sdyc.org

Hi Boating Partners: 

The California Department of Boating and Waterways and the California Coastal Commission’s Boating Clean & Green Program in partnership with the Keep the Delta Clean Program, the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, the US Power Squadrons and many more organizations listed below will conduct more Dockwalker trainings this year.

Dockwalkers will be trained to engage members of the public and the boating community in adopting clean boating practices. Once training is complete, these volunteers don their official “Dockwalker” hats.  Dockwalkers share clean boating information with boaters and distribute educational materials (boater kits) while visiting marinas, launch ramps, marine supply stores, boat shows and special events (regattas, opening days, among others).  As you realize, “Dockwalker” is only a generic term because you do not necessarily have to “walk the docks” in order to talk to boaters about safety and clean boating practices. Your club members will have tons of opportunities to share clean boating information with other boaters at regattas, opening days, club presentations, among others. Remember safety and the environment go hand in hand.

Training is FREE and Dockwalking is a fantastic way to interact with boaters to help keep California’s marinas, waterways, and ocean clean and healthy. The training provides an overview of environmentally-sound boating practices, information about how to conduct Dockwalking, and educational materials that Dockwalkers will distribute including the 2010 boater kits (www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/images/Boaterkit_08.jpg).  These boater kits include: Reusable Canvas Tote-bag; A Boater’s Guide to Keeping Pollutants Out of the Water; 2010 Tidebooks; Oil Absorbent Pillow to capture oil leaks and drips in the boat bilge; a variety of informative Clean and Safe Boating Resources including the new publication produced by the Boating Clean and Green program, the “Environmental Boating Laws Every Recreational Boater Should Know,” the ABC’s of Boating Law, among others. Depending on your region, we may also provide the Delta Clean Boating map, the San Francisco Bay Area Clean Boating Map and the new edition of the Southern California Boater’s Guide.

In the last five years, more than 500 Dockwalkers have distributed over 90,000 boater kits statewide. Hours spent training or educating the public qualify as community service. 

 This program provides tons of benefits to boaters, marina, yacht/fishing club operators, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, US Power Squadrons, mobile services, local governments, aquatic centers, boat dealers, among others. Some of the benefits the Dockwalker program will provide to you include:·        Supporting your current efforts, enhancing and broadening your clean and safe boating mission

• Working with boaters as partners in the clean marina/club effort

·        Sharing resources such as the boater kit (important in these tough economic times), a valuable education and outreach tool to attract boaters’ attention and conduct face-to-face boater education.  ·        Providing you with more educational resources for your boaters, members, regattas and other public events and presentations ·        Offering an additional method to protect our waterways Upcoming Northern and Southern CA Trainings The Northern CA Trainings include: www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/dockwalkers.html#Trainings  

March 16, 2010 – Napa

7 p.m. to 8:40 p.m.

Napa Valley Yacht Club

100 Riverside Dr., Napa, CA 94559Partners: Keep the Delta Clean Program, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, Napa Valley Yacht Club and Lake Berryessa Partnership.Flyer: www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/Napa_2010_Flyer.pdf March 24, 2010 – Sacramento 6:00-8:40 p.m.Sacramento Marina 2710 Ramp Way Sacramento, CA 95818Partners: Keep the Delta Clean Program, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, Sacramento Marina.Flyer: www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/Sacramento_2010_Flyer.pdf  April 1, 2010 – Benicia

10 a.m. to 12:40 p.m.

Benicia Yacht Club

400 East 2nd Street, Benicia, CA 94510

Partners: Keep the Delta Clean Program, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, City and County of San Francisco Department of the Environment and the Benicia Yacht Club.Flyer:  www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/Benicia_2010_Flyer.pdf  

April 10, 2010 – San Rafael

10 a.m. to 12:40 p.m.

Loch Lomond Yacht Club

95 Loch Lomond Drive, San Rafael, CA  94901

Partners: Keep the Delta Clean Program, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, City and County of San Francisco Department of the Environment and the Benicia Yacht Club.Flyer: www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/San_Rafael_2010_Flyer.pdf  

June 5, 2010 – Fresno

10 a.m. to 12:40 p.m.

