The Shellback

The 2000 River Rat Cruise got off as planned, 10 AM off Southhampton Shoal. Mossie Estelle had a couple of late to-joins so was up-bound off Berkeley as Eventide was passing the Long Wharf. Meanwhile, La Sirena was charging across San Pablo Bay from the mouth of the Petaluma River in the company of Sail la Vie, an Angleman ketch of a different material, while Wood Echo was downbound for the Driftwood Yacht Club from Willow Berm on the San Joaquin. Mossie Estelle took a 90^o windshift knockdown somewhere around New York Slough, but was still able to catch an early arrival at the Driftwood.

After a little on the dock/on the deck/in the cockpit socializing, the "as usual" wonderful dinner spread was laid on by the DYC. (Would you believe, they ran out of chicken, so we had ham, tisk, tisk...) Those represented at the dinner gathering included Eventide, Sail la Vie, Mossie Estelle, Elese, John T, Little Packet, La Sirena, Nautigal, Regulus, and Wood Echo. Special thanks to the wonderful folks at the Driftwood for such great hospitality and friendship. There was an unscheduled call for a speech by the Cruise Chairman after dinner, who fortunately was taking care of business elsewhere, to the relief of all.

A great breakfast at the club was followed by an early departure while there was still plenty of water in the basin. An enjoyable uneventful sail to Steamboat Slough with a mid-afternoon arrival, no groundings, snagged anchors, or other mishaps came along to spoil a beautiful, and yes cool, evening BBQ by all. La Sirena took custody of the Commodore’s Barge which was placed into service immediately for personnel and transportation, equipment re-positioning and a burrito run.

Steamboat Slough activities included potlucks aboard La Sirena, great crawdad fishing, a celebration dinner at Al the Wop’s, a Cruise Participation Trophy award party, with a unanimous vote that a really great time was had by all! By Saturday, all but Eventide had gone on to other places and our Commodore stopped by to visit and repossess his "barge." For all of you that missed this you missed a really great time! HOW ABOUT NEXT YEAR?

by Michael and Barbara Pope

This is a story about an old boat that needed a lot of love, and got it! The boat's name is "Goza", a 1940 Big Bear built by Nunes, number 4 of 7. But you probably know all that stuff if you are with the Master Mariners. My name is Michael Pope and I bought The Goza in 1993. The ad in the San Francisco Chronicle read "30 foot wood sloop, needs attention." That was just what I thought I was looking for.

I went to Berkeley to see her. The Goza sang her song to me! I guess you could say I was pretty naïve about her. I thought to myself, "all that boat, for next to nothing, and she's fast." And, she had previously won the Master Mariner's race I was told. All I thought the boat needed was a little TLC, and besides, I thought I could fix it, I'm pretty handy. But Goza had been badly neglected.

I started slowly. I found out quickly that one job lead to another. First, the motor. I pulled the motor in Berkeley and after many recommendations, had the boat moved to Richmond Boat Works. Millie knew of the boat, and was more than willing to help. The motor was reinstalled, the transom refastened, a leak or two fixed, some bottom paint, and then the inspection, and, much to my dismay, the news was bad. There were many cracked ribs and the boat required refastening. As my boat repair funds were dwindling at this point, I decided to move her home to Benicia Marina and

begin to pick away at a long list of repairs. However, I always remained optimistic despite many derogatory comments from the Benicia sailing community such as, "scow" "dead horse", "do you know what you are getting into?", and the best one was "the only boat in the harbor that you could check the tide from the inside of the boat!" Being a novice sailor and hungry for experience, but still optimistic, and in total denial, I took Goza out sailing a few times in the Carquinez Straits. I kept telling myself, "I can fix it."

In 1994 I met my new bride of two weeks now, Barbara. I proudly brought her down to F dock to show her my boat, and I could tell she was just trying to be nice when she said, "well, yes there might be some potential, but do you realize what you are getting into?" She tells me now that she could not believe what an overwhelming task I had taken on, and really did not think much at all of Goza. She thought I was delusional. Everybody on F dock pretty much laughed at me with my seemingly endless sanding and repairs, including her. Although no one believed, I knew some day she would win again, that was my goal!

