Just a quick note form the Commodore to welcome all the new members and say hello to all our devoted Southern Cross owners and friends. I want to wish everyone a happy and safe sailing season. I know many of us are seasoned veterans of many offshore cruises but please take care on the water and around your boat.
This aspect of sailing was brought home to those of us sailing out of Mt. Hope Bay with the stark reality of the danger that can be involved. Early this spring my absolute concentration on bottom painting Trigness was disturbed by the sounds of a Coast Guard chopper doing a pattern search from Fall River to Tiverton and back to Swansea. One would have guessed it was a training exercise except that the search continued for an hour after dark. A skipperless 27 foot sailboat with sails furled had motored up on to the beach at Touisett. The 37 year old solo skipper from Portsmouth was not found for over a month.
Several weeks later, with the prep work on Trigness proceeding slowly, I was again working late as a car drove into the yard and dropped off 3 inebriated sailors. They had been working on their boat for the past few weeks and were being launched and setting sail for Bermuda aboard Ankh in the morning. These were sailors with lots of experience and they were looking forward to an adventure. They met tragedy part way to Bermuda in 14 foot seas after one was severely injured from being thrown into a bulkhead. An electrical short prevented the engine from starting. Their powerless vessel collided with an empty 450 foot container ship attempting to rescue the injured sailor while rolling 40 degrees to each side. One sailor, knocked overboard in the collision, drown and was not recovered until the next morning.

Fast forward several more weeks to sunset on Labor Day. My friend Cecelia and I had completed a fine days sail from Swansea out and back on the Sakonnet River almost to Third Beach in Newport. We were covering the mainsail when I spotted a pair of older gents rowing their inflatable in from a Nonsuch at a mooring. 20 seconds later I look back and the older of the two is in the 45 degree water struggling to hold on to the inflatable. Cece and I jumped off Trigness and rushed down the dock to help the pair out. I was able to grab the frantically kicking dingy dropout when the flustered fellow in the dingy tells us that his friend has a heart condition and had been in and out of the hospital several times. After landing the dingy the 3 of us were able to hoist the waterlogged sailor onto the dock. His heart was racing and Cece, a physician, volunteered to get him off the dock and into the men’s room to dry off. The other sailor ferried back to the Nonsuch to pick up the owner and some dry clothes for their friend. This story has a happy ending and aside from being cold and embarrassed everyone was fine.
Is there a moral to all this? I guess all I can say is no matter how much fun sailing can be don’t let your guard down. Make this sailing season a great one but first it has to be safe one.
I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at both the forth annual Sail-In/Drive-In RI Rendezvous and the first annual Down East Rendezvous and hearing from all of you who are traveling the world by Southern Cross or plane.

John Rohland Commodore, SCOA

Past Commodores Message - Annual Meeting Update

The 18th annual meeting was a resounding success. The turnout was outstanding with members from Maine to Michigan and throughout the Eastern seaboard. As usual mother nature was her generous self and started Friday with a snow storm to give us a hard time getting to Newport (just like the last 3 years).
Friday night many people showed up at the commodore's locker to renew old acquaintances and past year sailing adventures.
The meeting started with the introduction to SCOA by the Commodore Andy Thibeault and a review of the agenda for the day . The officers of the association were introduced to the members along with a statement of what the SCOA is and it's reason for being.
The first presenter was Jeff Troelzsch owner of NELLIE a SC 28. Jeff, a new member, spoke of his cruise in the Western Caribbean through Yucatan, Belize, Guatemala and the Bay Islands in Honduras. Jeff handed out a beautiful brochure which had both pictures and write-up on his cruise. He described his many adventures through out the western Caribbean. He did a wonderful job in describing the cruising life. His most memorable saying was " Don't carry Avocados in Guatemala" (they look like hand grenades).

Our next presenter was Peter Georg owner of "Kirsten" a SC 28. In "40 days on the ICW", he described the trip down the ICW from Connecticut to Jacksonville FL with his wife Judy. He presented a slide show with pictures of the beautiful places they anchored and moored on the way down. They accumulated 220 hours of engine running time while covering 30 to 40 miles per day.
Bill and Liz Thorndike (both former Commodores) presented their adventures from Boston to Charleston SC on "Sonnet" a SC 31. They highlighted the ICW trip with the comment "Keep your Pelican on the right marker". (Referring to the brass Pelican that is available to keep track of your progress).
Frank Dicesare, owner of "Secert Roads" a SC 31 (also a former Commodore), did a slide show of their trip from the Hudson to the Carolinas. They covered 30 to 35 miles per day, checked out the Trump Castle in Atlantic City and solved the mystery of " Who stole the bridge". Their Southern Cross will be in an up coming movie "Day of the Jackal" staring Bruce Willis. Look for it.

Mike Desisto spoke on redoing the deck on his SC 31 hull 97. He gave an in depth presentation of the complete redoing of the topsides. If this type of project is in your boat's future, I strongly suggest you get a copy of the video of the meeting and check this presentation out. This short write up could not cover the valuable information Mike passed on to us.

Leonard Beckwith of Kennebec Marine Services from Gardiner Maine did a presentation on the restoration of an SC 31 Hull Number 1 "Nina Del Mar". This boat was used to make the original mold which gave birth to all SC 31's. Nina Del Mar is owned by Leonard's father in law, Roger Scott. Again I cannot do justice to the volume of information that this talented boat builder passed on. I suggest that if you have a major refit coming get a copy of the video from the editors of the news letter.

Ralph DeGroodt (former Commodore and former editor of the newsletter) did a short discussion on anchoring and the types of anchors used by our members. For those of you who have met and had the pleasure of hearing Ralph discuss the various upgrades and changes he has done to his SC 31 "Lyra" you will know that the discussion was great.

So much for the day program, The dinner speaker was Stuart Miller "Transiting the Panama Canal". He discussed how he and his wife cruised from San Diego through the Panama Canal in a Hans Christian 33(almost a Southern Cross). He showed a video and slide show of "up locking" from the Pacific, trip through Gantun Lake, and "down locking" to the Atlantic. He provided the latest information available such as paper work required, cost, equipment required et. Very informative talk and a great job.
Overall it was a great day and a large amount of information was exchanged.

Fair Winds 1996 Commodore, Andy Thibeault