Garth Reynolds of North Sails

He was a hit last July; now he’s coming back for a return engagement: North Sails designer Garth Reynolds will be our speaker at the AYC June meeting. His assignment: Light Air Sailing. Not that we ever have any of that.

Join us at 7 pm, Tuesday, June 12, at the Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills Golf Course, 1415 North Mill Avenue, Tempe. Guests are welcome to attend.

Garth will be leaving the San Diego North loft soon to take a promotion to the Boston loft, where he’ll work under JB Braun, the designer for the Oracle America’s Cup effort. Braun is in charge of the aero for Oracle’s new 72-foot boat.

For this meeting, Garth has gotten North to offer a discount on sails for AYC only. You’ll receive a 10% discount on one-design sails purchased within 7 days of his presentation. Normally those sails are put on sail only in September. Here’s a list of all the one-design fleets covered by the offer.

Describing sail design during last year's AYC meeting.

A gaggle of geese check out Martin Lorch on board the 34-foot boat.

Martin Lorch took us on a seven-day tour of the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada, at the next membership meeting, Tuesday, April 10.

The scenery is as spectacular as the pictures suggest. Martin put us on board a 34’ Beneteau, departing from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, BC. From there the names and the adventures got even more fascinating: across the Strait of Georgia to the Sunshine Coast, to Secret Cove just north of Sechelt, Pender Harbour, then through the Agamemnon Channel to Egmont and the Skookumchuk Narrows (the mouth to the Sechelt Inlet), then through Saltery Bay, around Hardy Island to Van Anda on Texada Island, and across to Powell River and to Lund, Copeland Island, Bliss Landing which is at the entrance of Desolation Sound. Returning to Nanaimo by way of Scottie Bay on Lasqueti Island, through Sabine Channel, back to Pender Harbour/Garden Bay.

Thank you Martin nfor sharing this extraordinary adventure with us at the April 12 membership meeting!

The Sunshine Coast. What's another word for "breathtaking"?

Anna Tunnicliffe helps ASF high school kids. Photos: Mike Ferring

Accomplished. Humble. Determined. Nice. All Anna Tunnicliffe.

We’re still dazzled that she took time from her Olympic training schedule to come to Arizona to talk with the club. That she even slipped into shorts and stepped onto one of our ASF Laser Radials to spend more than an hour teaching raw beginners a thing or two about roll tacking.

In just two months this world #1-ranked women’s match racer will know whether her team will compete in this summer’s Olympic Games and take a shot at winning her second Olympic gold medal. Tuesday night (3/13) she posed with dozens of us holding that first gold medal and talked about the race that won it—a race that began by turning around to restart after she thought she might have been OCS (on course side), one where she picked the wrong side of the course for the wind, where a shift suddenly vaulted her into medal position, where she sat still on her boat during the final leg to avoid being called for a Rule 41 (propulsion) violation and held her breath to the finish, where she flew into the water in celebration, but only felt the joy and weight of the accomplishment after she sat alone in her hotel room that night, crying after having achieved a dream that took so much effort and concentration.

Anna coaches roll-tacking.

Now she drills with coach Dave Dellenbaugh and teammates Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi on an Elliot 6 meter, a boat she describes as being hugely physical, getting fully-powered-up in 8-10 knots of breeze and then demanding a crew that will fight her to keep her moving. Anna is clearly up to the job physically. She’s rock hard and toned. And she matches it mentally: she’s focused and determined (one of her four “Ds” that keeps her driving).

After saying good night to the AYC audience Tuesday night, she headed off for a brief night of rest and a 4:30 airplane back to Florida and more time on the water. Thanks, Anna. It was a fabulous few hours.

Go here for quick donations to Anna’s Olympic campaign, or here for tax-deductible contributions, or here to keep track of her exploits.

The Bucc Bunch at the AYC meeting: Matt Davis, Cindy Pillote, Brenda Shears (with the gold medal), Anna (with the burgee), and Emory Heisler.

Anna Tunnicliffe in action. Photo: John Payne

Our March speaker has a sailing resume that starts off this way: #1 Ranked Women’s Match Racer.

