I know it’s been a while, but I wanted to acknowledge our volunteers for the April 11th DID and Sausalito cruise-in.  Your club was awash in budget spaghetti sauce that weekend and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner while hosting a brief visit by the Sausalito Yacht club!  We packed the guest dock, the house and the bellies of our visitors!  And that was just dinner.  The next morning our guests were treated to breakfast prior to leaving for Coyote Point.   Thank you to our volunteers Steve and Laurie Holmstrom, Kay Huber, Bruce Prickett and Mark Nardini. Thank you also to Kathy Harris for her creative decorations and to Lina for making a wonderful meal on a shoestring!

As a quick aside, I captured this image of the Easter bunny hiding in my sardine sandwich this last weekend.

We have changed the theme for the Drop In Dinner this week (Friday, April 25th) to one of Sequoia Family Style!

We invite you to bring the family, come for dinner , conversation and enjoy a selection of games.  I am personally looking forward to learning liars dice from some club experts (they readily self-identify).

Lina has come up with the following menu for the evening:

Assorted appetizers
Baked ham and BBQ chicken breast
Pasta with tomato, olive oil and fresh basil
Roasted green beans and green onion with roasted almonds.
Arugula and mixed greens salad.
Sheet pan cake and ice cream.
Cost is $ 14.00 for adults and $ 8.00 for kids.

The next day, Saturday, April 26th we have Club Clean up!  We have a list of tasks to accomplish to put the sparkle into our clubhouse!  The fun starts at 9:00 am.  Tasty but nutritionally challenged refreshments will be provided. 

Beyond April, May looms large.  We start with South Bay Opening Day on May 3rd.  Rear Commodore Gilmore and team have been planning for months and the weekend will be a great community celebration of our magical South Bay and local yacht clubs.  If you have not had the chance to attend the various weekend functions, this is your year!  The schedule and information about water and land activities can be found at www.southbayopeningday.org.

On Friday, May 9th we will have a General Meeting and DID.  The following evening (Saturday May 10th) we have a very special culinary event; Tom and Teri Wickman will be hosting a Paella Dinner!  How can that get any better -- it can’t!  Okay, maybe just a bit with the addition of a Latin themed band!    All for $ 18.00 per person.

So, come on down.  The sailing season is kicking off and the club will be jumping!

We had six membership readings Friday, April 11th at the general meeting.

Second Readings:

Kenyon and Esma Stewart from Redwood City have a Passport 47 Outbound berthed in Westpoint Harbor.  They are interested in cruising and Beer Can racing.  Nominated by Kathleen VanderSpek and Peter Blackmore.

Todd Mesherle from Redwood City has a IOR racing boat SORCERY berthed in Redwood City.  He has extensive experience in bay and ocean racing and enjoys the Beer Can racing.   Nominated by Peter Blackmore and Deidre Sparks.

First Readings:

Christopher Humphreys from Los Altos has a Laser kept at home.  He has been a Junior member for many years and involved in dinghy racing through high school and college.   Nominated by Kate Humphreys and Joanne Wright.

Daryoush and Deidre Paknad from Palo Alto.  They are looking forward to participating in our Beer Can races and learning more about sailing. Nominated by Mark Nardini and Jenny Thompson.

Prajun and Helene Pradhan from San Mateo.  They are looking forward in to the Beer Can races.  Nominated by Mark Nardini and Winston Bumpus.

Allison Cooper from Albany.  She is excited about learning to sail and has started to take lessons at Spinnaker and looking forward to crewing in our Beer Can races.   Nominated by Mark Nardini and Jenny Thompson.

- Jerry Jones, Membership Chair

We’ve had a blast with the first race of the soda can series Friday, April 11th! Around 5pm the rigging of the Lasers began at the launching ramp. After the the skippers meeting at 5.30pm seven racers, one committee boat and one chase boat with paparazzi on board left for the basin (please click here to look at the pictures). We even had some spectators from the fishing platform on shore.

Starting at 6pm, three races were run on a short upwind-downwind course and we saw everything: group capsizing, turtling, sailors falling out of their boats, but also some very nice competitive sailing. The first races resulted in David Sharp winning, me in second and Andrew Cole in third place.

All in all from my perspective, this was a superb way of spending a Friday evening and I am still thrilled at thinking back how much fun it was. Good thing it happens again next month!

Interested now? All you have to do to join in on the fun is show up Friday, May 9th either with your own Laser or have a little luck in drawing one of the club’s boats to race.

Finally, I’d like to thank William Larsen for running the series as committee, Phillip Meredith for jumping in and giving our paparazzi a platform on his chase boat for the perfect shots, Peter Weigt and all who’ve helped in making this work.

- Anja Bog, "Soda Can" Co-Captain

(see the full poster here)

South Bay Magic is the theme for this year's Annual South Bay Opening day festivities. The theme highlights the fun, excitement and enchantment of boating in the South Bay. Come on out and join your friends for food, music and fun!

The celebration begins Friday, May 2nd with a kick off dinner at Coyote Point Yacht Club. This gets us in the right party mood for South Bay Opening Day, Saturday, May 3rd. The party continues that morning with a hearty breakfast followed by the opening of the boating season, the blessing of the fleet and the traditional decorated boat parade. Then join us for BBQ lunch and the awards ceremony for the parade winners. Saturday evening is a sumptuous dinner and live band at Peninsula Yacht Club. Sunday morning is the always popular Gin Fizz Breakfast at the historic South Bay Yacht Club.

Go to www.southbayopeningday.org for all the details and to register for all the fun including the colorful, festive boat parade.

This is a great opportunity for us to show off our beautiful, friendly club. Please volunteer your help by emailing me (click here).
It's going to be a great event!

Plans for this years Memorial Day cruise out (May 24, 25, 26) to Schoonmaker Marina in Sausalito are taking shape. We already have 481' of boat signed up!

While there is plenty to do in Sausalito, this message will focus on a few of the pillar events of the weekend.

Cruise up:       
• Back by popular demand, we will host the photo scavenger hunt competition!

Saturday:                    
• Dinner at Sausalito Yacht Club

Sunday:
• Spa Day, Cavallo Point, if you're joining us, please select your treatment (from this menu) and email me ASAP, we need to get the reservations locked down in the next week (Carolyn, Petra & LuAnne, I have your selections already).
• The Quintessential Memorial Day Beach BBq on the beach at Schoonmaker

Sign up for this cruise out is via on-line form only and dock space will be assigned in order of sign up:

Sign up: Click here

Who is signed up already: Click here

Shannon Amerman, Cruise Out Captain

Errata

Peter Weigt was incorrectly identified as Beer Can Captain in the April 10th Blast. Peter, along with Anja Bog are running "Soda Cans" with the dinghy fleet. Andrew Rist is the SYC Beer Can Captain this year. -ed.

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