CAL25

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Friends of Charlie Husar,

Very very sad news ~ Charlie died peacefully at 2:08PM today (March 30, 2024). “Sunshine of Your Love” was playing on the TV music channel.

Jim Pembroke, a long time and dear friend was with him at the hospice care facility when he passed. Please pass on the news to all of those who knew Charlie. I was so hoping he could have gotten his trophy in person. He so loved the CAL25 fleet and all of you.

— Harken7777@aol.com  (Annapolis Fleet)

Guys,

Sorry to inform you but Charlie Husar passed away today; peacefully while sleeping. As you know he has been afflicted with serious cancer for quite some time.

I was seriously hoping that they would be able to get the trophy change to him while still living but it’s my understanding that they were not. I hope I’m wrong. Too bad.

He was a good man and absolutely loved Cal 25 racing. I vividly remember our first meeting; Brian, Charlie and I met years ago in Las Vegas. At that time the three fleets (Detroit, Annapolis and Long Beach) were doing their own thing in a lot of areas. We met for two days in a Las Vegas hotel room and “homogenized” the rules. We are still guided by those rules today.
I’m going to miss him. I can guarantee you that a few Scotches will be consumed tomorrow in his memory.

Please say a prayer for him tomorrow during Easter services and keep him in your thoughts.

–Art Melendres (Long Beach Fleet)

 

Friends,

We are sad to hear of Charlie’s passing. We were fortunate to get to know Charlie on three trips to Annapolis to sail the Cal-25 National Championships. His legendary dark and stormies on the Burnside dock and sharing stories was a highlight of the regatta. He was a happy soul and always willing to help with whatever anyone needed. Thankfully we were able to celebrate his induction into the Cal-25 Hall of Fame at the last Annapolis Nationals. Charlie was very touched by this award, and it was a moving experience for all who were present.

It is unfortunate we did not get the Cal-25 National Trophy to him before his passing as it was unanimously agreed upon to dedicate this trophy in his name. Charlie’s memory will live on with the passing of this Trophy and in the hearts of all who knew him.

Click here to see Charlies generous university gift …

Please feel free to leave a comment or a Charlie story on this site for all to enjoy and commemorate Charlie…

–John McAllister  (Detroit Fleet)

Detroit MI   Aug 26 — Aug 28

The Cal 25 National Championship could turn out to be voted the number one regatta of the summer. With 18 boats loaded up with some of the best one design sailors in Detroit, the competition was stiff,

Matt Bounds the PRO found a way to give us ten well managed races sailed in sunny skies and fair sailing conditions. He only needed to go the “I” flag to control the fleet and line. He has always been a PRO that maintains great communication with the fleet as to what he is anticipating his next move to be. The postponements were perfectly timed with his usual words, “smoke em if you got em”.

The Cal 25 championship started off in the most unusual manner. The night before the regatta, the Hollerbach’s boat went missing and no number of calls to crew or Bayview sailors could account for its whereabouts. Final answer, Mike Hoey, our MC of ceremonies and legendary Cal 25 sailor and also a pirate, accidentally took the wrong boat to Crescent that he was planning to sail in the regatta. It gets better, he washed the bottom on the way.

The first day, the boat “Never Alone” sailed by Ross and Paul Nuechterlein, put on a clinic with a 1,2,1,1. Mike Hoey, our pirate, came in second with his new claimed boat called “Artemis”, and then “Thor”, sailed by the Ziegler’s, was third at the end of the first day.

Saturday, day two, was the toughest with increased powerboat traffic adding a new variable to the underpowered Cal 25 conditions. Keeping a Cal 25 going “fast” in those challenging conditions will make most sailors want plenty of grog. We had 3 kegs of DragonMead microbrew beer waiting on shore.

On day three, “Patriot” sailed by the McAllister’s showed its prowess in race 9 with a dominant first place finish. Also, one of the great memories for us was to sail all the way to the finish line right next to Sandy Svoboda on “Hercules Mulligan”. They had their boat flying.

For us on race 7, we had our bow out at the start but the pressure dropped for about 10 seconds which was plenty of time for the fleet to roll us and launch away. We took everybody’s stern on port tack and came off the line in 18th place. Even though we wanted to be left, we were the far-right boat. We got some nice pressure and a small rightie and we were back in the top ten at the first mark, thank you Art Melendres (previous champion) for praying for us in church all the way from California! On day three, “Artemis” and “Pepper” sailed by the Rozelles were changing positions all day for second and third.