Scroll down to read about her latest honors: ISAF World Sailor of the Year (her second) and, in an award presented February 23, US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year (a record-tying fourth). Click on that link to watch the ceremony. Then there’s the Olympic Gold Medal from 2008 for Laser Radial.

Oh, and she’s terrific person. The sort of person who gives away all those flashy Rolex watches she won to parents and teammates.

Anna Tunnicliffe will be our speaker for the Arizona Yacht Club membership meeting at 7 pm, Tuesday, March 13, at the Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills Golf Course, 1415 North Mill Avenue, Tempe. Guests are welcome to attend.

This summer, Anna will compete in the Olympics in Weymouth, England, with teammates Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi in match racing on Elliott 6m boats.

Born in England, Anna’s parents moved to the U.S. when she was 12 and she began sailing on Lake Erie, proving to be a natural. She competed for Old Dominion in college and then focused on sailing in the Olympics, bringing home to the U.S. the first women’s gold medal in sailing in 20 years.

The traditional trophy-smacking shot. Photo: Daniel Foster

"Windshift" in Kuntze Inlet

Wonder what it would be like to cruise the coast of Alaska? Al and Sandy Lehman lived that adventure and offered the stories and pictures at the February membership meeting: North to Alaska: 12 Years Cruising the Inside Passage.

The Alaska trips probe the rough, beautiful and unpopulated country, as if stepping into an age when the world didn’t operate on Internet time. People who live in the small villages along the way put up with extreme conditions: Al described how the frozen winters are constant dark overcast and how average rainfall is more than 180 inches. Many of the people have to travel dozens of miles for supplies.

The picture is of Lehman’s sailboat Windshift, but they later switched to making the trips by trawler.

All the women in the big Valentine’s Day crowd got a rose and a box of candy for joining their AYC friends at the meeting.

Because the 2012 AYC Birthday Regatta and Leukemia Cup is the following weekend, there will be no program for the Tuesday night (1/10) membership meeting. Come tip a beer with your pals. Giggle. Tell stories. But there’s no program.

At 6pm, the AYC Fleet Captains will meet to consider the documents for the Spring Race Series. If you’d like to see any changes to the racing, check with your Fleet Captain before the meeting.

The program schedule resumes in February. And in March (wow), we’ll hear from the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year, Anna Tunnicliffe. Yes, the 2008 Laser Radial Olympic Gold Medalist. The helmsperson for US entry in women’s match racing for next summer’s Summer Olympics in Weymouth, England. If you attend only one membership meeting this year, make it this one.

Pat Favier displays one of the bottles of Bailey's that was later "picked." Photos: Mike Ferring

Liquor once again proved to be the hot item at the Buccaneer Gift Exchange Tuesday night, December 13.

With an excellent turnout and a heaping table of gifts, the social decibel level was at max most of the night. Two “thefts” of open presents was the rule and while the thievery began slowly, it was still rippling through the crowd as the evening ended—mostly bottles of spirits changing hands. Pat Favier managed what was probably the night’s heaviest thievery traffic, owing to her ability to spot the hot presents on the table, including two bottles of Bailey’s Irish Cream. Other top picks to pick: A classic boat lantern and a model sailboat.

Mike Parker also guided the group through the semi-annual Ye Blunder Bucket voting, “won” by Ray Gazzera. Rob Gibbs waved photo evidence of Ray’s Blunder: His Catalina 22 sitting bow up, stern down, still on its trailer, when Ray failed to secure the trailer hitch. Ray is a Blunder Bucket nominee many times over, but this is his first actual “victory.” In fact, Ray had been nominated so many times that in 2007 we awarded him an honorary “Life Achievement” Blunder Bucket.

What, more booze?

Gene Walentiny nominates Bob Worrall for a Blunder Bucket. Bob nominates him back.

Lots of excellent presents for the annual party.

Katherine Motil checks out the choices.

Race Officer Peter "Luigi" Reggio speaking to the November AYC meeting. Photo: Mike Ferring

International Race Officer Peter “Luigi” Reggio says he’s worried about whether the next America’s Cup will go off smoothly or whether there will be enough strong contenders, but he also thinks it’s worth a shot—a reasonable gamble in a sport that could use a bolt of excitement to attract casual fans.

