Okay, I am committed to keeping this one short…

One little thing first:  Peter Blackmore and his son Rob sent a drone aloft in our Beer Can Race last week to film the action.  I saw a bit of the video and it adds the most amazing perspective to the races!   The boat to boat action at the finish of the race was very exciting.  I am looking forward to this process being refined and more video shot.  One thing it does confirm is that little Redwood Creek is a great place to sail and doesn’t look half bad from the air!  By the way Beer Can Races run though early October.  Come check them out!

In terms of up-coming Social activities, we have a Drop In Dinner this Friday.  Lina is offering the following menu:

Grill Your Own NY steak of bacon wrapped filet mignon
Or
Lemon chicken strips with capers and fresh lemon

Kathy’s green beans roasted with red onions

Veggie chow mien

Sourdough toasted bread

Ice Cream bar

$ 14.50 steak
$ 12.50 chicken

After dinner, Rear Commodore Rick Gilmore will be leading a presentation on Sequoia’s annual Delta Trip.  This is a not-to-miss for those considering a trip up the river – especially those with concerns about the voyage.   If you have young kids (or even older ones), I would also suggest finding out about this fun and very cost efficient vacation!

Beyond Friday, have a Happy Memorial Day weekend!  I know we have a cruise out and many fun activities planned but, please, take a moment to remember the sacrifices made by our veterans and their families to preserve our freedoms.

Moving on to June, our first big event is the Past Commodores Dinner on June 7th.  And this evening is not just for past commodores;  it  is an opportunity to enjoy a more formal sit-down dinner, celebrate the rich history of our club – especially in this 75th year, and hear some outrageously tall tales from “the early days of sailing” from some folks who were there…

Chef Higgs will be serving a classic Caesar Salad, steak or salmon entree, Roasted garlic whipped potatoes, grilled asparagus, new season Peach Cobbler with Ice Cream.  Cost is $25.00.  There will be a sign-up sheet at the club as well as on-line.

I wanted to let you all know that we have received a tremendous gift yesterday (Monday, 5/19) from the father of the deceased sailor, Martin Sun. I had heard that Martin’s father is an excellent artist and Martin’s friend Alicia had shown me a few paintings as she had pictures on her phone. I suggested to her a few weeks back, that maybe we could use one of the paintings as a trophy or some other way to honor Martin. I understand that Ann McDonough and Shannon Amerman have been in recent contact with her and had discussed this as well.

I met with Alicia Saturday morning at the club and she brought the painting, which is an amazing piece.  We now have it hanging in the club. The Board will decide with input from the members if we will use it as a trophy.

Peter Blackmore reached out to one of the friends of the father to find out the background of the painting.  The friend said that the father drew the painting several years back when he visited Florida. He stayed in a place called Merritt Island which is close to Cape Canaveral. According to him, the boat is real, the background scene is real, but they never showed up together. He painted them in the same painting with the real boat and scene from memory.

I think this was an extremely heartfelt gesture and reflects the respectful and kind way this difficult situation has been handled by all.

On May 10th, we had our 2nd Paella luncheon at Sequoia Yacht. The food, the band, the desert, the wine, what a pleasurable decadence. A great time was had with our Sequoia Family.

To put together such a fabulous event requires the participation of many volunteers that do this for the love of our club, the food and the party. So I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to our volunteers:

Keith and Pauline Jones for their participation on all the prep as well as on the cooking of the Vegetarian Paella. This is their second year participating on this extravaganza at Sequoia.  Scott Johnson for cooking the delicious paella from Denia, Spain. BTW, all the squid was freshly cleaned by Scott as if it had just been caught in the ocean. Great job.  Leslie Fish for the great Salad. We received lots of compliments on it.  Tod Klinger for the great White and Red Sangria. Tod did a lot of research on the recipes for the absolutely awesome Sangria. Potent and good.  Jenny Thompson for the great Chocolate Fountain. Nothing better than decadence after such a great meal.  Kathy Harris for the selection of such a great band.  Dan Lockwood for taking care of the post party cleaning up. Tough job after a long day. Thanks.

We had lots and lots of helpers before, during and after the party. I’d like to extend my thanx to everyone involved and if I missed anyone on this list, that means that Tod’s sangria was just too good: Malcolm Fliege, Sue Lockwood, Shannon Amerman, Hmelar Junior, and everyone at Sequoia Yacht Club that helped, participated, and enjoyed our event.

Last but not least, thank you to our Board to provide the funds for such a great event.

-Tom Wikman, Member & Paella Party Host

Ahoy,

The Regatta last weekend was a success. My sincere THANK YOU  to all who helped with every phase of the event. This includes a special Thank You to the Bay Area Youth Sailing (BAYS) organization for allowing the Pacific Inter-Club Yachting Association (PICYA) to join their 2014 kick-off Regatta, BAYS#1. My hope is that the PICYA may continue to partner with BAYS in future Youth Sailing events.  Additionally, an even more special THANK YOU to the Principal Race Officer, Director of the Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation, Sequoia Yacht Club Member, Sailor Extraordinaire Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer who made this a safe and fun event for all of the participants. 

There were over 90 Youth Sailors on the water competing in 5 BAYS divisions both Saturday and Sunday, 28 of them signed up and were sailing in the four PICYA divisions - PICYA has no spinnaker division - representing their PICYA Yacht Club. There were 6 PICYA Yacht Clubs represented: Encinal, Richmond, Saint Francis, San Francisco, Sequoia, and South Beach.

The first and second place PICYA division winners are as follows -

Division A, age 10 and under - PICYA Delegates Perpetual Youth Sailing Trophy: 1st - Connor Bennett, SFYC;  2nd - Ben Foox, SFYC.

