Thank you to all our Sequoia members who turned out for our Saint Patrick’s Day racing and dinner.

I want to offer a humble and heartfelt thanks to our Social Chair Kathy Harris and her team of volunteers who helped with decoration and set-up and serving and Sunday take down.  You all are the strength of our volunteer club and I am grateful that you answered the call.

And to our club membership – those of you with many dining and social options -- thank you for choosing to come down and support your club.   Your support of our parties allows us to plan more and better events.

As for later March and April, here is a glimpse of what’s coming:

Don't forget our Arabian Nights Dinner on March 28th at Sequoia - a club known for at least 1,001 tales. We'll have belly dancing! Watch or be watched and expect club bellies to be doing things... well, exotic. The dinner will feature Middle Eastern cuisine and starts at 6:00 pm.

We have a General Meeting and DID on Friday April 11th.  The theme will be Meatball Madness and to honor Sequoia’s Anniversary, we will offer this dinner at a numerically appropriate $7.50 per person!  Bring the whole family!

Revving things up later in the month will be Sequoia Rocks!  The date is Friday April 25th and the band will be Classic Vinyl. Hmmm... I can't wait to see what Lina cooks up for this one. Big Boy burgers and fries? Fried chicken? Pizza? Chocolate malts? Don't turn that dial...

Beyond the headliner events above, we continue to have Wednesday lunches (check the calendar for schedule).  Beer Can races and dinners will also commence in April.

Thank you for your support and see you at the club.

Wow!!  What an amazing past weekend for our Sequoia Yacht Club! Saturday was a great end to the Winter Series and the traditional St Patrick’s Day Race with over 20 boats participating. Many of the racers had to duck for cover as the Tall Ships, The Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain, which are in port for 18 days, were also under sail and firing their cannons during the race.  (Death or Deaf be to those who sailed between them.)  Thanks to Richard Butts who ran a great Winter Series this year.

After the race, the festivities really kicked in with all the racers, the crew of the Tall Ships and many members and guests, who came to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at the Club.  Al Montoya’s Corned Beef and Cabbage was amazing, as always.  I believe we served over 130 meals on Saturday night.  Plus the fantastic Irish band, The Gallow Glasses, brought out the ‘Irish’ in many a dancer and singer until late into the evening.

I would like to thank the many people who contributed to this very successful party. Decorating and setup was done on Thursday night and many folks showed up to help. Organized by our terrific Social Chair, Kathy Harris, the set up crew included Jerry and Sheila Jones, Cliff Kramer, Dave Jackson, Lilly Yee and Kathy’s friend, Barbara. A crew of folks including Al Montoya, Helen Horn and Vice Commodore Dan Lockwood went to the City to purchase the amazing corned beef.  And the many people who helped in serving, cleanup, and bartending include (I apologize if I have missed someone.): David and Doris Bliven, Robin and Larry Mayne, Al and Wendy Montoya, Joanne Wright, Helen Horne, Deidre Sparks, Steve Holmstrom, Petra Gilmore, Tim Petersen, Lilly Yee, Bernie Wahle, and Dan Doud.

Then, on Sunday, the icing on the cake was the fantastic Maritime Day at the San Mateo County History Museum. This event was due to the amazing efforts by our Staff Commodore, Peter Blackmore, who has been working tirelessly with the museum for many months to pull this all together. The kids’ event that ran from noon to 3pm was attended by over 300 families. The Sea Scouts, Mariners and our Junior Sailing team and leaders provided great support to this event and are to be applauded. Then at 3:30, the adult reception with refreshments along with participating in the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new maritime model exhibit, was a moment of great pride for our Club. I know Peter has thanked everyone who contributed to this event, but I will add mine as well—to Peter and to all of the volunteers for a job well done.

A couple of people commented to me recently about the great energy this club has, and I agree, as I feel it too. This energy comes from you and your ability and willingness to work hard together and play hard together.  Thank you all for making this such a fun weekend and such a great club!

Sequoia Yacht Club held the final race in the 2014 Winter Series combined with the annual St. Patrick's Day Race on Saturday, March 15. It may have been the Irish Whisky waiting for the division winners or the great weather as 22 boats crossed the start line, 13 in the spinnaker division and 9 in the non-spinnaker division to make this the biggest race in the series.

Read the exciting account of the race the SYC website

For the St. Patrick's Day Race and Winter #5 congratulations in the non-spinnaker division  to Pole Cat, Dan Doud's Wylie 30 for first place; Metridium, John Graves' Catalina 42 for second; and Iowa, Rick Dalton's Hunter 380 for taking third.  In the spinnaker division, congratulations to Frequent Flyer, Stan Phillips' Farr 30 for first place; Daredevil, Tim Anto's Melges 24 for second; and Head Rush, Peter Weigt's Antrim 27 for taking third.

For the Sequoia Yacht Club 2014 Winter Series congratulations in the non-spinnaker division to first place Pole Cat, Dan Doud's Wylie 30; second to Ohana, Dan Lockwood's Catalina 36ii; and third to Iowa, Rick Dalton's Hunter 380.  In the spinnaker division, congrats to first place Head Rush, Peter Weigt's Antrim 27; second place to Relentless, Tracy Rogers' J/92; and third to Smokin' J, Mark Bettis' J/29.  The Winter Series consists of five races with one throw out.

A big THANK YOU to all racers who made this series great!

Ahoy

The Club has positive momentum in so many ways. It is however special for us to be seen as a supporter of the Community and I wanted to thank all of you for helping make the Maritime Day such as success.

