CONVENIENTLY LOCATED AT: 37˚ 46’ 47.5” NORTH - 122˚ 23’ 16.2” WEST
WAV E L E N G T H OF FICIAL NEWSLETT ER O F THE SO UTH B EAC H YAC H T C LU B
vivete lente, navigate celeriter
VO LU M E X X I I SS U E 24 M AY 201 4
SOUT H BE AC H YAC H T C LUB
A FA I R A DVA N TAG E
H
ow many times, numerically speaking, have you served on the Race Committee? Signed up for OOD training? Ran for Club officer or served on the Board of Directors? I’m talking serious Club business here. Sure, we all love to show up in our stylishly casual yacht-sailing outfits and do our yachtie-latte thing or flounce into our fancy Clubhouse and have a Bourbon and Branch. Who amongst us has not, with a casual gesture of the hand, suggested to our friends “Let’s pop up to my Club for a Hot Buttered Rum toddy, shall we?” “Not so fast” you say, and quoting Bacchus - the ancient Greek God of Happy Hour - you challenge me to “Put thy mouth where thou walketh …or talketh… I mean, don’t talk the walk if you can’t walk the talk …” Well, you know. In other words, “Oh yeah!” Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I have “shown up,” “flounced” and “gestured” with the best. But this season I have taken a sabbatical from racing (I pause here for the readers’ gasps of disbelief) and instead have signed up for the Race Committee. Yes, after much contemplation, meditation, consideration, deliberation and in light of the San Francisco YRA Restraining Order, the Cease and Desist petition signed by all of the other racers, and the Coast Guard Hazard to Navigation sticker on DANCING BEAR’s bow pulpit I have
chosen to sign up as a Junior Assistant Apprentice Race Committee Guy. By becoming a JAARCG I feel that I can, in some small way, give back service and support to the sport I love, that I can help provide a venue for sailors who have chosen to participate in the noble sport of sail boat racing. And, that I can, in a very personal and direct way, get back at some of those yahoos who cut me off when all I wanted was a fair advantage at the start, and at the weather mark. Big stinking deal, yelling at me for barging just a little once or twice or three times at most. I mean really …. you want over early? I’ll give you over early, over late, over easy; you ain’t seen nothing yet! See photo of our RC protest committee in action! Now where was I? Oh yes, in the last year or two South Beach Harbor and its environs have been on TV more often than Justin Bieber.
What with the Olympic trials, the America’s Cup, and the ClipperVenture hosted at South Beach Yacht Club (organized, built and run by volunteer members) SBYC has achieved a fair amount of worldwide exposure. So why don’t you expose yourself and choose your favorite club activity. I mean express yourself… you know… do things. And thank you for your very kind attention.
R AY
H ALL
Ray Hall – Dancing Bear
WAVE L E NGT H MAY 201 4
COMMODORE’S REPORT
T
he Clipper yachts have come and gone. South Beach Yacht Club rose to the occasion and put on a fine demonstration of its character during this great sailing occasion in San Francisco. Recent guests to the Club will long remember the friendly greeting and helpful attitude of the volunteers who made their 10 day stay in San Francisco more enjoyable. Congratulations to all of the volunteers that participated in this “marathon” event supporting the Clipper yachts stopover, and many thanks to those who met the boats, worked as OOD’s in the bar and helped with the events that showed the Clipper-Venture management, sailors, family and friends that our Club is committed to supporting the international yachting community with enthusiasm. With these twelve yachts came families, friends and corporate supporters from around the world. They were introduced to SBYC and will, I’m sure, take with them a favorable impression of San Francisco and our friendly Club as a result of the involvement and enthusiasm of our members. It was a worthwhile effort, and we are hoping that in 2016 they will return to South Beach. In order for that to happen, our City, Port and Harbor will need to recognize the benefits of bringing them here and make more of an effort to facilitate the planning process. San Diego is making a
strong bid to attract them for the next race. Despite SBYC’s best efforts to be hospitable, it will require a vastly different attitude from the Port to attract Clipper again. With Opening Day we are well on our way to a great year of racing, cruising, educational seminars and our traditional Club parties. It’s time to get in shape to participate, both on the water and as volunteers in the Club. Our unique organizational structure depends upon volunteers to plan events. As members, be committed to make your contribution of time and talent to assure the success of our Club operations. One of the great benefits of our time spent as volunteers is the opportunity to get acquainted with fellow members while sharing the responsibility and learning about Club operations.
