News

Check the calendar for our next two events: Christmas party and January Breakfast. A few days after Breakfast check here for the new calendar and other news.

The web site has moved. If you are reading this, you may know that much already, and are in fact already at the new location.

I regret the necessity to inconvenience the membership in this way, but the Geocities tools available to free accounts were pretty terrible, and I finally found it expedient to migrate the site. The new host, Apple Computer's "dot Mac" service, mounts the web site as a volume right on my desktop.

Four pages at their former locations will be protected by automatic-forwarding pages: Homepage, calendar, technical manual, and the club information page. Any other of our Geocities URLs will fail. Remember to update your Bookmarks (Favorites). Some old stuff has been removed, so for a time some existing links to "elderly" event pictures will fail.

13 February 2003

Also: In a few weeks, your webmaster hopes to have in place a nice e-mail discussion list server that can be used as a means for "one-to-many" communications--announcements and discussions of Fleet business. A couple of important issues remain to be worked out, but it does appear at present that we really will have it this spring.

28 March 2003

Improved presentations of our 2001 and 2002 National Cruises are in place. Look under "Log" in the fake menubar, to be reminded of some very fine times.

02 April 2003

We have set the date for a planning session about a summer cruise to Desolation Sound: Friday, 18 April 2003. Interested? Watch this page for information about our next meeting.

23 April 2003

Teresa K. (R-26 Stargazer) has lost her centerboard, and has been rebuffed by the (former) factory. We've had this discussion before--this is the third R-26 board lost in a couple of years, and there have been a couple of R-20 boards go to "sleep with the fishes" over roughly the same period of time (and quite a little number of them, altogether, over the years). Teresa's misfortune serves as another reminder that our beloved Ranger sailboats are aging, and are "orphans".

While we had a factory to support us, it was just a matter of a little expense. Now it's difficulty on top of expense.

If anyone has anything to suggest, feel free. Teresa is about half desperate, and it's very likely that she won't be the last one.

05 May 2003

12 May 2003

Because our web site is no longer as private as it once was, I have begun disguising our e-mail addresses to prevent "spiders" and other automated systems from harvesting and delivering them to spammers./+\

16 May 2003

I have been in communication with the designer of our Rangers, Raymond H. Richards, who has provided us with detailed directions for fabricating (cloning, actually) replacement centerboards. We have other helpful information, too.

03 June 2003

Cindy & Mark K. (_Ruby_) have made a preliminary itinerary for their cruise to Desolation Sound. Cindy and Linda have been in talks to coordinate _Quintessence_'s movements with _Ruby_'s; Linda's preliminary plan will be linked to this Calendar in a few days. Another meeting has been scheduled, and there will probably be a third just before departure. Calendar entry.

16 June 2003

If you have been watching this space, you know that the Desolation Sound flotilla departs in just a few days. We have held our last meeting, and the itineraries are as "frozen" as they are likely to be. Be advised that even if you haven't been part of the planning we are open to having you join us if you feel comfortable doing it without having been part of conversations involving people who have been there already. Get in touch with Linda now, or take your chances once you arrive. On rendezvous day, some of us will be standing by on VHF-16, and we may even check to see if our cellular telephones work (although two of us have Sprint, which we consider quite a long-shot, all things considered).

Note that your webmaster's plans will keep him away from his post for over six weeks. If you have something that needs posting, therefore, the time for that is _now_. This web site goes dormant (still available as usual, but un-maintained and without updates) until nearly the third week of August.

29 November 2003

Summer is over and autumn may seem to some of us to be more like a memory than a present fact. (Here in the Northwest we have had snow already!) Our warm-weather cruising was great, fabulous, incredible, and we can barely contain our eagerness for next season's. Meantime, it's nearly Christmas Party time!

A very long time ago at January Breakfast of 2003 your webmaster promised something that he didn't deliver. It's now in place.

