CYC Home
By Peggy Johnson
Last month, on January 26, 2009, our much loved Corinthian Yacht Club turned 64 years old. As one of the oldest and largest yacht clubs in the Pacific Northwest, we celebrate that she is not only thriving, with over 500 members, but that she also plays a leading role in sailing activities in the region.
I am very much a beginner in the sailing world— I took up sailing and racing but one year ago. Prior to finding my way onto a boat as regular crew, I spent a lot of time as an arm-chair racer, cruising the web sites of the Pacific Northwest's numerous yacht clubs. I studied the history of races sponsored by the various clubs, and as best I could from in front of my monitor, I followed boats throughout their careers, reviewing race results for years past. During stolen moments, I learned to tie bowlines and Monkey's Fists and memorized sail numbers so that I could— when finally on the water— identify boats from afar. I studied the handicapping system and covered the walls of my home with photos of the local racing boats and charts of the Puget Sound waters. I learned about the responsibilities of each crew position and found I love the tactician's job most of all— because it is so multidisciplinary. You have to know how to perform each position yourself— indeed, you have to know everything to do that job well— the tides, the currents, the wind, racing rules, air flow, geography, compass directions, the lay of the land, the weather patterns, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each crew member.
photo: Bruce Sherman
Kevin Cunningham, background, on his perch atop YC V while managing a race on Puget Sound.
I also love gauges and would like my own barometer to put on the wall next to my charts— for me, a barometer is forever. And I adore maps... charts... and navigation. And data. Lots of data and numbers and facts. Yes, my interests in the sub-fields of racing are broad, but my devotion to a club is singular. From the beginning of my newly found passion, there was only one club for me: Corinthian.
It was something about the racing scene... the Corinthian nature of it. The way sailors of all manner of backgrounds came together and played together, enjoying nature as she came— wind or no wind, warm or cold, wet or dry— and taking it all in stride. They sailed, raced, and socialized in a hearty, unpretentious way, gathering post-race in our amazing clubhouse, which, like the warm kitchen of a 1926 farmhouse or the circular fireplace in the center of a one-room Irish cottage, is the heart of our home.
As a student of history, I lament not having been there at the founding of our club. I can only imagine that, back in 1945— 11 months to the day prior to the inaugural Sydney to Hobart Race— capturing this Corinthian atmosphere and bottling it as the Corinthian Yacht Club was made possible by the coming together of both opportunity and the hard work and devotion of colorful sailors with an unqualified love for the sport of amateur racing. And while the club has long been firmly established, the hard work, devotion, and love continue. It is by a combination of a tremendous volunteer effort and a commitment to a professional race committee that CYC continues to offer high quality racing for the greater community of sailors.
CYC is one of the only clubs in the Pacific Northwest with a professional race committee. This is key to providing over 1,300 starts and more than 110 days of racing annually, making us one of the most active clubs in the country. During the summer months, it is possible to sail three to four days a week with CYC-sponsored events. Asked why he thinks it is important for a yacht club to have a professional race committee, our very own Principal Race Officer and Race Manager Kevin Cunningham readily responded.
"I don't. If they've got good volunteers— if it's like most of the country— you don't need a professional race committee (RC). You don't need a big RC— if you have a more traditional yacht club. Ours is different. We are set up basically for racing. We don't have that dining room and bar and whatnot that's open all the time for more of a core social event... or however a traditional yacht club does it. A long time ago, CYC ran a volunteer RC, but it's difficult to get people to do RC when they all want to race. When all your members are racers, who do you get to do RC? To volunteer to take a day off from their racing or a day off from work to do an opposite day?"
I knew exactly what Kevin was talking about. Still building my racing program and sailing skills, I was trying to race as many days last summer as I could, but I was new to the scene and a single mom. I felt very fortunate to get myself on a boat, and I didn't feel I could ask a skipper if I could bring my son racing with me, so Thursday nights— as a way to get out on the water and learn more about sailing and racing— I joined Kevin and his team on the race committee boat, bringing my 12-year-old son with me for every dinghy race night on the Sound. Thus I discovered the great family adventure that sailing together can be. Having just completed Laser lessons with WYC, and now seeing the thrill of dinghy racing up close from the RC boat, I've begun dreaming of racing a Laser on the Sound.
