What do Dickerson sailors do in winter? Some of you do the smart thing in the cold of winter--as CAPT Bruce Franz of D41 "Hemisphere Dancer" says, "Going where the weather suits my clothes"--and head south but this year Bruce is shoveling snow in Salisbury, MD. Randy and Barb Bruns—D36 “Rhythms and Blue”, plan to go to sunny St. Petersburg and may catch up with our Samson Post Joe Slavin—D35 “Irish Mist”—who is in Longboat Key Florida recovering from a dislocated shoulder. Another 35 ft wooden classic Captain, John Freal of “Rainbow” is re-reading the book Joe gave him on racing and is thinking seriously of new sails and really going for the Commodore’s Cup this June. Jeff Stephenson is taking his new purchase—Dickerson 41 “CAVU” on it’s first sail in the Jacksonville, Florida area. Making us all jealous are Blake Cunningham and wife Zoe who are sailing their classic wooden D32 “Kittiwake” to Bimini.
Meanwhile in New England, Mike Aitken and Una Folan are shoveling snow to protect their D36 “Iris” from the savage snow storms while Al Sampson in Rhode Island is building a new hatch for his D37 “Wanderlust”
The rest of us in the Bay area will just tough it out and count the cold, cold days until the first Spring sail. These cold days give us a chance to compile our new annual Association Directory—with its valuable New Parts And Supplier List, make some repairs (those that can be done indoors), catch up on our reading, and dream about sailing. A new diversion is watching a bunch of tutorials on the internet. I stumbled onto a series on YouTube under the title DrakeParagon "The Real 'Cruising Life'" (Drake and Monique sail "Paragon")--fascinating stuff all about the "cruising lifestyle". There was a lot to learn about really interesting people and really great boats. Well don't you know, that smack in the middle of my roaming pops up our own D and Don Wogaman and globally sailed Dickerson 41 #1 "Southern Cross"? Here is some prime viewing my friends. Start with the trailer:
And watch the whole series. Absolutely great stuff. THANKS D and Don!
Barry Creighton D37 “Crew Rest”