Luigi told a packed room at the November AYC membership meeting that he was worried that the America’s Cup organizers were trying to do too much too fast. And he said he had an uneasy feeling that Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison was trying to stack the game too much in his favor. But he also said he thought the technology and showmanship could advance a sport that doesn’t translate well to television.

Luigi is a rarity among race officers: someone who’s earned his living running races for the last 15 years. He’s done America’s Cup, Louis Vuitton Cup,the  Olympics, and a host of other races from Finns to Melges. During 2008 he says he was so busy running races that he spent only 35 days at his Connecticut home.

Peter Reggio wonders whether the America's Cup will come off as planned.

His winning philosophy: he’s there to serve the sailors. He knows that his job is to provide lots of good races so sailors go away having had a good time on the water.

With the big-time races, sometimes that proves challenging, with commercial and political interests putting pressure on the PRO to put them first. One of those times came during the 2008 Olympics when at the very end of the racing day, organizers demanded that he start the 49er finals even though conditions were terrible and the forecast for the next day was much more favorable. All the 49ers crashed or capsized in rough water and heavy wind, setting off a wave of protests and complaints.

Luigi came to AYC as part of the US Sailing Speaker Series, sponsored by Old Pulteney Single Malt Whiskey. His trip to Phoenix was bracketed by work in Korea and the Canary Islands as he circles the planet running sailboat races.

Coming up: ISAF Sailor of the Year Anna Tunnicliffe tells us she thinks she can make the AYC February meeting!

We have a tentative agreement from Anna Tunnicliffe to be our February speaker at the AYC membership meeting, just as Anna has been awarded her second Rolex ISAF Sailor of the Year honor.

Anna Tunnicliffe and crew round a mark in women's match racing. Photo: US Sailing

The team won the 2010-2011 ISAF Sailing World Cup Championship for women’s match racing and is preparing for the 2012 Olympics in Weymouth, England. Anna won the gold medal in Lasers in the last Olympics.

She was also honored with the ISAF Sailor of the Year trophy in 2009 and is one of three Americans to win the prestigious worldwide award. Fellow Laser Radial sailor and USSTAG teammate Paige Railey won the award in 2006, and Ed Baird, the America’s Cup winning helmsman of Alinghi, won in 2007.

Anna was also 2008, 2009 & 2010 Rolex US Yachtswoman of the Year. More information is available on her website.

Maryellen and Mike Ferring sailed with Anna at the Bitter End Yacht Club Pro-Am and she said that she expected to be able to accept our invitation to speak to the club at the meeting on Tuesday, February 14.

Peter “Luigi” Reggio is one of the top race officers in the world and certainly the most entertaining. In fact, he confesses, “I’m  probably a little too honest with what I say.”

Perfect! Just what we need for a lively AYC membership meeting and Luigi will be our guest speaker for the Tuesday (11/8) gathering, starting promptly at 7pm at the Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills (previously known as the 19th Tee).

AYC November speaker Peter "Luigi" Reggio

He comes to us as part of the US Sailing Speaker Series, accompanied by a tasting of Old Pulteney Single Malt Whiskey, for those so inclined.

Why “Luigi”? He told Sailing World magazine: “There were five guys on the floor named Peter when I worked at North Sails-Connecticut in the 1970s. I got Luigi because of my last name. The  [nicknames] for the other four are unprintable.” His has stuck through nearly four decades of sailing experience, including serving as the Principal Race Officer for a host of national and world events, including the America’s Cup. But what about that AC job?

He told the members of the Golden Gate Yacht Club in April, “[In past AC races] they’d leave the starting line and speed test [to the windward mark] for seven minutes. That’s just boring, I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how boring an AC race is to run anyway. Well, 3½ mile beat! Snore.”

So Luigi is part of the brain trust coming up with a far more exciting plan. Here’s another quote from that same GGYC meeting: “What we did was set a windward mark and give them… two minutes upwind, round to starboard, set [spinnaker], and you have to jibe instantly to get back to the starting line. There’s a lot of stuff going on! They’ve got three or four minutes of the entry, that’s going on, they go upwind, they get there together—I guarantee you in two minutes they’re going to get to the top mark together—then they spin around and have a crash jibe which is usually really spectacular, especially in catamarans—when things go bad it’s kinda cool… The person watching TV is like, ‘Maybe something else bad will happen, maybe I’ll stick around.’”

