Photos July 20, 1999

Here is a happy daddy at the helm! Richard and Courtenay Amerling are celebrating the recent birth of their son Grant Edward. More births have been announced on the "Notices to Members" page of the club website at www.myc.org.

With the crew on the rail and sails trimmed for speed, a sandbagger blasts through the harbor swells. Sailing a sandbagger is a once in a lifetime experience. The Bull & Bear will be docked at our club for the season. The boats have been brought to the city by the New York Harbor Sailing Foundation.

The first International Sandbagger Series featured "Loosdrecht" from the Netherlands against "Shrewsbury" from the United States. The US won 2-0 but the racing was close and exciting.

When the cannon sounded for the first sandbagger race, everyone held their breaths to see what would happened. The boats sailed off on starboard tack and soon the race was in high gear. The sandbaggers performed very well in the harbor.

The Bull & Bear are magnificent examples of fine boat building. Watching them sail is a pleasure and just sitting next to them at dock will bring a smile to your face. The Foundation is able to have the sandbaggers this summer because of the generosity of stock broker Peter Kellogg.

Kurt Weiss (in cockpit) and Adam Spiegel sport the new racing fashion. Lifejackets have now become mandatory for the racing program.

John Hoekman’s team on boat #1 captured first place in the Spring Wednesday evening series. Bruce Stone’s team on #5 won the Spring Tuesday series.

It’s busy at the clubhouse, even during the daytime. Here a group of 2 year olds and their teachers from the Battery Park City Day Nursery pose for their picture after stopping down to see the boats.

The Project City Kids sailing program is in full swing at the club with 40 groups of 8 kids scheduled to sail in July alone! Project City Kids offers free sailing instruction to non-profit organizations which serve economically-disadvantaged inner city kids. This will be another record breaking year as PCK continues to grow in popularity.

Two of the corporate teams racing at the club this season are Microsoft with their Office 2000 spinnaker and EJ Clarence Consulting. Other corporate teams racing this year include AON Re, Applied Companies, Bloomberg, Cantor Fitzgerald, Chubb, Cravath Swaine & Moore, Eisner Consulting, Forest Electric, Marsh & McLennan, Network Dynamics, Sparkman & Stephens, Summit Systems & Vertias Software.

The island of Manhattan rises up behind two of our J/24 sailboats. We are lucky to have a harbor of such beauty and good sailing conditions. And can anyone think of a better way to experience the city than from one of our club sailboats on a pleasant afternoon or evening?

After an absence of more than 100 years, the sandbaggers have returned to New York Harbor. Seeing a sandbagger sail by is an incredible experience which will touch you with a sense of history.