“Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.” —Brooks Atkinson.

May Day has come and gone, and hopefully with no loss of life or ship!

By now SBYC’s Opening Day festivities/mayhem will have passed too, and perhaps we’ll hear tales of close encounters there when we gather at Port Ludlow next week (more on that below). Vixen won’t
make it up to the ship canal for that party; this year her crew is deep – really deep – in an in-progress
land spectacle of remodeling with all three bedrooms and a bathroom emptied and scattered across the
rest of the house. We’re sneaking away for the Burger Burn and looking for a “soft stop” point in early
June – it’s time to go sailing! (Or try, given our pleasant but zephyrous summer winds.)

This being our last Rudderpost until September, we have much to cover:
1. Don’t miss the Burger Burn at Port Ludlow May 12-14. Reserved slips are still available, and
we’re encouraged to register via the Dockwa.gov app. Make sure to note you’re with SBYC, and
they will strive to group us all together. (As of today, ten boats are registered: Antares, Flora,
Jasper, Olele, Pau Hana, Reverie, Shadow, Turning Point, Victoria, and Vixen). Marina contacts
are: 1.877.344.6725, www.portludlowresport.com, and for anyone driving, the address is 1 Gull
Drive, Port Ludlow, WA 98365. Contact the marina on VHF 68 on your approach for slip
assignments. Sponsors Larry and Sharon Clark have a fun weekend cooked up, and we’ll all join
in at the burner/grill with our best individual attempts to win bragging rights for the most
Bodacious Burger. As far as I know there are no rules, except, I guess, it has to be a burger; but of
what? Beef? Pork? Salmon? Pheasant? California sea lion? (No endangered marine mammal
burgers, please.) Let your imagination go wild, but please come and celebrate May with us at
Port Ludlow. Bring your favorite lawn game(s) and a stick or two for the firepit on Saturday.
Happy Hour on the dock on Friday, BBQ area reserved from 14:00 until 22:00 on Saturday 13th.
See your Evite for more details.

2. June Dinner Dance, June 10. Now is the time to register your vessel at Port of Kingston for the
weekend of June 9-11. The sponsors this year (Jessie Lundin, Harold Baldwin, Julie & Roger
Newby, and Heidi & Dave Rynning) have planned a “Margaritaville” Mexican-themed dinner
catered by the Kingston Ale House.  We’ll be moving and grooving to rock, R&B, blues, and
other good stuff by Sour Mash, regulars at The Point Casino near Kingston and at the Slippery
Pig Brewery’s Thursday Blues & Brews in Poulsbo. As usual, the per-person cost includes dinner,
hosted bar with a special themed cocktail, and the band – the best deal around! This is a fun
event and a great opportunity to bring friends who might be interested in SBYC. Watch for the
Evite and reserve your slip now. (As of this writing, you’ll be joining Antares, Mischief Maker,
Pau Hana, Reverie, Turning Point, Victoria, and Vixen on the dock)

3. Independence Day Raft-up in Liberty Bay and Blakely Harbor, July 1-3; Michael Hoffman is
sponsoring the Blakely Harbor portion and he’s coordinating with a private fire show on Tuesday July
4th . Poulsbo has canceled their popular Third of July public fireworks show, but the bay will be
busy anyway, with much more that makes this destination fun that weekend. A short
dinghy ride from our club’s usual raft anchorage to the Port of Poulsbo Marina puts you just
steps away from unique shopping, dining & beveraging, museums, galleries, and other
attractions: brave the long line at Sluy’s Bakery, savor the best view in town on the deck at The
Loft Restaurant, walk the Fish Park trail, or stop in at one of Poulsbo’s five breweries – three within walking distance from the marina. And be sure to check out Longship Marine, Poulsbo’s
only marine chandler, with new, used, and consigned goods. If it’s your first time visiting “Little
Norway,” it’s  safe to predict you’ll be back.