If you saw the video from the AC45 World Series in Plymouth, you know it was anything but “just boring.” I think you can tell something from this little taste of Luigi. Anything but boring!

Peter Isler points out where Rambler's keel should be. Photos: Mike Ferring

(Note: Video excerpt of Peter’s talk available at the bottom of this post.)

Out of air, swimming madly, spotting two black dots, hoping they were a crewman’s boots, reaching for them. Snatched from the water, gasping for the best breath of air he’d ever had. It was Peter Isler’s watery escape from the huge monohull racing boat Rambler after her keel suddenly snapped off during heavy seas in the Fastnet, plunging to the bottom, unbalancing and turtling the boat in minutes.

Peter recounted the story in dramatic detail for the AYC membership meeting Tuesday night (10/11) before a packed house. The Rambler crew all survived, but it was clear from Peter’s description that there were several close calls and some of the crew might have been saved by a timely photograph. A photograph? Moments before the crash, a photographer took a scheduled shot of the crew on the rail, all properly lined up in PFDs. Even though everyone was supposed to wear PFDs on deck, it didn’t always happen. The picture did it.

Peter autographs his new book.

Many in the room full of AYCers went home after the meeting clutching an autographed copy of Peter’s latest book, Peter Isler’s Little Blue Book of Sailing Secrets, a collection of random thoughts, recollections and suggestions from a life at sail. Here’s a guy who was the best college sailor in the country during his time at Yale, hanging out with people like Stan Honey, last year’s Rolex Yachtsman of the Year. He was onboard as Dennis Connor brought the America’s Cup back from Australia and has been part of four Cup campaigns since. He’s announced for ESPN and Versus Cup broadcasts. He’s participated in a Volvo around-the-world campaign. He’s helped develop the leading software for competition sailing. He’s written several books. And now he’s in demand as a motivational speaker. That’s some kind of life at sail.

Next month: another star attraction will appear at the AYC membership meeting, Tuesday, November 15, at 7pm at the Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills. Peter “Luigi” Reggio, one of the world’s top race officers and easily the funniest and most outspoken.

The Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills was filled with AYC people.

Here’s a portion of Peter’s talk, shot and edited by Mike Ferring:

Peter was the navigator aboard Rambler 100 when it lost its canting keel and rolled over, sending its crew into the icy water. All were rescued.

Before the Fastnet turtle, Peter was better known for being a five-time America’s Cup contender, including a two-time winner on Stars & Stripes. Sailing fans will recognize his face and voice from his television commentary of the America’s Cup on ESPN and Versus.

He’s in demand as a sailing, business and motivational speaker. And he’s written several books, including his latest, Peter Isler’s Little Blue Book of Sailing Secrets, which was excerpted in the latest Sailing World magazine. You’ll find more on Peter’s background on his website.

This should be one of the most-attended meetings of the year, so arrive early!

Join us Tuesday 9/13!  Some of AYC’s most experienced, longtime members will be in the spotlight for September’s membership meeting, Tuesday, September 13 at 7pm at the newly-named Caddy Shack @  Rolling Hills (same place as always but with a new name), 1415 N Mill Ave., Tempe.

The club has been big and active nearly all of its 53 years and you’ll enjoy tapping into the stories from those earlier days, including some decidedly Blunder Bucket-worthy events.

Professional photographer Tim George records longtime AYC members reminiscing about earlier days of the club. Photo: Mike Ferring

In March we gathered seven of the club’s veterans around a picnic table and asked them to reminisce. We recorded the conversation on HDTV video and I’ve now edited the digits down to about 11 minutes of the choicest nuggets. We’ll play the recording and then let the crowd try to deny it all.

This is a great opportunity for newer members to tap into the history of the club, to learn about what came before and to appreciate what these people did to keep sailing vibrant in the middle of the desert.

Would you like to know how to launch your boat with the trailer still attached? Like some tips on how to attract the attention of law enforcement while boating?

