SF sailors prepare for GGYC’s Seaweed Soup Series

by Michelle Slade on 26 Oct 2007
With the legal showdown between Alinghi & BMW Oracle Racing all around us, it was refreshing to talk to Gary Salvo, Race Director at the GGYC for the past 4-5 years and long before the current shenanigans began.

In a routine interview with Gary for the GGYC club newsletter, it occurred to me that perhaps others would like to know what really goes on back home at the GGYC on San Francisco Bay. It’s all very humble stuff really – stuff that attests to this club’s charter as a real sailing club.

I chatted to Gary about the club’s summer regattas and the GGYC’s upcoming winter series, possibly the largest and best-attended winter series held on the Bay. He told me that the GGYC’s mid-winters start November 3 and race through March, held on the first Saturday of each month. With NOR’s already posted entries are coming in and GGYC members are gearing up to take part.

Salvo explained why sailors love the series, 'We usually have 80 to 100 boats register, so it’s our largest regatta and usually well attended. We run 5 races, with one throw-out. As it’s held in the winter months we usually need courses that will stand up to the different wind variations that we get on the Bay in the winter months but that’s why people like it.'

Salvo lets out a laugh as he continued, 'It’s almost an unusual way to sail around the Bay as it’s not the general westerlies that we get but northeasterlies and southerlies so we get different courses. After the races people come up to the club and we have a sailors buffet for the attendees, and for the last race we have a trophy presentation with trophies for all the different fleets. We’ve had up to 11 fleet starts – one design and PHRF rated boats. It’s our big hitter for the year.'

The GGYC has been running the winter series, known as the Manuel Fagundes Seaweed Soup Regatta, for 37 years. 'We’re good at it now,' enthused Salvo. 'It was started by a past commodore and general manager whose name was Manuel Fagundes, hence the name. He used to make a beef soup at the club and the day pilots would stop by and partake of the soup on their way in or out of the Bay on a cold day. They called it seaweed soup after a while. It’s got some history to it so it’s got to be meaningful to the younger guys too.'

Salvo paused for a bit and as an afterthought added, 'Sailboat racing is affected by a lot of things including economics and other factors which affect how good your participation is in any particular year however this is generally a well attended event.'

Backtracking to this past summer, Salvo talked some about the GGYC season highlights. The club’s summer season is primarily its Friday night beer can series which is not a real competitive event according to Salvo. But he was quick to counter that with, 'anytime you have two sailors next to each other there’s competition going on'.

Salvo described the racing as pretty casual and laid-back, 'We try to keep it that way. We discourage protests and we just want people to have fun. It’s kind of an un-wind race for after a week of hard work. We want people to come into the club, take it easy, have a bite to eat. We do a trophy presentation every race. Turnout has been about the same for the past 4 or 5 years I’ve been involved as race director. We get about 25 registered boats for the whole series of 9 races. It really depends on the wind on any given Friday night as to how many we have turn out. We may start with as few as 6 boats or as many as 15. The city front is pretty boisterous in the summer and a lot of people don’t like to get beaten up after a work week. Our old timers love it – they swear by our Friday nights.'

GGYC’s 2007 summer beer can series begin on the 2nd Friday of May and go through to last week of August or first week in September, with racing every other week This year the series was won by a J105, One Trick Pony, skippered by Chris Boome, a member of the neighboring St FYC. Boome was the series winner, acing the series with eight bullets.

Salvo noted several of the long time club regulars who always support their beer can races, including past Commodore Doug Carroll racing on Crazy Jane, a Thunderbird – an old woody built-for-the-bay boat. Maurice Quillen races on his 30ft’er Snafu and took a third place in this year, while Bright Winn always participates on his 30 ft Coronado called. Winn took a 4th place this summer.

And kudos to Salvo for pulling off a new regatta this season, the Ruth Gordon Schnapp Regatta held on Saturday Oct 13. This was a women-only skippered event to benefit the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. 9 boats registered and 8 boats sailed in 2 classes – spinnaker and non-spinnaker. Schnapp is a long time member of the club and now in her 80’s. She was the first woman sailor to sail in a YRA sanctioned race on the Bay. She & her husband bought their first boat in 1949 and Schnapp still has a Spaulding 33 that she & her husband built some years back. While she didn’t race this inaugural regatta named in her honor, she still made it club to watch with her 2 daughters. Results on website.

While Salvo said he fell short of his goal to have 10 to 12 boats participate, he’s confident that with some rescheduling the regatta will grow. 'For a first time race for something that’s really restrictive as far as skippers go, we did pretty well and we’re going to hold it again next year but a little earlier. We’re just experimenting to see how we do with it. It’s brand new for us and at that time of the year – Sept/Oct – is cancer awareness so we want to tie all that in together.'

The highlights of this past season for Race Director Salvo?

'Our trophy presentation on the last night of the summer season was really well attended. The race committee received lots of thanks for their volunteer work and putting on the regatta. We had people stand up and give some heart felt thanks for everything that the volunteers did from the race deck and I was thrilled with that. Then, during the Ruth Gordon Schnapp event I looked out at one point and we had a whole race deck of women surrounding the honoree Ruth Gordon Schnapp while pictures were being taken with she and her daughters – they were outstanding moments for me.'

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