April 12, 2026
by Earl Thomas #5121
Commodore & Fleet 62 Captain
Commodore & Fleet 62 Captain
Ahoy again,
We were at the 3rd annual Sail-A-Dinghy-Day this last Sunday. It rained intermittently throughout the morning. The rain did get heavy occasionally but short lived and we still had chances to mingle with the public. The wind was zero to 8-10 mph. And coming from an unsettling direction of the southwest. So it was confusing in trying to orient yourself to the usual landmarks while sailing. Shoreline only provided about 60 to 80 rides this year, in previous years there were 400 plus.
We had 3 boats on display, a Lido, a Sunfish and the FauxFish. Adrian rigged and launched his Topper and Ralf and I sailed it for awhile. Richard launched his latest creation the FauxFish Four (aka Foam Fish Four) and tested the sail-ablitiy and found just a few little tweaks to get it ready for opening day on May 3rd. But the rain was the determining factor this year. No rain equates to bigger crowds and vice versa. Lots of families were just looking for the free Shoreline sailboat ride activity on this Sunday. A few were interested in beginning sailing classes but they had no sailing experience.
On our upcoming Sunday race days will need to get there early to grab a parking spot. I would estimate that 50% of the parking spots are barricaded off for the year for Shoreline's remodeling project. We will also need to bring some cones and save some spots. Shoreline is operating a small snack store with coffee, tea, expresso, pastries and fruit? So there is a limited food source onsite. But with the Bistro being closed that means that there will be a reduced number of public patrons that will not be coming to Shoreline for breakfast, lunch and early dinners. Which means more parking availability. Chris Nicol said they will work with us to make it easier and will save some parking spots on our race days. The restrooms are now portable potties about 30 yards away toward the bay, down the walking path.
We headed home on Sunday on a staggered basis starting at noon and finally we all left by 3 pm. I was able to re-award (the corrected plaques) to Yossi and Roy from last year’s Bailer’s Ball. One highlight was Roy being able to teach a young sailor how to handle the tiller and mainsheet on his Sunfish that was parked on the launch ramp. The event today was an international party, I heard Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi and Hebrew.
Don’t forget our opening day will be Sunday May 3rd with races Spring 1, 2, 3. And we will need race committee so we are looking for volunteers.
This Thursday is our Zoom meeting at 7:30 pm so try to catch that as well.
And we are having ZestFest again this year with the first date being May 10th. The complete sailing schedule is on the website.
See you on Thursday and on the water,
Earl
We were at the 3rd annual Sail-A-Dinghy-Day this last Sunday. It rained intermittently throughout the morning. The rain did get heavy occasionally but short lived and we still had chances to mingle with the public. The wind was zero to 8-10 mph. And coming from an unsettling direction of the southwest. So it was confusing in trying to orient yourself to the usual landmarks while sailing. Shoreline only provided about 60 to 80 rides this year, in previous years there were 400 plus.
We had 3 boats on display, a Lido, a Sunfish and the FauxFish. Adrian rigged and launched his Topper and Ralf and I sailed it for awhile. Richard launched his latest creation the FauxFish Four (aka Foam Fish Four) and tested the sail-ablitiy and found just a few little tweaks to get it ready for opening day on May 3rd. But the rain was the determining factor this year. No rain equates to bigger crowds and vice versa. Lots of families were just looking for the free Shoreline sailboat ride activity on this Sunday. A few were interested in beginning sailing classes but they had no sailing experience.
On our upcoming Sunday race days will need to get there early to grab a parking spot. I would estimate that 50% of the parking spots are barricaded off for the year for Shoreline's remodeling project. We will also need to bring some cones and save some spots. Shoreline is operating a small snack store with coffee, tea, expresso, pastries and fruit? So there is a limited food source onsite. But with the Bistro being closed that means that there will be a reduced number of public patrons that will not be coming to Shoreline for breakfast, lunch and early dinners. Which means more parking availability. Chris Nicol said they will work with us to make it easier and will save some parking spots on our race days. The restrooms are now portable potties about 30 yards away toward the bay, down the walking path.
We headed home on Sunday on a staggered basis starting at noon and finally we all left by 3 pm. I was able to re-award (the corrected plaques) to Yossi and Roy from last year’s Bailer’s Ball. One highlight was Roy being able to teach a young sailor how to handle the tiller and mainsheet on his Sunfish that was parked on the launch ramp. The event today was an international party, I heard Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi and Hebrew.
Don’t forget our opening day will be Sunday May 3rd with races Spring 1, 2, 3. And we will need race committee so we are looking for volunteers.
This Thursday is our Zoom meeting at 7:30 pm so try to catch that as well.
And we are having ZestFest again this year with the first date being May 10th. The complete sailing schedule is on the website.
See you on Thursday and on the water,
Earl