“Never Alone” ended racing with an exclamation point by winning the final race. Coming into the final upwind mark, I heard the conversation every sailor wants to hear. “Kenny, talk to me about traffic”. “Ross, there is no traffic”. Ron Sherry was asked about sailing on the boat. “The “Never Alone” team had a regatta dreams were made of. The boat was well prepared with a BOD win and practicing Tuesday before the regatta to choose sails and get the rust off. Clean starts, being able to sail on the sides of the course we wanted, and minimizing tacks were the keys to victory”. By the end, six boats had first place finishes. My congratulations to all the sailors who came out and competed in this luminary event.

We want to extend a special thank you to John & Tracy McAllister for going above and beyond in planning this outstanding regatta.

Paul Nuechterlein
US758 Never Alone
Commodore Cal-25 Club Detroit

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Chesapeake Bay, Sep 4 – 6

Finally, and I do mean FINALLY the Cal 25s were able to go out and compete for their National Championship . Calendar year 2020 was a complete disaster because of the Pandemic. The Annapolis fleet was scheduled to put it on however like the rest of the country it was left dangling on a string as various levels of governments struggled to find a strategy to overcome Covid 19.  Not so however in 2021. Annapolis fleet members Charlie Husar and Kyle Bollhorst stepped up, organized the event in its entirety and ended up putting on a great show.

The event was attached to the Annapolis Labor Day Regatta for the weekend and then parlayed over to a race committee made up of various entities associated with Eastport YCs for Monday’s racing.  Three days in all.  A total of fourteen boats were entered and no less than thirteen of them made it to the starting line.  Two boats (Thor and Patriot) came from Detroit.  Keith Ziegler (Thor) had been competitive all year in Michigan and John McAllister (Patriot) is a former National Champion having won his title in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Does anyone need to say more? Art Melendres and son Scott trailered their boat from Long Beach, CA , a distance of 2672 miles, but who’s counting.  And then, or course, they had to trailer it back.  An interesting note pertaining to “One More Time” is that it is Hull #1.  The very first Cal 25 off the assembly line out of a total of 1848 built during its production run between 1964 and 1976. “One More Time” has been totally restored by the Melendres’ and is looking beautiful. Rounding out the competition were ten solid competitors from the Annapolis Fleet.
(Note: You can read about the restoration project at another part of this website).

Now on to the racing: Anyone who has ever raced on the Chesapeake knows that you best expect anything and everything because there’s a good chance you will get it. Wind, no wind, chop, current, heat, humidity and now just to top things off the racers had to deal with debris coming down from some dam opening up North.

Saturday’s racing was cancelled due to no wind. Read zero. The weather was hot, humid and STILL. The local competitors went to their favorite bar. “Towners” went sightseeing. I have often heard that “Annapolis is a drinking town with a sailing problem.” True?

Sunday’s forecast was for more breeze. We indeed got more breeze but not much more. I don’t believe the velocity got up to seven knots and, if it did it didn’t stay there very long. The committee got two races in and Patriot ended up winning the day albeit by a tiebreaker as they were numerically tied with Thor and One More Time.

In the first race Kyle and Lee Bollhorst’s “One Eyed Jack” was motivating to the weather mark and got there first. They had a hiccup however and didn’t negotiate the offset mark as clean as they would have liked. The mistake cost them dearly. It wasn’t a problem though for Tim Bloomfield’s “White Cap” as he got around everything in fine shape and took the regatta’s first bullet. Thor was second.
Patriot who took a fourth in the first race came roaring back to take a bullet in the second. John McAllister is tough in all conditions but excels in the light stuff. Again, another race in very light air. One More Time was the second boat to finish. Upon returning to the Burnside dock everyone was treated to a Margarita party courtesy of the Melendres women from Long Beach.

Monday’s forecast was for even more breeze and all the competitors were hoping that it was accurate. After all, there never would be a sport of “sail boat racing” if all we did was just drift from mark to mark. The wind forecast was accurate but to a degree. While the velocity got up above nine or ten knots (some gusts above fifteen) the consistency was not there.

The first race saw the “towners” go up the middle or even left while the knowledgeable locals went right and got rewarded. White Cap again took the honors with another bullet. One More Time was again second and starting to love life a little. Monday’s second race was kind of funny. The “towners” took heed at what happened in the first race and went right as soon as they could. No off set mark problems this time for One Eyed Jack as he got around everything clean and took a bullet. Again, One More Time was second and starting to love life a little bit more.

