The 2024 Westsail Rendezvous was held at the Ballena Bay Yacht Club, Alameda, CA.

R to L: Randy Leasure, Kathryn Rees (BBYC), Jay Bietz and Stu Bennett. 

Link to all the images in a Google Album

The 2024 NorCal Rendezvous got underway on Friday Sept 20th with boats arriving in the afternoon and early evening.

W32 Freestyle arrived first at Ballena Bay in Alameda with W32 Tortuga and W32 Criterion arriving later in the afternoon. The marina had originally assigned slips throughout the marina with not all of the boats on the guest dock, so after talking to the marina office they agreed to let us all tie up on the guest dock and side tie as needed. Whew! In the evening we saw the arrival of W28 Irish Rose and W32 Alma. We had a great appetizer potluck at Ballena Bay Yacht Club who were also great hosts for the dinner and presentation on Saturday.

There was a group of Westsailors that drove down from Oregon including Dave King and his wife Ruth from W32 Saraband, Gary Burton from W32 Elizabeth Ann and newbie Westsailor Warren Zaiger from W32 Questia. There was lots of boat visiting and sea stories throughout the day along with solicited and unsolicited advice on projects :) The talk of the day revolved a lot around the leaky caprail project that most folks will eventually have to tackle and the various ways to approach it. Terry from W32 Dulcinea arrived on Saturday afternoon and we helped them move over and side tie to Criterion on the guest dock. The pod of attendees made their way over the BBYC in the evening. We got a group picture and had a lovely dinner hosted by the BBYC. The fabulous guest speaker of the evening was Stan Sutton and family from W43 Marinka who built it out from a bare hull and then circumnavigated from 1981-1989.

We also had a speaker phone shout out from Bob Knobloch to Bud Taplin who was unable to attend, with loads of well wishes to his recovery and health. This was Tortuga’s 25th rendezvous I’ve been to and the first without Bud Taplin. You were missed Bud!

Sunday morning saw the gradual departure as folks waited for the tide to rise and get underway to their respective harbors.

Many thanks to Stu Bennett from W32 Worldwind for being the host and organizer along with Jay Bietz for support and managing the WOA store!

We are looking for a volunteer to organize the NorCal event in 2025. If you’re interested or have ideas (there was some chatter about doing a mini regatta on the Saturday of the event) let us know and we can get something on the calendar!

Till next year!

Randy & Danielle
W32 Tortuga

The boats in attendance were:

W32 Freestyle Rick Morris
W32 Tortuga Randy & Dani Leasure 
W32 Criterion Kevin & Pat McGrath
W28 Irish Rose Rik Williams
W32 Alma Nina Violet
W32 Dulcinea Terry Latham