Well the sailing season is drawing to a close which is reflected in the shorter 'Wot's On' section of the Grapevine. The winter should give us all chance to catch up on the neglected maintenance around the house and boat. Although I've heard that a few members have gone away, Morning Tide are doing a canal trip in France and Seashell are camper vanning it through Europe.

I am pleased to announce that the S&S34 Association now has a web site. It should help keep members informed and aid contact with other owners with similar interests and issues. All feedback is welcome, maybe you would also like to add some more content. If you wish to add details of you boat, there is a form on the 'Members List' page. Like all good websites, it will keep evolving and I plan to gradually add more items from previous newsletters, articles, and info sent to me etc. The Roma II details and photos page has a fair bit of content and I would like to see all yachts represented similarly. I would like to thank Leslie Gondor who has temporarily made his server available to host the S&S34 Assoc site. Leslie is the son of George Gondor (Tardis) from NSW.

Look out for an article on the S&S34's in the next issue of Australian Sailing.

Due to an early winter front delivering floods and high winds on Friday 1st April those boats coming down the river could not make it. The wind was consistently 30-40kts with gusts up to 60kts recorded at FSC. It would have been fool hardy to lower masts to get under the traffic and rail bridges. Saturday morning saw a forecast for 20-30kts easing but the sky looked black, low and heavy in the west. Nobody felt like going out so the cruise was regrettably cancelled. The afternoon saw the weather improve, with sunny sky's and a gently breeze. Socialising onboard in the marina commenced, some (but not all) crews drinking tea! We decided to meet for pre dinner drinks at 1800 in the FSC clubhouse, this was followed by a meal and tall stories. Once again a great night! It is terrific to catch up with crews from the various clubs.

Sunday brought a perfect day with offshore E/SE winds moderating in the afternoon to a gently but fluky breeze. FSC were (once again) the perfect hosts, providing a great lunch, the biggest chocolate mud cake I have ever seen and exceptional organisation. Rear Commodore (FSC) Gary Webb also provided his power boat for VIP's. There were 13 commodores and 13 yachts (well done Dick to organise the boats). As always the draw for commodore and boats was completed before lunch. The race was well fought with Sulphur giving Huckleberry a good race for fastest. It was nearly as keenly fought as the match race for last over the line between Roma II and Seashell, which resulted in a port starboard call on the finish line, there was less than a boat length between the finishing pair.

The results (on handicap) were:

1st Vice Commodore Tony Carter Royal Perth Yacht Club Sulphur Dick & Barbara Newnham

2nd Commodore Greg Vance Perth Dinghy Sailing Club Superstar Tim Dallas

3rd Commodore David Watson Princess Royal Sailing Club Arwen Nicola Bessell-Browne

4th Commodore Malcolm Bryant Koombana Bay Yacht Club Swagman Bill Waldby

5th Commodore Mark Landwehr Nedlands Yacht Club Morning Tide Jim Putt

6th Commodore Colin Hall East Fremantle Yacht Club Raintree Bob Porter

7th Commodore John Anderson Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club Huckleberry Mike Finn (fastest)

8th Commdore Brian Johnson Mandurah Offshore Fishing & Sailing Club Kungari Geoff Conor

9th Commodore Guy Skinner South of Perth Yacht Club Polaris Lisa Kerr

10th Commodore Russell Stephenson Mounts Bay Sailing Club Perie Banou III Col Sanders

11th Commodore Peter Hector Fremantle Sailing Club Roma II Steve Laws

12th Commodore Bob Wilcox Claremont Yacht Club Sea Shell John Ruocco

13th Commodore Kerry Lewis Hillarys Yacht Club Individual John Sanders (owner David Gray)

As mentioned above, Fridays weather was awful and continued through out the night. Some crew still decided to sleep aboard. This story was told after several bottles of wine were consumed at the dinner. Let's just call the crew G and L (names will not be mentioned to protect the guilty).

G insisted on shutting all hatches to stop the rain (over 100mm fell) and poor L was feeling very claustrophobic. After much discussion L decided to sit in the cockpit to get some fresh air. The hatches were gently pulled closed. Some time later G woke and there was no sign of L, not in the bunk and definitely not sitting outside in the rain. After a search of the jetties, G was thinking of calling the police divers. G had key and thus L couldn't have left the club or got into the bathroom facilities. Before calling the police G decided to check the Ladies Toilets and found L asleep on a bench in the Sauna Room. The night guard had let L in!

