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It’s always humbling for us to hear people’s hopes and dreams about sailing. From wanting to try something new, to sailing around the world, or anywhere in between. It’s even more heart-warming for us to get messages like this years after students have begun their sailing careers.

Hey! Just a little note: about 5 years ago I took your basic keelboat class with a couple of friends…all of us where curious about how sailing actually worked.

Shortly after that class, I got a little J80 and sailed for a couple of years on an inland lake back home in South Dakota. We purchased a crusing boat last year and my wife and I are now in the early stages of a circumnavigation: we’re in southern Mexico headed for central america shortly.

Just wanted to say thanks for running such a comprehensive class. I feel I know more about sailing than many people who have been sailing for decades. I proudly wear my OCSC hat out and about.

Feel free to check in on us from time to time at www.sailingtooblivion.com. We recommend reading the blogs as they aren’t necessarily typical sailing posts…and say ‘hey’ to Graham and Kate. I hope they are fairing well.

Jeff Kirstein Sioux Falls, SD

If you’ve ever dreamed of sailing around the world, read some of their blog posts. Sometimes, the dream is so much closer than you realize.

OCSC night on the town. Join Anthony & the OCSC crew at this performance. Sophis and his band, Kalbass Kreyol, are good friends of the club and will be performing at the Ashkenoz this Friday.

Where: Ashkenoz, 1317 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley
When: Friday, 6/4/2010,  9:30pm
Cost: $13 door / $10 advance

OCSC burgee presentation at the Master Mariners Sponsor's Luncheon. Photo courtesy of Mariah's Eyes Photography

OCSC SAILING is sponsoring Nautigal this year in the annual Master Mariners Regatta.  The regatta will be held on Saturday, May 29th.  The race will begin off the San Francisco city front (near St. Francis YC) and will finish on the east side of Treasure Island.  This is a great opportunity to see countless beautiful wooden boats racing on the San Francisco Bay.

Dave Benjamin, OCSC Instructor, sail maker and world cruiser, recently pointed out this article by Kimball Livingston about The Olympic Circle. This is a fantastic piece that goes into different aspects of racing around the ”The Circle.” Even if you’re just a casual Bay cruiser, there are a number of insights to be gleaned from this well written article.

On San Francisco Bay the best patch of water for championship racing lies on the eastern reach of the bay. This area is relatively shallow and relatively tide-protected. It is free of the narrow rivers of current and countercurrent found in deeper parts of the bay and clear of the shipping channels. Stars, 505s, Farr 40s and many other classes have raced on the “Olympic Circle” for major titles.

When I say the Olympic Circle is “shallow” I mean shallow enough that the 2009 world champion of the 505 class broke a mast by turning turtle and sticking it. You will hear that this place is windy, but truth to tell, it is rarely so windy as that day long years ago, in an Olympic Trials race, when the great Tom Blackaller lost a Star and declared, “I just sailed it under.” It is a fact, however, that one Star class world championship opened with a score of “sank four, recovered two.”

(There also are perfectly lovely days here, but those days do not the legends make.)

You will hear the locals referring to this area, fronting the cities of Berkeley, Emeryville and Richmond, as the Olympic Circle, the Berkeley Circle, or just “the Circle.”  Circle Speak is a local habit, but these are merely wordings of convenience. Yes, U.S. Olympic Trials have been sailed here, and yes, there is a kinda-sorta circle of buoys that can be used for racing, but championship courses do not use those buoys.  Championship courses employ a larger field of play. You should anticipate start lines placed relatively close to the shore, with upwind legs sailed toward the Golden Gate and a weather mark placed short of the North/South shipping lane. In the chart below, courtesy of the Berkeley Yacht Club, north is up, and the seabreeze comes from the left.

Read the rest of the article…

The Corinthian Yacht Club cordially invites you to join us on Thursday, June 3rd, for an evening with the crew of “Around the Americas”. Please feel free to extend this invitation to all members of your extended community.

