Spr ing Newsletter (June 2021) 50 Year s of Ser ving our Com m uni ty! Banner /Right: The boat that star ted it all - the 12 Meter Intrepid. A tw o-time defender of the Amer ica's Cup in 1967 & 1970, Intrepid was pur chased by a syndicate of Seattle ar ea sailor s w ho mounted their ow n challenge for the 1974 Amer ica's Cup. On June 17, 1971, The Sailing Foundation was officially incor por ated to provide funding for this effor t. Intr epid nar row ly lost the tr ials to defend the Auld Mug, but her effor ts w er e har dly unsuccessful, especially w hen consider ing the lasting impact that The Sailing Foundation has made in our r egion. Bottom : The Sailing Foundation boar d is still meeting r emotely for the time being. Cur r ent boar d includes (L to R): John Vynne (Kirkland), Andr ew Nelson (Tacoma), Dick Rose (Seattle), Pr esident Dave When Intrepid was sold, the proceeds wer e used to star t an Ruther for d (Seattle), Ryan Helling (Seattle), Haley endow ment for The Sailing Foundation. Over time, this Lhamon (Bainbr idge), Er in Timms (Olympia), Burke endow ment was used to fund a number of differ ent Thomas (Or cas Island), and Matt Hebar d initiatives. It helped fund the Olympic dr eams of sever al (Bainbr idge). Not pictur ed: Margar et Pommer t Seattle ar ea sailor s, some of whom went on to w in gold (Seattle), Scott Wilson (Bellingham), Br endan Fahey medals. It also helped establish a Thistle fleet in Por t (On a boat), Wr ight Wataoka (Seattle), and Bar r y Tow nsend dur ing the 1980's and, mor e r ecently, funded tr avel Cur tin (Seattle). r equests from ar ea high school and college teams. Today, This dedicated group puts in a lot of effor t behind mor e of our r esour ces ar e focused on introducing a new the scenes. Special r ecognition and thanks to gener ation to the spor t of sailing. Advocacy, scholar ships, and outgoing Pr esident, Dave Ruther for d. Dave has been suppor t of local youth sailing progr ams is a major par t of our at the helm of the Foundation for the past decade cur r ent mission. and has guided our organization through a Boating safety has always been another cor ner stone of our significant tr ansfor mation dur ing his tenur e. organization. The Sailing Foundation was a pioneer in developing the Safety at Sea seminar. After a tr agic accident in Puget Sound, our Safety at Sea committee conducted the r esear ch and development that would produce the Lifesling, a life-saving cr ew over boar d r ecover y product that has yet to be sur passed in ter ms of simplicity and efficiency. We ar e as committed as ever to the "advancement of sailing in the Pacific Nor thwest." With the suppor t and generosity of the entir e sailing community, we hope to ser ve our spor t well for the next fifty year s. w w w.thesailingfoundation.or g An Update fr om our Dir ector ber ths for confer ence champions. The r emainder of teams Recor d num ber of instr uctor s cer ti fied (Apr il- June) selected to nationals w ill be chosen using a new at- large This year we conducted ten Level One cour ses across As we tur n the cor ner on COVID-19, w e'r e gear ing up for an qualification system. This includes a selection committee WA/OR, which certified just shy of 100 new sailing instr uc- epic summer sailing season. Sailing camps ar e sold out, and an ongoing r anking index which weighs elite r egattas, tor s! This is par tially due to the fact that we only r an two US summer r egatta r egistr ations ar e coming in at a steady r ate, gener ally concentr ated on the East Coast, mor e heavily. To Sailing Smallboat Level One cer tification cour ses in the and the biggest youth r acing clinic of the summer , WIND put it bluntly, the hill just got even steeper and we'r e in flip- Nor thwest dur ing 2020. The Level One is the universal Clinic, sold out just 30 minutes after r egistr ation opened! flops walking on ball bear ings. Bottom line? Ever yone is eager to get back out on the wa- teaching cr edential that youth sail ing camps/classes gener - ter ! Her e is what we've been up to the