Sailors on San Francisco Bay were treated to a spectacular day of sailing and celebrating with an event created around many different aspects of sailing. On the water SFBay sailors were participating in:
- offshore on the EYC Coastal Cup, a race from San Francisco to Catalina Island in Southern California. The fleet had a very fast race starting out under the Golden Gate bridge and surfing the 400+ miles down the coast to Catalina. Results can be viewed here.
- On the Bay HDA racers competed in typical blustery conditions in the YRA’s Summer Sailstice party circuit race for the OCSC Sailing Perpetual Trophy race won by Gerry Brown with Mintaka 4, from Berkeley Yacht Club.
- The last generation monohull IACC America’s Cup yacht USA 76 sailed down the estuary with guests from EYC and spent the afternoon open for tours on the docks.
- Free sailboat rides were provided by Club Nautique and Modern Sailing to hundreds of new sailors raising funds while contributing funds to the Encinal Sailing Foundation
- A boat building competition was held pitching two teams, Berkeley Marine Center and West Marine, against each other to build, launch and race a boat in a single day. West Marine built likely the first plywood, wing-sailed spar known to man.
- New boats were on display on the docks, dinghies on land and cruising boats tied up at EYC and down the estuary.
- Seminars were held in the clubhouse with John Craig from America’s Cup Race management, Andy Turpin from Latitude 38 and Dan Leininger from Maritime Institute.
- Exhibitors were showed their wares, a winch-grinding contest was held by America True, a busy food and drinks concession and music played from the stage from 11AM to 7pm.
The weather was perfect estuary weather with early morning fog burning off quickly and a sunny warm day that saw lots of almost 1500 folks come to EYC while hundreds of others sailed the Bay, the Coastal Cup and celebrated at the after party put on by Oakland Yacht Club next door.
For 2011 Encinal Yacht Club was a new venue for San Francisco’s Sailstice celebrationa and Mike Scheck and the crew of volunteers at Encinal Yacht Club did a fantastic job or running their first event and are looking forward to Sailstice 2012 – plus relaxing and enjoying the rest of the 2011 sailing season!
Special thanks also go to the Premier Level sponsors – Bay Marine Boatworks and Fiduciary Trust International plus all the exhibitors who helped make the event a success.
Read the EYC Newsletter story on the Coastal Cup and Summer Sailstice event here.
EYC docks were busy with boats rides in boats large and small.
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The crowds gathered to watch the launch and competition between the boat building contestents - here the West Marine plywood, wing-masted catamaran. Yes, the boat was built and launched in a day - the wing mast was pre-built as allowed in the rules.
BAADS brought over their Access dinghies which were used for sailing and sunning.
The BAADS (Bay Area Assoc. of Disabled Sailors) fleet at the docks and ready for rides.
The America's Cup IACC yacht USA 76 arrives to tie up at the docks.