Berkeley Yacht Club Summer Camp Sails Aboard ‘Pegasus’
“No child left ashore!” is the defining mission statement of Pegasus Voyages, whose 51-ft Alden-designed cutter-rigged ketch is used to take underserved kids out on San Francisco Bay for an exploration of the marine wilderness. The kids aboard are exposed to basic sailing skills using volunteer crew as mentors. Based in the Berkeley Marina, Pegasus has formed partnerships over the last 32 years with supporting organizations including the City of Berkeley, Shorebird Nature Center and the Berkeley Boosters, YMCA and Yacht Club.
On June 18, Latitude 38 was invited to join a midweek sail with nine kids, ages 5 to 10 years, and three chaperones from the Berkeley Yacht Club summer camp. Our departure was preceded by a lineup on the dock to allow Capt. Bob Kingston an opportunity to welcome these young sailors onboard, and provide basic safety instruction on how to sit (feet on the toe rail and both hands holding the grab rail) and move about using the sailor’s handshake while underway.
In the unlikely event of falling overboard, Lifesling instruction was provided, with the reassurance that the boat will quickly come back for you!
With the sails up and the motor turned off, Capt. Bob asked everyone to shut their eyes for a minute to listen to the sounds of the sea, and feel the direction of the wind on their faces. This brief sensory experience put the kids and chaperones in a mood to begin their awareness of the marine wilderness that the Bay encompasses by first observing nearby birds, like the gull, pelican and cormorant. When two dolphins surfaced near the boat, the kids were the first to spot them, and shrieked in surprise and delight. This enthusiasm carried over to a renewed interest in looking for a whale that might have found its way into the Bay.
Wind direction and force on the sails were simply explained by Capt. Bob, while the crew of seven volunteers took turns moving the kids from their positions on the aft cabin top up to the bowsprit and helm station. Under sail, we had the jib rolled out, one reef in the main and a full mizzen as winds began to steadily increase in the Slot while we reached back and forth. The crew nicely hove to for box lunches to be enjoyed while the boat held its position with little to no wave action.
After lunch, the jib was furled and the staysail deployed as winds continued to build to 20 knots. The full keel and heavy displacement gave the boat an easy motion through the building waves, and the decks (and kids!) remained dry during the entire sail. Our final point of sail was a broad reach into the Berkeley Marina fairway, where we were greeted by a sea lion to welcome us back to our berth! While it is a bit difficult to gauge the effect of a four-hour sail on kids this young, the basic Pegasus objectives of marine environmental awareness and crew-role modeling were certainly well met!
Start the Summer With a Summer Sailstice Weekend
Summer sailing starts this weekend. The solstice is the official, celestial start of summer and always the Summer Sailstice weekend celebration of sailing. If you haven’t signed up yet, it’s not too late. Log in to add an event here or add your own, individual sailing plan here. Why? To put your event or plans on the map below and help the world discover sailing. What we all do offshore is hidden from what most of the world sees. In Northern California, there’s a shocking number of people who don’t seem to know there’s a Bay in the middle of the San Francisco Bay Area. Or, if they know the Bay, they don’t know how to connect to sailing. Summer Sailstice is here to help sailors connect and to help people who dream of sailing discover where and how to participate.
Brandon Mercer is signed up and sailing south in the Half Moon Bay Race this weekend. Up in the Pacific Northwest, Marine Servicenter will be hosting its 24th annual Summer Sailstice Jeanneau Rendezvous. There are loads of small events because sailing is not like the World Cup, where you can assemble tens of thousands of fans in a single stadium. This weekend’s SailGP in Halifax, Nova Scotia, brings attention to a new sailing audience, but does it really help the non-sailors understand what most people love about sailing? Can the fans conceptualize what a weekend of sailing would look like for them? Fast is fun, but a lot of what we love about sailing on the weekends is the chance to slow down and connect with friends and nature. When we are racing, it can be amazing how exciting it is at just six knots.
For those who remember when KFOG was a rock music station in the ’80s and ’90s, you may remember their newscaster, Scoop Nisker, who would say, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” Summer Sailstice was created to help sailors do it. Many sailors want to share sailing but thousands of sailors can’t get together. Summer Sailstice gives us all a chance to sail “together” when taking our friends sailing and making it public on the Summer Sailstice map. It’s terrific to see all the organizations like the Yaquina Bay Yacht Club in Oregon inviting the public to an Open House.
Alice McNamara wrote from YBYC saying, “Yaquina Bay Yacht Club in Newport, Oregon, will be participating in the 2026 Sailstice for the seventh time since 2018. We have offered free sailboat rides to nearly 300 people with anywhere from four to eight volunteer skippers and boats. Sailstice has been one of our biggest draws for new memberships. With approximately 100 current club members, our club offers youth and adult sailing classes, coaches the high school sailing team [and] holds monthly potlucks, beer can races and other social events. We are pleased to take part in this International Sailstice event.”