"Kevin, you want to tell me a little about yourself?" The man of few words responded as expected with an emphatic "No! ," but encouraged by his charming smile and twinkling eyes, I tacked and trimmed.
PJ: What kind of sailing have you done?
KC: I started sailing 20 some odd years ago, mainly dinghy sailing. Raced keelboats a few times, PHRF. Liked it. But I really like one-design. I've cruised before.... You know, chartered sailboats down mainly in the Caribbean, gone cruising with friends. I race Hobies now. That's pretty much all I race. I raced 505s and Lasers and such when I was in college.
There's little time for racing these days. When he is not working at Hobie Cats Northwest in Magnuson Park, Kevin is conducting races as a Principal Race Officer (PRO) for either CYC or Hobie. For CYC, he runs a few PHRF races, namely, the Center Sound Series, PSSR, and PSSC, leaving the rest of the PHRF races to our other PRO, Charley Rathkopf. But mostly Kevin runs the One Designs, his favorite races, which include, on Puget Sound, mostly Lasers, Stars, I-14s, 505s, 49ers, and Tasars and, on Lake Washington, the J/24s, Snipes, Thunderbirds, San Juan 24s, and Thistles. When it doesn't conflict with CYC events, Kevin runs a number of Hobie races all over the area. He works Hobie race committees in various nationals, including the Hobie 16 Nationals in Corpus Christi and the MEGA Event in Florida a few years ago. Closer to home, he runs the Hobie SPLASH event out of Sand Point and has done the Divisions out in Quinault.
Peggy Johnson at the CYC Shilshole Clubhouse.
Kevin came to Corinthian Yacht Club and race management by way of Hobie Cats Northwest. "Dan and Leslie owned Hobie Cats Northwest... Dan Carpenter and Leslie Keller. I started working for them. I needed to find another job to stay at Hobie, so Leslie helped get me a job running races at Corinthian, 15 years ago. I had actually set up some races for a windsurfing club that used to race off of Sand Point back when I was in college. But mainly I started learning race management when I was here at Hobie Cats. You know— with Hobie (Alter), one of the best-known people around. Werner Ohmes, Paul Ulibarri— I learned a lot from them. Paul does consulting work and runs courses for the Olympics. He lives up in Victoria now. But he used to live here in Seattle and Hobie race."
PJ: What kind of training did you have to do to get into Race Management?
KC: They said, "You are a race official now. You're running the races. Go do it." But I had informal classes from Paul, and when US Sailing started doing their official certification program with classes, I took the first Basic class they had up here. Paul and Matt Jones— who used to be at St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco— they both did the first class up here.
I didn't know that. I was surprised. Racing has been around for 100 years or more and US SAILING since 1897 (originally organized as the North American Yacht Racing Union), but, apparently, formalized Race Management classes haven't been offered for long. Kevin continued. "They had a certification system but it was more a personal thing. Send in an application with your experience and give them some references, and they could make you a Senior or National Race Officer, but you didn't have to pass any tests or anything like that. You didn't have to be observed like you do now for National Race Officer."
About 10 or 15 years ago, recalls Kevin, US Sailing began offering classes required for certification in race management. "US Sailing was trying to level out the skill of the various race committees by formalizing the training. There still is, to a certain extent, a wide range of skill levels. But back before there was certification there was a huge range and, you know, people doing different things that they shouldn't have been doing, that weren't in the best interest of the sailors, for that matter."
PJ: What are the challenges of your work?
KC: Pretty much the same challenges that sailors have, only I also have to deal with getting the marks in place, getting volunteers. You know this. Get things running so that everything happens on time. The line is relatively square. The courses are good.
PJ: What's all involved, leading up to the race? What are you thinking about and what do have to do to prepare to run a successful race?
KC: Oh, you've seen me. I'll get there early, make sure the marks are blown up, the whalers are there, the whaler drivers are there, the whalers work, the weights and stuff are there. It depends on the race, too, whether it's a buoy race or a long-distance race. Looking at the weather, looking at the tides... the wind. Trying to figure out where to offset things if I have to make the courses less one-sided. Like sailing in Shilshole Bay. It often is up the breakwater and down the breakwater, so you can go out further. That offsets some of it. It's a balancing act. You don't want to go out too far because the dinghies can't get back. Things like that.
