March 6, 2015

We were afraid that it might rain on the parade. Not literally a parade, Sail a Small Boat Day is more of a cavalcade (again not literally) of dinghies, multihulls, human-powered small craft and small keelboats that anyone can try out for free, for fun, at Richmond Yacht Club. This year's SASBD was held on the last day of February, and the forecast called not just for rain, but for thunderstorms and hail.

"The weather is always a bit of a wildcard this time of year," said organizer Greg Pfeiffer. "The last five years have delivered excellent weather for this event – light winds with little or no precipitation. This year was exceptional with the beautiful clouds and warm temperature. Another day in paradise!" A few sprinkles fell toward the event's closing time, but not enough to do more than mess up the windshields in the club parking lot.

Multiple Bytes were available to try out. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

Pfeiffer shared some history: "I think this was the 23rd year that the event has been held. It has changed a lot over the years to get to its present form." Among the most recent changes, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards are now included, and RYC provides a free lunch.

Quite a variety of craft were offered to sailors to try out. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

"Nowadays we hold this event for a couple of reasons. The first objective is to reach out to non-sailors and beginning sailors to come on down and see what sailing is all about — having fun trying out different boats and meeting people. The second is to allow dinghy fleets to show off their boats and generate interest in their fleets."

Flat water and mild breeze made it easy for everyone. ©2015 norcalsailing.com

In order to encourage the boat owners to participate, SASBD is held the Saturday before the last RYC Midwinters day, as most of the boats would be there anyway for the racing on Sunday. The owners can leave their boats rigged and ready for race day.

Not so long ago, there was also a Sail a Small Boat Day on the first Saturday in December. "I don't know if it was a question of too many," said RYC's Del Olsen, "but I remember that the weather was bad, with correspondingly low turnouts for a number of years, so it was decided to focus on the spring one."

"There were two Sail a Small Boat Days years ago," elaborates Eric Arens. "There was enough interest among some sailors to come two times in a season. There was no advertising of the event. With the decline in the number of sailors sailing dinghies, the emphasis has changed to getting more people into sailing or even into paddling."

Some stats from this year's event:

1. Volunteers and skippers: about 50
2. Total boats and watercraft: about 50
3. Classes represented: about 25
4. People attending: 150+
5. Lunches served: 240

Among the classes this year were: Sunfish, Vanguard 15, Day Sailer, Wylie Wabbit, Access Dinghy, Lido 14, Cal 20, Byte CII, Thistle, Ultimate 20, VX1, International 14, kayaks (pedal, paddle, sail), stand-up paddleboards, Lightning, Laser, 420, 29er, and El Toros.