Maricopa County Deputy Sheriff John Ramsay has seen it all in his 25 years of lake duty and he’ll bring a bag load stories, both comical and serious, when he joins us for the next AYC membership meeting, Tuesday, August 9, starting promptly at 7pm, back at our regular gathering spot, the place formerly known as the 19th Tee in Tempe.

Not only does Deputy Ramsay have vast experience with the craziness on our local lakes, but he also trains others to deal with it. He’s one of just 25 officers nationally to be certified to train lawmen on the water.

“Formerly known as”? Yes, the new owner of the restaurant has changed the name to “Caddy Shack @ Rolling Hills.” We stopped by today to see how it was going and found they’re deep into remodeling, which is expected to be finished by Wednesday. Anyway, they say they’ll be ready for us this time.

September’s meeting: Some of the club’s longtime members talk about what it used to be like. We’ve produced a video with several of them telling stories and we expect to have some of them there to swear that it’s all true.

Also coming up: We have confirmation that Peter Isler will speak at our October meeting!

Trying to find it?  Here’s some help!

Caddy Shack Restaurant
Rolling Hills Golf Course
1415 North Mill Avenue
Tempe, AZ 85281-1205 (map)

New Meeting Place Tuesday. We’ll meet at the Fiesta Inn in Tempe, 2100 S Priest Drive, just south of Broadway. Go to the main lobby and Maryellen Ferring  will guide you to the room.

We’ll have four dinner choices available, each for $13 including tax and tip: hamburger or club sandwich with choice of fries or fruit or a Cobb salad or Caesar salad with chicken. Cash bar with beer, wine, and soft drinks.

Why? The 19th Tee has changed operators and won’t be ready for us. We can return in August.

Our special speaker: North Sails designer Garth Reynolds, who will show us how to sail faster and higher.

Garth will explain how he sculpts a sail and how North tests it to know whether it will really be faster than the others out there. He’ll dissect the characteristics that make a sail fast and reveal what you can do to improve your boat’s sail shape. Result: go faster and point higher.

Garth brings us a rich background of engineering and sailing, including a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Florida, where he sailed on the school’s top-20-ranked sailing team. He’s been with North Sails for three years and right now he’s working to design sails for several Olympic teams for the 2012 London Olympics. He also actively races with several classes, including Snipe, 505, J/24, Melges 24, Viper 640, J/80, Thistle and Interclub.

Because of the location change, we’ll postpone the planned ice cream social and root beer floats.

Maryellen & Mike Ferring

Almost 70 people responded to a survey we put together to figure out how members would like to receive word of meetings, events, and news about our club. Thanks for helping out!

Here are some headline results:

• E-mails are the best way to get the word out. An overwhelming number of respondents said they wanted a club e-mail to tell them what’s happening.
• The Yahoo list is a good supplement to the members-only e-mails, especially for nonmembers, of course. We now have about 390 people who receive the Yahoo e-mails. And the Yahoo respondents said they were happy with what they get from the list, even with the sometimes snarky debates that can pop up there.
• Most people check the AYC website for information, though they’re not always happy with how it works or how it looks. Your comments are in the hands of Webmeister Rob Gibbs to guide him in tweaks. Already: The calendar includes more information, including start times of races.

Also: I’ve just gotten confirmation that Garth Reynolds will be able to make our next membership meeting, Tuesday, July 12 at 7pm.

Garth is a one-design sails expert at North Sails in San Diego. He plans to offer a program like the one he just gave to 85 people at the San Diego Yacht Club, with lots of give-and-take about how they tune sails to make them just that much faster than their (and your) competition.

Maryellen is also planning to make this an ice cream social, with root beer floats and sundaes. Try the float with a dash of Jack. Mmmm.

We’ll be starting precisely at 7pm at the 19th Tee in Tempe (1915 N Mill Ave).

And, get ready for a year of top-rated speaker entertainment, including multi-America’s Cup dude Peter Isler; the high-personality act of Peter Reggio, famed America’s Cup Principal Race Officer (PRO); and Laser Olympic Gold Medalist, twice Rolex yachtswoman-of-the-year and ISAF Sailor of the Year Anna Tunnacliffe. Anna is preparing for a match racing challenge at the 2012 Olympic games and is fresh off victories in England and Germany.

