News

Come to the Clubhouse January 27th for the 2022 Awards Ceremony!

Learn the history of those shiny objects in the Trophy case !

This event is always well attended and a great opportunity to meet the community.

The Bar opens at 6:00 pm and the Ceremony begins at 7:30 pm.

Please RSVP here: https://cycseattle.org/event-5101652

Monday, December 19 we held the Annual CYC Christmas Lunch in person for the first time since 2019 and for the first time at the renovated clubhouse. It was a wonderful gathering of 65 CYC Staff Commodores, Officers, Directors, Past Board Members, and Members who assembled to celebrate the holiday season, reconnect and remember those members who passed away in 2022. Everyone enjoyed the traditional CYC Christmas Punch (leaded and unleaded) and a delicious lunch catered by Buca di Beppo. We were fortunate that the snow held off so everyone could get to the club and back home relatively easily. We might have had a very different outcome if we had had Tuesday's winter wonderland when we awoke on Monday. As with any CYC event, it takes a village to make any event happen and be successful. Mary and Joel Thornton stepped up to coordinate the catering and serving of the lunch. Mary also made the centerpieces for each table and designed the wrapped silverware in napkins at each place. Staff Commodore Martin Seelig prepared and presented remembrances of the members who passed away. Many members pitched in to make this event happen and we're so glad to have had CYC Bartender Karen Sheide at the bar and CYC General Manager Becca Borcard providing pre-event support. We hope everyone has a joyous holiday season and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.

We will have two membership meetings this year. The first, the traditional Annual Membership Meeting, will be at the CYC Clubhouse on Thursday, 17 November. The Board will present highlights of 2022 and a look forward to 2023. Details can be found on the event page.

The second meeting will be held on November 29th for the election of officers and directors and to vote on a proposed bylaw amendment.  Notice and details of the Special meeting can be found here.

We have no post-PSSC Write-up to share. But here are some great photos from PSSC taken by member Dave Sinson who was working as Race Committee:  https://lase.smugmug.com/2022-CYC-PSSC/

2022 CYC PSSC - Lase This gallery hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here. lase.smugmug.com

September 9 – 11, 2022 -  Jakob Lichtenberg:  Tremendous Slouch defends their Western Regional title over 11 races.

The Seattle J/24 Fleet hosted the J/24 Western Regionals out of Leschi on Lake Washington this past weekend.  12 teams from San Francisco, CA, Sandpoint, ID and Seattle, WA competed for the Western Regionals trophy as well as a berth for the upcoming J/24 World Championship to be held in September 2023 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

The regatta was the first ever major J/24 regatta on Lake Washington and the racing was excellent. Saturday’s racing was combined with the Lake Fall regatta for the Thistle and San Juan 24 classes, offering six races in a northerly 6-12 kts. The J/24s sailed without the other two classes on Sunday racking up additional five races; this time in a southerly and about same wind as Saturday (last course being mega race SAXXBZBZF). 

Tremendous Slouch with crew Scott Milne, Tom Niccoli, Jim Barrett, Chris Walker, and Rob Green dominated with 6 bullets over 11 races. They defended their win from San Francisco Bay in 2022 and proved they can perform in all conditions. On Sunday Slouch even managed to secure a convincing last place finish demonstrating their come-back-ability.

The very Tremendous Slouch crew Tom Niccoli, Jim Barrett, Scott Milne, Chris Walker, and Rob Green with the perpetual J/24 Western Regionals trophy. In the background those that make it happen: PC Wayne Balsiger, RC Troy Childs and Catherine Picha and our BBQ master Remmert Wolters.

Suspense helmed by Joe Petrucci finished 2nd in the event. They secured their spot with a bullet in the final race of the regatta with an impressive 3-minute lead.

Après race socializing with an excellent BBQ sponsored by Beecher’s Cheese and accompanied with cold beer from Valhöll Brewing offered a great opportunity to meet the travelling teams from California and Idaho and cool down after a long day of racing.

A big thank you to everyone that made it happen:

• Our sponsors Valhöll Brewing and Beecher’s Cheese .
• Harry Durch and Denny Vaughan for organizing the event and betting that Lake Washington in September would be worthy of the event (and it was).
• Travel boats Evil Octopus and Little Wing from Richmond, CA and Atomic from Sandpoint Sailing Association/North Flathead Yacht Club.
• Race committee team Troy Childs and Catherine Picha and whaler drivers that ran 11 excellent races.
•  Remmert Wolters for hosting the final Lake BBQ of the year.
• Wayne Balsiger, Jared Hickman and Liesl Mordhorst for running our Protect Committee.
• Boat charters from Kevin Downey, Phil Brzytwa, and Denny Vaughan.

About the Seattle J/24 Class. This was the last J/24 event on the Lake for 2022. The Seattle fleet has had 60 local CYC races with up to 21 boats on the line this season. Our Seattle fleet has been at Worlds in Texas, Nationals in Dallas, and even in Ireland for the European Championship.   The fleet’s final regatta is in first weekend of October at the yearly PSSC - Small Boat event out of Shilshole. Join us!