The race committee (a very good race committee) wanted to get in three races and as per the SI’s no race could start after 1500 hrs. Thus, out of necessity, all races had to be one-lappers. The final race of the regatta encompassed an upwind leg, downwind leg and two reaching legs. Annapolis likes to do that.

It was a pretty clean start and everyone was off for the final race of the 2021 Nationals. Everyone was doing their thing and motivating to the weather mark albeit with a few protest flags tossed along the way. One More Time was protested for a port/starboard allegation but did a penalty turn to absolve themselves. Thankfully, it was on the first leg of the course so they had 3 1/2 legs to catch up. The downwind leg of this race was “class racing” at its best. One Eyed Jack took the bullet without too much of a problem and Patriot took second with relative comfort. Thereafter, Neugen, One More Time and Thor were locked side by side for what seemed to be an eternity. First one, then the next, then the other took their turn at the lead only to lose it. At the finish it was a three way photo finish with Thor taking the third spot. Racing was over. Now the bragging, lying and excuse making could commence.

The top five finishers were as follows:
1. One More Time (14 pts)
2. Thor (17 pts)
3. One Eyed Jack (19 pts)
4. White Cap. (22 pts)
5. Patriot ( 27 pts)

One More Time won the regatta without winning a single race because she was the most consistent boat for the weekend. Keith Ziegler, came to Annapolis and showed everyone he knows his way around the race course. One Eyed Jack and White Cap each won two races but their consistency suffered a bit and couldn’t be overcome. Kyle’s probably having nightmares about “off set marks.” Tim Bloomfield had some equipment breaks that hurt him. John McAllister showed everyone his integrity by calling a foul on himself after finishing a race, thereby giving him a last place finish in that race. The remainder of the competitors fought, scratched, clawed their way around the course and flat out made it a lot of fun.

The dinner and awards ceremony a the Severn Sailing Association were outstanding. The Detroit fleet instituted a new award honoring those persons who have been instrumental in developing and maintaining Cal 25 fleets and racing through the years. The first two recipients of this “Hall of Fame” award were Charlie Husar and Art Melendres. I know I speak for Charlie when I say we are both humbled and honored.  Charlie Husar caught a very bad break when he lost a key crewman to injury the night before the regatta; yet he was still out there competing and doing a fine job at it. Kyle Bollhorst was truly outstanding. His organization skills and continual assistance to visiting yachtsmen were greatly appreciated. Couldn’t have been better. Thank you Charlie and Kyle. The hospitality and camaraderie exhibited by everyone in the Annapolis fleet was as great as could have been hoped for. You should all be proud, you earned it.

In conclusion: Dark and Stormys in Long Beach don’t hold a candle to those made in Annapolis. I keep trying to duplicate the recipe but no luck thus far.

Next year it’s Detroit’s turn. I’m certain they will do a fine job.

— Art Melendres

 

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Rebuild of Hull #1 – This is the restoration of the very first Cal-25 hull built !!!

Well it finally appears that we have finally completed the project of rebuilding Cal 25 Hull # 1.

This endeavor started in the summer of 2017 when my son Scott and crewman Pat Graham found hull #1 languishing in a home dock on Naples Island in Long Beach, CA. Once they verified its authenticity as the “first Cal 25 off the assembly line” it was purchased for the grand sum of $600.00. The original plan was to trailer our current boat “One Time” (hull #50) to the Detroit Nationals, sell it there for $6000.00 and utilize the proceeds towards restoring #1. Thus far I have spent slightly north of $23,000.00 on the restore and are still counting, albeit at a slightly slower pace. My business acumen knows no bounds.

I have no intention of misleading you. As I write this somewhat lengthy description I often use the pronoun “we.” I did this because it was convenient to do so. In actuality the entire endeavor was the result of a division of responsibilities. My son did “ALL” of the work and I wrote “ALL” of the checks.

On to the restoration: Upon first inspecting #1 it did not appear to be in too bad of condition. In fact nothing could have been further from the truth. As the old saying goes, “you can’t bid what you can’t see.” Well, in this case we didn’t “see” a whole lot. The bottom was in such a state that it was surprising that it hadn’t already sunk. Blisters were everywhere. Termites infested virtually every piece of wood above the water line. Dry rot and water logged wood were prevalent.

