Dear SYC Member:

Green Box parties galore, good friends and fellowship, reasonable weather and a long weekend. What a great way to wrap up August and launch into the routine of September!

Except that the September schedule promises to be anything but routine. This Thursday we’ll be celebrating SYC’s 115th at the big birthday ropeyard. Besides hearing of your exploits and adventures this summer, we need to hear about those Eight Ball and Half Vast award candidates. Poetic license is in order! The kickoff fall Powerboat Dinner, also this Thursday, will be of interest to all SYC’ers as the plans, options and impacts of the SR 520 corridor expansion and floating bridge replacement are reviewed. Thanks to Vice Commodore Jack Sullivan for keeping this looming upheaval in focus for us. Please make your reservations with the Front Desk.

The fall Cruise & Snooze series gets underway this weekend, destination Port Madison. More information is provided below. Later in September, plan to be at the Sailboat Dinner program on September 20 with Life Member Rod and Jill Hearne and hear of their adventures cruising in Central and South America. The 2007 Stimson Trophy Navigation Contest, the premier log racing event hosted by SYC out of the Port Madison Outstation, is September 22 and 23. The Stimson committee is lining up observers – if interested please contact Scott Strandjord.

This week’s Men’s Lunch emcee is Chris Warner and the guest speaker is Seattle Chief of Police Gil Kerlikowske.

Enjoy your club!

Ben Cozadd, Commodore

Prologue

People see events through the lens of their experiences. Three years ago almost to the day, my wife and I, having called in a Mayday in the middle of Haro Strait, watched from the aft deck of a Coast Guard rescue boat as black smoke billowed out of our boat, Dessert First, a Viking 43 whose starboard engine had run away and was burning itself up.

The Coast Guard hosed water and foam into our boat until the hull listed drunkenly. The wrecked engine stopped, we saved the boat, and ultimately rebuilt it, but the image of black smoke billowing from it is indelible.

My wife and I watched the following events though that lens.

Wednesday, August 8, Saltspring Marina

Somewhere around 5 p.m. , I visited Neil Swanson aboard Easy Rider, a Bertram 33 moored two slips away from ours, to ask how his day was going. He answered, "Fine, but it looks like there's a boat on fire over there at Ganges Marina." When I looked to where he was pointing, across perhaps two hundred feet of water, gray smoke was swirling out of a Bayliner 32 tethered to the end of a Ganges dock.

By the time I returned to our boat, the gray smoke had turned to black. By the time I grabbed my camera, my wife Bev and I could see flicks of open flame licking outward through the cabin windows. Bev gasped, "Oh my God!" Both of us knew what that sight meant. We were watching the truth of what I had written into the story of our own experience: "Once open flames break out, nothing can save a fiberglass boat." In a state of morbid déjà vu, we were watching what might have happened to Dessert First. 

By the time I reached the outer dock of our marina for an unobstructed view, roaring flames engulfed the Bayliner's stern and superstructure. When the fuel tanks ignited, the fireball rose to twenty feet, with black smoke billowing far upward beyond that. Burning debris fell out of the cloud, the water tanks exploded as steam, the inflatable dinghy burst and fell off, and either propane or small gas tanks blew up with firecracker-like bangs.

An unknown hero cut loose the stern line and secured an extra-long bow line that allowed the wind to swing the burning hull away from the pier. Without that line, the boat would've drifted toward our marina. Ganges evacuated people from its docks. Soon an officer ordered us off our outermost dock. "Nobody knows if it's going to blow up."

By the time land-based hoses started spraying water, approximately twenty minutes after I first saw smoke, the Bayliner's cabin and most of its transom had burned away. When a Canadian Coast Guard cutter added its bow hose, the flames disappeared. The smoke turned from black to gray to white.

The blackened hull started settling at the stern. Either the hull had burned through or by now there was at least a ton of water inside it. As the bow began to rise, the firefighters realized they had to beach the boat or watch it sink at the dock. The closest boat ramp was adjacent to the shoreside pub ; the route to it went right next to the Saltspring Marina docks.

While Coast Guard personnel prepared a towline, the firefighters stopped hosing the smoldering hulk. That was premature. As the towboat brought the wreck past our docks, the black billowing smoke returned, followed soon after by licking fingers of open flames.

