Period 1945 - 1959:

In 1945, CCA Commodore, Ernest Ratsey, and his immediate predecessor, Hobart Ford, invited Charles A. Langlais and Jim Michael to meet with them at the New York Yacht Club. (Charles had just been elected to membership in the CCA in 1945.) Commodores Ratsey and Ford desired to expand the membership of the Cruising Club of America by making it truly national in character, rather than confined largely to the Eastern seaboard, and the two commodores proposed that outstanding blue-water sailors on the West Coast be brought into the CCA.

In 1946, Lester F. Stone and Jim Michael were elected to CCA membership, and the San Francisco Post was formed with Charles Langlais as Post Captain. In 1957, William F. Holcomb became the first member of the San Francisco Post to receive the Blue Water Medal and was awarded the John Parkinson Memorial Transoceanic Passage Trophy that same year. In 1958, with the addition of four new members, the membership of the Post passed the 24-member level and the CCA Board of Governors approved its status as the San Francisco (SAF) Station.

Period 1960 – 1979:

In 1969, the San Francisco Station hosted the CCA Spring Meeting, and it was the first regular meeting of the Club held outside of New York. In 1970, Jim Michael of the San Francisco Station became the first CCA Commodore from the West Coast and in 1971; Hal Roth of the San Francisco Station was awarded the Blue Water Medal.

During the period 1960 – 1979, Tom Stapleton was awarded two John Parkinson Memorial Transoceanic Passage Trophies for his transoceanic crossings in 1973 and 1979, and Bob and Kristi Hanelt received the CCA Circumnavigation Award for their 1972-1974 East-to-West Circumnavigation via the Cape of Good Hope and the Panama Canal in Skylark.

Period 1980 – 1999:

In 1982, the CCA-SAF Cruiser of the Year Trophy was awarded for the first time to Tom Stapleton. In 1987, the San Francisco Station hosted its second National Spring Meeting. In 1989, Roy and Tee Jennings of the San Francisco Station were awarded the Blue Water Medal. In 1991 and again in 1993, the San Francisco Station put on a well-attended Safety at Sea Seminars. In 1994, the San Francisco Station hosted its third National Spring Meeting. In 1999, the San Francisco Station hosted the National Winter Cruise to New Zealand.

During the period 1980-1999, nine CCA-SAF members were awarded the John Parkinson Memorial Transoceanic Passage Trophy for their transoceanic crossings including: Don Dalziel (1981, 1985, 1987, 1989); Fritz Warren (1988, 1989, 1991, 1997); Roy Jennings (1982, 1989, 1992, 1995); Bob Van Blaricom (1990, 1996); Pete Sutter (1991); Jerry Knecht (1994); Roger Swanson (1994); Stan Honey (1996); and Hal Roth (1997).

Period 2000 – 2009:

In 2000, Roger Swanson was awarded the Blue Water Medal. John Sanford became the first Editor of the Cruising Club News from the West Coast. In 2001, Bob Van Blaricom was awarded the Charles H. Vilas Literary Prize. Stan Honey and Peter Hogg set a record of 4 days, 17 hours, and 28 minutes for an Atlantic crossing on October 10, 2001, in Steve Fossett's catamaran PlayStation. In 2003, Bob Van Blaricom was appointed Chairman of the National Awards Committee. In 2004, John Sanford was awarded the Charles H. Vilas Literary Prize.

In 2006, the San Francisco Station celebrated its 60th Anniversary and hosted its fourth National Spring Meeting. Stan Honey sailed as navigator on the winning yacht, ABNAmro l, on the Volvo Ocean Race around the world. The website of the San Francisco Station was established. In 2007, William S. Foss was appointed Chairman of the National Environment of the Sea Committee. Roger Swanson and Gaynelle Templin were given a Commodore's Award for their successful East-West transit of the Northwest Passage on Cloud Nine. In 2008, Bob Van Blaricom was awarded the Royal Cruising Trophy for his voyage on Misty to Alaska and his article about the trip in the Cruising Club News.

In 2009, the San Francisco Station had 84 active members, nine of whom had circum-navigated including: Bill Chapman, Bob Hanelt, Stan Honey, Beau Hudson, Roy Jennings, Jim Jessie, Jerry Knecht, Roger Swanson (3) and Fritz Warren (2) and we had two active Blue Water Medal winners: Roy Jennings and Roger Swanson.