We now have a Yahoo Groups discussion mailing list. Once we have a quorum, we can begin using the List for official business, but its purposes include permitting members to contact one another via a convenient and expedient one-to-many communication medium. When you want to say something to the group (i.e., to all List subscribers), you send a message to a single address, from where it is distributed the others.

Yahoo Groups has other features, available to those who sign up for Group membership (using free MyYahoo accounts). On a set of linked, private web pages we can have file & photo space, chat, and a Group calendar to which all Group _members_ have write-permission.

[At the time this was written, only a single Group/List was in place. See later news. mdk_]

30 December 2003

Our December party, for which Jacques & Sally put up decorations (central theme: Christmas) in early November (because of their big RV acquisition trip), was a beautiful success. Ann R., an obvious video CD geek, had a very nice slide show for us. Using VCD as the medium and Jacques & Sally's television as the display, she had a very interesting set of quite old Ranger Fleet pictures. Thanks, Ann, and thanks, Sally and Jacques!

17 January 2004

(More) New Online Services are "Live"!

In addition to the Association's new e-mail discussion list, there are new lists for owners and friends of Ranger 20 and 26 boats. (If there is interest, I can set up an R-24 list, too.) All that's needed to subscribe is for anyone to send a blank e-mail message from his regular e-mail account to the appropriate address, as listed below.

Unsubscribing is also automated, but note that the unsub e-mail request must come from the same account, or it will fail. Therefore, don't forget to unsub _before_ you switch providers.

Each of these three Yahoo mailing lists also has associated with it group file systems for documents and for pictures, a messaging system, a calendar (each member has read & write access), and even instant messaging/chat.
These web services are available only to those who use free _MyYahoo_ accounts to _join_ the associated Yahoo Group. Use of the mailing lists is open to all who are interested.

Each of these Group sites has an "owner" (administrator). Teresa Kasner of the _Ranger 26 Roundup_ is the owner of the Yahoo Group _KentRanger26Boats_. I hope that we can find an actual Ranger 20 owner to take over ownership of _KentRanger20Boats_. I shall be pleased to turn over ownership of _KentRangerOrg_ to a volunteer, or to remain as owner.

The mailing list feature (requiring only an easy automated subscription message) could remove the necessity for physical mailings from Ranger Association HQ, since virtually all members have ready access to e-mail. In addition, it would permit members to reach the group all at once, with questions, suggestions, or cruising plans. I hope everybody will take advantage of this.

The other part of this new online service is the _Groups_ web site itself, the most interesting part of which is the Group calendar. Individual members who would like to, for example, organize rendezvous to put on the Calendar, can do it directly on the Group web site. I hope everybody will consider signing up for a free _MyYahoo_ account so that we can use these features, too.

These two changes in the way we do business will help to ensure that Ranger boat owners and Association members can continue to enjoy ready contact with the people we have come to rely upon both as friends and as support for our boats.

19 January 2004

We have begun a new year with a new commodore and a cruising schedule that may have room in it for additions. The new calendar will go up in a few days, but there is no time like right now for thanking Jacques M. (_Spontaneity_) for his two years of service and Phil R. (_Altrice_) for volunteering (or perhaps for permitting himself to be volunteered) to serve as commodore for the new year.

Our excellent treasurer, John M. (_Gadabout_) has consented to remain in that position.

Tim W. (_Hip Hop_, _Free Spirit_) has moved into position as administrator of the Ranger 20 owners group and its Yahoo Groups services.

Teresa K. (_Stargazer_), organizer of the Ranger 26 Round-Up, now has a Group for Ranger 26s.

These groups are explained below. See our _officers_ page for links.

In another piece of business, one that may allay nervousness among our local members, Sally M. (_Spontaneity_) has offered to host the Christmas Party again in 2004. That's quite a long way off, and I suppose it would be only fair of us to admit the possibility that some reason could arise for Sally & Jacques to find it necessary to change their minds--they do, after all, own an RV capable of taking them to where weather at that time of year is warmer and drier than ours--but we certainly don't expect them to do that, and so for the time being we shall thank them sincerely for past hospitality and express our eagerness for the next chance to experience their holiday warmth.

