Jim Frazier and the Optis on their new racks.

Sixteen Optimist dinghies for the club junior program were on the way to CYC in May, and this question came up in a meeting of the board of directors: Who is going to build the racks to hold them?

“I didn’t have the good sense to say no,” said board member Jim Frazier. “The time frame was compressed, but I thought I could tackle it.”

So Frazier teamed up with friend Dan Beason, a superintendent with construction company Skanska USA, who agreed to lend a hand.  They had a budget of $2,500 to work with and plenty of energy.

“We looked at other wooden racks, stole some ideas we liked and improved on ideas we didn’t like,” Frazier said. “We did some rough drawings, ran down to the hardware store, threw the materials in the back of the pickup and started working.”

That was at noon on Wednesday, May 4, nine days before the dinghies arrived. Frazier and Beason, worked until about 8 p.m. that day and, then Frazier came back Thursday and finished the job at about noon. All in all, he figures he and Beason had about 24 hours on the project.

“I think it came out pretty well,” said Frazier, who found an old sign bearing the words “Corinthian Yacht Club,” which he mounted on one of the two racks. A third rack is planned.

Because of Skanska’s 30 percent discount on materials, the total bill for CYC for the first two racks was $600, way below budget.  A single, manufactured rack for three boats retails for about $1,300, according to Frazier.

His job wasn’t quite done.

An Opti racing clinic had been scheduled for the weekend after the boats arrived, and Frazier got a frantic phone call from Staff Commodore John Rahn Friday night asking him to lay carpet on the float next to the racks to protect the boats.

Frazier was waiting at the door of Home Depot when it opened at 6 a.m., bought the carpet, installed it on the float, and was on his way to his grandfather’s funeral in Walla Walla by 8 a.m. Later, Frazier returned to fix the winch, and its mount, used to pull the junior program’s rigid inflatable boat onto the float.

“We are so grateful for all the work Jim and his friend Dan did for our junior program,” Rahn said. “Without volunteers like them, it would be hard to operate CYC.”

Learn More about CYC’s Junior Program and Register Your Child for Sailing Classes