On May 31, 2009, an epic journey began in  Seattle. “Sailors for the Sea”, a non-profit organization founded to promote awareness of the condition of our oceans, launched the “Around the Americas” journey aboard the 64′ Ocean Watch. Around the Americas is a 28,000 mile sailing circumnavigation of the American continents with the mission of inspiring, educating and engaging the citizens of the Americas to protect our fragile oceans. Ocean Watch has traveled over 26,000 miles as she closes in on her journey’s end, and the discoveries her crew has made will both inspire and disturb you.

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Last week, a number of engaged and interesting people descended upon OCSC Sailing to enjoy delicious food and listen to fantastic presentations about the deteriorating health of our world’s oceans. The group was treated to very informative reports from John Racanelli of Mission Blue, and Dr. Wallace “J” Nichols of the California Academy of Sciences.

Here are some photos from the night…

Wallace "J Nichols, Jennine Cohen, John Racanelli

OCSC SAILING CEO Rich Jepsen, Jennine Cohen, John Racanelli

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There have been a number of romantic relationships that have blossomed at sea and aboard boats. Here at OCSC, it’s no different. Our congratulations to Keith Murdoch and Kasia Grisso, long time OCSC members, who married two weeks ago, on April 30, 2010 in Berkeley’s Tilden Regional Park. We asked them to share the story of how they met and fell in love here at OCSC and here is what they wrote.

We are delighted to have our mutual love for sailing, and enjoyment of this fabulous sailing school and club, OCSC, bring us together. Although Kasia has been a member of the club since 2000, and Keith since 2003, we didn’t meet until April of 2007! They say there is something to timing and serendipity, and perhaps there is.

Kasia had always wanted to join a charter cruise to Tahiti, or Turkey or some other incredible place. So when a member of the club sent around a note saying she was looking for a female bunkmate to join on a cruise to Tonga, Kasia responded. Kasia and Keith met on a Tonga flotilla checkout cruise in April 2007 (our thanks to Stan Starkey, the skipper, Dianne Strauss, who invited Kassia, and the rest of the crew), and bonded over tea below decks in the rain while moored in Ayala Cove at Angel Island.

Keith offered Kasia a ride to SF that evening, and fate bestowed a rain-filled 2-hr “rush hour” drive on them. Kasia took the opportunity to blow dry her hair with the dash board vents, and after all that cute hair flipping, well the rest as they say, is history! Kasia did not make it to Tonga that fall, but by that time Keith and Kasia were “boyfriend” and “girlfriend”.

Keith says that his bunkmate on that trip wasn’t as pretty, but that’s okay, since he gets to bunk with Kasia for a lot longer than the Tonga cruise!

We are grateful to Anthony and Rich, the instructors, office staff, and our many friends at the club for their support over the years, and for creating an incredible sailing community here on San Francisco Bay that has had us both stick around so long! Now that the craziness of planning a wedding is over, we look forward to getting more time on the water, and enjoying more BBQ’s and events at OCSC!

It’s been a busy month here at OCSC! In addition to having great wind and weather, meeting a ton of new friends during classes and events and, of course, sailing, we’ve also been featured in a number of great local publications. There was a great article by Alameda Magazine that had a number of good interviews with students and staff. There was the mention by 7×7 as a great wind sport destination. And this month’s issue of Adventure Sports Journal has OCSC SAILING on the cover! Woo Hoo!

For more OCSC related news, check out our press room.

There are currently opportunities to own boats in OCSC SAILING’s fleet. If you’re thinking about buying a boat, consider the benefits of having your boat in OCSC’s charter fleet. If you have any questions about how it works or what it costs, feel free to call Anthony at 510-843-4200.

There is immediate space available for Catalina 320’s, 36’s and J105’s.

Our friends over at Berkeley Yacht Club are hosting a Safety Day on May 16th, from 12-4pm. This is a great opportunity to learn more about safety equipment and see actual demonstrations of how to use it!
You can find more information here.