Please join us for our February 1 meeting at Marin Yacht Club.  11:30 a.m., 24 Summit Ave, San Rafael, CA 94901

Our speaker will be our own celebrated Bill Lee.

The menu will include:

Ceasar salad 

Sautéed Chicken breast in a chicken glaze minute 

Roasted mix mushroom in brandy 

Roasted Brussels sprout and romesco sauce

Potato Bravas , bravas sauce (tomato-sirachhia), aioli 

Penne Al Pesto , Parmesan cheese 

Pécan pie with bourbon whipped cream

The price is $45. 

Please register now at: https://cruisingclub.org/event/SAF-feb-1

(This meeting was originally scheduled to be at the Sausalito Yacht Club, but that proved to be too expensive- thus the change.)

Here is more about Bill:

If Harry Potter had Dumbledore, then the sailing world has Bill Lee. Or perhaps Bill Lee is the Dumbledore of the sailing world.

Bill Lee is the designer of noted ocean racing yachts, and one of the founders of the Santa Cruz school of boatbuilding. Known to many as the Wizard, Lee's designs achieved notoriety in the 1970s, with Chutzpah and Merlin having won the Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu many times. Merlin set and held the course record between 1977 and 1997, making the 1977 crossing in only 8 days, 11 hours and 1 minute.

To those who sailed in Monterey Bay in the early 1970s, when it was a mecca for fast, lightweight sailboat design and construction, Bill Lee stood out as the most influential designer and builder.

After growing up in Newport Beach and receiving his mechanical engineering degree from Cal Poly, Bill moved to Santa Cruz where he was one of the founders of the Santa Cruz school of boatbuilding, specializing in lean, lightweight, and remarkably fast sailboats.

With names like Magic, Panache, Witchcraft, and Chutzpah, they demonstrated that lightweight boats could be safe, fast, and incredibly fun. In fact, his 35’ Chutzpah won the Transpac overall in 1973 and then again in 1975.  In 1974, the Santa Cruz 27 was born, his first production boat. This 3,000 pound $15,000 boat rated as a quarter-tonner under the IOR rule, but also allowed Norton Smith to win the 1978 Singlehanded Transpac under PHRF. The Santa Cruz 27 continues to be a popular one-design and coastal racer, with over 150 still actively racing.

However, it was Merlin, the 68’ splinter of a race boat, that gave Bill the most notoriety. Weighing under 25,000 pounds and with a beam of only 12’, Merlin was tippy and slippery and oh so fast downwind. Launched in late 1976, she sailed in the 1977 Transpac with a mostly Santa Cruz crew of eight and set an elapsed time record for the race that stood for 20 years.

Lee’s design philosophy was to make boats sail swiftly. His motto was “Fast Is Fun.” Unlike many other designers who worked to exploit loopholes in handicap rating rules, Bill favored speed and creating boats that were easy to sail. His boats were able to be sailed with fewer crew than other designs of the era.

Bill has been a sought-after advisor on handicap rating rules. He offers a pragmatic approach on how rules should work to make racing fair for a wide range of types and sizes.

Certainly, many sailing wizards have learned their craft from him. ABRACADABRA!

(By Mary Crowley)