Welcome to RCG, Bob!

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Originally Posted by Bob Heacock

Well, SFMYC, whoever you are, I salute your efforts. Soon, the club's website will have more pictures of the club's events and better content. Welcome to the 20th century, San Francisco Model Yacht Club.

Originally Posted by Bob Heacock

Well, SFMYC, whoever you are, I salute your efforts. Soon, the club's website will be modernized and updated with more pictures and better content. But, getting to this point wasn't easy. Welcome to the 20th Century, San Francisco Model Yacht Club.

Déjà vu...

Sailboat starting at 2 minutes looks familiar!

Originally Posted by SD rc boater

Did you know that SFMYC is the second oldest model yacht club in the U.S. with the Central Park New York club coming in as the oldest, but not by much?

I used to believe this as well but it is not the case. The Central Park Model Yacht Club was founded on December 17th, 1916, so the SFMYC, founded in 1896, is the oldest continuously operating model yacht club by a little over 20 years. I think the confusion may stem from an 1894 article Model Yachting About New York by Frank Nichols when he mentions a club in Manhattan whose pond proved unsuitable and later collapsed. There has been model yachting of one form or another in New York City since about the 1840s, but no organization has had the legs or the stamina of the SFMYC.

Course those bloody English have everybody tarred... their clubs date back as far as 1720!!!

Originally Posted by SD rc boater

With the high density of population in San Francisco and the surrounding cities and counties these events should be packed to capacity. Now that some 'mystery' person has taken on the marketing, and is doing a great job I might add, it just may be possible to increase the attendance of these events.

I can't speak to reasons, but I can say all during the 70's and into early 80s, a typical Sunday at the Lake would be anywhere from 30 to 60 members of the power boat squadron and maybe half again as many assorted "hangers on." I have photos dating back further, to after the war (WWII) with literal crowds, each man with a big boat, many the size of Sterling's Chris Craft 63' or larger, most scratch or from plans.

Regattas and special events/runs usually turned out with 75 to 100 or more participants.

I stand corrected. That is awesome that you guys have the oldest model boat club in the U.S. I actually remember reading that info on your website a couple of years back about it being #2 in the U.S.

Scan some of those pics and post them here. I am sure it would be much appreciated.

I never had a problem missing events because they are on the club calendar for all who care to look.

Of course the drop off in attendance is primarily because this is a dying hobby period.

Kids care more about their PS3's and being "plugged in"- constant media/ video game/ cell phone texting saturation making them disregard anything that takes even a modicum of time to accomplish forget spending 300 hours to make a model they wont spent 3 hours on anything. Even English teachers complain they cannot assign novels over 200 pages and pupils are incapable of writing cohesive missives longer than 1 paragraph (length of a Facebook entry).

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Originally Posted by SD rc boater

I stand corrected. That is awesome that you guys have the oldest model boat club in the U.S. I actually remember reading that info on your website a couple of years back about it being #2 in the U.S.

We also believed the SFMYC was the second oldest club for a long time because we thought that the Central Park Model Yacht Club had been formed in 1894. I used to hear that figure a lot at the Clubhouse or Lakeside, so it was quite a surprise when the CPMYC traced it's origins back to 1916.

Originally Posted by SD rc boater

Scan some of those pics and post them here. I am sure it would be much appreciated.

I'll see what I can do. They are an odd-sized, medium-format negative and I'll have to do them on a flat bed. I'll post them after I get them scanned and cleaned up.

Just a quick note that we got the Steamup completed. Was a typical Aug. day with Fog and a light drizzle off and on but not enough to get you wet. Had a couple of flame-outs and rescue needed but overall went very well. Not many Footy's showed up but the arrivals sailed them just to show that the Lil Suckers are a viable type. SFMYC took a ton of photo's so should show up here in a day or so. Was so busy talking and running stuff forgot to take pictures, Aero did the same, but we both got boats in the water and practised some.

San Francisco Model Yacht Club's
STEAM UP 2010
Spreckels Lakes in Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA - Sunday, August 8th.

If I have made any mistakes or omissions vis-a-vis People's Names, Boat Names or Ownership,
please PM me so I can Correct them ASAP!!

Thanks!

San Francisco Model Yacht Club's
STEAM UP 2010
Spreckels Lakes in Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA - Sunday, August 8th.

San Francisco Model Yacht Club's
STEAM UP 2010
Spreckels Lakes in Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA - Sunday, August 8th.

Beautifully crafted primarily from copper sheet and nearly completed, the SS Tahoe is being built by SFMYC member, Alan J. Zulberti, and is a fine example of the modeler's art!

Alan also built the PT-588 which was seen in March/April issue of Ships in Scale. You can find a .pdf of that article here.

A recent article about the SS TAHOE: Divers reach SS Tahoe wreck at 403-feet
An article from Tahoe.com: S.S. Tahoe sails once again upon Lake Tahoe
The SS TAHOE's Wikipedia page.

San Francisco Model Yacht Club's
STEAM UP 2010
Spreckels Lakes in Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, CA - Sunday, August 8th.

We're waiting.