4. Summer Rendezvous. We’d like to enlist you, our members, to tell us your ideas or preferences for
where you will be, or would like to meet, in the last part of July/Early August? One possibility is
keeping it in Central or North Sound this year, perhaps making it easier for divergent crews to
come together at some point somewhere. Please attend our final dinner meeting this month,
where the summer rendezvous and some other important 2023 items will be discussed.

5. Labor Day Weekend slips are reserved at Port Orchard (originally the Town of Sidney) so you
can register now to join in on summer’s last hurrah. This will be Vixen’s first call at Port Orchard.
There’s lots to do there and we’re looking forward to exploring the surroundings. And for those
interested, a passenger ferry running between Port Orchard and Bremerton gets you close to
the Puget Sound Navy Museum and other diversions near the Bremerton Marina. Sponsor, David
Horn, will supply details in the Evite that you’ll be receiving this summer.

6. Salmon Bake at Port of Poulsbo, September 23. Back to Little Norway for our last boat-in
gathering before fall. Kathy & Dennis Oelrich, and Patricia & Colin Shannon-Garvey are
sponsoring. Slips are reserved for us, so contact the Port to register your vessel at 360-779-3505
ext 1.

There’s no argument that summer is our favorite season, with favorable weather, long days, and easy
breezes. We hope to see many faces and boats at the above events. Be safe, and as small craft guru
Howard Rice says, “See you out there.”

We’ll end this post with two more quotes to sustain you over the summer:
“How inappropriate it is to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Sea” – Arthur C. Clarke.
And my favorite: “Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to
be Pirates” – Mark Twain.

Spring has finally sprung, although it seems to have been temporary. None the less we got a few good days of sailing in 70 degree weather, and even had time to wash and wax part of the boat. Since we dock starboard tie I always clean that side first. I have to admit there have been years the port side never gets done. Hopefully everything will be presentable by the Port Ludlow club cruise.

We had a productive May board meeting with one of the most important items being the initiation of the nominating committee for the 2024 Board. LB Day day has volunteered, and I have agreed to chair the nominating committee this time around. We need one more member, so if interested please let one of us know. More importantly, this means we will need to start offering members the opportunity to sit on next year’s Board. We are lucky to have a strong board this year that has been a lot of fun to work with. Many of us are staying on for 2024, but there are still a few positions to fill. If interested let the committee, or anyone on the board, know. If you get a call from one of us asking you to join I ask that you strongly consider doing so. As has been pointed out many times in the past, your club can not operate without the dedicated work of our volunteer leadership. I have enjoyed my two years on the board; it has been more fun and less work than I had anticipated.

Finally, over the next few weeks you will be hearing about some changes in the club. We are working on improving our databases, switching to a new messaging system for casual communication and coordinating logistics during our cruises, and starting some new events with an eye toward both member participation and recruiting. Stay tuned, and I look forward to seeing you for our last of the season Ivar’s dinner and the summer cruise events.

Happy May Everyone!

Spring is finally here, and I’m so excited that the boating season is upon us. We have some great events  on the horizon – Burger Burn on May 13 in Port Ludlow, the return of the SBYC dock parties on June 2, Shilshole Boatfest on June 3, and the annual June Dinner Dance on June 10 in Kingston.

These are some of our favorite events of the year, and they would be great opportunities to invite friends and neighbors to check out the club and meet some other members. Please spread the word to any folks that you think might be good potential members and interested in joining us.

We’re still looking for volunteers to help staff our booth at the Shilshole Boatfest on June 3 from 11:00 to 4:00. Please shoot me an email at Rearcommodore@shilsholebayyachtclub.org if you’d be willing to help out.

The first SBYC dock party of the season will be on “O” dock on Friday June 2, starting at 6:00. SBYC will be providing burgers and dogs with all the fixings. Please bring your own favorite beverage and something to share. It should be a rousing good kickoff to the summer season!

