This past weekend was “Opening Day” for yacht clubs in the Channel Islands Harbor. Anacapa Yacht Club took the morning slot on Sunday. Another club had the afternoon.

It struck me as funny at first that a Southern California yacht club would have an opening day ? I mean after all, when did the season end ? Its always the same. The fact that people go do other things and abandon their boats from Nov-April doesn’t bother me at all. Its less crowded !

I’m in year two of fairly active participation at a yacht club. Just beginning to get the hang of things so to speak. Im not a racer so I miss out on 90% of the reason most sailors belong to a club. I’ve done it strictly to get to know people in the harbor and well, Im a sucker for a pretty face and so Im a Director and bartend during the Wet Wednesday series.

Opening Day however, is another thing all together. It’s a ceremony full of pomp and circumstance and kind of a renewal for the club and its members each year. Yacht Clubs tend to follow a protocol whose roots lie in the navy’s of a time gone by combined with a country club. Opening Day is a chance to really break it all out and enjoy the culture of the club. Part of the protocol of this day is that dignitaries from other clubs attend your Opening Day and vice versa. So this can be something one does for several late winter and early spring weekends as a ranking representative of your club.

Interestingly, I could find very little about all the intricacies of yacht club protocol on the web. So it is either a very closely guarded secret of the clubs themselves - or - it just hasn’t been done yet. Mr Tringali did recently publish a comprehensive book about it. I thought for the heck of it you would get a kick out of this kind of yacht protocol as well.

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