Division B, age 13 and under - San Francisco Bay Perpetual: 1st - Will Foox, SFYC; 2nd - Sarah Young, SFYC.

Division C, age 16 and under - PICYA Perpetual Youth Sailing Trophy: 1st - Spencer Paulsen, St. Francis YC; 2nd - Miles Orozco, Encinal YC.

Division D, grades 8-12 - Dave Diola Memorial Cup: 1st - Cooper LaRhette skipper & Lily Imani, crew, Encinal; 2nd - Santiago Calderon, skipper & Ryter Ullrich, crew, Encinal YC.

The PICYA Staff Commodores Perpetual Youth Sailing Trophy goes to San Francisco Yacht Club which had the best score for all of the divisions.

- Larry Mayne, PICYA Youth Sailing Regatta Coordinator

Big wind! Big flood! Long course! Summer Series #2 had it all, and it made for an exciting race. With Beercan captain Andrew Rist playing committee boat in Kathy Conte/Cathy Moyer’s RIB, the race started at the S mark, heading straight upwind to B for the first leg.  Even going into a powerful 2 knot flood, boats made good time in 28 knot winds. A dead downwind run to Y was next, but only a couple of boats had crew adventurous enough to hoist their kites in the big wind. For those that did, it really paid off, getting them to Y very quickly. The second long upwind to X was relieved by a slowing flood. With wind holding steady at over 20 knots, the final downwind leg back to the channel was accomplished very quickly despite the ‘white sails only’ approach taken by all boats except Frequent Flyer and DareDevil.

In the spinnaker division, Stan Phillips’ Farr 30 Frequent Flyer led all finishers, taking first place honors finishing over 4 minutes (corrected time) ahead of second place boat DareDevil, a Melges 24 skippered by Tim Anto. Dan Dowd on on his Wiley 30, Polecat, blew across the finish line in third place 12 minutes (corrected time) later.

Only two boats finished in the non-spinnaker division, and Dan Lockwood’s Catalina 36, O’Hana, had a comfortable lead over second place Iowa, a Hunter 380 skippered by Rick Dalton. On a day when the two divisions were a lot closer to each other than usual, Lockwood’s O’Hana, the J29 Smokin’ J captained by Mark Bettis, and Noel Bird’s Santana 30 Pizote finished within 2 seconds of each other in real time.

Full results are posted here on Jibeset

- Cathy Moyer for John Draeger, Summer Series Captain

Have you ever thought about doing Sequoia Yacht Club's Delta Cruise but were hesitant because you thought; How do I get there?..What should I bring?…..How do I communicate with the "locals"?….What is there to do?…..How do I get home?

Well, this Friday Night after a wonderful DID, hang out for a short presentation and discussion on "Cruising to the Delta".

Our own Past Commodore and "Delta Rat", Lee Ritchey has decades of Delta experience. He has prepared an informative Power Point presentation to assuage your fears and whet your appetite for Delta adventure.

I will "Push Play" on Lee's presentation and then we will have a "Q&A" afterwards.

If you are an experienced "Delta Rat" or just starting to think about it for the first time; be at the Club this Friday night to share and learn about the "delta experience".

The Delta Cruise this year is Monday, July 28th through Friday, August 1st at the Beautiful Delta Yacht Club.

See you there!

The San Francisco YC Cruise out is just under a month away on June 13/14/15.  

Most people choose to arrive on Saturday, June 14th but there is the option to arrive on Friday.

The activities for the weekend are:
Docktails and drinks in the bar from about 4.30pm Saturday.
Dinner is arranged in the main dining room at 7.30pm.

The menu is as follows:

Iceberg wedge salad with blue cheese dressing
Chicken Picatta with mashed potatoes and summer vegetables
Berry Cobbler a la mode desert
Coffee/Tea included

The restaurant can handle vegetarian or special dietary requests but do let me know.

Wines / drinks are extra.  The cost per person for dinner is $48 including service - the same as last year.

Breakfast on Sunday is a choice as normal - the club dining room is available or some prefer a walk into Tiburon for breakfast at one of the cafe's so we have left it flexible.

This is a very popular cruise out and as regulars know there is space for about 12 boats at the SFYC guest dock. We shall therefore organize this so that the people that sign up first have priority. As always I shall do my best to accommodate additional boats but that depends on slips being available and there is no guarantee of that. It depends on a members boat being away and also it is at the discretion of the harbor master. So please sign up early! The mooring fees are the same as previously at $1 a foot.

The response has been fantastic since I sent the invite out on Monday this week and we have 12 boats signed up already. Please add your name if interested as we may get drop outs and I may squeeze some more in. Plus Blacktoppers are very welcome - there is plenty of space for the dinner and docktails! So just sign up so I know how many for dinner etc.

To sign up on the web:  click here

I look forward to another very successful and fun cruise out to San Francisco and I am sure there will be good sailing conditions in June to make it a great weekend!

I am sad to inform you that Norene Sun passed away at home unexpectedly on May 8, 2014. She is survived by her husband Bruce Prickett, and her sons Anthony and Timothy.  Norene and Bruce had recently joined the Club and have their son Timothy enrolled in the Junior Sailing Program.  Norene was a beloved wife, mother, sister and aunt, and will be missed by many friends.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, May 28, 6pm at St. James Episcopal Church, 37051 Cabrillo Terr., Fremont, CA 94536. A reception will follow. Donations may be made to the Tri-City Volunteers, 37350 Joseph St., Fremont, CA 94536.

For more information please go to the memorial page (click here).

I spoke with Bruce on Saturday and he said they were still in shock.  He also said that donations to the Tri-City volunteers in lieu of flowers would be preferred.

Our hearts and prayers go out to Bruce and his family.

- Winston Bumpus
  Commodore

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