I am very pleased that our Club is financially strong, well managed by our Board of Directors and filled with energetic, enthusiastic members. See you at the Club!
B IL L
ADA MS
Bill Adams Espirit de Liberte
SOUT H BE AC H YAC H T C LUB
VICE COMMODORE’S REPORT
T
he Clipper Round the Worlders have come and gone and all of us who experienced first-hand their 10 day visit will never be the same. For days, the Club was a Welcome Center with friends and relatives of the racers gathering to greet them and to wish them a safe journey, especially after the media attention from the near tragedy of a man overboard who was, thankfully, rescued. Thank you to all those members and OOD’s that stepped up and made the Clipper crews and families feel so welcome. The Club was a buzz from morning till night and it was so much fun watching members interacting with guests. It made me feel proud to be a member of such a great club. Special thanks goes to Bill Adams, our Commodore, for putting this great event together and also to Gerard Sheridan and Colm Pelow, who went out of their way to make the Clippers’ visit here a good one. My thanks would not be complete without mentioning the members who greeted each boat, day and night,
to South Beach with a basket of fresh fruit which was truly appreciated after having been at sea so long. Thank you to Kit Beck, Janelle Boltz, Julie Fineman, Wendy Hanrahan, Lorraine Palmer, Johanna Infantine and Patti Mangan. What a great team effort by all of you. As the Clipper teams sailed away, after getting to know them so well, and even getting to drive one of their boats for a short time, I felt they took a little piece of me with them. Our Club events continued with Debra Phairas and Lisa Gidley’s fabulous Wine Pairing & Sharing and Bob Mason & Martin Fay’s annual Oyster Festo on Opening Day after the boat parade and with live music!
May kicks off with Toni Heyneker’s Cinco de Mayo dance party with a tasty taco bar and spicy jalapeno infused margaritas. Our annual Mothers Day Brunch, hosted by Suzy Fay, offers two seatings and live entertainment by Diva Sylvie Yarza. Please make your reservations. It’s time to give club steward Jeffrey Kroeber time to get his breath back. He joined a few weeks back and hit the ground running doing a great job. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Hugh Coppen, Rodger Ladwig and Bruce Wicklund for their hard work helping to make everything at the Club run smoothly. Tom Rogers and Pete Hamm, you are included in my kudos.
BARRIE WHEELER
WAVE L E NGT H MAY 201 4
SPLICE THE MAINBRACE
I
HUG H
CO P P E N
’m sure this issue of the Wavelength will be full of stories about SBYC’s wonderful hosting of the Clipper Round the World crews, their friends, families and the sponsors. (I’m embarrassed to say that I was out of town for 12 days through some shockingly bad planning and I almost missed the whole thing.) While I know that there were many people who put in a huge effort to make the 10 days such a tremendous success, I just want to say a huge thank you to all the OOD’s who stepped up and kept the Cub and the bar open all day, every day - and right up to 2 am closing time most nights too! You are rock stars! I could list the names that I know of OOD’s who so kindly volunteered to serve extra shifts when I put out an appeal before I left town, but if I did so I’d be sure to be leaving out the names of a whole lot of others who jumped in behind the bar when needed – and it certainly was needed! Just how busy was our bar, you ask? Here’s one fact that tells the story: in the whole of 2013, we used about 100 kegs of beer. In the 10 days the Clippers were here, we went through 30 kegs. Yup, that’s a 3 and a 0 – about one-third of a whole year! That’s like 10 Friday Race Nights in a row! You can safely say the bar was busier than it has ever been! So here’s a special shout-out of thanks as well to those who did the bar ordering every day and kept the fresh kegs rolling in (Stella) for the endlessly thirsty Clippers (and their SBYC hosts)! You’ve probably forgotten, if you ever knew, what “Splice the Mainbrace”, the title of this column, really means. It’s an old naval tradition, after completing particularly strenuous work, for an extra ration of grog all round for the crew. Like now… Splice the mainbrace, y’all!
