LUNCH AT THE ST FRANCIS YC, March 2006

[Bill]

Here's Dave Perry working the white board . . .

[Bill]

The lunch crowd listening to Dave . . .

[Bill]

Here’s the bar in the St Francis Grill Room . . . (early in the day)

[Bill]

The view of Alcatraz from the Grill Room windows . . .

[Bill]

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Grill Room windows . . .

[Bill]

But enough of the social stuff. Here are the sections of the rules you should know "when boats meet:"

Section A – Right of Way

10 - On opposite tacks
11 - On the same tack, overlapped
12 - On the same tack, not overlapped
13 - While tacking

Section B – General Limitations

14 - Avoiding contact
15 - Acquiring right of way
16 - changing course
17 - On the same tack; proper course

Section C – At Marks and Obstructions

18 - Rounding and passing marks and obstructions
18.1 - When this applies
18.2 - Giving room: keeping clear
(a) overlapped - basic rule
(b) overlapped at the zone
(c) not overlapped at the zone
(d) changing course to round or pass
(e) overlap rights
18.3 - Tacking at a mark
18.4 - Gybing
18.5 - Passing a continuing obstruction

19 - Room to tack at an obstruction

Section D – Other Rules

20 - Starting errors; penalty turns; moving astern
21 - Capsized, anchored or aground; rescuing
22 - Interfering with another boat

I need to confess that Maika'i has not been called upon to use these rules very often. We usually find ourselves alone at the marks . . .

[xroyal]

Bill, brings back some nice memories. A friend of mine is a member, and his dad, Jim Whilhite, once it's commodore. One rainy Sunday my friend and I went to SF boat show, and all the plastic got pretty boring. Peter suggested we might see his dad's old boat, Athene, a 63' S&S yawl built for R.J. Reynolds in the '30s. There she sat mint in the St Francis's 1st row of docks. Inspecting this woodie classic was a treat!

The good story is how his dad bought the boat. Peter's dad had wanted it, but was beaten out before he could bid. The new owner hurriedly sailed it out of SF bound north. About 11PM a night or so later Peter was out on a date, and spied the boat coming back thru the Gate, her sails in tatters. He rushed to Marin, awoke his dad who drove straight to SF, and bought the boat at the dock.

Amongst many stories about Athene, Peter was lucky, at about age 17, to be with his dad when the boat won a Transpac from L.A. to Tahiti. One of the crew was a dentist who pulled a bucket of bloody teeth from the grateful islanders. Peter is friends with the current owner, and I was very fortunate to sail on her 3 times, including a Master Mariners. Could be wrong, but I think she was about 60 tons...talk about plowing through vs bouncing over the water! Then too, how about 3 of us trying to drag that mamouth wet mainsail to the sail loft. Sad to think that the clubhouse burned years back, and a load of sailing history was lost.

You remind me I owe Peter a call. He was the first to introduce me to Bay sailing on his Santana 22. Having once been an olympic sailing hopeful along with the late Tom Blackhaller, he didn't know any way to sail but flat out. Later, he introduced me to Tom and others at the St Francis during the Big Boat series.

I've been living in Oregon 13+ years now, but warmly entertaining notions of selling my house, and living onboard in the Sausalito area.

Forgive the rambling. Thanks again for the great memories!

P.S. Peter cut those Bay marks so close think I could have kissed them all, including Southhampton Shoals. Gave me a few more grey hairs too.

[frank durant]

Great lil story.How many sq.feet would a main on a 60 ton vessel be ???? Could only imagine it's size.I have visited S.F. on several occasions...nice view from the club...brings back memories.