Look at the place we sail!!! Mount Rainier and our three news bots that secure straight lines and quick adjustments even under tricky conditions and on deep water.

Place	Boat Name	Sail Number	Skipper Name	Score
1st	Tremendous Slouch	5471	Scott Milne	25.0
2nd	Suspence	3421	Joe Petrucci	32.0
3rd	Hair of the Dog	5354	Jakob Lichtenberg	42.0
4th	Self Abuse	2845	Harry Dursch	52.0
5th	Atom Ant	1980	Bill Taylor	52.0
6th	Baba Louie	2365	Paul Bogataj	57.0
7th	Tundra Rose	3843	Carl Sheath	59.0
8th	Jailbreak	2171	Lydia Volberding	64.0
9th	Evil Octopus	5277	Jasper Van Vliet	67.0
10th	Irrational	3839	Bill Vlases	74.0
11th	Atomic	674	Chris Chambers	94.0
12th	Little Wing	4268	Robin Van Vliet	104.0

After four months of preparation, refitting water tanks, fuel tanks, wiring in new instruments, adding new sails, replacing all the running rigging and all the other sundry things that took hundreds of hours of  crew time, Mist headed south to San Francisco in June.

Four days later we were in beautiful Schoonmaker Point Marina in Sausalito and doing the final prep.  The day before our start, all the food on board, gear on board, crew well rested and starting to stack the sails and stow the gear, I was on deck when I heard Scott Roberts say:  “That doesn’t look right!  After pulling some sails to brick out of the bow he had a good look at the hull.  Scott is usually right about things: He was very right. The #3 ring frame in the bow was cracked in four places and delaminated.  Which is when we all remembered the very, very loud bang in the middle of the night when we turned upwind to drop the main just off the infamous “Potato Patch” near Point Reyes. 

A frantic scramble to see if emergency repairs were feasible and if any carbon fiber experts were available for overnight work led to three conclusions:  

1. We were not going anywhere
2. There are a whole lot of very helpful and talented people in the sailing community here and we found many of them. 
3. It is ALWAYS something, and just when you think its just one thing, it’s something else

The repair went perfectly.  Paul Bieker dove in and provided a repair plan, with drawings and laminate schedules;  KKMI in the Bay Area found a meticulous laminate specialist with AC experience to do the work in the water;  we found Marin Yacht Care to run errands and get the boat prepped for the delivery back to Seattle. 

And then, we found the something else. 

We had planned to calibrate the autopilot in Hawaii, as we hadn’t had time before hand and wanted to get the crew miles of experience ocean sailing on the way down to San Francisco, so it was still in its box.

Finding a calm morning in the Bay, we shoved off the dock at Schoonmaker’s and put the boat in gear.  No forward.  No reverse. No prop.  It seems that at the last moment docking at night in Sausalito, the prop had spun off and it was resting on the bottom, too damaged to be reinstalled.  Drifting in the narrow, busy Sausalito Channel, with no sails on deck and anchors deeply stowed, we were rescued by a very strong paddleboard instructor who towed us in and got our bowline to a cleat.  She paddled off with her class of beginners before we could do more than shout thanks.  The crew on a nearby catamaran launched their dinghy and towed us several hundred yards back up to our slip.

So…If we had, in fact, scrambled to repair the frame even temporarily, the morning of the race we would have shoved off to motor to the start with no prop. 

And PYI out of Lynwood got to sell us a new Maxprop!

Commander’s Weather found a brilliant window for a 5 day delivery back home and 130 gallons of fuel later, Mist is now back in its slip in Shilshole. 

See you out there!

Steve J.

Staff Commodore John Ellis (Commodore in 1958) wins a free drink at the CYC Bar for the July 13, 2022 Quiz.  Answers:

Alan Holt is the junior holding two 1956 awards.  In his

right hand, the Sears Cup – emblematic of the Junior

North American Sailing Championship – which has been

awarded since 1921.  To participate, Alan and his crew

Fred Ray and Steve Banks, had to win the local title, the

PIYA Regional eliminations and the Pacific Coast

Championship.  The competition was held just outside of

Montreal, Canada on a wide spot of the St. Lawrence

River in a variety of conditions, with the last of 8 races the

decider. The crew won on a tie-breaker, based on more

second places!   Reflecting the times, the sailors and

family members traveled to Montreal by train.

In Alan’s left hand is the Virginia Platt Trophy awarded to the outstanding CYC Junior Sailor for the year.  This trophy was donated by the I-14 fleet in 1953 to be awarded to a CYC junior based on sailing record and participation in Junior Club activities.  Evidencing the Holt family’s sailing skills, Alan’s brother, Dennis Holt, won this award in 1958. Other winners of this trophy include Brian Wertheimer, Carl Buchan and Derek Campbell. The Virginia Platt Trophy, unfortunately, has disappeared and is no longer in CYC possession!

(See below for information about Virginia Platt, a brilliant young woman with an extraordinary, if far too brief, a career.)

