Sailing Science Center News

July 2019

Vol. 2, No. 11

Welcome to the July issue of the Sailing Science Center News! Our theme this month is vision. Men's greatest accomplishments all begin with great visions. As we celebrate the birth of our nation this July, it's worth taking a moment to honor the vision and courage of our founding fathers, without whom we would have a very different history.

Great visions pull us forward into the future and give our lives purpose. This is as true for the Sailing Science Center as for any large undertaking, whether it's completing a college degree or putting a man on the moon. In concert with this theme we have activated a new Vision Page on the SSC website and are sharing thoughts about great visions in our Leadership Corner. We hope you enjoy this month's newsletter as we present it from a perspective of Vision.

The greatest gift God ever gave man is not the gift of sight but the gift of vision. Sight is a function of the eyes, but vision is a function of the heart.

– Myles Munroe

Volunteer Spotlight - Emma Sarkisyan

Our volunteer spotlight this month is on Emma Sarkisyan. Emma was born in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, and is fluent in Armenian, Russian and English. Emma says that growing up she enjoyed math, physics and chemistry and loved swimming and basketball. After her family moved to Canada, she became a loyal Raptors fan, giving her plenty to cheer about during the recent NBA Finals.

Emma earned her Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto and kick-started her career at a Big Four accounting firm. Emma then decided to go back to school, get her JD and with her law degree in hand, Emma moved to San Francisco to join Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati’s Mergers & Acquisitions group.

After passing the Bar Exam, Emma decided it was time to get social, so she Googled “How to make friends in SF.” Among the search results she found the San Francisco Social Sailing League. She knew immediately that she HAD TO DO IT, although concerns of sharks raised doubts in her mind. Fortunately, the scary sharks lost and Emma joined the scores of like-minded, ambitious SF-ers who have learned to sail at San Francisco's Treasure Island Sailing Center. Before it was over Emma had also proven herself on the water as a superb tactician.

Emma will be assisting the SSC project through WSGR. I can’t tell you how blessed we are to have you on the team, Emma! It’s team members like you who are making this project great!

June Volunteer Event - California Academy of Sciences

Our June Volunteer Event was a trip to the California Academy of Sciences NightLife. Every month we try to give back to our volunteers with an activity that is relevant to the project, while being fun, educational and a chance for volunteers to socialize and get to know one another. We hope that everyone who went had a good time.

A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.

– Rosabeth Moss Kanter

US Sailing Parks at TISC

Margeaux Woods & Michelle Peach in front of the new FAST Quonset hut.

The new US Sailing Airstream trailer at TISC.

On June 8 new FAST signs (Facility for Advanced Sailing & Technology) were hung on a Quonset hut at the Treasure Island Sailing Center (TISC). The hut had formerly been used for storing TISC’s PFDs.

Adjacent to the hut is a beautiful new US Sailing Airstream trailer. These are two early manifestations of the vision that TISC, FAST, US Sailing and the US Olympic Sailing Team have for the southeast corner of Treasure Island. SSC is working to enlarge that vision and create a world destination for sailing right here in San Francisco Bay.

Mystic Seaport Museum Visit

On June 10 SSC volunteer Paul Kamen visited the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic Connecticut to see their Discovery Barn. The Discovery Barn contains interactive exhibits framed around sailing, much as those planned for the Sailing Science Center. Paul met with their staff and took pictures of their exhibits, some of which are shared here. I’m thrilled to see this as a proof of concept for SSC.

In Paul’s post-visit email he says: Much discussion about how difficult it is to get hydrodynamic demos to actually do what they "should" do. We will have some challenges. That’s OK with me. If it was easy everybody would be doing it! We want to thank Erik Ingmundsun, Alan Schaeffer, and the designers who spent much of their day with Paul.

Flow Tank

Steering Gear

Wind Table

Wind Table Variations

Roll Stability with Rubber Bands

Roll Stability with Sand Bags

Self-Lifting Tackle

Single and Multi-Part Tackles

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. But vision with action can change the world!

– Joel A. Barker

Social Media Corner

Take 2 minutes to help us reach 100 Twitter followers!

We're expanding our social media presence and are asking your help to crowdsource our push.

Our Twitter and Facebook pages will feature the latest developments from our project, plus the best links, pictures, and articles related to sailing science from around the web.

This month, we are asking folks to:

1) Follow our Twitter account (@sailingscience)

2) Retweet this message and cc: 5 Twitter accounts that might be interested in following.

Small Stuff

KIDS for the Bay

On June 19th we met with Mandi Billinge, founder and Executive Director of KIDS for the BAY. This like-minded nonprofit in Berkeley has been inspiring kids' environmental consciousness through hands on experiences for 27 years. Mandi was extremely generous with her time, sharing information, giving us suggestions on connecting with the educational community, and other important aspects of her work.

Thank you Mandi.

Calls to Action

The link between vision and the manifestation of that vision is ACTION. Without action a vision remains nothing more than a dream.

There are several actions YOU can take to help make the SSC vision a reality:

Volunteer
Donate
Click the Like button on your favorite social media platform
Tell your friends and have them sign up for the SSC Newsletter

We are grateful for all support, however large or small.

Leadership Corner - Vision

I was four when President Kennedy gave his famous speech declaring that we would go to the Moon.

We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon... We choose to to to the Moon in this Decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard!