Spring Meeting San Francisco Yacht Club March 21, 2009

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

Seventy (yes, 70) Islander folks showed up to kick off a new season, and they represented 37 different boats. Even though wind and rain finally laced the weekend, those arriving Friday had a beautiful, sunny day with summer-like bay breezes to bring them to San Francisco Yacht club. Those arriving before 1500 had winds of 12 - 17 knots through the Golden Gate, later arrivals report winds gusting up to 25 and even 30knots. Friday saw 12 arrive, including: Snowflower, Woodbine, Natural High, Ophira, Mai Pen Rai, Orion (Bay Area Disabled Sailors Association), Freedom Won, Luna Sea, Diana, Brigid, White Horses, & Vanishing Animal. To bring the total Friday count to 17, add in local SFYC boats Blue Streak, and Fast Forward, SFYC Port Captian Jay Hooker's boa, plus Pacific High that drove in, and Debra Tucker (Simple Pleasure) and Susan Warner (Lola) who flew in from San Diego.

The totals swelled on Saturday to 13 boats by sea, plus 3 dockside for 16 boats present, and 21 that drove in for a grand total of 37 boats represented by 70 people. Boats included: Wind Lock (arrived by boat), Pegasus, Zenith, Kindred Spirits, Blockbuster, Geja, Woden, Mas Tiempo, Spirit, Vitesse, Captain Hooke, Mischief, Dream Catcher, Groovy, Tacoma Blue, Cassiopeia, Diana, Gypsy, and Serenity.

Here's the full list of attendees. If you see names on pictures, check back here to put names and boats with faces.

BOAT NAME	CREW
Blockbuster	Bill Higdon
	Jim Higdon
	Gail DiBenedetto
	Jim DiBenedetto
Blue Streak	Don Schumacher
Brigid	Corky Stewart
	Anna Stewart
Captain Hooke	David Newton
Cassiopeia	Kit Wiegman
Diana	Lou Zevanov
Dream Catcher	Vern Verling
	Cheryl Lawson
Freedom Won	John Melton
	Nanci Melton
Geja	Andrew Vik
Groovy	Allen Warren>
Gypsy	Jim Callahan
Kindred Spirits	Don Henderson
Lola	Susan Warner
	Catherine Carmody
Luna Sea	Dan Knox
	Myphi Alloy
Mai Pen Rai	Noble Brown
	Barbara Brown
	Jim Perry
	Jane Perry
Mas Tiempo	Dave Cowell
Mischief	Charles Hodgkins
	Kathryn Munn Hodgkins
Natural High	Dennis Bush
	Judy Bush
Ophira	Gary Salvo
	Pat Salvo
Orion	Ed Gallerger
	Richard Bullock
	Ray Duran
	Gene Morris
	Tom Allegretti
	Isabel Tiff
Pacific High	Harry Farrell
	Carol Williams
	Michele Williams
Pegasus	Robert Aston
	Mary Gleim
Serenity	Eric Mueller
	Liz Schafer
	Roger Anderson
	Susan Anderson
Simple Pleasure	Debra Tucker
	Tom Farola
Snowflower	Skipper Wall
	Nancy Wall
Spirit	Bill Knopf
	Jana Knopf
	David Knopf
	Susan Knopf
Tacoma Blue	Rich Watters
Vanishing Animal	Rick Van Mell
	Sandy Van Mell
Vitesse	Thomas Furlong
White Horses	Rob Blendermann
	Ruby Wallis
Wind Lock	Michael Tryon
	Janice Tryon
Woden	Bob Knickerbocker
	Maureen Drotleff
Woodbine	Ron Damsen
	Karen Damsen
Zenith	Art Fowler
	Betsy Fowler

Charles Hodgkins, long time I-36 member and immediate Past Commodore of Encinal Yacht Club, started Saturday morning off with a rules Clinic at 0945. The Commodore Room was packed with 30+ people as we learned about the now formalized Zone at three boat lengths, and the new definition of Mark-Room and all its implications. Another significant change is the elimination of old rule 17.2 which prevented boats from sailing below their proper course. Charles covered the less common Race Committee signals too. There were plenty of questions and diagrams with lively discussions. Well done Charles! Dan Knox had a supply of Rule Book Guides and they were gobbled up too.

Though Saturday had started out and stayed grey, then it was on to Attitude Adjustment at the Cove House. This year there was a sturdy tent over the front porch and two outdoor space heaters to drive off the chill. Good thing too, as it started raining by the time lunch was under way. The San Francisco Yacht Club staff served another excellent dinner with beef and fish choices efficiently served at each table. The hard work of Ron & Karen Damsen, plus Anna Stewart and Pat Salvo to make up name tags and place tags with food choices made registration and food service flow smoothly.

