Fleet 7’s annual presence in the Portland Boat Show helps bring “new blood” into the fleet.


another five boats that had been refurbished and updated with name changes like Check Mate (Nancy Rander’s boat), Check In, Check Out, No Check, and Be In Check. They began racing as their own one-design fleet and, within the next five years, Fleet 7 was formally reconstituted, membership increased, and boats were being bought in California (San Diego - Three Stooges, Marina Del Rey - River Rose) and refurbished locally. By 2000, fully half the owners/ drivers were women, and even people who owned and raced larger boats were buying Cals so they could inexpensively race one-design. Another bit of “luck” during this


time was an ice storm that destroyed all the covered moorage for power boats at a local marina. During the rebuild, McCuddy’s Marina decided not to rebuild the covered slips. The budding fleet approached one of the owners about renting a chunk of the open slips for the Cals. He was just getting interested in sailing and bought a Cal 20 (Windwagon). This started a long relationship where 44 Cals now get to moor together. The fleet gets a break on the price and a place to congregate and the moorage gets a steady and accommodating client – everybody wins.


So why has this fleet succeeded?


There is no one single answer. Certainly the consistency of the volunteer Board of Directors is a key element. Some of the volunteers have participated for as much as a dozen years. Duties are spread out across 10-15 people. Plus, the board meets regularly about 10 times per year usually at someone’s house for food, libation, and business decisions. Other pieces of the puzzle include


a regularly published newsletter, a spot in the annual Portland Boat Show that is donated by Schooner Creek where the fleet brings in two well maintained Cals, and a web presence. The website is kept up to date with upcoming events and race results and there are links to and from all the local sailing websites as well as the national Cal 20 site.


48° NORTH, AUGUST 2010 PAGE 47


sailors give advice, bring new members along, and help out with spare equipment and refurbishing support. Even with its success, the


fleet is always looking for new ideas, which include some possible team racing against the Vancouver and Victoria fleets next year, and adding new events like a recent special guest speaker Robert Crawford (Black Feathers) who singlehanded a Cal 20 to


Because it’s so easy to sail, the boat encourages new sailors to actually get out and sail. What a concept. It’s simple. It’s stable. It’s fun.


Another reason is that with so


much racing and with a place to gather (a floating restaurant) at the marina for food, drink, and stories on Thursday nights, there is a welcoming atmosphere of community, where


Hawaii in 2008. Finally, though, it all comes back to


the boat and a fleet that commits to it. Fleet 7’s future is healthy and bright. So healthy that it has become an incubator of sorts with folks from Olympia and Tacoma coming into Portland looking for good boats to start their own new fleets, like Portland did in 1995. It’s a nice compliment for the fleet, but more importantly shows that a sweet old boat can become young all over again for someone else. It just depends on how you think about it.


48° N


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