Spiffed up, ready to shine for annual Opening Day

By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter

JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES Skip Foss, with his wife, Mildred, hasn't missed an Opening Day of yachting season since 1968, when he was in the Army. They are aboard their 50-foot boat, The Chief, along with their sea-dog beagles Porter and, seen here, Stuart.

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"They started calling me the 'skipper,' " said Foss. "Since then I've missed one Opening Day, and that's when I was in Boston in the Army in 1968."

He was talking about tomorrow's Opening Day of boating season — an annual maritime fixture on Portage Bay since 1920. At least 600 boats, maybe closer to 1,000 because of tomorrow's predicted high of 77 degrees — will line up at the end of the Montlake Cut to watch a parade of some 225 other boats sail by, with several thousand spectators taking it all in from the shore.

Those people you'll see in one of the parade's VIP boats wearing kitschy admiral costumes are members of the event's sponsor, the Seattle Yacht Club. They'll be joined by hundreds of nonclub members — boaters in modest starter vessels (maybe $20,000 with low-interest financing) or no boat (having volunteered to crew someone else's) or a half-million-dollar cruiser.

Their common thread is a certain Zen to this Opening Day thing — being in a boat, able to touch the water, feel the breeze, savor the scenery and get away from office politics, ringing phones, fax machines and meetings. Pop open the Bud cans, the livin' is easy.

	SEATTLE TIMES FILE The crew of a 46-foot sloop stood at attention in 1956 as they passed the reviewing party during the Opening Day parade on Lake Washington.

"Every time I walk down the dock to the boat, it's like going to a family member," Foss said. Then, when he takes the boat out, he has this image. "I'm on the back deck with my granddaughter on my lap, teaching her how to steer. There is nothing better."

It's a pastime that attracts some younger families as well. Ann and Dave Ferguson of Kirkland, in their 30s, own a 20-some-year-old sailboat.

When their youngest daughter, Cameron, now 3, was 9 days old, off they went sailing in Elliott Bay. Cameron slept through it all, but, just like Skip Foss, she'll likely tell the story throughout her adult years.

On newscasts tomorrow, Seattleites once again can hear about living in "the boating capital of the world," a term supposedly used in a 1953 Saturday Evening Post. It's not true, but it looks good in numerous promotional materials.

Actually, last year the state ranked No. 16 in recreational-boat registrations, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association. (Michigan is No. 1, followed by Florida and California.)

Well, so what? On Opening Day, with the sunshine bouncing off the waters, the boats packed side by side, Seattle feels like the world's boating center.

Skip Foss and his family and a friend will be watching it all from his 50-foot Vic Franck boat, built three decades ago on Lake Union.

	SEATTLE TIMES FILE In Opening Day of 1908, boats met in a Lake Washington regatta, the forerunner of the colorful modern events of the Seattle Yacht Club.

Foss, of Seattle, is in the mortgage business, has been married to Mildred Foss for 37 years, and has two daughters and a couple of grandkids. He started off with a 25-footer, then moved up, buying his 50-footer, The Chief, in 1974. He figures it's worth maybe $200,000.

Many weeks, Foss spends 15 to 20 hours working on it — painting, varnishing, working on the electrical system, changing the oil. Some days, he gets to the Yacht Club at 6:30 in the morning, does the varnishing or whatever, then goes to work at 9:30, and comes back in the late afternoon and works more on the boat until maybe 10 p.m. For him, it's all part of the boating experience.

Tom Brown of Lake Forest Park is parade director for Opening Day. He is 59 and for three-plus decades has run a computer-engineering consulting firm. His wife, Pam, 48, is a retired marketing executive. They have three daughters in college.

Brown says he has worked hard all his life. Why not enjoy some of his earnings?

"I have a high-stress life," he said. On his boat, "I'm out of the office. I get peace and quiet. There is no other place in the world that has a 1,000-mile inland passage that's not out in the ocean."

But you don't have to spend big money to join the Seattle Yacht Club world.

Kathy Schnuckel of Seattle, who with her husband, Dave, owns a 32-foot boat, compares that to owning an RV or new car. She wouldn't say how much their boat cost, but, she said, "most anybody's car would cost more."

In her 50s, she said she had been boating since she was 6. Her dad, an attorney, took the family out boating just about every weekend, even on horrible February days. They went from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, playing cards, stopping at docks and fishing.

One summer, she met actor John Wayne, who was cruising in British Columbia waters, and he hopped aboard for cookies.

Another time, on a real-life dark and stormy night, they were trying to cross to Nanaimo from Vancouver. The weather was so bad that a ferryboat slowed down and guided them to safety.

Yet, she remembered the other times — swimming and clamming in the summertime. "It was just one of the nicest things you could do."

The dream of owning a boat is one that Karen Kenyon, 36, had for years. She is a Navy brat, having moved 18 times in her childhood. When the family lived in Connecticut, her dad would take her out water-skiing and fishing.

Moving here in 1992, first working as a waitress, Kenyon tried to figure out how to get herself a boat.

She took some college courses and now works as a marketing manager. With her boyfriend, Tom Rausch, a securities consultant, they now own a 27-footer they bought for $22,000 two years ago.

Going cruising, crabbing and fishing, Tom going scuba diving, hanging out with other boaters — that's what she likes.

"I'm not a rich guy," she said. "I do have friends with very large boats. Most of them come to say, 'When we were in our 30s, had kids, we had your kind of boat.' "

Writer Grant Fjermedal, who owns a 30-foot sailboat, will be at Opening Day.

Fjermedal said, "The Zen and magic of sailing is found in the wonderful ways in which you can become one with water, boat, and wind and for a sweet while become something beyond your everyday self.

"I'm sure runners, rock climbers, mountain bikers, and perhaps even knitters and bagpipers achieve the same existential escape into another realm," he said. "But for me it has always been sailing. ... There are times when it still seems magical that you can hoist a piece of cloth and catch a free ride from the wind."

If on this Opening Day, you watch in jealousy some of those middle-age types in their 40-foot cruisers, just remember what Skip Foss said about how he started out — with an $8,000 boat nearly two decades ago.

"Those days," he remembered, "were just as glorious and grand." Go out to the San Juan Islands, anchor, watch the sunset, maybe catch a fish. Why are you in the Pacific Northwest, if not for this?

It's not just a parade, it's a lifestyle.

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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