If you have plans, post them. If you don’t, then make some. If you don’t have a boat, visit a school, club or community sailing center and add your name to the Latitude 38 Crew List. There are numerous ways to get onto the water, and you’ll meet and connect with great people when you get there.
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Celebrating Juneteenth
Today is Juneteenth, and the annual federal holiday commemorating the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas on June 19, 1865. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, though the date has been recognized across the nation for many decades prior. We looked around to see what sailing events were available to celebrate Juneteenth.
Call of the Sea is hosting a Juneteenth Sunset Sail aboard the brigantine Matthew Turner tonight. If you haven’t sailed aboard this Bay Area tall ship, though it’s currently foggy, today’s a good day to do so. (Or you can take your second, perhaps even third or fourth sail aboard her. Do we hear five?) Get tickets here.
If you’re farther south, you can join the sixth annual Juneteenth at the Beach BBQ and Paddle for Peace in San Diego tomorrow, June 20. Although it’s not sailing, you’ll still be getting out on the water and joining a free, family-friendly event celebrating Black joy, culture and freedom along the coast, with free surf lessons, live music, art performances, games, food and fun.
Follow this link to find a list of local events compiled by NBC Bay Area. Again, we know they’re not specifically sailing, but perhaps you could sail to an event?
Aside from celebrating Juneteenth, we recognize local sailing organizations that work to bring diversity into sailing, every day. Call of the Sea, Spaulding Marine Center, Blue Water Foundation, Pegasus Sailing, Treasure Island Sailing Center, Afterguard Sailing and many others make it a part of their year-round mission to encourage and support people of all races, colors and backgrounds to experience and enjoy sailing.
Two West Coast Wooden Boat Shows This Weekend
If you love the look and feel of wooden boats, Californians have two shows to choose from this weekend. The San Francisco Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show will be held this Sunday, June 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Corinthian Yacht Club (CYC) in Tiburon. In Southern California, the San Diego Wooden Boat Festival will be held Saturday (9–5)/Sunday (9–4), June 20 and 21, at Koehler Kraft Boatyard, 2302 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego.
The CYC harbor will be filled with many of the Master Mariners wooden classics that were racing just a few weeks ago in the Master Mariners Regatta. Both events reconnect you with the heart and soul of the sailing culture. There are so many beautiful boats in the world, and much of the passion for the heritage of sailing comes from these wooden classics that are cared for by their custodians.
Both events are open to the public and ready to help inspire the next generation of sailors with the living history of boats and boat building.
SFYC Hosts Mercurys for Hart Nunes Regatta
Nine Mercury crews from around the Bay Area towed their boats to beautiful San Francisco Yacht Club last weekend for a great two days of racing for the Hart Nunes trophy. Due to a mending but brand-new knee, longtime Mercury ace Randy Smith ran the racing with the help of experienced PRO Jeff Zarwell. In challenging conditions (constant changes in wind direction and speed), they did a great job of setting the courses and keeping things moving.
The hope was to be able to sail on the 2023 Nationals course well up into Richardson Bay. In the first race Dave West and crew Chris Krueger got off to a fast start, arriving first at the weather mark from the left side. Close on their heels were John and Mike Ravizza, and Scott Easom and Haydon Stapleton, sailing in Scott’s newly and beautifully refurbished Nunes, 8-Ball. Scott managed to get through John, but West held on to his lead through the finish.
The second race was on those same waters, as the wind was holding up pretty well -— shifty and challenging but with only a few dead spots. Easom got out ahead and built a large lead with West in pursuit. They were comfortably ahead of the pack. Until the finish, that is, when the wind shut off at the finish line but not back up the course, allowing those not yet in the hole to sail around it. Shaum Sinawi and crew Christian Buestad broke through West that way for second, while Scott held on for first as the fleet bore down on him.
With the wind having died deep into the bay, the committee moved the third course out to the mouth of Richardson Bay. But the wind wouldn’t cooperate there either, puffing through, sometimes with force, then dying out for a few minutes before starting the cycle over again. Proving his second- and first-place finishes in the first couple of races were no fluke, Scott sailed away from everyone for another bullet. Though please note: There’s no truth to the rumor he’d already showered and shaved before the last of the fleet made it back to the dock. Back on the dock, the San Francisco Yacht Club treated sailors to abundant and hearty hors d’oeuvres and libations on a beautiful evening.
Sunday’s racing was back at the top of Richardson Bay, with the good conditions enjoyed for nearly all of the first two races on Saturday. Shaum and Christian led for the first half of that race, but Scott and Haydon eventually broke through for the win. John and Mike Ravizza followed in third.
In the fifth and final race, West/Krueger again got off to a good first leg, holding a healthy lead for the first half of the three-times-around course. But Easom chased them down too, overtaking them at the second leeward mark, and stretching out over the last two legs, to cap a remarkable 2-1-1-1-1 regatta! Not bad for his first time back in the boat in a decade or so!
Congratulations to Scott and Haydon, and many thanks to SFYC and Randy Smith for organizing, overseeing, and executing a great weekend of tight racing.
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