SOU T H BE AC H YAC H T C LUB
REAR COMMODORE’S REPORT
R
there’s a strong current running on these marks so be extra nice to each other when rounding as boat damage, injury or death is just too high a price for any yacht race.
ACING NEWS: Friday
Night Racing has finally begun. Yes, we’ve had a few challenges getting the RC boat, Anabel, anchored for the first two races but we’ve upgraded the ground tackle so hopefully this won’t be an issue going forward. Your patience is appreciated in this regard. As RC, I get all sorts of emails regarding racing and courses and what people want. Please keep these coming, particularly the ones with constructive feedback and ideas for improvement. Keep in mind that what might be an improvement in your mind may be seen as negatively impacting someone else, so I or more specifically, the Executive Race Committee and the PRO, have to weigh up all the competing requests and requirements in order to put on the best and fairest racing possible. We will continue to improve what we do and please remember to thank the RC volunteers and the PRO for what they do. Continue to remind your crew also. We have a few unique challenges staging races south of the Bay Bridge that I’m sure you are all aware of. A cross current that’s more or less perpendicular to the prevailing wind is challenging to the best of PRO’s. In fact, our course would be considered unsuitable for most types of races. However, I and most of you love our race venue, for the weather we get, our proximity to the Marina, our dramatic views of the City and of course the cheers of the Giants fans when we cross the finish line in McCovey Cove. With the new windward buoy, which we expect to have in place shortly, the PRO will have a wider range of courses to choose from.
OPENING DAY ON THE BAY
GERARD SHERIDAN Will we have perfect windward/leeward courses? Probably not but we’ll do our best with its placement and location. With only one mid-Bay fixed mark, it really does limit our course options, as SC1 is also our start mark, so it can’t come into play until the RC boat pulls anchor and the start line is no longer in place.
Paul Janofsky skippered Anabel on PICYA’s sponsored Opening Day on the Bay on April 27th. Bob Semple invited two Marines aboard. They looked fantastic in their uniforms and when you add in the fine job the crew did of decorating Anabel you’ll be proud to hear we secured 2nd place out of 50 boats in the Flags & Streamers category. Patti Mangan, Janelle Boltz, Cat Reining, Wendy Hanrahan and her girls led in the boat decor with 3D glasses! Plus my personal flag collection and... Voila!
SAFETY
We were all shocked and saddened by the accident that occurred on April 16th during a Sequoia YC Wednesday Night Race when one of their competitors lost their rig after getting swept into a channel marker buoy by the strong current. One crew-member sadly lost his life and two more were injured. Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased, the owner of the boat and the Sequoia YC members and leadership. As RC and as a race skipper, I thought about what it would be like in either of those roles if this happened at SBYC. As racers and skippers in particular, we need to always keep safety at the forefront of what we do. We have two similar channel marks in our list of courses, #35 and #36, that pose a similar risk to our rigs should one get too close to them, so please be extra careful and conservative when rounding these marks in a cross-current. Typically
THANKS ARE IN ORDER
Finally, I’d like to close by thanking Mark Miner, of Rubicon Yachts, for sponsoring a keg of beer after each of our Friday Night Races. Please find Mark and express your appreciation and also consider his sales team (including Commodore Bill Adams) when selling or buying your next sail or power boat.