In approximately 1997, after three years of sanding and various cosmetic upgrades on the exterior of the boat, I began to sail her more frequently. During a Sunday afternoon sail with some buddies from work, who had never sailed before, we were near the Benicia Bridge and we noticed Goza started taking on larger than usual amounts of water. The bilge pump could not keep up and the battery was shorted out. I was no longer in denial at that point. Goza was floundering in the Straits, with all of us on board!! We came about and headed for the Benicia Marina. After several tacks nearing the bridge, I realized that the water was coming in from the starboard side only where we had slipped a plank. Millie was, of course, right. Bailing with an ice chest, with water up to my stomach in the salon, we were able to put the boat on one last tack through the harbor gates of the Martinez Marina, which was closer, thank God, and then she sat down on the bottom. My heart was pounding, we had nearly sunk. I called Barbara and asked her to come and get us, and needless to say, she said "I told you so."

No longer in total denial, and fully aware of the potential disaster, I had no choice but to go with another plan despite the financial consequences. Goza needed sister frames and refastening. With just a Band-Aid repair, a friend and I sailed Goza to Richmond with the bilge pump and auxiliary pump on board working constantly. After 30 new sister frames and 1,500 stainless steel fasteners, new caulking and seam compound in every seam and a lot of time, blood, sweat, tears and money, no more leaks!! Goza was brought home to Benicia Marina again. She didn't look much prettier, but she was more seaworthy than ever. Barbara and my fellow F dock friends really could not see much difference though. After this, I spent the rest of my time on the boat putting the interior back together, repainting the deck and we purchased new sails from Jocelyn Nash of Quantum. "She is starting to look pretty good", my friends and Barbara said.

Now, she was ready to enter in the Master Mariners’ Memorial Day race, my goal finally. But first, I put together a crew for the beer can races at the Benicia Yacht Club. The other racers, all fiberglass boat owners, were not in favor of a wood boat keeping the committee boat out after hours. Thanks to the help of my friend and helmsman, Joe Marra, we began to move up in the pack, however, and felt pretty optimistic about the MMBA race. Incidentally, as of this July we are now in fourth place overall in C Fleet and have enjoyed two second places and two third places.

Ever since I bought the boat, I dreamed of racing in the Master Mariner's. Just to be in this race was an honor to me. So, you can imagine the thrill that I experienced when Goza came in as "Fastest Boat 30 feet and Under" the winner of the Lyle Galloway Perpetual Trophy. I still can't believe it and am still beaming with pride. This was my first big race with the boat. The race was not uneventful, however. During the race, as Goza was stressed, the deck under the jib cleat began to separate from the hull. Water started pouring into the boat. Joe Marra asked if we should call off the race. I said "no, I can fix this." So, while under sail during the race, I refastened the deck on the port side with my cordless drill. While looking through the window on the starboard side, same thing, the deck was coming up due to the stress from the jib track. Again, we did the repair while under sail. The only unfortunate thing is that I feel like I missed the most exciting part of my race, the spinnaker run down the city front, as I was hanging off the side of the boat drilling the deck down. We had a wonderful time at the Encinal Yacht Club meeting all the other members of MMBA and seeing their boats. What a Memorial Day weekend it was for us!

A week later, Dick Wrenn from MMBA came the Benicia Yacht Club to present the trophy to me. I was so excited and so were the members of my club. This was a first for BYC to have a Master Mariner's trophy at their club. Many members knew of the long road I have had with Goza and were happy and proud. The following weekend was "Opening Day on the Straits" at BYC and the club had a formal presentation of the trophy to me and my crew, had Goza on display near the club with flags on her and a really neat sign. I was still riding high from the race.