Cheers,

Mike Ferring – Rear Commodore

Maryellen Ferring plays Alex Trebeck in front of the AYC crowd at the June membership meeting. Ten teams vied for prizes by answering sailing questions. Photo: Mike Parker

Sailors ate limes to prevent scurvy, right? Michael Bernard won the AYC Laser fleet this year, right? Right. And if you got those right, you were cheering Tuesday night (6/14) when your team faced off against 9 others to score some prizes at the AYC membership meeting.

Maryellen and Mike Ferring brought the questions and some high-tech gear to simultaneously score 10 teams on 21 sailing questions—and mostly to have a good time on Family Fun Night. 

It was a close finish, with the “Spinnaker” team of David Rawstrom, Mike Parker, Tony Eanes, and Mary Kay Farrington Lorch squeaking out a two-point victory.

In the night’s other contest, Dominic and Marek Sycamore (ages 11 and 9) walked off with the biggest prizes and the biggest smiles after correctly identifying more Opti boat parts than the other kids in the room. Dominic clutched an iPod Shuffle and Marek an LED headlight. 

It was enough fun that the crowd of 65+ chattered into the evening against a video backdrop of Australian Skiffs committing mayhem in Sydney Harbor. 

Join us next month, July 12^th, for a “new twist” on the Ice Cream Social!

          Mike Ferring – Rear Commodore 

Join us for Arizona Yacht Club Family Night at the June meeting.

Where: Rolling Hills 19th Hole - 1415 N. Mill Ave. Tempe, AZ 85281 • (480) 350-5275 (across from Salt River Project)
When: 6pm Social Hour, 7pm Program

Here’s the plan:
- Tuesday – June 14th – meeting starts promptly at 7:00 pm
- Everyone under 16 receives a T-Shirt
- Name the Opti Boat Part Game for those under 10 – no help from parents
- Join in the fun with a group game; each team of 4 or 5 people with at least one member under 16 as a participant
- We’ll test your sailing knowledge with interactive games with PRIZES for the top two teams….DON’T MISS IT!!!!

And then….enjoy some WILD sailing videos and then we’ll call it a night

Watch for details on Ice Cream Social Night in July.  Ever tried a root beer float with Jack Daniel’s?

MIKE FERRING - Rear Commodore

We had a great celebration with almost 60 attendees, and lots of fun watching photos of ASF students practicing capsize drills and making fun of each other in our semi-annual Blunder Bucket award selection process.

The Board and Members of AYC would like to take this moment to recognize our long time members, the people and families that have built the club we all have to share and celebrate!

THANK YOU AYC for “Paying it forward!” “Paying it back!” And “Staying the course!”

50+ Year AYC Members
Frank & Mary Lou Bigelow 52
Roger & Paula Hocken 51

40-49 Year AYC Members
Charles McCoy 49
Joe Aneta & “Punkie” Rowe 46
Donald Hubele 45
Donald DeFreze 44
John & Jackie Lugo 44
Bill Jennings 44
Thomas & Rose Marie Gilb 44
Jack & Harriet Haskell 40

30-39 Year AYC Members
Robert & Suzanne Frazier Jr. 37
Robert & Melanie Ball 37
Dennis & Linda Lynde 37
Anthony & Karen Zelenak 37
Jim & Katherine Swartz 37
Dan Schott 36
Al & Sandy Lehman 36
Ronald & Diane Campo 35
Joyce Alverson 34
Pat & Janet Guthrie 33
Jerry & Marty Booher 33
Tom & Carol Ohlin Sr 32
Wayne & Dotty Tucker 32

20-29 Year AYC Members
Arthur K. & Jean Carlson 29
Joseph & Linda Laux,Jr. 28
Patty Rosky 26
Charles & Deborah Fife 26
Frank & Margaret Putman 26
Michael & Teresa Easley 24
June H. Ginall 24
George & Carol Sheller 24
Tom Errickson 23
Mike Champlin 23
Ricky & Susan Gilchrist 23
Paul & Teresa L Pinter, Jr. 23
Al & Christina Lehman 22
Larry & Debra Green 22
Steve & Angela Nahkala 22
Michael Yarnell 22
Tia Renshaw 22
Dan & Sheila Rinder 21
Bill & Angela Hutchinson 20
J. Stephen & Lucy Howell 20
Jim & Paula Douglas 20