WAVE L E NGT H MAY 201 4
C
LIPPER ROUND THE WORLD YACHT RACE
For those who were around the Club for the arrival, stay and departure of the Clipper Round the World yachts, you will know what a wonderful experience we all had. The skippers, race crews, families and the Clipper management were a joy to deal with. Also, their impression of us as a club was extremely positive considering the welcome and hospitality we put on for them. The volunteers led by Kit Beck & Patti Mangan put in countless hours and made a lasting impression on everyone. Each boat was greeted with hefty baskets of fruit at all hours of the day and night. Credit is due to Commodore Bill Adams whose leadership, creativity and negotiation skills with the Harbor and SF Port authorities made it all happen in the end. I realize others were involved in the host discussions way back in the process with Clipper Ventures, but Bill really made it happen and I applaud and respect him for this. Bravo Bill! —Gerard Sheridan “A Tip of the Hat to both the Club and the Commodore for handling the week-long enormous influx of visitors during the Clipper stopover. I would never have believed it possible to have performed such a feat. I witnessed some Herculean efforts by club members - the easiest to mention are OOD’s, but there were many other roles. Fantastic job by all.” —Emmanuel Uren
Under the Sea Cruise-Out to Petaluma Yacht Club Memorial Day Weekend May 23~26
This will be a great summer adventure for 10 cruisers up the river to downtown darling Petaluma. Organized by Rick Riccardi. Details on the SBYC website. RACING SEMINAR: Protests Demystified & Uncovered - on May 22nd, 6:30pm
The reasons and reasoning: Learn why you not only need to understand the rules, but how (and when) to properly apply them in a civil and corinthian manner without being intimidated by the process. A competitors’ understanding and an inside look into the inner-workings of protests and protest hearings from a Judges’ perspective. Everything from how to properly protest on the water, flags, hails, what to do when you get back to the Club, filling out a form and exactly what happens in the protest room... and why. Presenter Thomas Allard, or “Tommy” to his sailing people, grew up in a beach cabin near Seattle where he learned to sail and water ski on Puget Sound at an early age. After some brief stints racing out of the Tacoma Yacht Club during the winters and cruising the San Juan Islands in the summers, Tom spent two years teaching sailing in the Caribbean and Mexico before finally settling in NorCal twenty years ago. Since then Tom has raced on the east coast, is a five-time Rolex Big Boat winner - and especially enjoys his Friday nights at South Beach YC. When not racing, Tom is active as a certified Judge for US Sailing, working many local regattas and National Championships on the West Coast.
SOU T H BE AC H YAC H T C LUB
CLIPPER RACE MEMORIES
Ask me for a Boat Insurance Quote Gary Van Giersbergen “Honesty and Integrity” 1815 El Camino Real, Suite 6 Burlingame, California 94010 Phone 650-697-4450 Ext 4
As each Clipper crew arrived they were greeted by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and our happy crew, fireworks filled the night sky, scottish bagpipes sounded across the water, and new and old friends hugged each other tightly.
Fax 650-745-1062 View us at www.GaryVan.com Auto - Home - Life - Health - Disability - Long Term Care - Boat
WAVE L E NGT H MAY 201 4
YO U T H F U L I N S P I R AT I O N Celebrating inspiring youths across the world’s oceans Youths from local outreach programs in San Francisco, the main hub of American sailing, gathered at South Beach Yacht Club to find out what life is like on board a Clipper Round the World Race ocean yacht and to swap experiences with Sapinda Rainbow Project Ambassador, Nqoba Mswazi. Seven months ago, 10 young South African ambassadors of the Sapinda Rainbow Project competed against 20 other hopefuls to be part of the project and to take on the challenge of the Clipper Race. Coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, they wanted to push themselves and learn new skills to Nqoba Mswazi: Ellen Hoke photography develop as influential young people within their communities. was nothing in Durban for youths in In Durban, Nqoba is a part-time sailing. I went along and fell in love sailing instructor at Sail Africa Youth with the sport. Development Foundation and a part “The first thing I want to do when time sail maker. He has crewed in I get back is tell my school and the teams participating in professional people in my community about what regattas, including the prestigious I have just achieved, and hopefully Lipton Cup. I will upgrade my skipper’s license Nqoba said: “Living in the townbecause I want to achieve my Yachtships and doing a white man’s sport, masters so that I can apply to become a lot of people treat you differently. a Clipper Race skipper in the future. But now being part of the Sapinda It is quite a big move for me.” Rainbow Project and taking part Swapping stories on sailing in the race, I have the respect from experiences and culture, Nqoba and people in my community as well as youths from the South Beach Yacht from other sailors. I first got into Club and Exploratorium High School sailing when Craig Millar, from Sail Explainer Program took a tour of Africa and a former Clipper Race the Clipper 70-foot ocean racing crew member, came into my school yacht, Invest Africa. Nqoba was then to talk about sailing and starting a presented with a kit from the AC34 youth development program, as there team ORACLE, donated by America’s