In 1998, Barbara and I were engaged to be married. Though she was not quite as optimistic as I was about Goza, she just let me go with my dream. To top off all of this excitement, we were just married on July 1, 2000 at a ceremony and reception at the Benicia Yacht Club, a wedding of our dreams. Of course, Goza was berthed nearby and the Lyle Galloway trophy was on display at the reception. Our wedding photographer took some shots of us on Goza. Now, Goza is "our boat" and Barbara proudly shows her friends at the Benicia Yacht Club the Lyle Galloway trophy.

This has really been some exciting year for me, the best ever, winning the race and winning my wife, Barbara. I have always followed my dream, and this year really proved to me more than ever how you can accomplish something if you want it bad enough. Barbara and I realize now that we are not the proud owners of a wonderful old wood boat, but the proud caretakers of a piece of history.

by Ken Inouye

Events come and go, but the T-shirts just keep on cruising. A special thanks to all the volunteers that helped make this an extraordinary year for the MMBA. The T-shirts not only adds cash to our association but also provides a great way to meet other members. Volunteer, you'll enjoy it!!! It's easy and fun, just ask the following volunteers this year:

by Ariane Paul

On the following pages are quite a few photos from our June boat show held at the Corinthian Yacht Club once again. And why not have lots of photos, the pin-ups are better than the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. OK, some of you may argue that one..., but each year that I’ve attended has had clear skies, a great turn out, and been a lot of fun. In fact, it was at one of the shows that I was first given a MMBA membership application, and at another met someone who’d been eyeing my boat, thinking he might buy it (sorry buddy!), but we became friends and I coaxed him into writing something this issue (see Sabrina). The Arques School helped out again with model boat-building, and as you can see, the kids are advancing quite a bit with this encouragement. Each year brings a different mix of boats, and it’s nice to get that closer look at each of them. Martin Eden is back in the area after quite some time in other parts. Evening Star made a happy appearance. The low and lean Q boat Robin is still in town, as well as Baggy Wrinkle. A long overdue new member Makai came over (Bien Jolie had been after her to join for decades!). I’m still hearing about Fiona from friends around Sausalito (all that copper). My boat joined up with the other Winslows (Blackwitch, Dutch, and John T). ...and on and on. There was a re-christening of Suzy after much hard work by Nicholas Dugdale, and you couldn’t get the oars out of his hands for the rest of the weekend. The hat was passed to keep the young at heart dancing to the sounds of Pan Ecstacy, BUT for some unknown reason the club was suddenly bathed in a glow of blue lights, and we had to call it a night... or at least some of us did. I managed to keep dancing at Sam’s with a small contingent, and pop my knee out once again... kind of crimped my style the next day, but not my fun. The Corinthian YC was very gracious to us and food was wonderful. Craig and Terry, and all the volunteers, did a great job!

by Troy Nicolini

It never stops amazing me how much trouble I can get into as a result of a single overly romantic notion lodging itself in my brain. The latest occurrence happened several years ago while I was keeping my 30 foot wood yawl Hatsukoi in Bodega Bay. All around me were beautiful wood boats being kept very close to the condition of their original construction ranging from the 20's to the 50's. Many of these boats had clearly benefited from years of careful upkeep, yet not a single owner would call themselves a wood boat enthusiast. They are commercial fishermen and taking care of their boats is just part of their job. They're called hard working professionals if they put in endless twelve hour days working on their boats, even if these ridiculous working hours cause them to neglect other facets of their lives such family and friends or replacing the burned out headlight in their truck. Working on their boat is necessary to put food on their family's table. When I've put similar hours into a wood sailing yacht - and its value only increased by about 43 cents - I've had both my sanity and intelligence questioned by family and friends. While I don't lie awake at night worrying over what family and friends think, deep down I had to admit that my wood boat affliction was a little out of hand. My time in Bodega got me to thinking that a wood, sailing, fishing boat might be the ticket to happiness and balance. Working on the boat would be part of my job. Besides, wouldn't it be great to sail my catch back to market. Once the twisted logic was settled, the romantic images of making a living under sail flowed easily and the search began.

