October and November mark the end of the racing year and are normally consumed with preparation for the Installation Dinner. But we still find time for lots of fun social events.

This Friday, October 24th is a Drop-In-Dinner with a Great Northwestern Sailing Travelogue. Our own Commodore Bumpus will take you on a magical mystery tour through the San Juan and Gulf Islands as experienced by our intrepid 2014 mega-cruisers. There's no more beautiful scenery than the tranquil waters of this unique part of the world.

Then the following Friday, October 31st is, of course, Halloween! Our DID promises to offer spooky food and spirited, well, spirits. Dress up in your favorite costumes and come on down to the club for what is traditionally an hilarious evening. If you don't dress up, come on down as a beer can racer!

Our Wednesday Lunches are great times to take an hour and commune with fellow members over a great tasting and incredibly inexpensive meal. Our Commodore and his First Lady have been pulling out all the stops to make these lunches wonderful events. So come on down Wednesday, November 5th and November 19th to join us.

And now the highlight of the Club year, The 2014 Installation Dinner to be held Saturday, November 15th. If you are a new member, this is an awesome opportunity to witness the pagentry that accompanies the installation of a new set of officers and directors of your club. Whether a new member or one who's been around for more than a few seasons, don't miss this one. The food is always sumptuous, the speeches usually humouous, the awards sometimes surprising and the comraderie inevitably palpable - a glass or two of wine is nice too!

The South Bay Championship was held on Saturday Oct. 18. This is a series of two races both run on the same day. Nine boats participated in the race. All boats raced in a single division, with non-spinnaker entries receiving a 6 second PHRF adjustment.

The first race was scheduled for 12:30 and although all the boats arrived at the start area, the wind had yet to show up. There were three delays until the first warning horn sounded announcing a 13:15 start.

Given the light winds, taking advantage of the continuing ebb current was an important strategy in reaching the first windward mark. Winds remained light throughout the first race, generally only 5 - 10 knots. Once around the first mark the spinnakers popped for a downwind run against the remaining ebb current.

After rounding the leeward mark the boats had to beat back to the windward mark before the final turn back to the finish. The two lead boats, DareDevil and Head Rush, fought for first-boat position and the twin blue spinnakers made it difficult from afar to tell who was in the lead, and after 6.03 nm DareDevil was the first to cross. Congratulations to DareDevil (Melges 24, Tim Anto) for taking first place, and Head Rush (Antrim 27, Anja Bog) and L20 (J29, Alex Huang) took second and third respectively.

The second race started at 15:30, about 15 minutes after the last boat crossed the finish line in the first race. Although the wind had yet to build to what racers typically expect in the late afternoon, it was now about 10 knots and an on-time start saw the fleet off once again to the first windward mark. The current was more forgiving during the second race and all the boats were able to round the mark and take off downwind. The wind was finally building to about 15 knots making things a bit more exciting.

The big challenge of the day was encountered by the presence of a the R/V Brownlee right at the leeward mark. A spectator boat launched a quad-copter to capture the leeward rounding which made for some interesting viewing back at the club after the race.

Watch the video on YouTube

There were now four boats battling for first boat across the line, with only 10 - 15 seconds between the finish times of each boat. Congratulations to L20 (J29, Alex Huang) for taking first place in the second race, and to Head Rush (Antrim 27, Anja Bog) and the Open 6.50 skippered by Charlie Watt for taking second and third respectively.

Later that evening the Sequoia Yacht Club racers celebrated the end of the season at the Racers Ribs dinner. In addition to announcing the results of the South Bay Championship, a recap of the year was provided and the winning entries in each race were recognized. 

For the South Bay Championship itself L20 (J29, Alex Huang) took first place and Head Rush (Antrim 27, Anja Bog) and DareDevil (Melges 24, Tim Anto) took second and third place respectively. The Sequoia races enjoyed their dinner and look forward to the 2014-2015 racing season with the start of the Winter Series the first week in November.

Hello Cruisers, and you know who you are. 

