Kame Richards Talk on Friday

If you’ve never had the chance to catch one of Kame Richards sailing presentations, mark your calendars for Friday, as you won’t want to miss this one. Richards, the owner of Pineapple Sails as well as the very winning Express 37 Golden Moon, is known for his engaging and energetic style while educating sailors on everything from racing techniques to effectively using San Francisco Bay’s currents — no matter the state of the tide — to their benefit. In ‘Sails, Sail Handling & General Techniques for Cruising Sailors’, Richards will discuss everything cruisers need to know about their sails, whether they’re cruising the Bay or the South Pacific.

• What do sails really do and does it matter if they are good?
• Sail materials and building techniques
• Advantages and disadvantages of different reefing techniques
• Downwind tradewind sailing techniques — twin jibs vs. main and jib vs. main and spinnaker
• Boom handling — boom brake vs. preventer vs. boom vang
• Downwind light air sails and handling
• Dowsing systems for asymmetric and symmetric spinnakers
• Anything else the crowd wants to know

The free presentation will be held at Berkeley YC on Friday starting at 8 p.m., but we’d encourage you to drop in earlier for the club’s happy hour (6 p.m.) and affordable dinner (7 p.m., $10). Everyone is welcome! You can find more info at www.berkeleyyc.org.