10-19 Year AYC Members
Raymond & Marjorie Gazzera 19
Jo & Dale Mogle 18
Robert & Joyce Worrall 18
Edward & Reiko Lynch Jr. 18
Rick Johnson 17
Thomas Coury 16
David Cummings 16
George & Barbara Tingom 16
Tom & Sheryl West 16
John & Kristine Wilcox 15
Patrick & Marsha Blumm 15
Peter & Lindamarie Schweizer 15
Skip & Christy Kempff 15
Roger Butterwick 14
George & Barbara Irwin 14
Darrell Carapetyan 14
Dennis Martinelli 14
Sheila Reed 14
Cyrus & Joan Zittle 14
David Cummings 14
Michael T & Tracy L Ewens 14
Jason & Brenda Rziha 14
Hartley & Lesley Gardner 14
10-13 Year AYC Members!
Steve Groce 13
Mark Mollison 13
Chris Robertson 13
James & Elaine Batz 13
Robert Nesbit 12
Larry & Kathleen Wheaton 12
Rusty & Jill Keagle 12
Todd Schiller 12
Mike & Maryellen Ferring 11
Brett Bigelow 11
Dale & Jean Zobel 11
Diana Johns 11
Steve & Jan Dolter 11
Mark & Jean Lasee 10
David & Carol Rawstrom 10
Kyle Clark 10
Travis & Jennifer Kenyon 10
Dave & Wendy Christensen 10
Ed Lindow 10
Ben Doane 10
Andrew Jody Dean 10
Steve Kusic 10

THANK YOU AYC for “Paying it forward!” “Paying it back!” And “Staying the course!”

PHILIP FREEDMAN

The Perfect Day with Mark Reynolds;

So here I am in the desert away from the ocean and yet I am spending more time around sailing than I have in the last ten years. Coaching the Arizona State Sailing Team and learning about sailing in the desert has been something very special for me, but when I heard Mark Reynolds was coming to speak to our yacht club the wheels of time stopped.  25 years ago I was racing against Mark trying to make the US Olympic Team, and now, here he was coming out here to visit us in the Arizona desert!

Mark Reynolds is simply the sailor’s sailor, as pure as it gets. Two Gold Medals, one Silver Medal and four trips to the Olympics.  He is definitely one of the “big boys” of sailing.

On Tuesday April 12^th  my daughter Carina and I picked up Mark at the airport and brought him to the Tempe Town Lake marina where the ASU sailing team was waiting. The kids were thrilled – and a little nervous - to meet him. He spoke about his college sailing experiences and answered questions for almost an hour.

He explained the importance of having the boat ready to race including the sanding down to 600, polishing and finally the coating, and explained how hard the jib works and how it gets three times more wear than mainsail.

We took photos with everyone showed him the ASU campus and then were off to dinner with AYC Commodore Joe Motil and his wife. Over the course of dinner it became very clear how surprised Mark was at the active sailing community we have here. He said he had no idea this much sailing was going on in Arizona.

At the yacht club meeting Mark spoke for over an hour and you just knew that this was something very special. I have never watched everyone so on the edge of their seats at a club meeting. He talked about the Olympics, about working and sailing with his dad and Dennis Connor, Malin Burnham, Lowell North and many other stars of our sport.

It was especially interesting and exciting hearing how after being in eighth place after two days of racing in the 2000 Olympics he was still able to turn it around and win gold. Persistency wins!

Mark attributes much of his success to his sail design innovations and one of his loves is still sail making.  He also remains active in the Star Class working with the International Olympic Committee to keep the Star Class sailboat in the Olympics.

After his presentation Mark took questions and signed posters for the kids, and it was truly breathtaking to see one of the great stars of sailing right there in the room with us all at that moment.  Mark Reynolds at the Arizona Yacht Club.  Truly we do have an amazing club, and for me, with all of you and Mark together, it was simply a perfect day.