One of our favorite cruises is upcoming,  you guessed it, the Thanksgiving weekend (11/28-30) blast to the Island,  "The" Angel Island.  Come one come all.  There is an old fashion yellow paper sign up sheet at the club.  I am working with others to get one up on the web or you can shoot me an email or call me - my number is in the roster. This a fun one, if you need a ride or a bunk let us know and we will get you one.

Now the good stuff.  Thursday we have rented most of the Island for SYC members and friends.  To do so we had to arrange to give the ferry operators the day off, so no land people on the Island.  You can thank me later, and enjoy Thursday on Angel, you are on your own.

Friday we will start the fun with mooring boats and Island-tails at 1500hr.  Turkey dinner at 1600hr, you bring the sides we will have the bird. 

Saturday will have Barbs Famous sausage cooking for breakfast.  There is Mt. Livermore to summit.  Sam's and the Corithian are within our reach.  There will also be a team scavenger hunt, for interested parties.  With prizes!

Sunday I'm going home.  Stay tuned to this channel more information to come. 

Your cruise leader and friend,

- Tom Keegan
  "Killin' Time"
  Cruise-out Leader

I want to share with you some exciting upgrades to the club due to the wonderful contributions of a few generous members:

First off, if you haven’t yet noticed the Sequoia Yacht Club sign as you enter the Club, take a good look at it the next time you come. Olivia Sadlowski has taken it upon herself to not only trim all of the bushes to reveal the sign, but she removed all of the letters,  polished them, re-varnished the plaque and put them back. Be sure to wear your sunglasses as it is really shiny!  Beautiful job, Olivia!

Then before you enter the Club, don’t miss the new rug in the entrance.  It’s spectacular!  This was given as a gift to me from Fred Ganjei to present to you, the Club. It is great looking and immediately you know when you get to the Club, that you have arrived! Thank you Fred!!!

And once you enter the Club, you will notice an IPad with a rotating stand mounted on the bar. Since I was treasurer, nearly 5 years ago, I had hoped and researched, along with many others, for a way to automate our low-tech paper chit system with a more high-tech point-of-sale system.  Again, thanks to the work and perseverance of Olivia Sadlowski, and with the aid of Joanne Wright, we now have a pilot program in place. Currently, the pilot program is running through to the end of the month with Board members only, so we can debug any issues. Once it is up and running for the Club, you will find it easier and quicker than filling in a chit.  Plus, there are so many advantages which will be of great help to saving Joanne time from entering tons of chits to giving an updated read out of inventory needs for our bar manager.  All in all, this system will give us much more information while allowing us to more effectively manage the Club. Thank you Olivia!!!

We, at Sequoia Yacht Club, are so lucky to have such wonderful and generous members who make us truly a great club.

The South Bay Championship last Saturday marked the end of the 2014 racing year at Sequoia Yacht Club and Winter #1 will mark the first race of the 2015 racing year. We enjoyed an outstanding year with awesome participation in all our races. Thank you to all the Race Captains and congratulations to all the winners!

Race Captains for 2014 Racing Year:

• Redwood Cup - Cathy Moyer, Kathy Conte.
• Winter Series/St Patrick’s Day Race - Richard Butts
• Summer Series - John Draeger
• Moonlight Marathon - John Graves.
• Single/Double Handed Series - Peter Weigt, Anja Bog
• South Bay Championship - Tim Petersen.
• Soda Can Series - Peter Weigt
• Beer Can Series - Andrew Rist

And the winners are:

(All photos courtesy of Sheila Jones)

Not Present -

• Winter Series Non Spinnaker: Dan Doud, Pole Cat
• St Patrick’s Day Race Non Spinnaker: Dan Doud, Pole Cat
• Summer Series Non Spinnaker: Dan Lockwood, Ohana
• Moonlight Marathon Non Spinnaker: Dan Lockwood, Ohana
• Moonlight Marathon Spinnaker: John Graves, Metridium
• Beer Can Series Merit Class: Brett Herr

Please give our supporters your first consideration.  Note that most listings will have the ability to click through for further information. Also note the advertisers will change the sequence of listing so we will have a new advertiser at the top of the list each week.

If you have feedback on this advertising section or would like to have your business listing included in future editions of “The Weekly Blast”, please contact Larry Mayne at lrmayne@aol.com