Waiting by the boat ramp was a large pumper fire engine. Even with a four-inch hose inserted into the beached Bayliner's starboard porthole and the truck pumping away, the fire still burned. A float boom encompassed white foam as it surrounded the hull but the fire foam did nothing either. Almost an hour after the flames began, we watched the port hull begin to melt through and flame spurt from a through-hull opening just above the boot stripe. Using a demolition saw, firefighters opened a four-foot rectangular hole in the starboard bow to let in more water and foam. The hole brought back memories of the Coast Guard breaking Dessert First's windows to let in more water. The stench of smoking fiberglass and sizzling foam was sickeningly familiar.

Eventually all fires end. Had this boat not been beached, it would've sunk by now. I returned to Dessert First shaken. Watching others taking pictures just as I was, I remember writing three years ago about the photographers aboard the whale watching boat that hovered near the smoking wreck of our boat, "Excitement for the folks back home, but they'll never know what this feels like." Now I know what these owners feel like.

Epilogue, Thursday 9

This morning's low tide left the burnt Bayliner careened up on rocks next to the boat ramp at the shoreside pub.

As I stared at the still-stinking wreck, I reflected on the fire at the club and the stories I've learned from other members who have watched their boats burn.

Scuttlebutt around the docks suggested that the fire started in an electrical panel. "When somebody opened the circuit breaker door, flames shot out." Someone said "an alarm had been going off for an hour."

Fortunately, there was no one onboard, the boat had been moored at the end of the dock instead of the middle where other boats would have been at risk, it didn't sink at the dock and no one got hurt.

Unfortunately, photos from yesterday showed clusters of people gawking from a dock less than twenty yards from the burning boat. A 32-foot boat could be diesel or gas. This one was diesel, but there might have been a gasoline can for the dinghy. A gasoline boat could've blown up while those people were watching.

The time signatures on the digital photos show how long it took the volunteer fire department to assemble. To the best that I've learned, there was no portable pump to spray salt water. The nearest fire hydrant is forty yards from the Ganges marina entrance. Firefighters had to drag hoses from it all the way down the marina dock. Other hoses leaked foam from the street down the ramp. The red Coast Guard boat had to back off because it appeared that its crew had no fire protection clothing.

The club learned many lessons from the fire at Portage Bay . Last evening at the greenbox, members discussed how those lessons and the day's events might influence the way the Saltspring Marina will be rebuilt.  

Eventually a tow truck hauled the wrecked hull up the boat ramp and took it away. It takes a bit longer to get rid of memories of a boat engulfed in flames.

Submitted by - Bill Gruber

Mark your calendar for
The Special People’s Cruise

Sunday, December 2, 2007

The success of this event depends on member participation. Skippers and power boats (26’ or longer) are needed to host Special People. Volunteers are also needed to work as ground crew, greeters, hosts, etc.

If you would like to participate in this wonderful event, please contact Tim Abell at (360) 657-7767 or (425) 760-4462.

Committee Sign-Ups

Just a reminder, the due date for the SYC Committee Sign-ups is Friday, September 7, 2007. If you need another committee sign-up form, please contact Tanya Treat.

Seattle Yacht Club Men's Book Group

The Men's book group meets tomorrow, Wednesday September 5 at 6:00 p.m. The Book for review is King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild.

There is a possible joint meeting next February with all (4, count 'em 4) Women's Book Groups and anyone else who wants to come if we can clear the date held by one of the groups. 

Timothy Egan spoke recently at Third Place Books, and his book The Worst Hard Times (our selection for February 2008) looks like a winner.

Following are the books scheduled for future reads. All male SYC Members are welcome to attend whether or not you have read the book.

Tuesday October 2 - Abraham Lincoln by Thomas Kenneally

Tuesday November 6 - Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

Wednesday January 9, 2008 - Einstein his Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

Tuesday February 5, 2008 - The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, National Book Award Winner, Local Author.

“A Bridge Too Far?”
September Powerboat Dinner  

Featuring a Presentation of Major Importance to All of Us On The SR-520 Bridge Replacement: Plans, Options and the Project’s Potential Impact on Seattle Yacht Club

(rendering from a simulation of what could happen to the bridge in a major windstorm.)