Mailing List Clarification

It has occurred to me that perhaps not everybody _gets_ the idea of an Internet-based mailing list.

Very simply, it's a mechanism that permits a subscriber to direct a question or comment to _all subscribers_ by sending an e-mail to a central e-mail address, from where it is automatically distributed to all. This may have two distinct kinds of usefulness for our club.

(a) The commodore or other officers can use it to communicate official business to the membership.
(b) Individual members can use it to speak to all other members simultaneously, as might be desired for announcing a rendezvous, for suggesting or updating a group activity, or the like.

A _subscriber_ to the List has only those e-mail privileges. In contrast, a full _member_ of the web-based Group has access to a site with calendar, file spaces, and other features on it--all with _write_-privileges. One _subscribes_ to the e-mail list only by sending an empty message to the _subscribe_ eddress. One _joins_ the Group (which gets that e-mail List privilege and the others) by going to its web site and signing up for a MyYahoo account (or by logging in with his existing account). Full Membership is better, because at some time we may wish to begin relying upon the web even more. The Group calendar, for example, because event organizers would have direct write permission (access) to their own events on the calendar.

I hope this is helpful. Do let me know if further clarification is needed.

17 May 2004

16 June 2004

Thanks to Michael E. (R-26 Narnia Bound), we have pictures of a couple of recent events. They are also linked from their calendar listings, as will any other pix I receive.

03 August 2004

Henry & Jamie S. (former owners of the R-20 Adagio, the Rawson 30 Eos, and more recently of no boat at all) have at long last found another boat. A boatwarming event has been added to our calendar.

01 November 2004

Christmas party particulars are frozen

Ann & Phil R. (Altrice) have confirmed their offer to host our Christmas party at their beautiful Shelton waterfront home. We will celebrate the season and our friendships on 18 December 2004. Watch the calendar(s) for further information.

To consider before January Breakfast 2005

(Non-Group-Members [i.e., those who have not "joined" that particular Yahoo Group] can see only the front page, with its introduction and its menu of services; the actual services [links] won't function except for those who have joined [by (step 1) getting free MyYahoo accounts, and (step 2) joining the Group.])

The most important two features of these Groups, for us, might be the member-editable calendar and the mailing list. Another very nice feature: a place for posting boat and event pictures. There is also an online database for use by those who want to make certain that the others can know the names of their boats, and how to reach them. Everything there is editable by individual Group members.
The point of this is to de-centralize maintenance and operation of record-keeping and communications. (The mailing list is "bi-directional"; officers can use it to reach the membership, but more interestingly any member can use it to reach the other members for announcing or discussing Fleet-related business.)

Those who choose to be accessible as individuals can put their info into the online Database, so that other Members can contact them individually.

There is no discernible negative aspect to either the MyYahoo or Yahoo Group membership. Search engines are apparently unable to see the Group, and outsiders are in any event prevented from seeing anything there other than the front page (which has no member information on it). Although it's possible that the new e-mail address that comes with the MyYahoo account might collect a small amount of spam, Yahoo's default filters are quite good at keeping this to a pretty small number (if you have chosen your username carefully), and I believe that nothing would get through to your regular eddress should you choose to use than one for your main Fleet/Group contact instead of your Yahoo eddress.
Here's the drill:

I should like to very strongly request that all Fleet members consider joining the KentRangerOrg Group on Yahoo. This will ensure that we can keep going as a Fleet despite difficulty in finding people who have the time to volunteer as officers. It's a very nice system.

29 November 2004

Linda A. & Brad N. (R-20 Quintessence) are sailing with John & Amanda Neal (and other paying crew) on board the Neals' Hallberg-Rassy 46 Mahina Tiare in the South Pacific. Watch the "Mahina Expeditions" web site for log & pix. Their voyage is "Leg 8 - 2004: Fiji to New Zealand".
UPDATE 25 December 2004: Quite a bit more from that leg's log is in place today. (The expedition was over on 04 December.)
UPDATE 16 January 2005: William Dietrich, staff writer for _The Seattle Times_ has sailed on a different leg of the same trip. His articles in today's _Times_ are here and here.