PJ: So during the summer are you constantly looking at weather reports and tides?
KC: Just the days I'm working. Although with the times you're doing both days, I'll be keeping my eye on the wind. It's just like being a sailor. You have to know what's going to happen out there... or what you hope to happen. But you hope I do right, as the race committee!
PJ: So when running a race, what are you thinking about as a Race Officer that maybe a sailor isn't?
KC: I'm thinking about whether a mark needs to be moved, or making sure it's in place, that everything is relatively square, whether for the next race I need to move anything, preposition the people to do that, or find an open hole to do it in. I mean, you've seen us move marks around. You have to wait until a certain class gets around before we can move anything. That's part of giving them different courses, so that a mark will eventually be open to be able to do that. Which is why I like our system of using various letters to designate marks, setting up various courses, so that when a mark is not always occupied, it can be moved eventually.
When the race is over, Kevin's work isn't. What is he doing or thinking that racers aren't? "I'm making sure the RC boat and whalers and gear are put away, that the race committee employees get their time sheets in. And scoring. Scoring is the big one. Sailors are thinking about that, too, but they're not doing the process. You've seen us after racing. We're in there for sometimes a long time before we get out the results. We're checking and cross-checking."
PJ: Is there anything sailors can do to make your job easier or make a race run more smoothly than they do now?
KC: Register, and register under the sail number they are using. Also, particularly on long-distance races, if they call me and tell me they're going in, that's a big help. That way I don't have to sit out there until the time limit.
PJ: So if they withdraw, notify you.
KC: Yes. We're always monitoring 67 on the Sound, 72 on the Lake as well as 14 for traffic, 16 when we can. That mainly applies to long-distance races. Short-distance buoy racing— we can usually see when they're going in.
PJ: But something like the Foulweather Bluff race.... I was thinking about all the withdrawals, the DNFs this year....
KC: Oh, absolutely.
PJ: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in doing RC work?
KC: Come out on the RC boat. See if you like it.
PJ: Start as a volunteer, like I did?
KC: Yes. Take the Basic Race Management class. Doesn't cost much. Takes a Saturday. Go out on different RC boats, different days, with different people. See if you still like it. See what you want. Figure out what your comfort level is, what you want to do. One guy came out, took the class, did very well, but he just wasn't comfortable calling the line and setting the courses. He just never got to that point. But he loved coming out. He did flags and worked a lot of the different races.
Having spent numerous days on the RC boat with Kevin, both on the Sound for the dinghy races and on the Lake for the One Designs, for a beginner, I have a deep appreciation for how good Kevin is at what he does.
PJ: I imagine you have to be a sailor for a good while to get to the point of doing what you do.
KC: It helps.
PJ: But you have to know the wind, what to expect. You have to know the weather....
KC: That's experience.
I furled my brow. "I know, I know..." I'm so new to this....
KC: Not sailing experience, necessarily.... Just experience. It's like anything you do for years and years. You just kind of get it down... get into a routine.
PJ: But getting that weather down...
Kevin cut me off. "You never really get the weather down."
PJ: But you do. You have it down pretty well. To be able to run a race like that, anticipate wind shifts, move the lines around....
KC: That's just paying attention. Just concentrating. You could do it. It's like sailing. You've got to get your head out of the boat. You have to have somebody like you, Heather, Sue... on the race committee boat... people you can trust to do this stuff while you're looking around. So all I have to do is a spot check, and a "Hey, are we ready to go?" You say, Yes. And I say, OK, set a course, and you go.
As my first season of racing was coming to an end in September, I wondered how I'd survive the upcoming winter with possibly little or no racing. The season was nearly over for my regular boat, Wings, a J/29 skippered by Jim Moynihan and Greg Conway. What I thought would be my last week of racing for the eight long months until May was particularly full— but it was full with the season's final race for all the series: the last Wednesday Night race, the last Anthony's Friday Night race, the PITCH Regatta in Bellingham Labor Day weekend, followed by the last Duck Dodge and the final Thursday RC boat work on the Sound. It was like saying goodbye to your high school buddies at five separate farewell parties before you all go off to college and disperse to the winds, perhaps forever or, at least, for a very long time. I hadn't had my fill of racing. Nor of the water. I was beginning to feel strong symptoms of withdrawal. So the following Tuesday— my first non-Duck-Dodge Tuesday— I made my way over to Kevin and the CYC RC boat on the Lake for what turned out to be an incredible evening of racing by our outstanding Lake One Designs.