It was good to see a couple of our female members in charge of the 34's. Lisa Kerr's partner Steve is crewing on a delivery in the Caribbean and was stuck in Antigua. They have only had the boat a year, so it was great to see Lisa taking her out for her first trip in charge. Also, Nicola Bessell-Browne took out Arwen. Nicola thought she had the easy job, standing on the coach roof and leaning on the boom, while the commodore sailed downwind. A puff from behind, saw the mainsail back fill, Arwen gybed and Nicola ended up in the water. She was quickly pulled back on board by the crew, didn't lose a place and rescued two caps that had also gone overboard in the puff.

Unfortunately the Commodore of RPYC couldn't make it so RPYC Vice Commodore Tony Carter stepped forward. During the draw there were several light heated comments suggesting that RPYC really wanted to win this years 25th anniversary race and had sent in a ringer. Well Tony drew Sulphur, which had only gone back in the water on the Saturday afternoon after an antifoul. As we all know the handicaps are also set by President Dick Newnham. I am surprised that there wasn't a protest. The amazing thing is that Sulphur has only won once before, the inaugural race in 1981. Well done Tony, Dick and Barbara!

The following was on Superstar's website: We drew the Commodore of Perth Dinghy Sailing Club who had never driven a boat with a well before, but he got the hang of it quickly. Despite our miss-timing the start we managed to work our way through the fleet of 13 S&S34's and finished 6th on the water but 2nd on handicap. Excellent job done by Chris and Matt (despite Chris's hangover from the end of Summer Ball!)

If the truth be known, Commodore Greg Vance (PDSC) had sailed a 34 once before, in last years Commodores Race. The crew of Roma II must have trained Greg pretty well (Ed).

From the Sailing Development Office at FSC (published in the Around the Buoys Newsletter)

Thirteen Commodores from selected Western Australian yacht clubs accepted the Fremantle Sailing Club invitation to attend this year event. The battle was fierce and although Commodore John Anderson from RFBYC was "fastest", it was Tony Carter from RPYC that took the Trophy on handicap. As far as Fremantle Sailing Club's Commodore was concerned? He did alright in finishing 11th ... and was all smiles when he received the "Best Start" pennant in a private ceremony hosted by Vice Commodore Gary Webb. Commodore Peter Hector will be explaining his "start game plan" for years to come!

The NSW S&S 34 Club got it's start when Steve off "Lorelei" and George and Shirley off "Tardis" met at the Mackay, Queensland Marina in the Winter of 2003. They discovered then that their S&S's had been moored in adjacent bays in Sydney's Port Jackson for the prior two years. This led to a search for other S&S 34 owners who thought a class club would be a good idea. Our goals are modest:

* To exchange ideas related to this design, for example technical solutions for different problems, and mutual support in technical matters.

* Racing to compare performance of the same design with the emphasis on tuning and a bit of fun.

* Cruising and socialising.

The Club had our first official raft up in April 2004 with 3 boats, Tardis, Lorelei, and Impulse having an impromptu get together in Middle Harbour. Enroute "Star of the Sea" was accidentally spotted and hailed. Her "to be" new owners were on their test sail! Several shore based meetings followed, and recruitment of other members continued. Cruising Helmsman kindly put a reference for us in their ad section. In all the Club now boasts a dozen members who own S&S 34's and who reside on the

east coast (including Melbourne).

The weekend of February 13-14 2005 saw our first cruise in company and raftup. Tardis, Lorelei, and Impulse sailed up to Broken Bay from Sydney. Morning Tide sailed down from Lake Macquarie. Near Cottage Point the above joined up with Star of the Sea and Wilparina and a great extravaganza of wine, weird food, and tall tails were consumed. Those who witnessed the event and can remember the details attest that a good time was had by all.

Our webpage, though still under construction, is already up and running

http://www.hyperea.net/s-n-s-34

We had a successful Easter cruise to Lake Macquarie. We had only two boats (One member lives up there, and I was the other one) but four other members, with partners, came by car, and a fifth too who used to be a S&S34 owner. Considering that the weather was not too good this is not a bad effort.

We are off! It's hard to believe that more that two weeks have past since we finally left Fremantle. We motored out of Success Harbour at 09:40 on Thursday the 10th March with our diesel blowing great gouts of black smoke and generally misbehaving. At the time this was attributed to a heavily fouled prop, and the engine sound proofing I had fitted the day before blocking the air intake. It wasn't until we had to sail out of Mandurah at 02:30, a couple of days later, that the real extent of the problem became apparent. Later that morning on the sail south to Bunbury we described the sick engine's symptoms to Doug Barber aboard Cartref via HF radio. He and Mary were anchored at Quindalup waiting for favourable weather to round Cape Naturaliste and Leeuwin. Doug's prognosis wasn't good, and without hesitating he and Mary weighed anchor and motored back north to Bunbury to assist. Four days, three cracked pistons and over a $1000 dollars in spare parts and machining later and our little yanmar was ready run once more. We will forever be in Doug and Mary's debt for their wonderful generosity and assistance, it would have been a heartbreaking task to face on our own.