08 February 2005

We have held our annual January Breakfast feedbag and business meeting, and we have a new commodore and a new weekend rendezvous schedule--including the itinerary for our National Cruise into Canada!

Pete Farsje (Cal 2-29 Amanzi) volunteered to serve as our commdore for 2005, at which time nearly 40 sailors resumed making eye contact with others in the room. Thanks, Pete!

Late last year, Henry Schaup announced that he and Jamie: (a) had resumed being boaters, and (b) would like to organize a "nostalgia" cruise in 2005. His National Cruise itinerary is ready. Thanks to Henry, too.

Please be reminded that your webmaster is pushing membership in the Yahoo Group(s) appropriate to your situation. There is one for Association business and one each for Kent Ranger boats: 20, 24, & 26. These are free services, and the 20s have been getting considerable use out of theirs. So far, such memberships have apparently been entirely spam-free.

14 February 2005

R-20 is reviewed in local magazine

Fans of the Ranger 20 may be interested in having a look at the March/April 2005 issue (#32) of the magazine Small Craft Advisor, published in Port Townsend, WA. Our little boat got eight pages, lots of good pictures, and very fair treatment. (Ppg. 52-59; note also the color photo on p. 6.)

A couple of months ago they contacted a local owner about getting a ride on his boat, for the purpose of including an evaluation in their magazine. Brian Sheehan (#313) was happy (to say the least) to accommodate them.

The resulting article, which quotes Brian and others--including our favorite marine architect Ray Richard--appears in that issue. Excellent photographs show to those who are unfamiliar with the boat just how clever the design is. Unfortunately, it isn't online. However, the a physical magazine (i.e., the _molecular_ or "dead trees version") will go into the Fleet archives, and perhaps at some time in the future they will give me permission to post it on our web site.

In the meantime, here's the publication's online site; you're on your own for the article itself. Lake Union West Marine appears not to carry the magazine, but Shilshole W.M. (and other similar shops?) do.

25 April 2005

New Ranger Club Auxiliary: RVs

A few months ago some of us realized that we would like to pursue yet another kind of group activity. Some casually call it "camping", although strict purists might find this to be a terrible abuse of commonsense language; camping doesn't come with the hot pressure water, private showers, and refrigeration we like to have in our RVs. We have already had a small number of very successful outings in the cold and wet weather that is rapidly being replaced by Spring.

Have a look at our web site, and bring along your tent, trailer, van, or whatever.

27 April 2005

Mike E.'s (Narnia Bound) Rich Passage Boats has delivered its Minto hull #1

06 December 2005

Kent Ranger 8.5 meter (28') for sale

Most of us have never seen the 8.5 Meter--only eight or so were ever built, apparently--but Henry S. (Jules) has, and it's for sale in Olympia, WA. My understanding is that the other seven are racing on Lake Pend Oreille, ID. A little more info....

29 December 2005

Ranger 20s race near Portland

A MyYahoo account and membership in the particular Yahoo Group are required for seeing anything beyond their beautiful front-page photo, but of course that membership is free. The site owner has engaged good security so that membership is also safe. (I belong to several of these Groups, and I have never known of any spam or other problem arising therefrom.)

2006 Commodore and Cruising Calendar are in place

19 January 2006

Mike Barnard (Orient) has been installed as our 2006 commodore. This is the first time in the club's history that a non-sailor has taken (or more to the point, been given) the helm, but present and potential members should expect the same outwardly cheerful service as other officers have provided. And ice. Orient is a 36-foot Universal Trawler, and is therefore large enough to to share freely from its supply of ice cubes. And popsicles! Root-beer popsicles! Oh, wait; those excellent lime popsicles, sweet & tart!

