Ross Tibbits

Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:25:18 -0700
Subject: Long time...
From: Ross Tibbits [rosst@mac.com]

Hello Tay,

I don't really know if you remember me, but I knew you long ago when BAMI was getting started and I was a kid. As it turns out, I guess you knew my father, Bob, from the Oceanic Society. Anyway, he introduced me to you and I got to spend a lot of time helping you out at BAMI...supposedly. A big thank you for keeping me occupied! It meant a lot to me and I think my parents were pretty overwhelmed at the time.

I was curious as to what ever became of you and where you went, etc., because I've become pretty involved with sailing. So, I Googled you. It's a little weird, but I had good intentions. That said, I found your bio online and here we are.

Since you last saw me I've gone to college and graduate school, lost my mother, gained a stepmother and then lost my father five years ago. Bob bought the building on Chestnut St., near your cool flat nearby, and we still own it today. My very amazing Norwegian step-mother, Irene, lives there. I bought a home in Fairfax three years ago, just down the road from where mountain biking was invented, in Cascade Canyon.

Professionally, I've been a freelance writer and an editor at a few different places. Ironically, I worked for MacHome and freelanced and Macworld, writing product reviews and attending Macworld conventions for the past six years or so. I was also a writer for a weekly boating newspaper called The Log, where I wrote profiles about people like "Commodore" Tompkins, Sven Svendson and Don Trask. Those were a lot of fun. I imagine you may have known some of them.

With regard to sailing, I'm now racing on four boats and a member of both the Inverness YC and the SFYC. Racing on the Bay has been an amazing development over the past ten years. I began after college sailing on Summertime Dream, Carl Schumacher's 1/4 toner. Later I moved on to J-24's and then bought a 505 with a friend. These days, I'm campaigning a Melges 24 (Bones), a Beneteau 40.7 (Phantom Mist), a Folkboat, an Olson 30 (HOOT), and sometimes I still help the old girls out on a Cal 29 (Boog-A-Loo). My girlfriend, Frances, is racing with me on all but the Folkboat and has roots in Blue Hill, Maine, where she spends her summers at her cottage on Deer Isle. We spent two weeks out there last summer racing (on occasion) at the KYC...if you know of it. The Atlantic's are pretty fun, but I have to say that sailing her friend Crocker's Hinkley 52' along Long Island was pretty remarkable as well and a lot dryer.

I don't mean to tell you my life's story here. But I think it's very cool that you've done all the things that you have and I imagine after all these years, it appears that we probably have a few things in common.

It would be interesting to know what you are doing and how you are doing. Your old haunts at Pier 66 are starting to change rather drastically there days. I'll be hard pressed to suffer flea bites in many of the warehouses around there anytime soon. But, The Ramp still remains as it always has.

All the best,

Ross

ROSS TIBBITS
62 Cascade Dr.
Fairfax, CA 94930
415-459-6269
415-283-6551

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Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 01:46:41 -0400
To: Ross Tibbits [rosst@mac.com]
From: Tay Vaughan [tay@timestream.com]
Cc: "Michael Herz" [mherz@lincoln.midcoast.com]
Subject: Re: Long time...

Hi Ross!

What a small world! Just a week ago I reconnected though a series of fluke friendships with Mike Herz (also Oceanic Society and a Bay Area racer) who lives here in Maine, now, and is a serious sailor. We go back many years. You may remember him, too.

I'm very sorry about your dad. He was a genuine great guy!

Fairfax is neat. Congratulations on your house! When I lived in Bolinas in the early seventies, we often took the Olema/Fairfax route through Samuel P Taylor State Park and Lagunitas -- had a friend who lived in Woodacre, so it was a stop-off on the way to Safeway. I imagine it's all changed a lot! I'm sure Sven Svendson's boatyard is long gone. Inverness YC? Jeez, did you see the website photo of my first yacht club, the Bolinas Rod and Boat Club? The SFYC is good, too, if they've de-emphasized the social side since I was last in the Bay Area, good for the racing side. You prepping for THE Cup? :--)

Sounds in all as if you have done well, and I'm sure you made your dad very proud even before he died. Whew, that happens to all of us. Not sure I'm ready, myself, but at 62 some flags are already raised -- high BP, high cholesterol, still smoking, diet this, no salt that. Thinking I should get my life reorganized for the end game and write a few more things while I still have memory. Who are you writing for now? Got bylines? Making more than a buck a word? Man, I tried that once.

Was that you on the Hazardous Materials Advisory Committee?

Frances sounds like a winner. She probably knows they are rebuilding the highway bridge to Deer Isle this summer. She near Stonington? Deer Isle is a daysail destination from Rockland on my old Grampian 30, through North Haven. Not a Hinkley 52, though. Not even close. Sounds to me like you are campaigning on a lot of competitive boats, very different than my old and heavy cruiser. Been a while since I've sailed anything "new," though Mike Herz has a newer 34-ft. Australian Seawind catamaran, and I may help him move it in a few weeks from Rockland to Damariscotta. My USCG 100-ton master's license expires this month, and I have a year's grace to renew it. Had it since the seventies, but not sure if I need it any more. I am, however, recently certified drug-free, not counting the Lipitour and diuretics.

I'm very glad that you got in touch and would love to meet up next time you visit the Penobscot Bay region. I'm selling my farm in Appleton (http://www.mainestuff.com), but until it's gone, I have guest quarters. You guys would be welcome anytime!

Again, thank you for your kind words and for getting in touch! These flashbacks are spooky; maybe there is a message here and I should start on that last will & testament I haven't written yet. :-)

Best,

Tay >/p>

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Hey Tay,

Great to hear back from you.

It is a small world. I was just talking to some people about another Oceanic Society person, Mary Crowley. I don't know her, but applied for a job at her company. She owns a tallship in Sausalito. By the way, I still have and often wear one of the OS T-shirts.

I wish I'd lived in Fairfax back in the 70s. What a place it must have been. I understand that the old Hot Tuna band used to park their van a few feet from my house.

That was me on the HMAC. I was doing some enviro work out of college and then got an MA in Environmental Policy and Management before joining the HMAC. Unfortunately, it disbanded a while back.

I also wanted to let you know that until just a couple months ago I was using one of the BAMI cutting boards on a daily basis. It still sits in a kitchen drawer, but gets used loss often as I now have a newer one. I can't believe it came from Fillmore West!

We'll see what my plans will be this summer. Frances will be in Deer Isle for a month at her place, 8-year old son in tow. I hope to come out for a couple weeks. And yes, she's located pretty close to Stonington, about in the middle of the island.

Cheers,

Ross