San Francisco Master Mariners Classic Wooden Boat Show

At the Master Mariners Classic Boat Show

At the kind invitation of Bill Belmont, of the Master Mariners Benevolent Association, we took S'AGAPO to the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiberon on Saturday afternoon.  Arriving on a beautiful post-card afternoon of blue sky and deeper blue water, we ran into many old friends and made a few new ones.

We had expected to be berthed next to Hank Easom's YUCCA, the beautiful Nick Potter designed 8-meter.  Unfortunately, Hank wasn't able to get YUCCA to the show so we found ourselves in the classy company of KATE II.  The two boats, shown in the picture at the right, were a wonderful study in contrasts.  With a displacement difference of over two to one, and interior volume and accommodations at about the same ratio, visitors to both boats were stunned that these two lovely ladies are almost exactly the same length overall.

Beau had the good fortune to crew aboard the Master Mariners Race a month ago, in which KATE II won her class and landed the Baruna Cup.  This day, as in the race, she was ably skippered by Dick Watts who is lavishing her with affection.  She looked terrific!

The day of the Boat Show dawned foggy, cold and wet - English weather.  But the steady drizzle and occasional bursts of wind couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of the exhibitors or visitors.

The Master Mariners Benevolent Association was organized in 1867 for the benefit of working sailors and seaman on San Francisco Bay; it uses the Boat Show as its sole fund raiser for all its good works and is a terrific organization.  They have a great web site here and serve as a tremendous guardian of our San Francisco Bay maritime history.  It was wonderful to see gaggles of kids running around building toy boats and munching on hambergers.  When the rain started to gently fall, they all gathered under a tarp stretched over their whaleboat's boom and played cards - a wiggling writhing mass of kids having fun!

The Master Mariners put together a great video of the Boat Show here: Master Mariners Video

We aboard S'AGAPO were stunned to learn that we were elected 2nd in the People's Choice category, and we'd like to thank all of the visitors who let us show off our boat and bask in their accolades.  If invited, we'll certainly return to what is a tremendous event.