Treasurer Muirhead (Gadabout) has consented to serve another term, as well. Thanks, John!

The year's calendar has been set as well. It's only moderately dense, so feel free to propose your favorite proposal, and in any case arrange your own calendar so you'll be free for a week in the South Sound late in our Pacific Northwest summer.

Still another Kent Ranger 8.5 meter "found"

11 February 2006

Hi Mark,

On December 6, 2005, someone posted that all of the other 8.5m Ranger boats are over on Lake Pend O’Reille. While that may have been true up to 1998, I have had my 8.5 (“Saoirse”) moored at Shilshole since then. My dad originally bought the boat new in the early 1980s and we sailed it for years on Lake Pend O’Reille. In fact, several other 8.5s were bought at the same time. Enough for there to be a Ranger one-design class during the summer races.

Thanks for your work on the site.

By the way, feel free to post the following site that includes pictures of Saoirse. http://sailsaoirse.blogspot.com

Dylan Higgins
“Saoirse”

/!\ Bad News from the (former) Ranger Factory

13 February 2006

Subject: RE: [KentRanger20Boats] Ranger 20 & 26 Molds

Kent Ranger sailboat owners,

I have just received this bit of unpleasant news (below) from Ken Wheeler (R-20 #1 _Ichi Ban_).
Note that Ken refers only to the 20- and 26-footers. Although the 24 doesn't have a (losable/breakable) centerboard, it does have an outboard rudder and a mast tabernacle.

It may be time to get together with other owners and make a plan. If your Group has any success, I hope you'll share the details with owners of the other boats.

I will be happy to pass along information.

Mark Kelsey_
Webmaster, Kent Ranger Sailing Association
http://homepage.mac.com/socrates4718/Ranger/KentRangerOrg20/
Seattle

To: KentRanger20Boats@yahoogroups.com
From: navigatorken@mac.com
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:36:51 -0800
Subject: [KentRanger20Boats] Ranger 20 & 26 Molds

Subject: Ranger 20 & 26 Molds

Martini Marine/Ranger Boats of Kent is in the process of getting rid (literally cutting up) all of the old sailboat molds. John called yesterday and I asked him to hold off on the 20 and the 26 until the word could get out to everyone interested. I would suggest that somebody take possession of the R-20 and R-26 molds for the rudders, centerboards and mast tabernacle. These seem to be the vulnerable replacement items.

You may find a fiberglass shop who would retain these items and lay up the parts on a special order.

Thanks,
Ken

Several relatively small but extremely important moving parts have been broken and lost in recent years. The centerboards have proven somewhat difficult to get reproduced. Plan ahead!

News from January Breakfast 2007

New Boat

Travis & Kim S. have put their R-26 Spontaneity on the market, and are working on their recent acquisition, the Fuji 40 Amazing Grace. Congratulations, Kim & Travis!

New Members

After most of a lifetime of not living and sailing in the Pacific Northwest, Evalyn and Richard L. are here (from Missouri via Panama, San Francisco, and other exotic places) now, and are giving sailing a try. Their Catalina 30 Saorsa (Gaelic: "freedom" or "independence") is still collecting upgrades but is essentially ready should some decent weather arrive (and the Tyee flood debris finally wash away). (Evalyn L. & Cindy K. [Ruby] had taught together before we moved here from Missouri over 22 years ago.)

New Cruising Calendar

We have a new cruising calendar, including a somewhat later date block for the National Cruise. This calendar is not terribly full, so if you want to organize something, get in touch! [ Calendar ]

New Officers

Every year, we ask treasurer John M. (Gadabout) if he wishes to continue in that capacity, and every year he graciously agrees to serve for another year. This year, his answer was different, so Tim W. (Hip Hop) offered to take over our simple banking needs.

