Though it’s hard to know, the San Francisco celebration of sailing is thought to be the largest Sailstice event in the world. For the second year in a row the Encinal Yacht Club hosted the multi-faceted event on the shores of Alameda hosting approximately 1500 sailors and members of the public to celebrate sailing. Highlights included an ‘Estuary Stroll’ with a parade of sailboats under sail on the Oakland estuary, sailing aboard the America’s Cup yacht USA 76, new boats on display, a boat building contest, boat rides, sailing exhibits, a demonstration USCG helicopter rescue and musical entertainment all day long.
This was the 5th year of the boatbuilding contest where participants build, launch and race a boat in just one day. However, it was the first year where one of the participants sank! Three teams showed up at 9AM with plans drawn, lumber at the ready and turned on the buzz saws to start building their craft. By 4:30pm all were finished and taken to the shore for launch.
The boatbuilding competition is one of the event highlights and is created by master organizer Ariane Paul, member of both Encinal Yacth Club and the MMBA(Master Mariners Benevolent Association). Ariane described the event, ‘Each year at the Bay Area’s Summer Sailstice event, we’ve had a great competition between the boat building teams. Annual sponsor as well as participant, Cree Partridge of Berkeley Marine Center, looks forward to the Summer Sailstice event all year long, and has helped recruit his own competition from among his boat yard customers. It's people like Cree and companies like sponsors Berkeley Marine Center, Woodenboat and MAS Epoxies that help the boats and the event 'stick' together!’
The boatbuilding teams collected in the club after the contest to wash the sawdust down.
‘We have kept the contest rules fairly loose and simple, but if and when we have enough teams sign up in advance we may make some changes per the teams’ agreed upon suggestions. The construction of the various designs and sizes are great to observe, and a big crowd gathers and keeps coming back all day to watch the teams’ progress and especially the-in-the-water race at the end of the day. We had our first sinking this year when the fast catamaran from Team West Marine Alameda became overpowered by the afternoon wind and came apart at the seams in a manner of speaking, but the crew was quickly plucked up out of the water by the chase boat. Team Fortune made a stout little boat of recycled wood salvaged from the beach that made it around the course , albeit slowly and carefully. Team Berkeley Marine Center won the event on earning the most points in all the categories, including design, viability, Corinthian spirit, etc. We are hoping some of the other potential teams that have expressed an interest will make the commitment next year to really heat things up.’
Summer Sailstice on San Francisco Bay also featured the Party Circuit Race with overall winners, John Clauser and Bobbi Tosse winning the OCSC Summer Sailstice Perpetual Trophy on their 1D48, ‘Bodacious’, free boat rides at EYC from Club Nautique, Modern Sailing and others, music all day, new boats and vendor exhibits and the first ever estuary stroll.
In addition to the boat building seven brand new boats lined the docks for visitors to board. New boats from Sabre, Jeanneau, Beneteau, Island Packet, J-Boats, Hanse and two boats from the Sunsail charter fleet were lined up on the docks. The Maine-crafted Sabre 426 was one of the many crowd-pleasers attracting many with her elegant styling. Dealer Chris Corlett of JK3 Yachts spoke highly of both EYC and Summer Sailstice commenting, ‘this is just a ‘feel-good’ event and certainly better than another day at the office! It’s great the way it combines both on-the-water sailing activity with shore-side entertainment and sailing exhibits. The opportunity to showcase the Sabre to both people new to sailing and many old friends helps create buzz in both sailing and the boats we have to offer.’ Small boats were on display and available to sail. Included were Access dinghies provided by BAADS, the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors, FJs from the EYC junior program and Hobie Island trimarans from California Canoe and Kayak.
The North American West Coast is the last large concentration of sailboats on earth to celebrate Summer Sailstice which started with some sailors in the Marshall Islands in the apacific so, on San Francisco Bay, we like to think we’ve saved the best for last. We’re sure everyone who attended the celebrations at Encinal Yacht Club would agree.
ACSailingSF.com brought over their IACC yacht USA 76 which was quickly crowded with viewers and crew.
Build, launch and race in a day. This team did it but didn't quite make it 'round the course.
Getting ready for launch.
You can't win them all....but the swimming and 'spirit' award was well deserved!
The courtyard was filled with vendors, the boatbuilding contest, music and.....sailors.
While more people did hoist their sails to celebrate on the water this picture shows there's a few more people that didn't hoist! Next year's it's June 22 so we'll hope to get them all on the water!
Sunsail brought over two of their 8 new Sunsail 40s on San Francisco Bay for tours and rides.
Marianne Armand of Club Nautique awards the plaque and bottle of rum to Team Berkeley Marine Center.
The Summer Sailstice booth was busy all day long.
The music from Downwind Run and others entertained all day long.
Spectators lined up to watch a live, demonstration USCG helicopter rescue.
For more from this busy club see their July newsletter.