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Commodore - Jeff Blank
 My first sailing
experience was on a Sunfish as a kid while growing up in NY. I knew immediately
that this was something I would do for the rest of my life. Since then I have
sailed an 18 foot Hobie Cat and a 22 foot Spindrift Day Sailer in Galveston Bay for about 3 years. Later I moved
to North Carolina and sailed/raced on a lake North
of Charlotte.
While living in the Carolina's
I enjoyed trailering my boat to the coast. It was great sailing along the
coast and exploring new sights. Then I moved to Delaware
and bought Gemini, a 26 Seafarer, and sailed her on the Chesapeake.
After sailing on a small lake East of Dallas,
for about 9 years, I decided to attend the local boat show. My wife insisted
she go with me just to make sure that in a weak moment I wouldn't buy a boat.
So we enjoyed looking around but she wouldn't let me look too long at any one
boat. That is until we went aboard our Catalina 350. Long story short - our
Catalina 350 is now called "Family Affair".
I'm
currently spending every possible moment sailing on Lake Texoma
which is located on the Oklahoma/Texas border. One benefit of sailing in Texas is that you get
to enjoy your passion all 12 months. Our two girls have been sailing since
they were 3 weeks old and are very much at home on the boat. I think the
aliens have swapped my wife, Kathy, as she is now reading sailing magazines
and spends all her free time on the boat. We especially like how "Family
Affair" accommodates our family of six and all the amenities of home to
entertain our friends.
Vice Commodore-Dave "Maggie" Brown
 At the risk of
aging myself right at the start, I began my nautical career in the 60s
learning to sail Coronado 15s in Long Beach, CA
when my Father was stationed there with the Navy. As we moved with the Navy,
I grew up in various places around the country and eventually decided I
wanted to be a USAF fighter pilot. I dabbled in sailing over the years as I
moved around with the Air Force and finally bought my first sailboat, a
Catalina 27, when I was stationed at Eglin AFB in Ft. Walton Beach FL,
flying F-4s. It was a great boat and it seemed so big it was intimidating at
first. Well, we got used to the size and hand many great adventures with it.
However, I soon had my eye on an upgrade and in 1986 I bought a new C-34
(#352). The C-34 was an even better boat than the 27 and HUGE. It handled
great and we had the room to make longer trips in search of adventure. You
can read about one of our adventures if you go the Nov 1987 issue of the
Mainsheet (Vol 5#4). The Air Force eventually decided it was time to move on,
so I had to sell the 34 in 1990. In 2003, I found myself back at Eglin AFB
and was looking to get back into investing in Catalina and another boat. Some
people invest in 401ks and the stock market—II like to put my money in
fiberglass and Dacron. I had been looking at used 34s until I saw a C-350 at
the dealer in Mobile.
In May of 2004, as a retirement present for myself, I bought a new C-350
(#246). I did not actually retire for another two years, but I am glad I
bought the boat when I did. I believe that dollar-for-dollar; Catalina makes
the best boat available. The boat has been absolutely superb in every
respect. I do most of my sailing solo in/and around the Choctawhatchee Bay,
FL and since I am a dedicated non-racer, the 350 is perfect for me. I had the
boat outfitted with a GenSet so I can run the AC on the hook and just
installed a Ray Marine auto helm which I love (it works great, which is
surprising since I installed it by myself). I am thrilled to be working with
Jeff and Connie and I hope we can keep an active 350 IA to serve you and help
you make your C-350 a great experience.
Treasurer - Ed Hemstreet
 My most recent
venture back into sailing occurred in 1996 when we purchased a 1986 Catalina
30 which we sailed for three summers, enjoying Fishers Island Sound and
finally getting up the nerve to cruise for a week in the summer of 1998 after
taking part in the Catalina Rendezvous in Newport, RI. We enjoyed cruising so
much that we traded our 30 for a 1990 Catalina 36 which we sailed happily for
four summers, until Catalina introduced the 350. We purchased hull #25 in
October of 2003 after I sailed her back from the Newport Boat show and have
LOVED every minute of sailing the new Elusive.
I
started sailing as a teen racing with my cousin on his 9-foot Turnabout in Hingham, Ma. I then
crewed on and eventually skippered a 42-foot ketch for four years racing in
Long Island Sound while attending the US Coast Guard Academy. I also took
part in four summer cruises on the Coast Guard Bark Eagle visiting ports in
Europe and along the Eastern and Western seaboards of the United States and Mexico. Upon graduation, I served
as a deck watch officer on a Coast Guard Weather Patrol Cutter for 18 months
and then commanded a Coast Guard 95 foot patrol boat for a year. I served in
the Coast Guard for 26 years and retired in 1992 as a Captain having served
in mostly Civil Engineering jobs after I discovered I get seasick on ships.
