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Why the SSS is unique

A

AlanH

compulsive typist
When I was working on the CrossPac I learned something. The SSS is the biggest shorthanded sailing association in the world with the exception of the mini class, in France. It's bigger, in terms of numbers of boats and people that sail with us regularly, than Petit Bateu in England...it's bigger than the SSAA in Australia. It's a lot bigger than the shorthanded Kiwi organization. It's bigger than the Great Lakes groups, and so on. It's lots bigger than the SoCal group, or the group on Puget Sound.

This doesn't mean we're "better" or have some sort of perceived high and mighty status. There are other shorthanded races that have bigger entrant lists than the SHTP. For example, the last "amateur" STAR this year, had 34 entrants, though entrants came from all over Europe and the USA. I'm sure the Azores race had more than that. All it means is that there are more people who sail shorthanded with the SSS, around SF Bay and in the SHTP, than there are in any other single concentrated location in the world.

The SSS is the biggest "market group" devoted to shorthanded sailing, in local one place, in North America, and probably the world. But wait a minute...

The thing about the SSS is that we're not all multimillionaires, though we have a few pretty darned well-off guys in our number. You probably don't even know who they are, because really, amongst us, nobody actually gives a rip and these guys don't make any noise about it. Nobody has a million-dollar sponsorship contract. We're just regular guys and gals sailing regular boats and doing amazing things with them.

You know, it used to be like that, all over the world....like in the early 1970's. It' s not, not so much, any more. Where else but the SSS will you find someone racing a Pearson Electra and a Cal 20 over 2200 miles of open ocean, in 2008?

There are no Open 60's in our fleet. There are no Classe 40's....no Figaros II's. We had an Aerodyne 38 for a while, and there's a J-120, and a couple of big Beneteaus. We have some older big boats, a custom Wylie 39 that's a tweaked IOR boat, a Cal 40 and Tiger Beetle, which is surely the pimped-out luxury cruiser of all time, eh Rob? Instead of phenomenally wealthy guys driving the newest thing, we have a bucketload of Express 27's and Moore 24's and a hodgepodge of everything else..

I dig it.

I'd rather sail with you guys, or INSPECT you guys ...working guys and gals with regular boats than sail in a fleet that's 1/20th the size, made up of $300,000 machines and carbon sails with day-glo appliques on them. ANY day.

I don't follow the America's Cup and the newest canting-keeled wonder. I'm bored with the Big Circuit. My eyes used to gleam at the advertisements for Classe 40's and I'd daydream about owning one. I know that it will never happen, I'd have to sell everything I own to run a new Classe 40 for two years. Anything bigger than is so ridiculous that I don't even fantasize about it.

But I follow the LongPac transponder race site, pulling for my friends out there in what I know are incredibly frustrating situations in light air, sailing their regular old every day boats and doing something that most people will never dream of.
 
AlanH said:
When I was working on the CrossPac I learned something.
Click to expand...

Hi Alan -

what was/is the CrossPac?

and Tiger Beetle, which is surely the pimped-out luxury cruiser of all time, eh Rob?
Click to expand...
Pimped? Pimped?!? Beetle doesn't have purple rugs with hot lime green spots, don't have organ-pipe speaker covers on the rear dash, and I detect a total lack of fuzzy dice hanging from the vang. That said, the windows are tinted. No street rodding in San Jose for Beetle...

- rob/beetle
 
What I think is that there needs to be a Mortal Enemy Rivalry here, between Alchera and Tiger Beetle. He that loses today, must hang fuzzy dice from the vang until the next victory!

CrossPac was that race I was trying to cook up, about 6 years ago, from San Francisco to Australia, with stops in Hawaii and Fiji.
 
Truly Unique and Truly High Class and Highly Respected

In many respects, the fame of SSS is in it's consistently high standard for running a professional race. Congratulations to all who have been Race Deck over the years and especially with Max with whom I've had the pleasure of working alongside the past two years as Race Information Officer.

BUT

No one has stepped up to do Race Deck for the next two years.

Everyone has "other things" that they need to do. But if you are benefiting from the camaraderie and "just plain fun" of our races, please volunteer. It's two years of commitment with the heartfelt gratitude of nearly 2500 sailors over your two year tenure as Race Deck. We'll get you CRO training if you need it.
 
Thanks Thom for the kind words.

To clarify and somewhat modify what Thom said, we don't need someone "to do Race Deck" per se. Several people have generously volunteered already to be PRO (Principal Race Officer) for individual races next year. That helps a lot, and the club will need more such offers.

What we need is a Race Chair. Someone to make sure there is a race committee for each race and that the host clubs are expecting us, to maintain the race deck equipment, and to do liaison with YRA and the Coast Guard. And, occasionally, to run the race deck if nobody else steps up. It was a lot of work this year, but a couple of aspects are being streamlined for 2010.

SSS is like any club ... or my homeowners association. At some point, you need to step up and help make it work. Think it over, and PM me if you want more info on the job.

Max
 
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SSS is unique

Hi guys!
Lovely to be back reading all your comments! .... and what AlanH has written is so true - you all make up a great group of people who are simply enjoying sailing with and against each other on whatever boat you can get your mitts on - and you're lucky to be doing it in the Bay area - which is also unique in its variety of terrain, water and weather .... You're all very privileged to have that to enjoy sailing in!! I'm sorely tempted to come visit you all on my way north next year... but maybe you'll be heading SW...?!! Maybe I'll make Hanalei again to see some of you there? That's another unique thing about sailing - nothing is totally predictable! I love it!!

Totally sidetracking - how about organising a trip outside the Gate in December to count the seabirds?? Conservation needs a base of statistics...
Go SeaBC Birding !!
Take some friends with you for a sail or motor for the inaugural "SeaBC" Sea Bird Count! It’s like a Christmas Bird Count (CBC) or Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), but where you count birds at sea. Choose a good weather day in December and count all the birds you see for a few hours or an entire day out at sea or just off the coast somewhere.
The SeaBC was created very recently to raise awareness among long-distance boaters from around the world to record their seabird observations. You may have a landlubber friend who knows birds, team up with them to add to the count!
For additional information, including tally sheets, go to Facebook.com/Birding.Aboard and select "SeaBC/Resources" or email info 'at' birdingaboard.com.
You'll be joining in the first ever worldwide seabird count!!

Good luck ... & good sailing ... and Happy Christmas and New Year to you all!! :)
 
This forum only goes back to 2007. Where is the earlier stuff? Alan? Rob? Ryle? Does anybody know? SKIP?
 
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BobJ said:
It appears to be gone. There's a utility that allows you to retrieve a cached copy or something - maybe someone knows how to do that.

Here's the link I'd saved for posterity:

http://www.sfbaysss.net/forum/showthread.php?398-Link-to-the-old-message-board
Click to expand...


I dug around on some of the old index page material and found this link for the old forum

http://p4.forumforfree.com/sss.html

I believe this was the old message board site. However, if you click on it you get

As part of our ongoing effort to provide all of our users a better online community experience, we have migrated all active ForumForFree boards to an improved, more modern platform, on Yuku.com. After the migrations, a grace period of nearly three months was given to inactive boards to request a migration and preserve the board's data. These servers have been shut down and migration requests can no longer be processed.​

It does not appear that we were able to migrate the old board's posts (going back how far?) to the new board.

For those that wish to root around all the old archived material on sfbaysss.org, have at it!

http://sfbaysss.net/oldsite20131023/
 
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