From Bunbury we sailed south a day behind Cartref, stopping at Quindalup for a day's rest, before moving on. We rounded Cape Naturaliste the next day, and Cape Leeuwin the day following, after an overnight stop at beautiful Hamelin bay. The notorious and formidable Cape Leeuwin greeted us with glassy seas and judging by the forecast we thought we would have to motor all the way to Albany. However as the sun set a gusty southerly sprang up and both yachts had a fast and boisterous sail through that night and most of the next day. Late afternoon on Monday 21st March we motored past the stately granite domes that protect the entrance to Albany and into Oyster Harbour. Our anchorage at Johnson cove near Emu point has to rank as one of the prettiest we've so far visited. The untouched bush on the hill that protects Oyster Harbour to the south comes right down to the water's edge. Kookaburras and a sea eagle guard the big jarrahs that fringe the white beach just a stone's throw from our anchored boats.

The approaching winter and friends waiting in Esperance urged us onwards and after a week in Albany catching up with family and outstanding boat chores we are on our way further east. Last night we dropped the pick in 'Two Peoples Bay' just a few miles east of Albany after a pleasant half day's motor sail from Oyster Harbour, and now this morning we are motoring towards Investigator Island about 140 nautical miles further to the east. We plan to arrive there some time late tomorrow morning and stay one or two nights before crossing the remaining 60 or so miles to Esperance.

As well as the S&S34 trifecta on the 26/3/2005 (reported on in the last grapevine), the following weekend we had an S&S trifecta.

That is Swagman 1st & Fastest, Kungari 2nd, and Fulmar 7 (S&S30) 3rd.

Huckleberry took out 1st in Div 2 IRC & 4th in Div 2 YAH at Regatta Week at Busselton.

All S&S34 Assoc. members are invited to attended the following events.

Yes, Splashers are about to depart! Currently there are 17 definite starters. If you can do nothing else, get your boat out on the water for the Splash departure

day.

The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club at the beginning of its second century will host and honor Olin Stephens with activities during the week of May 9 of this year.

Most notable will be an Evening with Olin Stephens on Thursday, May 12^th consisting of a dinner, lecture and slide show of S&S yachts. Film footage will be shown including that taken aboard Dorade in 1932 during her Trans Atlantic victory. R.C. Keefe, Staff Commodore of St. Francis Yacht Club, will deliver the lecture reprising Olin Stephens's talent and accomplishment. Mitchell Gibbons-Neff, President of Sparkman & Stephens, Inc. and Olin Stephens will deliver remarks and converse with those attending.

On Saturday, May 13, Olin Stephens and Mitchell Gibbons-Neff will participate in Royal Vancouver Yacht Club's Open Day celebrations, including our annual "Sail Past."

Cruise Captain Barry Arnold.

Briefing at RFBYC on May 5th.

Contact Ron on 0408 958 323

Email: rfbyc_cinc@yahoo.com.au

Fredrik Ekstrom and his team have produced a fabulous programme based in Helsinki.

Registration before 1st April and full information pack including hotels.

Contact Fredrik: f.ekstrom@kolumbus.fi

This years host is FSC.

Please let me know if you would like to get an S&S34 table organised (Ed).

This weeks quote comes from FSC Commodore Peter Hector aboard Roma II during the Commodores Race. Roma II doesn't have wind instruments, only baby ribbon tied to the shrouds. When these got tangled Peter asked

"Can you please reset the high tech wind instruments?"

S&S34 Association webpage

http://www.hyperea.net/ss34

NSW 34's webpage, though still under construction, is already up and running

http://www.hyperea.net/s-n-s-34

Let me know if you have anything to advertise in the next issue (Ed).

Mark II Version

Huckleberry is W.A.'s top performing IRC (International Rating) yacht, both classes.

The yacht is the current holder (in class) of:
IRC Farrawa Cup Series 2005
IRC Success Cup Series 2005
IRC W.A. Regatta Week Series 2005
IRC Valmadre Cup

Huckleberry is a fast, powerful and comfortable seaworthy yacht which won't disappoint.

A large choice of inventory, high quality equipment

Choice of brand new Tasker rig (either cruising or racing)

For a comprehensive inventory listing, test sail or enquiry's please contact

A few photos this week. Two from Judy Cocks of Huckleberry at the Geographe Bay Race Week

These are from the Commodores Race

S&S34 Grapevine is an opt-in, privately maintained e-newsletter in association with the S&S34 Association of WA.

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