I
have a Coast Guard 100 Ton Master's License for Near Coastal Waters and am a
certified keelboat sailing instructor for the American Sailing Association.
Technical Editor - Tim Ryan
I've
loved messing around in boats and water since I was a kid. I grew up along
the banks of the Delaware River and my dad
would take us down to the river to fish or just walk. I
became a river
rat. A day down at the river was always an adventure. My dad built a boat in
our basement. The frames and the eventual shape of the boat intrigued me. We
never had our own boat but we always used to rent Garveys on the bay to crab
and fish or book a head boat for occasional ocean fishing. I was hooked on
boats and the water at an early age.
I learned how to sail in my late teens on a Sunfish on a lake in Maine. My future
father-in law took me out and showed me the basics. It was a "Done
deal" from that moment on and continues to this very day. I quickly
bought a knockoff Sunfish and trailered her weekly to the Delaware
River experiencing the trials and tribulations of small boat
sailing. No motor, just wind. With incredible tides and currents, I always
felt that if you could learn to sail on the Delaware
River, you could sail anywhere. After the sunfish, I bought a
used 22' MacGregor Venture. I moored her on the Delaware and started family sailing with
the bigger boat. I sold the Venture in the mid ninety's and went boat less
for a few years.
In 2002 or so my wife suggested we look into buying a larger, more
comfortable boat for use as a quasi summer home at the Jersey
shore. We quickly located and purchased our first of a series of larger
boats. The first was a Gulf Pilothouse 27. We sailed her on the Barnegat Bay for a couple of seasons. Then we
traded her in on the purchase of a brand new Catalina 310. We loved the 310
but knew that with the size of our family, a slightly bigger boat would be
needed to accommodate our needs. That's when we traded and bought our
Catalina 350. We sail Nora Clare2 every summer weekend and live aboard on
weekends as our floating summer condo.
We have taken our 350 from the purchase point on the Delaware River and
delivered her up the Jersey coast to the Barnegat Bay.
We've also taken her up the coast, around Sandy Hook
and into NY harbor. We've chartered and sailed in the BVI's and are planning
another charter in the Abacos in the Bahamas.
So from a river rat start to bay and ocean sailing in our fifties, we are
going strong with our 350 and loving every minute of it.
Association Editor - Patti Zur
When my parents gave me sailing lessons on a local pond in MA for my 13th birthday, I fell in love with sailing. I started out sailing an O’Day Super Swift (similar to a Sunfish) and crewing for my friend’s parents and others on larger boats, whenever I could. Meanwhile I kept dreaming of owning a sailboat and setting off on adventures. Then I met Phil (now my husband) and told him about my dreams. Since he also fell for sailing when he was a teen, and was also crewing on other people’s boats, he thought it all sounded great. The only drawback to this was his height, at 6 feet 5 inches; we could not find a boat under 42 ft which he  could stand upright in. Then, in 2006, after years of trying on boats at boat shows, and 12 years after the birth of our daughter, Kristen, we discovered the Catalina 350. At last, we found a boat with manageable size, room for our family of three, and ample headroom. So we bought “Knot Dreaming”, hull #415!
While we do home school Kristen, we have put our long term cruising plans on hold due to our daughter being accepted into an excellent dance training program and the current economy. We have done (and will continue to do) some shorter term sails along the east coast of GA, FL, and the Bahamas. Currently we are at dock on the northeast coast of FL. When Kristen goes off to college in two years, let the adventures begin!
Webmaster-Connie Conway
Looking back, it seems I have always been
partial to being on or near the water. Growing up in Florida, I could always be found swimming
down at the Bayou and water skiing anywhere my parents would take me. As a
landlocked teenager in Pennsylvania,
I took up canoeing. As a young adult in the southeastern US, it was kayaking
and scuba diving. My husband, Wally, and I bought our home in Alabama
on the
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, part of the Great Loop. Of course, that meant a
ski boat and a PWC.
Every year we would visit my Dad in Annapolis
to sail on his Morgan Out-Island 41 and then a Catalina C400. With the Gulf Coast
over 3 hours away, we never thought about buying a sailboat until we
volunteered to help move a C350 from Annapolis
to Brunswick, GA
in 2007. We fell in love with it!
Within a year, we sold our part time cattle business and in 2008 bought our
new C350, Arkeoo (New Testament
Greek meaning "Content".) We sail the
Gulf Coast of Alabama between Mobile and Pensacola.
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