Our Vice-Commodore Jack Sullivan will lead a program bringing us up to date on the proposed bridge replacement plans and what they mean for our Main Station, Opening Day…and your travel to and from the Club.

Thursday, September 6, 2007
Cocktails at 6:00 p.m.
Dinner at 7:00 p.m.

Sailboaters Welcome!

Call the Front Desk for Reservations

Fall Cruise & Snooze

Hello Cruise and Snoozers. The Fall series is upon us.

Join In The Fun!!!

Reverse start ratings by Mike Milburn, the club PHRF rater.
No bribes will be accepted for a favorable rating.

Dinner is a potluck like the Spring series.
Please call or email Chris Warner, (206) 782-1277 for main dish, side dish or dessert assignment. Also sign up at the front desk, (206) 325-1000.

Breakfast is by the famous couple Bruce and Bobbie Campbell, bacon, eggs, pancakes, etc.

$10.00 per head for adults, $2 per head for juniors

Fall CRUISE & SNOOZE C & D
September 8 & 9, 2007
at the Port Madison Outstation

WEEKEND CALENDAR

Sailboat Dinner

S/V Lookfar

Thursday September 20, 2007
in the Fireside Lounge.

Cocktails 6:30 p.m.
Dinner 7:00 p.m.
Program 8:00 p.m.

Our program for September is the adventures of Rod and Jill Hearne who have been cruising their sloop Lookfar six months a year in central and south America.

Rod and Jill Hearne

Here is what Jill says:

"All the Fun in Half the Time"
Jill and Rod Hearne share highlights of their last 7 years sailing offshore from Seattle south through the Panama Canal to Columbia. Sailing 6 months each year, the Hearnes maintain jobs and their lives here while enjoying the sailing season in North and Central America.  This year a dismasting off the Nicaraguan coast and rescued by the Columbian Armada provided less fun than usual!

SYC Powerboat Log Racing Event
Stimson Trophy Race 2007

Navigation ConTEST

This years theme: “Back to School: Log Racing U!”

September 21-23, 2007
At Port Madison Outstation

Grab your backpacks, school books, computers and charts. Tell your parents that you are going “Back to School at Log Racing U!” Do your homework, study hard and compete to get the best score on the final (race) exam. Join the “Frat Party” Green box on the pier on Friday Evening.

After passing the race finish on Saturday, proceed back to the Log Racing U Campus (SYC Port Madison) at a speed of 7 knots or less. Turn in your completed exam (log turn in). Join your classmates for a reunion social hour, Graduation dinner and awards ceremony. Come as you are, or dressed in your favorite Back to School uniform.

The Race Package will be posted on the IPBA Site Shortly

Race Course Questions?

Contact Provost Bill Grady or Dean Gerry Johnson

Observers Needed! Contact Professor of Higher Mathematics Scott Strandjord to volunteer.

Register at the Front Desk

New student orientation. Alumni will work with you to train and guide you. Or come out to be a cheerleader and observe the racers. Either way, Join in the Fun!

Seattle to Gig Harbor
Fall Equinox Regatta

September 22 -23

Seattle Yacht Club invites all sailboats (SYC membership not required) to participate in our annual overnight regatta to Gig Harbor and back. Vessels start on Saturday morning off Shilshole, race in 2 to 3 classes to Gig Harbor, overnight at the SYC outstation, then race back to Seattle on Sunday. Race winners recognized each day. All vessels either raft or anchor at the SYC Gig Harbor outstation.

This family friendly event is popular with racers, racers/cruisers, non-flying sails and double-handed cruisers. Dinner Saturday night is pot-luck around the outdoor fireplace/barbeque and is great opportunity to meet other skippers and crew. Join us to roast marshmallows after dinner. Register at www.seattleyachtclub.org and contact Paul at pjwalch@sprynet.com with questions.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation!
Binnacle Photo Contest

Send us a photo of what you did on your summer vacation and you could win a gift certificate to the club.

The SYC account representatives from Sound Business Forms will be the judges. 

There will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

Entry deadline has been extended to September 15 and winners will be published in an upcoming Binnacle.

Submit entries to: binnacle@lists.seattleyachtclub.org

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Send your news stories and/or photographs for the E-Newsletter to: infonet@lists.seattleyachtclub.org