Each year in mid September, MultiMarine in Venice, CA hosts the Summer Splash. It’s generally the largest gathering of performance multihulls for a rally/race event of the year on the west coast, and some years nationwide. Founder Mike Leneman has been a supporter of the Ravenswing build all along, so getting him aboard the finished boat this weekend was a very satisfying moment. Props to Kristie for upgrading their shop in honor of Mike’s 70th:

Friday morn was the sail from Marina Del Rey to Cat Harbor on the south (outside) of Catalina Island. Had to squeeze out of our tight slip. That shot looks peaceful but hours before a local sailing school boat was screwing around in the fairway behind us, pretty much failing at sailing. I was on the dock washing laundry when the driver starts yelling, “we’re adrift!” as their stern is coming for Ravenswing. After they failed at rope toss, and a narrow miss, the school’s fleet manager jumped aboard and asked us to shove him back off. He’s got this. Sails were up but engine dead. So I turned back to the wash. Three minutes later the same boat is headed at speed right at our vulnerable pointy float hull stern. Wings’ Bill had just brought over a cold beer, and thank heavens he was there to take the first blow from that Benetau. Inches away from a trip-stopping haul out! The fleet manager later apologized that he should have sailed on the jib instead of trying to trim their saggy main (yeah, no shit dude. Your people are on a sailboat and need to pull some rope instead of freaking out re: the engine). No harm done and an opportunity to realize it’s time to lighten up :)

Sailing-wise, Friday rocked because Ravenswing was tested by five other SF Bay Area Corsairs that had trailered down, plus Leneman’s big super light cat Minette. We kept pace with Mike all day, and kept the Fboats in our wake. It was extremely gratifying to find we’ve built enough of a performer to be competitive in multihull racing, even though we’ve got an oven and a bunch of cruising stuff aboard. All was well to the West End rock, but then WaterWings hugged the shore with spin while we went for breeze outside with the reacher. I found the hole in the wind and Chris/Todd ghosted in front. Amy and Dave and their girls on F27 WingIt and Bill & Tammy on Wings almost caught us as they could see WaterWings v. Ravenswing ahead. Of course Catalina then served up big wind gusts a half hour later as we were setting anchors. After the breeze died, Amy paddled over to visit. To thank Ravenswing for dinghy ferryboat work, the WingIt crew left the rainbow unicorn in our permanent care. Jimbo wonders what the hell we’re going to do with it. Seems great for the San Diego HaHa kickoff?

Fall is close by, as here in the Channel Islands it’s getting cooler. But the water is beautiful. My goal is getting south enough to dive the boat bottom (for a scum scrub) without hiring it out. Our mascot seems to have enjoyed the first passage. He did great. And Honey, as a good omen, you’ll appreciate that this one watched over our ice cream stop at the Two Harbors store. By mid Sunday morning all the other Splash boats rolled towards home, and we stayed on with the shallow end of bay beyond the mooring field all to ourselves. Such an advantage of the retractable-foils tri! We’ve parked a 40′ cruising boat within swimming of the dinghy dock. Similar size boats are a quarter mile out.

Thanks again to the co-owner for preparing and freezing beautiful food. Eating home-cooked real food on the challenging passage was a major morale booster, and I realize it keeps crew healthy. Beef stew, a nice slaw and Rogue Red!Anton had to depart Sunday, so the three of us are thoroughly enjoying splits of his share!

Today the plan is to round the island west tip and look for north side anchorages. And while there’s cell here, finally solve the where-in-LA? docking question that I need for the next few weeks.