The weather has turned cold and it is more difficult (not impossible) to sail.  However, you can still get your Multihull fix because the membership meetings will be held all through the winter!

George Benisek of Chesapeake Rigging will present a rigging seminar at our February 28th meeting. This will be an interactive, listener takes part, dynamic hands-on realization of what can go wrong, how long it lasts (or maybe not) and how to avoid problems. George has a great array of photos, broken parts and stories to tell and welcomes a tale or two from
the audience if you have one to tell.

The topic of his seminar - It's a Sailboat: The Primary Engine is Mast, Rigging & Sails (Right?). Without them, you're a power boater, using the secondary engine. See how to detect faults on your vessel, learn basic metallurgy terms that define rigging and it's degradation. Learn excellent maintenance procedures to increase the useful life of your rig, how to perform a rigging self-inspection and how to tune your mast and rigging. See the Chesapeake Rigging "Board of Shame" and other horrible broken parts any sailor will want to see, if only to avoid it happening later.

There'll be lots of "Show & Tell". Remember to bring your questions about those midnight fire drills, off-shore, inshore or docking catastrophes, rigging failures and those nagging "what if" nightmares for a Q&A follow-up.

George Benisek retired from the Navy in 1996 and continued his sea-going adventures in the marine boating business over the last nine years. George has been sailing for over 40 years, seriously racing inshore and offshore for the last 20. He has coached the Naval Academy Offshore Sailing Team; raced to Bermuda and back from Annapolis; to Hawaii from San Francisco and been around the block once or twice on the Chesapeake. George has been a sailboat owner for the past 22 years with over nine different boats, once with seven at the same time. He currently owns a Tripp 26 sailboat Northern Dancer which he and his crew have raced for the last five years and recently purchased a 2004 Wildcat 350 catamaran Penguin which he has owned for the past three months. George can be reached at his e-mail address at work george@chesapeakerigging.com.
 
Admission is free and is open to the general public. Rex has participated in several significant offshore passages, logging over 70,000 offshore miles on various multihulls and monohulls. The Annapolis Library is located at 1410 West Street.