Unfortunately, there are not many wood, sailing, fishing boats around. There are a surprising number of fiberglass and steel versions. High fuel costs of the early seventies motivated their construction but unfortunately the era of wood boat construction was pretty much over at that time. I searched up and down the West Coast and almost gave up on the whole idea when I found Sabrina. Ed Monk Sr. was commissioned in the late 60's by Wayne Scott of Fort Bragg to design her as a 46' wood, gaff rigged fishing schooner. Wayne Scott, a fisherman, built Sabrina himself and launched her in 1969. She's pure work boat: Heavily built, simple, and in my eyes immeasurably beautiful. After almost two years of negotiations (Wayne is a Scotsman and therefore not inclined towards compromise) the deal was finally done. A year later - and almost 1000 hours of repair work - found Sabrina and I on the fishing grounds off of San Francisco.

New endeavors always bring surprises. I remember my first wood boat project. I bought an old wood boat and figured that after a few weeks of sanding and painting, I would spend the rest of eternity enjoying the fruits of my minimal labor. It was a little surprising to learn that I instead got to enjoy an eternity of labor (good thing I like to work with my hands, right!). There were surprises associated with combining sailing, wood, and commercial fishing as well as those associated only with commercial fishing. Most of these surprises didn't shock me though because plenty of old fishermen stopped by during my year of preparations to brief me on all the problems with my plan: "Sailboats can't fish!", "Fishing boats can't sail!", "why on earth would anyone actually want to own a wood boat". If you want the complete briefing, I invite you to belly up to a waterfront café breakfast bar around 7:00 a.m. in any fishing town between Half Moon Bay and Juneau. Just find someone who is obviously a commercial fisherman and say, "Hi, I'm a wood sailing yacht enthusiast who's considering buying a wood, sailing fishing boat and earning a living commercial fishing." They'll either look away wordless or burst into laughter. Give them a moment to gather their thoughts.

The surprise that did shock me was how hard the work is associated with commercial fishing - and how hard it is to catch fish. Sabrina is a hook-and-line salmon troller. A typical day starts at 4:00 a.m., ends at 10:00 p.m. and is filled with bent over manual labor. So much for romantic notions. I imagined coming in from a day of fishing with the sails full of wind (on the beam of course) and the hold full of fish. And what would any romantic image be without a big smile on my face as I brought my catch to market under full sail. The sails never made it off the booms. As I made for port after my first day of fishing, I barely had the energy to stick a hand full of cookies in my face and slouch in the pilot's chair, drooling out of an unsmiling mouth as the auto pilot took me home - under power. My hold was not full of fish, nor was it full on subsequent trips, which meant the day job was not going away soon. Was I discouraged? Anybody who's restored a really old wood sailboat knows the answer. And in the answer lies the reason that I will toil over a wood sail boat until I can no longer lift a ten-penny nail. I like life punctuated by high and low times; bright days and dark nights. Moments capable of discouragement are when I'm at my best and are the source of my greatest inspiration. Old wood sailboats tend to provide many such fine opportunities for inspiration, and adding commercial fishing to the mix only serves to double the possibilities! I'm already plotting next years strategy to ensure that I catch more fish and still have the energy to hoist sail.

While I never hoisted a sail in all of my fishing with Sabrina this year and didn't make enough money to quit the day job, there were some bright moments. For example, one morning I was fishing west of the Farallons in a dead calm. No wind or waves at all, but sea life everywhere. For several minutes I heard an unidentifiable sound occasionally off to my port. It sounded like someone was letting bursts of air out of a tire. It turned out to be a humpback whale pacing me only 100 off my port stern and the sound was its breathing. There was actually an entire pod of whales feeding on the same krill that the salmon were feeding on. In fact, the other salmon trollers and I were circling a great unfolding of the web of life, with phytoplankton and zooplankton at the foundation of a chaotic dance including dolphins, sea lions, anchovies and herring, birds, sharks, salmon, hake, snapper, and of course the beautiful whales. Fishing by hand in a small boat, along side the other predators of the sea, allowed me to feel like an integral part of nature in a way I've never experienced before. Next year, I'm hoping to sail a reasonably large catch to market after a day like this one. I can already picture the huge smile on my face.