A few sailors got together — and took over the town
Issue 88 : Jan/Feb 2013
What do you call a sailing event at which almost 400 sailors show up with nearly 200 sailboats, delivered the old-fashioned way, on trailers? If it’s in Arizona in February, it’s the Havasu Pocket Cruisers Convention (HPCC) in Lake Havasu City. By its fifth year in 2012, this event that doubles in size every year was in danger of overwhelming the Lake Havasu City marine facilities.
Lake Havasu is a wide spot in the Colorado River between Arizona and California contained by the Parker Dam. Starting at spring break and continuing during the summer, we’re told, the lake is a frenzy of cigarette boats, gold chains, and bikini babes. But during the winter months, sailors willing to wear a jacket can have the place to themselves. Palm trees grow here year round, after all, and by February that looks pretty good to anyone from the frozen north.
In addition to palm trees, miniature working lighthouses dot the shoreline. (These are true aids to navigation; don’t think of them as tourist toys!) The London Bridge brought here and rebuilt brick by brick is Lake Havasu City’s main attraction. (Admittedly, this structure was purchased and constructed as a tourist magnet and it plays this role rather well.)
That should set the scene. Now add all those previously mentioned sailors and trailerable sailboats of all descriptions and you have a Very Large Pocket Cruiser Event. Trailersailing is the very essence of the saying “Get there Fast and then Take it Slow.” Traveling an average of 607 miles each way, participants traveled from 26 states, four Canadian provinces, and five countries. They came for the sailing experience and they came for the camaraderie. As their boats are generally stored on lots or in their backyards, many of the participants have no other tie to fellow sailors through marinas or yacht clubs. They have become a tight group of friends, however, through the HPCC website and message board and over the years at previous HPCC events.
If you ever thought you might like to expand your cruising grounds by taking a small boat overland at 70 mph, the HPCC should be a research destination in mid-February. The 2012 version of this event included just about every conceivable small craft, all of them accompanied by passionate owners who are pleased to show you around and tell you why their boat is best. While it started five years ago as an informal wintertime get-together for Montgomery and West Wight Potter sailors, the fleet these days includes small (and not so small) Catalinas, MacGregors, Sages, and ComPacs, along with at least one representative Santana, Seward, O’Day, Ensenada, Balboa, Clipper Marine, Ranger, Buccaneer, San Juan, Laguna Windrose, and Tanzer. Toss in a Cape Cutter 19, a Spindrift, a Champion, a Peep Hen, a Goat Island Skiff, a Sea Pearl, a Sherpa, a Scamp, a Klepper sailing kayak, one 30-foot French Alubat equipped for an offshore cruise and, for good measure, a few multihulls including a homebuilt Strike 18 and a Windrider. All visitors, gawkers, and wannabes were welcome. The sailors were happy to spread the gospel of small-boat sailing.
Small beginnings
It was their party in an amazing venue for small-boat sailors. Montgomery 23 sailor Sean Mulligan started the event in 2008 as a way to introduce a few friends to wintertime sailing on Lake Havasu and wound up swinging a tiger by the tail. Five years later — with a great deal of help from his wife, Jo, and a small group of dedicated volunteers — Sean has turned a three-day sailing social into 10 days of non-stop events for fellow sailors. These activities include keynote speakers, races, cruises, a regatta, a poker run, cocktail hours, seminars, a boatbuilding group, a trade show of vendors, a parade of boats, an awards banquet, a book exchange, authors doing book signings, a boat show for tourists, fundraisers for the local Sea Scouts, and a whole lot of hoopla all day every day.
Sean said his goal was to offer so many activities that no one attending could do everything. If there’s a reward for that sort of accomplishment, Sean should win it. This is a high-energy event conceived and founded by a can-do kind of guy.
This year it will be happening all over again, February 9 through 18, and for the first time there will be a registration fee ($50 per boat). If you have a small boat or would like to buy one, this concentration of trailerable boats is an incredible opportunity. If you can’t take in the whole thing, show up for a few days and take in as much as you can. If you can’t do it all, don’t despair. Sean planned it that way.
Karen Larson and her husband, Jerry Powlas, founders of Good Old Boat, are busy with a mega restoration of a trailerable sailboat — a C&C Mega 30 — and will soon be exploring destinations accessible via the interstates.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