Clovis Memorial Building

808 4th Street Clovis, CA 93612-1396

Partners: Keep the Delta Clean Program, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, City and County of San Francisco Department of the Environment and the Loch Lomond Yacht Club and Marina. The Southern CA Trainings include: www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/dockwalkers.html#Trainings

March 20, 2010 – Dana Point10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Dana West Yacht Club 24601 Dana Drive, Dana Point, CA. 92629Partners: The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, the City of Newport Beach, Project-GreenWorks, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Dana West Yacht Club and the Dana Point Yacht Club.Flyer: www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/DWYC_2010_Flyer.pdf  March 27, 2010 – Long Beach10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Shoreline Yacht Club 386 Shoreline Drive South, Long Beach, CA 90802Partners: The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, the US Power Squadron, the Shoreline and the Navy Yacht Clubs, Long Beach.Flyer:  www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/LB_2010_Flyer.pdf  April 5, 2010 – San Diego6:00 p.m. – 8:15 p.mBay Club Hotel and Marina (Harbor Room)2131 Shelter Island Drive San Diego, CA 92106Partners: The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, Bay Club Hotel and Marina.Flyer: www.coastal.ca.gov/ccbn/SD_2010_Flyer.pdf  May 1, 2010 – Los Angeles
10:00 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.Cabrillo Marine Aquarium3720 Stephen M. White Drive San Pedro, CA 90731Partners: The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation, US Coast Guard Auxiliary, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, City of Los Angeles I hope you can join us at a training and become a volunteer Dockwalker! 

Please help us to spread the word about the upcoming trainings.  Please forward this email to your colleagues and people who might be interested in our program.  You can also include this information in your newsletters, calendars and bulletin boards.  If you want me to send you some copies of our flyers, please let me know.

Please feel free to contact me at (415) 904-6905 or vmatuk@coastal.ca.gov  if you have any questions or to register.

Sincerely,

Vivian Matuk
Environmental Boating Program Coordinator
California Department of Boating & Waterways
California Coastal Commission
(415) 904-6905
Fax: (415) 904-5216
45 Fremont Street, Suite 1900
San Francisco, CA 94105
www.coast4u.org (Click on Boating Clean & Green)
Do you have a Whale ail License Plate yet?  Visit www.ecoplates.com and order yours today!

As the 2010 San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race Committee Team will tell you, organizing, conducting and keeping track of a three division fleet of high performance ocean racing yachts is a challenging event.  In an attempt to have all of the boats cross the finish line in the same day, the faster boats in Divisions 1 and 2 were started 24 hours after the Division 3 boats during this bi-annual international yacht racing event.  The common thread that you hear echoed by many yachting event organizers are that good planning and communication are the keys to a successful and safe event.

The following elements were employed into this year’s SDYC Vallarta Race:

1.  Clearly written communications procedures and race instructions were given to all participants early in the application process.

2.  Internet/email communications was used during the pre-race phase to answer questions and send attachments to and from the race participants and the race committee teams.

3.  Telephone communications (land-line, cell, and satellite) were used as well to answer questions and get the last minute problems solved.

4.  SSB Radio Communications, the most important safety device on the boat, became the primary link for long-distance communications on the vessels once underway.

The Vallarta Race 2010 Communications Plan, written by Vice Commodore Woody Hunt (AE6ET), became the primary guideline for all Radio Communications once the race started.

New to this year’s Vallarta Race Communications Plan was the introduction of using E-mail for those boats that were equipped to do so, for their 0600 daily position reports.  All boats in the fleet were given the following common time windows:

0600 - 0750 PST     The Communications Vessel, M/Y Coley D was standing by, ready to receive email reports via sailmail or Winlink to pvcomm@sdyc.org, or by satellite phone calls, to record the reported 0600 latitude and longitude positions of each boat.

0815 - 0830 PST     Early “voice” check-ins were taken by the Comm vessel Coley D on SSB 4146.0 KHz (4A).

0830 - 0900 PST     Official “roll-call” for all 0600 positions were taken and reported by “voice” to the fleet on 4A.

0900 - 0930 PST     Aboard the Escort/Comm vessel Coley D, things got busy.  All 0600 daily position reports, both email and voice, were entered into the official Roll Call Report Master Calculator created by “JT”.  Once all 0600 lat/long position data was entered for each boat, including the E/V Coley D, this excel spread sheet would then calculate individual “Division Standings”, “Overall Standings”, and “Distance to Go” numbers for all boats in the fleet.  The result of the fleet calculations was then “cut and pasted” into an AirMail text message that was sent out over HF Radio that was addressed to:  pvcomm@sdyc.org .  All of the race boats that had “at sea” email addresses were also copied.