I look forward to seeing you all soon,

Jason Breitling
Rear Commodore, SBYC

Dinner Meeting: Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Place: Ivar’s Salmon House, 401 NE Northlake Way, Seattle

Pre-Dinner drinks from: 5:30pm

Dinner served at: 6:45pm

Program: Summer Cruise Review/Planning

This is our final Dinner Meeting of the Winter/Spring season.  We resume these in September, so be sure to join us for this final Ivar’s-based evening together before September.  At this meeting we’re going to have a program led by club members David Horn, David Rynning and Julie Newby.  David Horn has done research and found a new online chat program for us to use instead of SLACK.  SLACK has instituted fees for portions of their service that we do very much want (e.g. archiving of chat dialogues going back more than a couple weeks).  David will provide more background and then a step-by-step demonstration of how to initially log in and then use the new system he has already tailored for our needs.

Our Co-Cruise Chairs, David Rynning and Julie Newby, will provide updates on the Summer Cruise Schedule, including what’s planned for the June Dinner Dance event, again being held at the Kingston Yacht Club on June 10.  They’ll also cover the July 4th Holiday event and what is planned there, along with making a final determination for where to have the Summer Rendezvous.  We envision this being an opportunity for club members to offer their thoughts and ideas to our Board members who work very hard to keep good traditions going, while also staying open to creative options for continuing SBYC growth.

One important update on the Dinner Menu: We have eliminated the Chicken Saltimbocca option as we’ve discovered it is priced above our target zone for meals.  The past few meetings have resulted in the Club General Fund making up an unintended shortfall on the meal expenses.  We are working with Ivar’s to get this fully understood and resolved.

So, please look for the Evite coming soon to an email inbox near you and remember to identify which meal choice(s) you would like for dinner when you respond to the Evite. We have to get that information to Ivar’s the Friday before the event (May 12). If you have to cancel a reservation, that can best be done by sending me an email directly (rogernewb@gmail.com) or calling me at 206-261-3790, but do so prior to Friday, May 12. Cancellations after the 12th are generally not refundable. Same with no-shows on the evening of the 16th. Our agreement with Ivar’s calls for a no-show dinner to still be paid for, so the Club asks each member to understand that and take responsibility for payment. It doesn’t happen very often and we can sometimes get it handled outside that rule, but there are no guarantees on that.

Meet and talk with Club members over dinner and drinks. Get updated on upcoming cruise events. Learn how to best use on-water chat systems to improve your boating experience. See you on the 16th!

Adventuress Cup Benefit Race.

Photo Sound Experience.

The 4th annual Adventuress Cup benefit race will be held on Saturday, September 16 this year, with on the water racing at Shilshole Bay in Seattle. I am looking forward to being aboard the tall ship, and race committee boat, Adventuress, for the Cup race this year! See SoundExp.org.

This race is a celebration of the marine environment and aims to raise critical program funds for the nonprofit Sound Experience, which owns and operates the iconic tall ship, Adventuress.

The ship’s programs reach more than a thousand children and teens each year who climb aboard for powerful day and overnight programs in maritime skills, environmental stewardship, resilience, and connection to each other and the natural world. Other traditional programs for all ages, and threevhour day sails are coming back on the post-pandemic schedule.

This is a hybrid race! There will be a parade of boats, including power. On the water racing of dingy class, spinnaker class, and non-flying sail class will be offered. Virtual teams will be raising money for the programs, and individuals can donate without being on a team. Anyone can donate, join a virtual team with a donation, or form their own team.

All vessels which race or register as a team are required to use the Kwindoo Tracking app during the race. Virtual participants can track the fun on the Kwindoo LiveView app or on Kwindoo.com — instructions for use will be sent to all registered participants.

More information will be posted – watch for the Fourth Annual Adventuress Cup website. Stay tuned for more details at SoundExp.org!

A reminder: If a club member needs to check the reciprocal status of a yacht club, or suggest a new club, please contact the Secretary by phone or email shown in the roster.

Rubie Johnson, Secretary & Reciprocal Manager.