San Francisco Sea Scouts Celebrate With Alumni, Family, and Friends

San Francisco’s Sea Scouting program is throwing a reunion banquet for former Sea Scouts of all generations, as well as community supporters, on May 10 at the Elks Club in San Francisco. San Francisco Sailing Whaleboat Association, the main supporting nonprofit behind the San Francisco Sea Scout programs, wrote, “We’d like to bring alumni, family, and friends together for an evening of camaraderie and celebration as we support the legacy of Sea Scouting in our city.” And while the Scouts themselves will open the dinner with a flag ceremony, the event is for adults only.

Guests at this annual fundraising dinner will include honoree Terry Moran, who as a high school student was a member of SSS Viking for three years before transferring to SSS Dolphin, with which he was awarded the Quartermaster rank, Sea Scouting’s highest achievement. Terry went on to graduate from the US Naval Academy and became a naval aviator. Upon retirement from the Navy Terry worked for the Cal Maritime Foundation and founded his own nonprofit organization, VetsBoats, which uses wooden boats to help veterans with PTSD. Currently they are restoring the classic wooden boat Clover. You can read about Terry and Clover in the May issue, out Friday.

Sea Scouts is a program for youth that has had a strong presence in San Francisco for generations, providing an affordable alternative to yacht club juniors’ programs. It is fully funded by donations and run by volunteers. “Our volunteers strive to deliver a premier program for youth aged 11–20 and we need financial support to make it happen. Many of our volunteers came up through the program and earned the highest award for a Sea Scout, the Quartermaster Award. The path is long, taxing at times, and is evidence that the awardee has demonstrated instructional and leadership skills.”

“Please join us for this event!” Details here.

Other former Sea Scouts expected to attend include Rebecca Linger, a member of SSS Navigator for five years; Doug Fischer, who became skipper of SSS Corsair after earning the QM Award; Denis Mulligan, another Corsair QM (the chief engineer who designed the suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge and the new Doyle Drive); Mike O’Callaghan, well known in the Moore 24 fleet, having won an untold number of races (Mike earned QM in SSS Corsair, graduated from California Maritime Academy, and is an engineer on large vessels. Mike also has kept up his association with Sea Scouting and has spent his adult life overseeing the rebuild and repair of their boats for 40 years); Patricia McFadden, SSS Mark Christie; Kevin Lavery, Quartermaster and recently retired USCG commander; Annie Kolatkar, a Mark Christie alum and the author of Young Navigator Books for teens; her brother Mike Peterson was in SSS Flying Cloud and is active in the San Francisco Marina Boat Owners Association; Henry Jotz, alumnus of SSS Viking, owned Jotz Sails and was an El Toro champion. His estate is funding the restoration of a 26-ft sailing whaleboat that will be named in his memory and hopefully will be launched  this year.

“The transformative nature of the Sea Scouts program has lifelong impacts on the members who step up to unusual challenges presented to them as they learn to maintain, sail, navigate, and pilot their wooden sailing whaleboats. Service to others and teaching are two of the scouting program skills that transcend sailing. Sea Scouting is a leadership development program, as much as a seamanship program, and their alumni reflect the lessons instilled in them during their formative years. This program isn’t inexpensive to run, but it’s inexpensive for the youth. All support is greatly appreciated.”

Get tickets to the reunion here.

Learn more about the S.F. Sea Scouts here.