March 15, 2008 Spring Meeting San Francisco Yacht Club

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

What a great weekend! Even though showers dampened those arriving Friday evening, a great time was had by all. Nine boats sailed in on Friday and three more arrived Saturday. With something like 68 folks representing 34 boats it was a great time. Friday night dockside boats included Brigid, Evanescence, Luna Sea, Mai Pen Rai, Ophira, Pacific High, Paradesia (an I-40), Tacoma Blue & Woodbine. Joining us on Saturday were Diana, Kindred Spirits and Natural High. If you add in local SFYC boats Blue Streak, Vitesse & Jim Robinson's catamaran flying the I-36 burgee, we had 15 boats present! Land yachts ferried another 18 boats' worth of skippers and crews, or gathering was complete. Here's the list.

Boat Name	Name
4 R Sanity	Roger & LindaMcClellan
Blockbuster	Jim & Bill Higdon
Blue Streak	Don Schumacher
Brigid	Corky & Anna Stewart
Captain Hooke	Tom & David Newton
Cassiopia	Kit Wiegman & Naomi Wortis, Yvonne Wiegman (infant)
Diana	Lou & Steve Zevanov
Evanescence	Smokey & Laurie Stover
Falcon	Bruce& Donna Hallberg
Freedom Won	Nanci Melton
Geja	Andrew Vik
Gypsy	Jim Callahan & Bob (crew)
Intrepid	Stephen Peters & D'Vonne Hutchins
Kindred Spirits	Don Henderson, Bob Williamson & Paul Winter
Laughing Matter	Michael Daley & Karen Swezey
Luna Sea	Dan Knox & Myphi Alloy
Maggion	Mike Anderson
Mai Pen Rai	Noble Brown
Mischief	Kathryn Munn
Natural High	Dennis, Judy and Matt Bush
Ophira	Gary & Pat Salvo
Orion	Skip Bodie & Ed Gallagher (BAADS)
Pacific High	Harry Farrell, Carol Williams, Michelle Williams
Paradesia	Richard Vulliet
Tacoma Blue	Richard Watters & Takae
Tenacious	Kris Youngberg
Vanishing Animal	Rick VanMell
Vitesse	Thomas Furlong
White Horses	Rob & Ruby Blendermann & friend Ann + 1
Windwalker	Richard Shoenhair
Woden	Bob Knickerbacher
Woodbine	Ron & Karen Damson
Zen	Captain Zen (no lunch)
Zenith	Art & Betsy Fowler
Svendsen's	Barrett Linn (Guest Speaker)
ex-Spindrift	Chris Mellor (Guest Speaker)

We were delighted to have Barrett Linn, Svendsen's Rig Shop Manager, conduct a Lines & Splicing Clinic on Saturday morning from 10:00 to 11:30 am. The Commodore's Room was packed with about 35 folks as Barrett shared an overview on lines and options that are appropriate for an Islander 36, in both cruising and racing modes. He started with several demonstrations of typical 3-strand splices: a simple eye, an eye with a thimble, and a line-to-chain splice. Then it was on to a typical double-braid eyesplice that might be used for sheets or halyards. Finally, a single braid, or simply "core" splice. You'll enjoy the pictures down below. Be sure to have your own line measurements in April when we have Svendsen's Discount Night - Barrett will be there to help you pick out the right stuff.



Commodore Ron Damsen kept us on schedule with committee reports scattered through the beginning of lunch, then Michele williams and Anna Stewart took us through the racing and cruising programs for the year.

Chris Melor gave a wondrful slide show of his family's travels through the South Pacific - pictures are below.

It was a great way to start another season with new members and familiar faces to gather for racing and cruising.

Pictures by xxx,Dan Knox, Ron Damsen & Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Commodore Ron, Laurie Stove	Pat & Dan ...	Robert, Pat & Dan	Gary, karen, Smokey, Harry	Quiet corner
All relaxed	Rickard & Takae, Corky	Anna, Pat & Gary	Morning repose ...	at sunrise ...
a quiet dock ...	ready to begin ...	another day ...	with style ...	and polish ...
life stirs ...	contact begins ...	the fast is broken ...	while some sleep.	Good Morning Islanders!
Rise & Shine.	Dan & Smokey	Where's my First Mate?....	coming aboard	Flagship Woodbine
Dock eats ...	some for me?	Wind gear for Smokey	Ron & Rich Watters	Breakfast time ...
in style.	Barrett Linn gets ready ...	Michele gets ...	our attention.	So listen up ...
and stand by ...	to learn to ...	splice.	You want a place ...	to twist & open ...
to pass a tuck ...	then pull snug.	Sure, it's in the book too.	Taper after 4th tuck ...	cut part of strand.
On to double braid ...	1 fid back, dig out ...	the core.	Got that?	Neat trick - tape the fid
Pass core through cover ...	and cover through core.	Milk some cover slack ...	then pull crossover real tight.	Another taper ...
done in a blurr ...	cuts across the strands ...	to bury the cover ...	now pull hard!	and your splice ...
looks like this.	On to strong single braid.	Same steps & ...	taper again.	It's lunch time and ...
Tucker is on watch.	In a nutshell	Steven Peters & ...	D'Vonne Hutchins Intrepid	Rich & Pat
Tom Furlong Vitesse	Barbara Brown & Jane Mai Pen Rai	Ed Gallagher, Genoa, & Skip Bodie - BAADS	Takae & Richard Watters	Gary & Art
Maureen, Bob & Kit	Ron, Nanci & Smokey	Paul Winter & Bob Williamson Kindred Spirits	Cassiopeia crew ...	on the run ...
Yvonne with mom Naomi	Mike Anderson Maggio	(did he get in the way?)	Kathryn Munn Hodgkins	The Table - Anna, Karen & Laurie
Jim Callahan & Bob Gypsy	Bill & Jim Higdon ...	still going strong.	Karen SWezy & Michael Daley Laughing Matter	Bob Knickerbocker
Dan Knox & Cindy	Karen, Michael & Donna ...	Bruce, Don & Bob	Bob, Paul & Barrett	D'Vonne, Stephen, & Kris
Jim, Bob & Pat	Naomi & Yvonne ...	Kit, Barbara ...	Noble, Jim & Jane.	Michele, Tom & David
Linda & Roger	Richard, Takae & Mike	Andrew, Bill & Jim	Ed & Skip	Matt, Dennis & Judy
Carol & Harry	The corner table.	Secretary Judy Bush	Commodore Damsen	Rob, ?, Ruby & Ann
Let the fun begin!	John was off racing!	2007 Season champ	Attentive crowd for ...	Chris Mellor.

Mellor's South Pacific Cruise - Spring Meeting 2008

What a treat to her Chris Mellor tell of a two year adventure sailing out the Golden Gate across the South Pacific with wife Kelley and 9 year old daughter Claire. If you've ever had a mind-pictrue of what that would be like, chris brought it to life in vivid color. Yes, there was some bad weather, but relatively little, and yes there were some things that broke, but that goes with sailing a boat the equlivalent of 10-15 years in the course of just one or two. So enjoy this excerpt from his presentation.

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