0930 PST                  Fleet Class and Overall “unofficial” standings plus “Distance to Go” to the finish were reported by “voice” from the Comm Vessel on SSB 4146.0 KHz (4A).

In summary, this year’s Vallerta Race 2010 Communication Plan worked great.  Approximately half of the boat in the fleet used email to communicate while the other half used classic SSB “voice”.  In all cases the E/V Coley D established two-way communications, on a daily basis, with all vessels in the Vallerta Race fleet.

Racing identical non-spinnaker, Jeanneau SunFast 20s supplied by Lagoon Sailboat Rentals, Peter Holmberg won two races in the best of three final against Gavin Brady and in doing so secured the US $5,000 dollar top prize. Brady in second place overall was awarded US $3,000 dollars, while Peter Isler, who enjoyed an interesting petit final against Chris Nesbit and his ‘amateur’ team from San Diego took third overall and a prize of US $1,000 dollars.

The race of the day had to go to Chris Nesbit and his amateur team who had a dream win against two-times America’s Cup winner Isler in the first race of the petit finals. Nesbit, who has a career in real estate and has only really been on the match racing circuit for the last year or so, sailed a near perfect first beat and after two rounds had extended his lead at the finish to 23 seconds over Isler. Isler praising Nesbit’s performance said: “Chris Nesbit and team sailed really well. I know they’ve been focussing on match racing for the last year or so and been doing a few Grade 2 and Grade 3 events so they clearly have what it takes now.”

With one loss under his belt, Isler and team upped their game and went on to win the last two races. “That felt really good,” commented Isler. “It’s always rewarding to enjoy the fun part of match racing which is to come from behind with two straight wins.”

Nesbit commenting on his win said: “It was an awesome day’s racing and having the chance to race against Isler and take a race win. Sadly we have to go back to work tomorrow so won’t be competing in the Heineken regatta but hopefully we’ll be back next year.”

Overall Results
1st Peter Holmberg
2nd Gavin Brady
3rd Peter Isler
4th Chris Nesbit
5th Colin Rathbun
6th Marc Fitzgerald
7th Jakub Pawluk
8th Eugeny Nikiforov

Thank you very much for your support of me for the ISAF Youth World Qualifier in Clearwater, Florida. It was a great event with all types of conditions, and excellent racing. When I arrived the Friday before the event the wind was offshore and a little tricky, but my training partner and I went sailing anyways and had a good warm up practice. A front was expected to pass over the first day of the event from the east, making that Saturday very cold, with 15-20 knot winds from the east.  I started out with a couple of keeper races but couldn’t quite manage to consistently break the top three, the type of races you need to win the regatta, and qualify for the worlds.

The next day was a lot different, with winds out of the same direction, but only in the 4-8 knot range. I managed to keep it as consistent as I could with the challenging conditions, salvaging enough good races to stay in the hunt going into the last day, but only barely.

The final day held the type of conditions that I was hoping for the whole time, 15 knots from the west, with 5 foot swells. Just like an average San Diego day in the summer. I knew I had to step up my results, and put pressure on everyone else, and the first race I did just that and won the race. There were only two races left, and the leader was literally uncatchable in points.  My goal was second place now, which would have been quite a comeback after the shaky start to the regatta.

The next race I finished fifth, only putting a couple of points on the competition. It was between three people now for second, myself included, but I still had to put five points on the other two people. I decided to not worry about them at all and just sail my own race, hoping that the pressure would get to them first and everything would work out. I nailed the start, crossing the fleet on port and continued to extend my lead over the next few legs. It was probably my favorite moment because it was just my training partner and I in second and first, way ahead of the fleet, just having fun. I didn’t even look to see where my competition was until the final leeward mark, only to see them in just the position I had hoped, about six boats back. I finished the race in first and second for the regatta.

Even though first place was the only one who qualified, I still felt accomplished to come from behind in a fleet of the nation’s best junior laser sailors. The Competition Syndicate Fund’s help in the whole process was vital in helping me to go, and I could not have done anything without your help.