Commodore Mike B. (Orient) was stressing a bit over these and other demands on his time, so I offered to take over as commodore. There was no noticable resistance from the room, so I again have the flag and database in addition to the web site. [ Officers ]

Old Business

Owners of Kent Ranger products are reminded of the outstanding issues (the factory's intention to rid themselves of the molds; the problem of replacing broken/missing centerboards, rudders, and other small bits; etc.). (See News on this subject, above.) Such owners are also reminded of the existence of Yahoo groups dedicated to discussions about the particular boats and to R-20 racing on the Columbia River.

All members are reminded that there is also a Yahoo Group for Association business. A quorum has not been reached, so we are not yet committed to it.

Kim S. reports progress on Amazing Grace

20 March 2007

"Amazing Grace is coming right along!" she writes.

Good boat work weekends are when you actually FINISH a project, successfully track and seal up a leak, solved a particular difficult problem, etc. On these weekends you end the days feeling quite pleased at the work you have accomplished. (these are rare and few between!)

Bad boat work weekends are those days when you don’t have any of the parts you need and nobody in a 500 mile radius has them either; right when you’ve patched up the LAST leak a new one springs just so you don’t get too cocky; you work hard ALL day and when someone asks you what you did, you’re not sure – you know – THOSE days).

Well, THIS weekend was an extremely GOOD boat work weekend! Thanks to Travis and some VERY good friends, we now have refrigeration – YES, you got it – things we put in that big hole in counter are now actually COLD!!!!! We now have a new 20 gallon holding tank INSTALLED and actually hooked up to the head and it WORKS with no leaks! We can go to the bathroom on our boat for the first time since January! We have a new sump pump hooked up to our shower drain too. And lastly, our aft cabin cushions have all been recovered (thanks to my very patient mother) and we now have real bedding – no more sleeping bags! We actually have custom fitted sheets etc. It was a very good boat weekend. We are soooo close to moving in and can’t wait.

Next, we will finish the aft cabin sole (that’s the only part that didn’t get refinished when we did the rest of the sole), finish painting the inside of all cubby holes, lockers, drawers, etc. and MOVE IN!

Next weekend we hope to take her out for a sail and put on our lazy jacks with the help of our very skilled friends Tom and Linda. We need all the practice we can get operating this beast ;-)

Can’t wait to see you KRSA folks in May! We are hoping to make it to Blake Island on the 5th (I repeat – HOPING!). We will need about 55 people to help us dock this monster - so get ready!

News from January Breakfast 2008, and more

16 February 2008

Our 2008 Cruising Schedule has been announced. It's a somewhat sparse calendar, so feel free to propose something to add.

Steve (Keptie) and Linda (Cattywampus) have volunteered to share the duties of commodore.

The Renton Sailing Club on Lake Washington has (recently acquired?) two Kent Rangers: An R-20 (#375) and an R-24. Thanks to new member Jim McClaflin for coming to Breakfast and sharing that intelligence with us.

Heino & Kelle's R-20 Dragonfly is for sale. Their new boat is a 25' Ranger Tug, built in the same factory as our beloved R-20s, perhaps even by some of the same people (albeit by a diffferent company).

A Moody 38 replaces Gadabout

10 May 2008

Julie and I purchased "Que Syrah", a Moody 38 center cockpit sloop, down in San Diego. The boat is a 2001, very lightly used (former owner lived in Kentucky) and is in very nice condition. Because it was not used very much, it has issues that occur when a boat just sits. Nothing major, just time consuming. The stove had never been used, the galley sink looks like it was never used, the anchor has never been used, and the former owner really didn't know how to sail, so the sails are in good condition (just dirty), and less than 50 hours on the engine. The boat spent most of the time tied to the dock. Because the boat was moored very close to the San Diego airport, every thing was coated with a grime that has required a lot of cleaning, from the top of the mast to the bottom of the keel. As Julie mentioned, I have been working on installing the radar, which has been very time consuming and frustrating at times, trying to get wires from point A to point B. I will probably finish it up later this week. We have not yet sailed it on Puget Sound, but expect to very soon.

John

Kent Ranger Sailing Association

News (New & Old)

Contents

News Items

23 October 2002

05 December 2002

25 January 2003