This particular night saw 10-12 knots with gusts up to maybe 15 and the largest turnout of J/24s— there were 30! It was a blast, an absolute blast! Soooo exciting! This was the first time I had seen a gate used instead of just a single buoy. Gosh— it was even my first night on the Lake! I had not expected Lake racing to be such a thrill. It was excellent racing, but with so many boats, and a fair amount of gusts and shifty breeze, there was the inevitable— one boat T-boned another, a second hit the committee boat, and a third was protested. To top it all off, inside the clubhouse following the race, I got to listen to my first arbitration! To think it was only months ago that my evenings were one of only two types: homework/mom and chore— and usually the two were one and the same. Let me be clear. I absolutely love being a mom— hands down, it is my favorite job, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. But along the road of life, my days, my nights had become so very predictable and full of responsibility that there was little freedom for soul work of the adventurous kind. And I'm an adventurer! I need adventure as much as I need water and oxygen. But none of my evenings involved Nature or great bodies of water, let alone crashing sailboats! Suddenly, in the course of one summer, I had been reborn into a new life. Or, more accurately, I had reawakened into my former one. The light of my soul had been dimmed by some very difficult years, but after a summer of racing, that evening on the Lake left me on fire. My chest— my entire being— felt the glow of the circular fireplace in the center of my very Irish soul. Later that evening, home at last, I was recalling and writing about the exhilarating racing I had just witnessed, been a part of... and suddenly, instinctually and with surprise, I exclaimed aloud what I had so many years longed for— I'm back!
I spent one last day on the Lake RC boat with Kevin and my son. It was a quiet day, no wind but lots of sun, so we swam in the lake as we waited for wind and a race. When it was all over, I finally had to acknowledge, had to face, once and for all, the possibility that I might not race again until May. I would hope and try for a crew position— I knew all the races coming up— but I had to find a new, winter boat. I could not see what was in store for me. What about Kevin? I was eager to hear other sailors' means of winter survival.
PJ: When winter comes and all your RC work winds down, how do you fill your time?
KC: I sleep a lot! I work here more.
PJ: Are there other hobbies that you do? You have your two dogs. You probably spend more time with them, so I'll bet they enjoy winter!
KC: Yes! They remember who I am. They don't bark when I come home. I do a little work around the house, and more work around the house. Relax. Vacation.
As our interview came to a close, I thanked Kevin for his time. Although he had not been excited to be interviewed, I think, in the end, he actually might have enjoyed it. We talked for a while and reviewed the upcoming US Sailing classes.
Somewhat reluctantly, I made my way to the door. I'm always sorry when sailing conversation comes to an end. But somehow I knew I'd see Kevin again soon, at CSS, if not sooner. In the meantime, my first winter racing season had already begun. I had competed in my first Foulweather Bluff Race (in the most breeze I've yet seen— 45 knots!) and my first and most dearly wanted race— Round the County. And in the next 14 days, I had three races lined up— the second Southern Sound Series race, the third Snowbird race, and the first Goosebumps 2009 race. By now, quite a few times I have either involved or raced with my son, Curt, as I have met many wonderful sailors in our community— from the Duck Dodge race committee who graciously made Curt welcome on the RC boat a few times while I raced, to a number of sailors who have invited my son— or the two of us— on their boat for a race, a regatta, or a series. We have a new family sport to participate in together, and I may never have to miss a race again! Hmmmm.... While raising a child, Mom responsibilities evolve but they never diminish, so surely I must devise a more efficient chore strategy.
Kevin Cunningham was interviewed by Peggy Johnson on January 4, 2009, at Hobie Cats Northwest, Magnuson Park, Seattle.
For those of you who might be interested in race committee work, a Basic Race Management Seminar will be offered Saturday April 4, 2009, in Tacoma. The co-instructors are Skip Anderson and Leslie Keller, our US SAILING Area L Race Officer.