Sailing Education Adventures

 

On Saturday, June 11, Kimball Livingston spoke to a packed house at Sausalito's Bay Model Visitor's Center. It was standing room only for Kimball's lively and entertaining discussion, followed by a presentation of Gary Jobson's History of the America's Cup, 1851- 2007.

 

After hearing Gary Jobson speak at an America's Cup preview event in March, SEA director Mark Miglio was inspired to contact Gary and ask about his movie. Without hesitation Gary sent Mark a copy of the program, along with permission to show the film. Mark immediately set about brainstorming how to use the film to help get the sailing community, the city of Sausalito and SEA membership involved and excited about the upcoming America's Cup. Thanks to one of our newest members, Kaki Brzystwa, we were able to connect with Bay Area legendary sailor Kimball Livingston who agreed to share his insights on the America's Cup before the film. A journalist, writer and avid sailor, Kimball has covered every America's Cup since the 80's and is working with the current America's Cup program management on community outreach.

 

Kimball talked about his experiences at past America's Cup races and shared with us what he could about the upcoming event, with the caveat that there are lots of unknowns still at this time. Following his talk he answered questions from the audience.

The room capacity at the Bay Model is 100....manager Chris Gallagher bent the rules a little and we estimate 120 guests came to hear Kimball and to watch the movie. We presented the movie at no charge, however, guests were invited to make a donation. For their donation they received a soft drink and a yummy cookie or brownie baked by Cathy Stierhoff and Anne Reinert. After expenses, the program will net approximately $750, all to go toward SEA's youth sailing programs.

 

Just as important as raising the funds, this program raised the community's awareness of SEA. Sausalito Mayor Herb Weiner attended the event, as did many other local residents, all of whom are excited about the upcoming America's Cup, and now all of whom know more about SEA. In addition to becoming known as a wonderful place to teach your children or yourself to sail, this event established SEA as a community resource.

 

And it does take a community to run an event like this. Cathy worked with Mark to plan and promote the event and organize the volunteers. And we couldn't have pulled it off without those great volunteers. Kudos and many thanks go to:  SEA president Eric Bataldan, for welcoming guests and collecting donations (incredible how much we raised!); Karen Brenner, for bringing coolers and ice for the soft drinks, and also for welcoming guests (Go, Karen!);  always willing and able Leslie Wallach for setting up and handing out the goodies; Frank Lawler, for tirelessly managing food, tables and Kai (4 yr-old Miglio); Sarah Reinhard, for helping to set up the food; Anne Reinert as mentioned above for baking the scrumptious chocolate chip cookies; Wayne MacIntosh for videotaping Kimball's talk; Kari Ving for loaning us a backup projector (whew!); Sandor Schoichet for stepping up as audio/visual master technician and keeping us calm; and last but certainly not least, Baron Herschberger for cleaning up the room afterwards!

 

As the guests were leaving after watching the movie, all of the comments were favorable. A random sample:  "Congratulations on a great evening!" "Thank you for doing this!" "What a great event!" "Kimball is such a good speaker!" "I'm so excited about America's Cup coming!"

 

A success for SEA and hopefully a blueprint for us for future events.