We not only sponsored the event, we provided tremendous support to make the day very special. The Children's session from 12-3 benefited from great participation by the Sea Scouts and by the Junior Sailing team. The Club then had marvelous representation at the official opening ceremony from 3.30 to 6.00 in the afternoon.

We received really great recognition from the San Mateo History Museum and also built up a lot of good PR in the Redwood City Community.

Some highlights:

We took an El Toro and a Laser into the Museum and these boats were a great hit with the children. There were over 400 attendees from 12-3 and the El Toro provided lots of photo ops for the children and parents. The photos were produced immediately - instant gratification is a good thing with children (and for the parents)!

Dan Doud, Rick Dalton, Peter McCormick, Don Inouye and Larry Mayne helped transport the boats and manhandle them up the stairs and return them to the club. The El Toro A5 looked splendid and was a tribute to the Club - our thanks to Fred Gillam for getting the boat ready and looking so well! The Humphreys' kindly lent us their laser which was in great condition - this is much appreciated.

The Sea Scouts led by Mike Marzano and our Junior Sailing team led by Fadi Maamari did a splendid job with the activities for the children's event which included model boat building, flag and insignia instruction and lessons in knot tying. As I mentioned we had over 400 people in this session and the museum was busy all the time. Mike and the Sea Scouts deserve a special thank you for providing a lot of people which we definitely needed and we really appreciate their great support and partnership.

The official party and ribbon cutting ceremony was supported by many guests but importantly by about 40 Sequoia members led by our Commodore, Winston. Our sponsorship included refreshments and the drinks and food were excellent. Kathy Harris, Grace Lowe, Doug Murray and Ted Eberle stepped up to help serve this and make sure everyone was well looked after. I really appreciated everyone who could join us on the day to support the Club.

I know everyone that has seen it will agree that the Maritime exhibit is a tremendous addition to the Museum and commemorates the history of sailing in the Bay area in a very special way.

Our efforts were not only rewarded with the sincere recognition from Mitch Postel, the President of the Museum but importantly Sequoia Yacht Club has a special display in the main rotunda entrance hall celebrating our sailing activities and our 75 year history. This display was put up at the end of January and will remain in place until the end of April. So a day and an event for Sequoia Yacht Club to be truly proud of.

For those of you who have not had a chance to visit the Museum and see our display and of course the new exhibit I encourage you to do that. You will be impressed!

My thanks,

Sequoia's excited to be cruising out to Sierra Point Yacht Club this weekend, and just in case you missed last weekends wild and fun Irish feast at our club house, you must come and join us at Sierra Point as they cook up an equally impressive Irish dinner and offer up live tunes by Valerie Rose Band. This cruise out promises to be a good time and I hope to see you there!

It's time for the Tin Cup cruise out!! And, back by popular demand we're heading to Coyote Point. Come and join us by boat or by land in April for our annual golfing cruise out. The weekend of April 12th promises to be filled with golfing fun and prizes! We already have 15 golfers signed up. And, not to be missed, the Paella Party on Saturday night at the Coyote Point club house!  Click this link for more information and to sign up online.

Shannon Amerman - Cruise-out Fleet Captain

You should have already seen an email telling you about the onset of the 2014 Beer Can Season.

Andrew Rist is taking over this year as Beer Can Fleet Captain and he has a great line up of Pre-BeerCan meetings you won't want to miss. The first one was yesterday so If you missed it, be sure to get the next ones on your calendar:

• 3/26/14 - Course Review - A discussion about the courses.  Which ones people prefer.  Also, possible new courses to add. We'll discuss adding 2 courses that start at the turn off to West Point, which would give us a better low wind short course, and also a possibility for more laps in the bay (upwind - downwind - upwind - downwind)
• 4/2/14 - Jibeset will be at Sequoia YC.  Jibeset is the online race management system we have been using for the Redwood Cup and the Single/Double-Handed Series.   Ray from Jibeset will show show off the software, answer questions, and help people with any issues they have had to date.
• 4/9/14 - BCR Kick Off Dinner!  You do not want to miss this one.

Many of you have asked that we have another planning meeting for our 2014 Mega-Cruise to the San Juan Islands. We have decided to hold it on Thursday April 10t h  at 7pm at the Club. We have been busy making plans and I know many of you have your boats reserved and are looking forward to the trip. I also know there are still a few people who would like to go but don’t have a boat and there may be folks looking for crew. I believe there are still some boats available, so it is not too late if you are interested in chartering a boat and joining us. The dates are August 18-22nd and we are chartering with Anacortes Yacht Charters. The web address for more information can be found here: http://www.anacortesyachtcharters.com/

Special hats have already been ordered and may be available for our April meeting.  Please feel free to come to the meeting if you are planning to go or if you are just interested. It should be a great cruise for all.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Winston Bumpus - Commodore

Mike Giari, Executive Director for the Port of Redwood City provided us with this really great aerial photo of the club and marina. It's a high-quality, high-definition (1MB) digital photo that's handy for event planning. If anyone is interested in receiving a copy via email, please contact me at blast@sequoiayc.org. Please make sure your inbox will handle a 1 megabyte attachment.

- Your Blast! Editor

Continuing their life of leisure after retirement, SYC members afloat, Robin and Kathryn Weber teamed up with Ron Brown and two others to place second in the Banderas Bay Regatta, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Read about their latest fun and exploits in the March 17 issue of 'Lectronic Latitude. Are we jealous? You betcha!

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