Miami, Fla. (January 23, 2010) –  The Olympic Sailing Program presented seven US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Awards to the 2009 team members who achieved excellence in the following categories in 2009: Best Individual Performance, Best Team Performance, Best Performance by a Newcomer, Best Teammate, Most Improved Fitness and Commercial Award. The awards were presented at the first annual US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) Awards Banquet Friday evening in Miami, Florida, prior to US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR, the biggest Olympic and Paralympic class sailing event in North America.

“Our program is focused on excellence, and these awards were created to reward the team members who exemplify the work ethic we’re looking for on our team,” said Dean Brenner (Wallingford, Conn.), the Chairman of the US Olympic Sailing Program, who emceed the event.

The following individuals received the 2009 USSTAG awards:

Commercial Award – Graham Biehl (San Diego, Calif.)
This award is presented to the athlete who has made an outstanding effort in support of the commercial and sponsorship activities of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics.

Best Performance by a Newcomer – Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif.)
This award is presented to the athlete who, over the previous 12 months, has begun Olympic or Paralympic Class competition for the first time, or switched to a new event, and achieved notable performance on the water.

Congratulations to these SDYC sailors.

Thank you very much for sending and supporting me on my trip to Florida for the Orange Bowl.  I had a great time, and the racing was fun and challenging too.

We arrived at the Miami airport late at night, and went straight to the rental car dealership.  It was a challenge to fit all of our bags and our huge box of sails into the small car we rented.  The next day we received our charter boat, rigged it and went sailing in the light conditions.

The first day of racing was very light and fluky.  We hung in there in the hard conditions and ended up 15th at the end of the day.  We were satisfied that we sailed conservative and avoided big scores.

The next day was just as light as the first day,  and it finally picked up to 15 kts. for the last two races where we finished 1st and 6th.  I was very happy to have the breeze, and finally get out on the wire.

The 3rd day was lighter than the forecast had told us so we were a bit disappointed.  We used our tactics and speed to stay in the game.  We had 3 top 6 races and one of our throw out races.

On the final day we were in 11th going into the day with 2 races left. Our goal was to do well enough to finish in the top ten, and get a trophy.  The first race the wind was 10-12 kts and we managed a 12th in the race.  We were frustrated because we knew a 12th would not help us move up in the standings.  The next race the wind picked up a few kts.  We started near the pin and extended, crushing other boats off the line with our killer speed.  With our team mates Shone Bowman and Jake Reynolds a few boats to leeward of us, we tacked in a big lefty to cross the fleet on port headed to the windward mark.  They rounded in 1st and we rounded in 3rd.  After the downwind we passed the second place boat and left them far behind.  after the next upwind beat, we had caught up to 1 boat length of Shone and Jake.  On the down wind we passed them and lead around the right gate mark to go left up wind.  The left had been paying all day so we wanted to cover the left.  Shone and Jake tacked out to try to pass us into what looked like a dead spot of wind.  We saw pressure up ahead on the left, so we decided to keep going for a little bit.  The wind did not increase, but shifted to the right 10 degrees.  The damage had already been done by the time our left puff came.  They passed us and beat us by 2 boat lengths.  When they crossed the line they did not get a horn, and when we crossed the line, we did.  They were over and we won the race.  We were more bummed than happy about the race because they needed the win. If they didn’t get OCSed that race and won, they would have won the regatta by two points.

We accomplished our goal and placed 10th overall.

Thank you SDYC for your support on all my sailing events.  I am honored to represent our burgee all over the world.

Over January 9^th and 10^th, the SDYC Junior Board of Directors hosted their annual flagship Sabot event, the Junior Invitational Regatta. This year saw 87 competitors from throughout Southern California meet up in La Playa Basin for some ultra-competitive racing in conditions ranging from light air to breezy enough to send more than a few sailors into the drink. Junior Commodore Georgie Ryan and her Board ran an impeccably organized event in the challenging race management conditions, and between the excellent racing and fantastic lunch and trophy fare, it was smiles all around!