And Alan Holt’s boat, a Star named Ariel, locally built and rigged, was the first Seattle boat to participate in the Olympic Games! Alan and his crew Dick Gates won the Olympic Trials held in San Francisco, besting former Star World Champions Bill Buchan and Lowell North, among others, for the right to participate in the 1972 Olympic Games held in Kiel-Schilksee, Germany.

Virginia Platt, Seattle born, graduated from high school in 1940, studied architecture at Vassar College for two years and contemporaneously taught physics for the US Navy.  In 1943, she studied mechanical engineering at the U. of Washington, subsequently receiving her undergraduate degree in science and a masters in physics, and taught physics at the U from 1943 to 1952 (including while she was an undergraduate!).  Platt was one of the first women in the country to become a member of the Sigma Xi science honorary.

Platt sailed, owning a 21’ sloop named Pete-Too.  She joined CYC in 1948, and by 1950 she was on the Board as Secretary, a position she held until 1952, and she contributed occasional articles to the annual Helmsman.  She also was a member of Seattle Yacht Club.

While visiting relatives in Carmel, California, Platt contracted polio myelitis and died there in October 1952 at the age of 29.  She is buried in the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Seattle.

The Helmsman for 1952 carried two tributes to Virginia Platt.  First, a comment by Commodore Francis A LeSourd: “We will not forget Virginia Platt.  No one was more devoted to Corinthian.  We remember her efficiency as Secretary, but what shall really endeared her to us was her great human interest.  As a gatherer of humorous and spicy information on Corinthian goings-on, she had no equal.  Her tragic death was one of the greatest blows to fall on our club.”          

And this Memoriam:

TO A CORINTHIAN:

              Whose service to her Club cannot be measured

              Whose infectious laughter and ready wit lightened many a dull moment

              Whose time was ours, when needed, with no reservations

              Whose dependability and efficiency eased the burdens of our officers

              Whose capacity to give or herself to any project was unlimited

              Whose interest in and friendliness toward people was boundless

              Whose lack of personal vanity in her achievements as noteworthy

              Whose strength of personality and genuine individuality was recognized instantly

              Whose friendship was a gift to be treasured

Who exemplified the truest tradition of sportsmanship, not only in sailing, but in her     daily living

TO VIRGINIA PLATT, this Memoriam is dedicated.

Many of you may already have known that Seattle Sailing Club has been actively on the market. After almost 20 years, Bob Ross will be moving on and welcoming a new owner of the Club at the beginning of August.

Bob’s impact on the PNW sailing community has been immeasurable. During his leadership at SSC, he introduced thousands of people each year to the sport of sailing through American Sailing Association sailing lessons, Club membership, Corporate Team Building Events, J/fest, his famous fun & free Sailfest events in August, racing programs, community events, and so much more.

Bob’s #1 rule (next to, “staying on the boat”) has always been to have a good time (what’s the point if you’re not?)!  Through his entrepreneurial leadership, empowerment of others, and engaging demeanor, Bob has cultivated a vibrant community that embodies just that - Fun! His tradition will be continued for decades to follow. Thank you for all of the memorable times, Bob!

Although his era at SSC is ending, we’re pleased to hear he won’t be going far, in fact, he’ll be staying next door to SSC at Sail Northwest and will continue to sell brokerage boats, new J/Boats, Alerion Sailboats and MJM power boats. Stop by and say hi!

Some of you may already know the new owner of SSC, Steve Neidhardt. Steve has been an ASA Instructor at SSC for a number of years, a yacht broker at Seattle Yachts, and an active sailor in the Pacific Northwest community. Steve’s wife, Wendy, also an active sailor in the community, recently participated in CYC WoWSA events and has been sailing in CYC’s Take Your Time Fridays on their Catalina, Naive Melodies. Steve & Wendy will be working with the SSC team (who are staying intact) to ensure a seamless transition. SSC looks forward to continuing to foster the growth of new sailors, support the great PNW sailing community, and continue Bob’s tradition of having fun!

CYC Low Tide Cruise to Blakely Rocks

We had a fun cruise to Blakely Harbor for the Low Tide Cruise this past weekend with 10 boats participating. We rafted in small groups of three boats and gathered in the evening in small groups for dinner or happy hour.  Everyone enjoyed a picnic lunch on the Rocks and time to explore the tidal areas. The beach has moved significantly and parts of the areas we have explored in the past to look at various sea creatures, were covered with sand from the beach.

Participating boats: Solstice (Peggy and Ron Watt), Altair (Suzette Connolly and Paul Baker), Tula (Bob and Margaret Liston), Ete(Hans Reinhardt), Wind Dancer (Chris McMuldroch and Crew), Outlaw (Derek Storm and Cindy Gossett), Island Time (Tom Kohrs and Cary Purvis), Equilibrium (Nathan, Vanessa and Evelyn Kundtz), Shaker of Salt(Tana and Bio Graham) and Gusto (Beth Miller and Holm Albrecht). Half of the Fleet was from K Dock.