Around 8:15 people start to drift in. First is a Japanese American guy and his wife from Northern Cal. a school I had heard of in the north bay. Little by little others come in, I meanwhile have taken a seat close to the podium. Being on the shy side and quiet I am surprised at how many folks just come up and speak. They are a friendly group, I feel relaxed. Yoh Sensei comes in with his wife. I give a little Zen bow he kind of nods, but it does not register who I am. I am chatting with some people from out of town and he is setting things up for his talk, so I do not bother him. After a bit the folks I am speaking with leave and I go over to Yoh Sensei. “It’s been a long time Sensei” I say in Japanese. He is shocked, then it clicks in, he smiles and shakes my hand. “How nice to see you here Fuu-san ( my Japanese name)” he says. This is a surprise! He introduces me to his wife and friend that are with him, explaining some things in Japanese. I know he is busy so do not hold him up. I do ask if he has heard of a book called, The Tao of Sailing. He says no. I give him my copy, which he asks me to sign. At that point he is pressed by a couple of other people for his attention so I quietly go to my seat. The program is about to start. I grab some breakfast from the table and things begin.
First up is the general speaker who welcomes everyone. Blah blah blah… Then he introduces Yoh Sensei, he had been part of my main reason for going, I wanted to hear what he had to say. I turned on my recorder. First he started with a story on his name, then went into his story about his world circumnavigation.
His wife runs a PowerPoint show while he talked. He was interesting and funny. Lastly he spoke about wanting the ASA to have a powerboat classes and how much it is needed in Japan. This is a clip of mostly audio with just a few pictures of his talk: it will be posted in parts —————–
—————- Next up a guy spoke about cruising the Channel Islands. For me not that interesting. After that we broke up into a couple of groups for the beak out sessions, ( small lectures ). There were two, one was about marketing a school the other was for instructors on teaching methods.
I went with the instructors we met on the patio our lecture was on, covering the three ways people learn, sight, hearing, touch and how to come up with ways to get things across to everyone. We also went over a couple of Crew Over Board methods. It was nice to have class outside, with a backdrop of sail boats.
Now it was lunch time. There were sandwich fix’ns layout on the table. We ate whist a guy gave a presentation on software he developed and someone else spoke on a couple of new classes in the making for ASA.After lunch it was time for the instructors on the water sessions. We were going to learn a new MOB system and compare it to the figure eight which is currently being taught.
We divided into 5 or 6 boats and went out on the water. It turns out that I was on the boat with the guy who invented this system, so I got some first hand talk and demo. We went out on a small boat somewhat like a Folk Boat, very easy to sail and responsive.
It had no motor so we sailed it out of the slip and back, winds were very light coming back so it took us a while. The MOB drill is called the Deep Beam Reach Method. It goes like this:1. Shout – “Crew overboard”2. Toss Floatables
3. Post Spotter4. Steer to a Deep beam reach5. Reverse tiller at deep beam reach ( about 2 boat lengths)6. Hard about ( crash tack)7. Cast off sails ( slow vessel)8. Approach to windward with bare steerage. (Use engine to expedite if needed)9. Toss line to MOB /COB10 Turn into irons11. Harden main & furl jib12 Bring crew aboardThis drill to about 30 sec to recover floating fender over sometimes 3 or 4 minute over the figure 8 method. This method has been submitted to the USCG, US Naval Academy Sailing Squadron, Red Cross and Canadian Yachting Assoc.By now it is getting late in the day, we head back to base. Once ashore and back at the YC. I spot Yoh Sensei and crew sitting by the window. I grab a photo of them and am asked if I would join them.
I sit and we talk a little about boating and some about Zen practice. How the style the sect is not important, the mind is important. There are many paths to the top of mt Fuji. All 3 of them also practice it was a good connection. I also tell them about my needing to have my boat towed and they are shocked at the cost. Yeah, so was I said, now I know to keep my membership current.Now it is time for the last presentation we head back into the main room. This time the talk is from a guy who works for Lat 38. He talked was on getting the general public to know about the pleasure of simple sailing. Not the big rich boy stuff , just sailing for the everyday guy. He has developed a world wide event called the Summer Sailstice with countries from around the world involved, from big events to just single sailing on the water all on the same day. To celebrate sailing. One can sign up for prizes on-line and use the events as something to add to their own event or group activity. One can also be more involved by sponsoring a $1.00 a mile sail the money goes to an environmental charity. a VERY good cause. As my area GS-green flag team leader I will see about what I can do. Even if it is just sail that day with my “Think Environment” Green Flag raised
The last hour before the dinner party started was a wine hour. We had free wine, and everyone sat and talked. I was at Yoh Sensei’s table speaking with the owner of Spinnaker Sailing school in Redwood city. He is also a friend of Yoh Sensei’s and certified him as a Teacher Qualifier the first international one. Yoh Sensei had spoke of him to me when we visited him in japan, I got to meet him now. We had a interesting talk about sailing, Japan, playing music and the small amount of Black sailors out there. After a while the guy who spoke of the Summer Sailstice came over. Turns out he was heading back to the Bay Area that night also, and had to miss the dinner. Our planes left about 2 minutes apart so I gave him a ride to the airport in my rental. We had a nice chat about, misc subjects on the ride to the airport. It just came to me, that I now have a contact to advertise my story to Lat 38 when my sail time comes…It was a good ending to a long but enjoy able day. Well worth the trip. Learned some new things, met new folks, saw a friend, practice some Japanese, made a new friend here and in Japan. Funny isn’t, not funny haha, but funny interesting…