Day 1 saw an initial postponement for lack of breeze, which has almost come to be a tradition for this January event. Nevertheless, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to upper seventies, the mood was good. For the first time in a few years, the Chargers’ first round playoff bye took some stress off of those spectators attempting to follow multiple sports! When the breeze did kick in at 4-6 kts from the west, racing got underway. Most divisions sailed four races, and Team SDYC was looking good at the end of the day with several top performers. In the A Fleet, defending regatta champ Patrick Snow held the overnight lead, but Scott Sinks was lurking not far behind with a pair of bullets and waiting to drop a tough race after clearing himself following an OCS start. In the C1 Fleet Molly Pleskus was holding a narrow overnight lead, as were C2 sailor Cole Harris and C3 racer David Bluhm.

On Sunday, the forecast for light or no breeze was even worse, and many sailors were pondering whether the regatta was already over, or whether we would reach the necessary six race count to activate a throwout race. After an hour of postponement and an awesome pizza lunch break, the seabreeze filled and provide a perfect 6-8 kts for Saboting! Racing was tight as the RC fired off a three single lap Windward/Leeward races to get the race count up quickly. And to everyone’s surprise, the breeze was building! With a few capsizes occurring and the throwout race achieved, the C2 and C3 fleets were dismissed for the day.  A, B, and C1 stayed out in 10 kts+ to grind out one last Triangle/Windward/Leeward to settle a few scores.  When all was said and done SDYC’s David Bluhm, Cooper Dias, and Ryley Ryan had captured trophies in C3. Cole Harris sailing his first regatta in 9006 (winningest Sabot ever?) prevailed in C2, just in front of teammates T. Will Mann and Rebecca McElvain. Molly Pleskus and Zach Malcolm arrived 2^nd and 3^rd in C1. Patrick Snow stayed consistent and sailed one breakaway bullet race for 2^nd overall in A Fleet, but couldn’t match the scorching pace of regatta champion Scott Sinks who racked up four bullets and kept only 1s, 2s, and a 3 in the 28 boat fleet!

The 2010 Junior Invitational Regatta fleet champions will be the first names to appear on the Malin Burnham Perpetual trophy; a beautiful Ken Gardner Sabot model which will soon reside in our new Sailing Center bearing the same name.

Congratulations to Commodore Ryan, Vice Commodore and Finish Boat Captain Jake Reynolds, Singlehanded Fleet Captain Clayton Schluter, and the rest of the 2010 Junior Board on an outstanding event!

Saturday, April 10, 2010
Contact: Bob Rhein (714) 785-6636
brhein@catalinaconservancy.org

The 2010 Catalina Island Conservancy Ball – Catalina Rocks! – celebrates the work of the Conservancy as well as the many awe-inspiring geological features that the Island possesses. The 15th Annual Conservancy Ball will be held in the beautiful Avalon Casino Ballroom. For information on tickets, sponsorships, or donating auction items, please visit www.catalinaconservancy.org > Support Us > Conservancy Ball.

San Diego generally has perfect sailing conditions with nice westerly breezes one can count on (almost always). Thus the east-west orientation of the Mission Bay Model Yacht Pond is ideal for the usual San Diego wind conditions. When skippers showed up Friday afternoon for boat measurement and practice, the weather was perfect and the wind was out of the west as advertized. Little did we know as we all headed to the San Diego Yacht Club for the Friday evening festivities that Saturday and Sunday would be a different story.

By Jake La Dow

Today was a day that I will never forget.  Knowing that a huge storm would come through made me eager to get to my High School Sailing practice and hit the water.  Once I arrived, I slid into my Dad’s offshore sailing gear, to hopefully stay warm.  I was decked out in boardshorts with a Musto overalls and Offshore spray jacket.  With my boots and layers of fleece tops, I was warm.  When I stepped into John Fretwell’s office where he and my coach Steve Hunt were staying out of the wind and rain, I tried to talk them into allowing us to go sailing today.  They were debating even attempting to sail.  The main deciding factor was the windex for the basin, which was telling us the wind speed.  The average speed was 19mph when they decided to give it a go.  The highest gust seen before going sailing was 37mph.  We rigged our boats on the condition that we could only take four boats out, with the best of our sailors in them.  We left the dock in our CFJs into the basin.When we got out there we were disappointed since the wind had died to around only 15 knots.  Soon we realized it was merely a lull in the wind.  My skipper and I, Olin Paine, were fully hiking and de-powering the boat as soon as the wind came back up.  We were speed testing with our teams other three boats in 20 knots of wind.  When we reached Kellogg Beach we turned around for the downwind.  This is what we all had been looking forward too.  Immediately the wind picked up to 25-30 knots.  As we were planing on a broad reach we were howling and having the time of our lives, as another blast of wind hit us of 30 knots.  All the spray, wind, and rain made it very difficult to keep our eyes open.  As the boomvang was max trim, the leech of the sail was flat as a board, and due to the wind the leech was opening widely as the mast was completely inverted.  I completely thought the mast would snap in half or rip out of the boat.  Luckily it didn’t and we didn’t break anything.  We capsized the boat once, only because Olin fell out of the boat.  We righted the boat and sailed to the lee of Southwestern where the wind was much lighter where we could bail the water out of the boat.