Cup Head of Community Outreach, Kelly Cowden. Kelly said: ““Many other younger sailors such as Nqoba have set out for greatness in sailing, and have achieved it. Just as it is one of our missions of the America’s Cup to grow the sport of sailing, we hope Nqoba takes his enthusiasm back to his community and continues to do the same. Inspiring youth to take to the open waters is an amazing and unique gift to share. On behalf of America’s Cup, I wish him the very best of luck as he pursues his goals.” The Mighty Pacific is one of the most challenging legs of the Clipper Race and is a test of endurance for the entirely amateur crews in one of the earth’s most hostile environments. On board Invest Africa, Nqoba has sailed over 5,600 miles spending over three weeks at sea. South Beach Yacht Club outreach coordinator Patti Mangan said: “Every opportunity we have to share the sport and adventure of sailing with our youth is rewarding. Our Junior Sailing program provides summer scholarships and this opportunity to meet a true adventurer like Nqoba was inspiring. Meeting a young man who has sailed across an ocean connects the kids’ dreams to reality. Nqoba exchanged burgees with Commodore Bill Adams - a tradition expressed worldwide and a lasting reminder of our Clipper Race connection.”
—reprinted from the Clipper Race blogs
SOUT H BE AC H YAC H T C LUB
THE FLAGPOLE SAGA
I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that our Club burgee and all appropriate officer flags are flying from a new 25’ pole at the southeast corner of the deck. So you might say, what’s the big deal? The saga begins in 2003 with our fundraising efforts to get into the new Clubhouse, and Staff Commodore Roger Tennyson’s generous offer to purchase a proper flagpole for SBYC. The original request to the now defunct Redevelopment Agency was for a 25’ pole located where the new one is. Our timing was not good. The RDA was still smarting from nimbyism associated with the SF Giants stadium construction. Adverse reactions from neighbors to such items as the infamous Coke Bottle sensitized the RDA to anything visible on the outside of the building. They limited us to a 16’ flagpole located at the middle of the deck, so that residents across the street could not see it. No, I’m not making this up. Sadly, this height limitation and location in the lee of the building meant that our burgees and flags often hung limply, and we were unable to fly some large flags like the Luis Vuitton Series Flag during the AC34. A disappointed SBYC and Dr. Tennyson had no choice but to reluctantly agree to this limitation. Fortunately, Roger did not give up on his vision for the flagpole, and last year a more enlightened Harbor Management team agreed to our original request. Going well beyond the initial generosity, Roger offered to fund the second pole. So, thanks to Roger’s persistence and beneficence, the saga has a happy ending with SBYC having a proper pole in a proper location. Next time you see Staff Commodore Tennyson in the Club, be sure to take a minute to thank him for his efforts and his contribution. – Tom Roger CLIPPER JOB OPPORTUNITY
GREAT VALLEJO RACE
ANABEL NEEDS HELP
Applications are now being accepted for the new position within the Clipper Race recruitment team. Please email David Cusworth with your resume and covering letter.
Jocelyn & Steve Swanson placed first in the I-36 division with the daring gypsy Zingara!
Our transmission needs to be fixed in Sausalito on Monday June 2nd. Paul Janofsky needs two extra hands to leave SB Harbor about 8:00 am, returning by ferry back to South Beach.
WAVE L E NGT H MAY 201 4
MEMBERS & VOLUNTEERS
VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH
Bruce Wicklund is the behind the scenes guy who is another Most Valuable Member. He is an Anabel skipper, an OOD, is on Finance Committee, reconciles the weekly cash drawers after the weekend, is our “cash” guy making sure all the cash bags are filled and ready for the next week, and even goes to the bank for deposits to get more cash when needed. If that’s not enough, he is the godfather of our burgees. He has researched worldwide to identify unknown burgees in our stash. He has categorized them, drilled new holes to mount them, placed the identification tags, and has even washed them. Lets give a big thanks to Bruce. NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Andrew Lorenzen has been sailing his whole life with his parents and was a very active sailor as a child. He was part of several youth sailing teams and clubs and Captain of the Williams College sailing team. Andrew has raced on 3-4 boats out of South Beach, and is now a regular foredeck captain aboard Adventure. He has been around the Club for 18 months and is energetic and anxious to start volunteering and be part of the SBYC family.
NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Linda Ratterman
Linda has been around boats her whole life…both power and sail. She favored sailing and at age 11 started competing which she continued through college. She has been sailing the Bay since 1977 crewing on various boats. She is a member of OCSC and has participated in flotillas around the world. Here at SBYC Linda has been an active member of our race committee for 2-3 years, for both weekend and FNS races. HONORARY MEMBER
Our members quickly adopted Angus Paterson, a charming, witty Scottish Clipper racer re-boarding for the race to NYC on Henry Lloyd. Quickly earning a GOM spot at the bar - we rallied around Angus like bees to honey. Every volunteer shift was met with a shout out and hug! Members will miss his mischievous wink. Come back to SBYC anytime Angus!
SOU T H BE AC H YAC H T C LUB
SOUTH BEACH YACHT CLUB EVENTS CALENDAR COMMODORE Bill Adams 415-425-5099 VICE COMMODORE Barrie Wheeler 707-938-9442 REAR COMMODORE Gerard Sheridan 415-810-2004 SECRETARY Kathleen Dunn TREASURER Roger Ladwig MEMBERSHIP CHAIR Lynda Maybruck 408-472-3667 HOOD Hugh Coppen PORT CAPTAIN Peter Otten JUNIOR SAILING Kevin Wilkinson 650-333-7873 CRUISE OUT DIRECTOR Alan Maybruck 408.489.2477 CHAIRMAN of the BOARD Tim Wier BAADS COMMODORE Cristina Rubke 415 533 0276 CLUB STEWARD Jeffrey Kroeber 415-495-2295 SB HARBORMASTER Jim Walter 415-495-4911 NEWSLETTER Patti Mangan 415-272-2053 Pier 40 on the Embarcadero San Francisco, CA 94107
Saturday, May 3
7:00 pm
Cinco de Mayo Party - taco bar & beso de la muerte margaritas!
Friday, May 9
6:00 pm
Member Meeting
Saturday, May 10
10:00 am Sea Scavenger Shoreline Cleanup at Treasure Island
Sunday, May 11
11:30 am Mothers Day Brunch - two seatings
Friday, May 16
4:00 pm
Welcome the Encinal Yacht Club Cruise-In
Friday, May 16
6:30 pm
Friday Nite Race Series
Saturday, May 17
3:00 pm
Book Club ~ The Pope and the Witch by Dario Fo
Saturday, May 17-18 9:00 am
PICYA Youth Regatta at Sequoia Yacht Club
Saturday, May 17-18 3:00 pm
Women’s Sailing Seminar at Corinthian Yacht Club
Thursday, May 22
6:30 pm
Protests Demystified Seminar at SBYC
Friday, May 23
9:00 am
Memorial Weekend Cruise-Out to Petaluma Yacht Club - 4 days
Friday, May 23
11:00 am Cruise-in by Tiburon Yacht Club - 3 days
Saturday, May 24
1:00 pm
Master Mariners Regatta
Friday, May 30
6:30 pm
Friday Nite Race Series
Friday, May 30-1
9:30 am
Woodies Invitational, StFYC
Saturday, May 31
9:30 am
Delta Ditch Run RYC to SSC
Suggested Reading : Reckoning at Sea: Eye to Eye with a Gray Whale
WaveLength is now in the hands of everyone with an Android device.
Issuu recently released an app for Android, available on Google Play. Install the Issuu app so you can read our newsletter anywhere, anytime.
Cover image: Clipper Venture, Interior: Gerard Sheridan, Clipper Ventures PLC, Carol Shoaff & various members
visit www.southbeachyachtclub.org for details and reservations