above)  know what you want in the hat shirt order. They are putting the order in now.

Here are your options with approx. prices.

Golf shirts, white cotton   $30

Men’s   S, M, L, XL
Woman’s S, M, L

Hats, dark gray  $20

One size fits all

T shirts,  white performance  $20

Men’s S, M, L, XL
Woman’s S, M, L, XL

These are a lot of fun to wear and support the team. Give your spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, pet pig a gift and make them happy. Better than giving them a toaster oven or car repair kit.

Let get this done. M&E will let you know how to pay.

CHARIAD Grill

The Friends of CHARIAD have purchase a super stainless grill for Richard Sides as thanks for his hosting us at his home in Marblehead.

Sandy Campbell bought the grill and Steve Perry was a grill master at the Friends Gathering on Saturday.

Social Sail

Our Social Sails are a special treat for me and for those who are able to go. The problem is that the sails are weather dependent and are not possible to firmly schedule well in advance. If the weather looks like it is cooperating and you can do a somewhat last minute sail, please come out.

Here are some of the folks on the sail on Saturday. As an example of the high level conversation, I mentioned that I am planning to take a couple of weeks at the end of the summer and retrace the Lewis and Clark trail of discovery. One of our crewmate – a Sloan grad – asked whether the trail went all of the way to Springfield. Possible modes of transportation were also discussed – walking but also canoe, and mule. I am visualizing riding into downtown Springfield on a mule. Lots of laughs on our trek past Gloucester.

OK – this is my end of the email trick. If readers do not get to this point, they will miss a special treat. Stuart Starkweather played the bagpipes on the boat the evening of the 4th. If you go to the Friends of CHARIAD Group on Facebook, you can click on the video and hear Stuart play the pipes over the harbor. If you have not joined the Group yet, just click to join. That is where you will get the most current updates.

Hope to see you soon.

Rick