Phase One:
The first order of business was to put a bottom on it to prevent sinking.  Thereafter virtually all of the decking had to be torn out, repaired and/or replaced.  The transom had to be totally rebuilt. Ditto with the mast step.  None of the hardware was salvageable. Winches, cleats, chain plates, standing rigging and anything else that is affixed to the boat needed to be replaced. Previous owners drilled holes everywhere and each one had to be filled. New windows of course. There was a huge hatch hole on the front deck that had to be filled. I guess a previous owner had installed an air vent for ventilation or something. At any rate it had to go and it did, although filling the hole so that it was structurally sound was no easy project. The mast was salvageable but just barely. It had to be refurbished and and then painted. Not so lucky with the boom. It was tossed in the trash heap and replaced with a new one.

Most of this work was done while the boat was in the water which, as it turns out, caused some of our neighbors (unknown snitches) to complain to marina management that the boat was an eyesore and detrimental to the neighborhood. We were prime candidates to be piled on. Fortunately, the marina people worked with us and cut us some slack. In the end we didn’t disappoint them.

As sidelight while all of this was going on we actually took the boat out for a race. While heading for the starting line we were still drilling holes for equipment so that we could sail the darn thing. We didn’t win but it made for an interesting topic at the bar afterward.

Phase 2:
Once all of the above was completed the boat was in pretty good sailing condition. The deck was laid out exactly the way we wanted it and all of the equipment was in good condition. The problem was that it looked like hell. It’s not within me to own an ugly boat so this condition needed to be rectified. The whole exterior above the rub rail was painted with several coats of the best marine paint we could find. The interior wood of which much was rotted was repaired or replaced. It was then varnished or painted as appropriate. New cushions were purchased and new rugs installed.

Phase 3:
Back to the boatyard so we could give her the “racing bottom” she deserved. This meant that we could fare the bottom, eliminate the blisters, long board the heck out of it, put on a primer/sealer coat and then spray paint it to our hearts content. We then smoothed the whole thing out. Smoother then the proverbial “baby’s bottom.” While there we painted the hull. We also attached lifting points on the keel to facilitate lifting it out of the water. Things were looking more then just pretty good.

In conclusion there’s still a few minor things that need to be done to the interior. They’re all cosmetic in nature but as we all know you’re never really done tinkering with a boat. Are you?

Some of you, like my son and I, are in love with Cal 25s and don’t think there’s anything on the water that is better.  We’re proud to be the owners of the first one ever made and even more proud that it is in “mint condition.”

Many names were considered but we settled on “One More Time” because it fit.  Our plan is to trailer it to the Annapolis Nationals in September 2021. If you’re there and you want to take a look then feel free to do so. If you’re ever in Long Beach, CA and want to do likewise then give me a call and I’ll be glad to show you. We might even just take it for a tour of the harbor.

— Art Melendres

Related posts

• Restoration of hull #1 – Art & Scott Melendres (Part 2 of 3)
• The Very First Cal 25 (Part 1 of 3)

Congratulations to US1029 Holmebrew and crew for capturing the coveted Detroit Cal-25 Season Championship by winning both the Cal-25 Short Course (WL) and Long Course (PP) championships.

US1029 holmebrew

Owner David Holme
Club Bayview Yacht Club

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The first Wet Wednesday series is in the books (May-20 – Jun-24, 2015). Congratulations to One Time. They came out with their hair on fire with three bullets in the first three races. Tiburon tried to fight back with 2 bullets of their own in the ensuing two races. So it was really a match race between One Time and Tiburon last night. Tiburon had a chance if they could get themselves a victory and beat One Time on the tie breaker. It didn’t happen. One Time took care of business with a bullet to close out the series with an impressive victory. We missed Iguana last night, they were unable to make it out. Story I heard was that Dennis was boozing all day and forgot where he left the boat? I’ve got to give a shout-out to Go Big Daddy. They sailed great last night and almost rounded the weather mark in first place. One Time squeezed by them in first, Go Big Daddy in second followed by Tiburon in third. With the wind holding steady it was a routine finish with no drama in the channel. Click here to see more …

OK we have about seven weeks to go before Nationals (August 15th and 16th). That should give everyone plenty of time to get their boats and crews squared away. If you’re going to make one regatta this year, please make it the Nationals! Talk it up, get as many people fired-up as possible. There are boats that are available should someone want to put a crew together and enter. I guarantee it will be fun!

Long Beach Fleet Captain

— Felix Basadre