past few months... NWICSA Leader ship, which includes me as the Confer ence ally r equir e their instr uctor s to have. Big thanks to fellow Commissioner , has come to the unanimous decision that tr ainer Chr is Stock ar d for teaching six of those cour ses! Wi nter Webi nar Ser ies (Febr uar y-Mar ch) joining the Pacific Coast Confer ence (PCCSC), which in- It's not unr easonable for a Level One instr uctor to teach 40- For seven weeks, I r an tw o w ebinar s a w eek. One tailor ed cludes colleges in Califor nia and Hawaii, is in the best in- 50 students a summer. That means as many as 5,000 kids to coaching/r acing and the other tailor ed to progr am man- ter est of our student athletes and long ter m health of our w ill lear n to sail better and mor e safely this summer be- agement. Topics r anged from pow er boating safety, to ma- teams. This w ill incr ease the number of available competi- cause of our instr uctor cer tification effor ts. Photo: Sarah Hanavan r ine weather , to fundr aising. It was a lot of w ork and after - tive pathways and hopefully r evitalize college sailing on the war ds, I have a sincer e appr eciation for all the teacher s GiveBIG Success (May) West Coast by cr eating mor e viable r egular season compe- NWYRC Sum m er Ser ies is now Published! w ho had to teach over Zoom this past year. Big thanks to Once again, we par ticipated alongside hundr eds of other tition between Pac- 12 schools, and other schools like UC the special guests and panelists that joined me and helped local char ities for GiveBIG. Our boar d member s put up Santa Bar bar a and Cal Mar itime, which both have strong We'r e tr ying out a slightly modified NWYRC r egatta sched- make it a success. These include Jeff Renner , Bl aine Ped- $2500 of matching funds, which was exceeded by our com- sailing teams. ule this summer due to COVID-19. It includes two develop- l ow , Matt Thom pson, Jen Gui m aer as, and Peter Dr ur y. munity of suppor ter s who donated $3,706 through the Ther e ar e still a lot of details to work out, but we'r e hopeful ment r egattas to star t the ser ies, plus a Bemis/Smythe qau- Recor dings available on r equest if you missed it. GiveBIG website. A big thank you to ever yone who donated! that by fall some Nor thwest schools w ill be accepted into lifier that w ill count towar ds the NWYRC ser ies standings. No matter the size of your contr ibution it is appr eciated, the PCCSC and that over the next year or two the r emaining Other non-NWYRC events include a US Sail ing Jr. Women's and when we all give together it adds up! If you missed Nor thwest teams follow suit. For many of us ther e's a lot of Regional Clinic/Regatta in Olympia and the USODA Opti Fr i ends of the Sailing Foundati on For m ed (Mar ch) GiveBIG, but would still like to make a donation, please visit nostalgia associated w ith NWICSA, but college sailing has Nor thwest Championships. Visit w w w.nw youthsail ing.or g An exciting new development for us is the for mation of a our website w w w.thesailingfoundation.or g. changed a lot in the last decade or two, and our confer ence for mor e info. We'r e ex cited to see a lot of new faces this new par ent booster group to aid us in our fundr aising ef- r eally hasn't. At the youth and high school level we'r e summer in addition to many familiar ones! for ts. Dubbed the "Fr iends of the Sailing Foundation," this chur ning out tons of talent. We ultimately want to make group is being led by our new est boar d member , Er in Major Changes for College Sail ing (Ongoing) college sailing in the Nor thwest attr active, so that we can Ti m m s, and includes approximately a dozen par ents from College sailing might not get as much pr ess as other aspects r etain a gr eater por tion of that talent. Recr uitment and r e- around the Puget Sound. Fr iends ar e playing a major role of youth sailing, but it's vital to the over all health of our tention ar e a har d sell when competitive oppor tunities and in or ganizing our 50th Anniver sar y Auction (see back sailing ecosystem.