Commodore Corky Stewart breezed us through the committee reports. The Treasury is in good shape and planning for $1,000 in donations to youth groups at the clubs we visit in 2009. Membership is running only a little behind this time last year, and we have 6 new members on the books already. David Newton took us through the 2009 racing schedule and encouraged all to attend the Sail Trim Clinic on April 4th at Golden Gate. Sign up on the Events page. Michele Williams reported that nine boats are likely to race this season. Anna Stewart covered the cruise schedule and reminded us to get our ticket requests in early for the June 13th Giants - As game because tickets are limited. See the link on the Home Page. We also need Cruise Coordinators for the Labor Day cruise to Half Moon Bay.

Business accomplished, we moved on to guest speaker Andrew Vik and his wonderful slides of Geja cruising in the Med. Mix together a warm summer, beautiful coastlines and harbors, picturesque towns and fortifications, and attractive natives and you get the idea. Below are some pictures taken of Andrew's slides, plus a separate section of selected images from his web site.

By late afternoon the wind was howling with a fine rain and occasional heavier stuff. SFYC cancelled their race when winds gusted above 40 knots out on the Bay. The six Islanders on the end of the "100" dock were pinned against the dock. During a break about 1800, Windlock and Orion headed for home. Some of the remaining crowd headed for Tiburon or the SFYC dining room to find dinner. The Bushes, Stewarts, Salvos and Van Mells gathered aboard Ophira and snacked on leftovers until calling it quits about 2030. Heavy rain and the cold front swept through at midnight. Sunday morning dawned with heavy gusts from the northwest and scattered clouds. Breakfast at SFYC gave us strength to suit up and head home in winds in the 15 - 30 knot range.

All in all a great way to start the 2009 season with a BLAST! We had 37 boats represented, and if Falcon, Tenacious and Solitude had made their reservations we would have had a new record of 40 boats counted. So come join the fun for another great Islander season.

Pictures by Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Heading north - Hunter's Point	San Francisco looms ...	in telephoto...	cruise ship in floating drydock ...
is ???????!!	Bay Bridge ahead ...	full & by ...	great flag...
going fast.	This green is for ...	big boats like ...	her.
Breeze from the Gate ...	at Alcatraz ...	destination ahead ...	spray to leeward.
Still lookin' good.	SFYC harbor.	Safe dockside.	Blue Streak
Vitesse	We want her!	The raft builds	Orion arrives ...
crew alert ...	Genoa on watch ...	great group and ...	great landing.
Mio & mom take ...	pretty picture ...	all secure.	All relaxed
Tucker too.	Jay Hooker, I-36er & SFYC Port Captian	Genoa leads BAADS Commodore	John Melton arrives
Deb Tucker & friend Tom	Susan & friend Catherine & Dan Knox	Let's tie up boats!	Sun over yardarm =
nibbles time!	All hands ...	gather to chat.	Ron pours ...
serious talk.	Happy crowd ...	on Mai Pen Rai	BAADS crew shows off...
great burgee!	Deb Tucker & BAADS Commodore	Gary & BAADS crew ...	ditto ...
Nancy & BAADS crew.	Dinner time ...	I AGREE!!!!!	Commodore Corky ...
backs Brigid in ...	Tucker approves ...	so does Ron.	Wine???
Over here.	Almost bedtime.	Saturday morning	Commodore's breakfast
Charles does Rules ...	BAADS crew watches ...	back row.	Know alls.
Mark-Room	Lots of attention.	It's a wrap.	Club jib on Vitesse ...
leads aft ...	block at rail.	Sandy beats the rain	Happy hour begins ...
We're ready!	Bar line	Karen, Anna & Pat do check-in	BAADS table
ARt, Betsy, Janice & Mike	Charles, Kathryn & Sandy	Robert, Mary, Pat & Gary	David, Jim & Corky
Rich, Jim, Gail, Bill	Jim, Barbara & Noble	Noble, Jim & Jane	Dennis & Judy, Skipper & Nancy
Don, Bill & Jana	Dave, Dan & Myphi	Susan, Nanci & John	John, Debra, Eric
Michele, Rob & Ruby	Lou, Don & Harry	Last year's goodies	Vern & Cheryl, AllenPICT4300
Corky gets it started...	Dan's report ...	Membership...	David does racing ...
Flags fly for ...	Wallejo 2008 ...	Saturday and ...	Sunday.
Double winner	Mine!	More mine!	Aw, you shouldn't have.
Encinal Youth thanks	Anna does cruise.	Feature story ...	by Andrew Vik.
On with the show ...	close attention ...	Big playground!	First sight ...
Med delights ...	good anchorage ...	imported crew.	What to get
Only $220 per night!	New crew	Party time

Andrew Vik Slides

There is nothing like the grace and spaciousness of an Islander to draw attention. Here are some shots of the fun on Geja.

Cefalu - Sicily	Sicilian crew party	Aeolian Island of Vulcano	Syracuse - Sicily
Syracuse Crew	Montenegro sunrise	Russian crew does tequila	Herceg Novi - Montenegro
Kotor fjord	Perast - Montenegro	Geja side ties	Dubrovnik
Balkan shore party	Skipper & fine Russian

You can see much more at http://ysc.org/geja/.

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