Once we finished bailing, our coach powered over to us and told us to sail in because the conditions were too dangerous.  I know I was disappointed because I wanted to sail all day in these conditions.  Our coach sped away since the other three boats were either upside down, or had been upside down and drifted into the docks.  We were the only boat to only flip once.  Francis Parker who sent out two boats, had one broken mast, and another flipped and tangled in the Chevron Gas docks.  We sailed in to the dock where two of our boats soon came in after us to safety.  That left three boats still in the basin.  The boat with the broken mast had been tied to the end of B dock which later was towed in.  The boat at the fuel dock was upside down and tied up, which later was sailed in.  One boat was left with assistance by our coach.

As they were sailing to the dock the meat of the storm came.  I was on the launch ramp helping a boat out of the water.  Within a period of 10 seconds, the wind picked up from 25 knots to 70 knots.  With it came rain that inflicted pain on contact.  I looked to docks to weather of me as I see all the boats tied up, and sporadically moving every which way.  Debris was flying everywhere.  Items like chairs, cushions, life vests, covers, palm fronds and many other types of debris were flung across the water and riddled the area.  This was the gust of 70 knots.  Knowing there were teammates in distress John and I decided it was necessary to send out further assistance.  Once the huge pulse ended and the wind died to around 15-20 knots, we ran to the boats where Robbie Dean met us.  We took out the boat Joe Jessop Jr. out to the basin where our help was needed.  We come out to see my teammates Shone Bowman and Eric Cibit, who were the ones in the massive wind.  The looks on their faces matched the shredded mainsail and flooded boat they sailed in.

We headed around E dock to do an overall check and search for any boats or sailors still left.  We saw no abandoned boats or sailors, but on F dock a boat had broken free of the dock and was barely attached by the stern line. I was dropped off on the dock to see that the gust had ripped the cleat off of the dock. The power supply and hose station next to the boat had been broken, and was in the water, held in place by the hose.  To tie the boat up I had to move the structure out of the water. I made sure to only hold the wood part to avoid being electrocuted.  I could barely reach the bowline to pull the boat back to the dock where I tied it to the pylon since the cleat was gone.

I ran to our family boat Glory to ensure its safety.  I retied all of the lines, and tucked it away nicely.  I then went to our friend’s Swan 68 to make sure it was all right, where I saw its captain Trevor, already on the job.  He told me that the windex on the boat reached 70 knots since we did not know the velocity because the yacht club’s windex had been broken in the wind.

As I walked down the dock putting dock boxes and carts back in place, I saw Jeff Johnson and Bob Kyle working on a dock.  I quickly came over to give them a hand.  A dock box was blown in the water and its contents were everywhere.  We got it all out of the water as fast as we could.  The dock underneath us was slanted at a 20-degree angle since its float was only 30% under the dock.  It had been pushed out from under the dock for the most part.  We tried to rig a system to get the float back in place, but the buoyancy of the float was too much for us to overcome.  The float is still out of place.

As I walked back to the Jr. Sailing area I saw coach Steve Hunt who asks if I was ok and I told him yes.  On his way in he picked up many items blown into the water that belonged to SDYC boats.  I returned a life ring to Kai Orana on C dock.  I walked back and ran into my teammate and friend Jake Reynolds, and we talked about how crazy the day was.  I then went straight to the Jacuzzi, and tried to unfreeze my body.  This was the scariest and most rewarding sailing experience I have ever been a part of.  I am very thankful all of the people involved were safe.  The damage inflicted was little compared to what could have been lost.