During the period 2000-2009, eight CCA-SAF members were awarded the John Parkinson Memorial Transoceanic Passage Trophy for their transoceanic crossings including: Monty Cochran (2000), Robby Robinson (2000), Bill Chapman (2002, 2003, 2004); Doug Duane (2002); Christine Sutter (2003, 2005); Roger Swanson (2000, 2003); Bill Foss (2007) and Jerry Eaton (2008).

Period 2010 – 2016:

In 2010, Bob Van Blaricom was awarded the prestigious Richard S. Nye Award for “Meritorious Service to the Cruising Club America during his 46 years of membership,” which was richly deserved, and, at the December 2014 CCA-SAF Station Annual Awards dinner, the CCA and the SAF station recognized Bob for his 50 years of Membership.

In 2015, John Sanford was also awarded the prestigious Richard S. Nye Award for “Meritorious Service to the Cruising Club America during his 34 years of membership.”

In 2012, Bill Foss received the CCA Special Recognition Award for being one of four CCA members who were principals in founding “Sailors for the Sea,” an organization committed to the worldwide protection of the oceans.

2015, Matt Brooks and Pam Rorke Levy were awarded the CCA Special Recognition Award for restoring the famous 1929 Olin Stephens-designed yacht Dorade and campaigning her in the major ocean races she had sailed in her early career, including Transpac, Bermuda, Transatlantic and Fastnet.

In February 2013, the SAF Station hosted the CCA Winter Cruise to Thailand and, in July 2013, Matt Brooks sailed his 1929-built, Sparkman & Stephens yawl, Dorade, to first place in the 2013 Transpacific Yacht Race to Honolulu. Dorade last won this race 75 years earlier in 1936!

In 2014, U.S. Sailing awarded Stan Honey the Nathanael G. Herreshoff Trophy, which is awarded annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the sport of sailing in this country in any associated activity.

During the period 2010-2017, six CCA-SAF members were awarded the John Parkinson Memorial Transoceanic Passage Trophy for their transoceanic crossings including: Bill Chapman, his 5^th John Parkinson Memorial Transoceanic Passage Trophy (2010), Bob Cadranell (2015), Bill Edinger (2015), Sylvia Seaberg (2016), Jason Deal (2016) and Michael Moradzadeh (2016).

In 2016, the SAF Station welcomed Jeanne Socrates, Blue Water Medal Winner (2013) into the CCA and into the SAF Station and, also in 2016, SAF member, Michael Johnson was awarded the Blue Water Medal for his many ocean cruising feats, including a two-year Northwest Passage aboard his yacht Gitana during 2013 and 2014. Thus, the SAF Station gained two Blue Water Medal winners in just one year!

Period 2017 – 2020:

In 2017, the CCA-SAF Station Cruisers of the Year Award was presented to Sylvia Seaberg and Tom Condy for their voyage to French Polynesia from Mexico on Cinnabar. In 2018, the CCA-SAF Station Cruisers of the Year Award was presented to Bill and Sandy Edinger for their third South Pacific voyage aboard Defiance. In 2019, the CCA-SAF Station Cruisers of the Year Award was presented to Stan and Sally Honey for their two-year cruise from San Francisco to Newport, RI, via the Panama Canal and the Caribbean, aboard their Cal-40 Illusion.

In 2018, Jim Quanci and John Swain were awarded the John Parkinson Memorial Transoceanic Passage Trophy for their transoceanic crossings.

In the 2019 Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Michael Moradzadeh’s Oaxaca, a Santa Cruz 50, finished 6^th in corrected time and was first in his class of 11 Santa Cruz 50’s and 52’s. Oaxaca’s navigator was our own Liz Baylis who won the Navigator’s Award for the Class.

In 2019, Jeanne Socrates completed a second non-stop, single-handed, unassisted circumnavigation, from and to Victoria, BC, becoming at the time the oldest person in the world to accomplish this feat. To honor Jeanne for her second solo circumnavigation, as Jeanne had already won the Blue Water Medal in 2013 for her first non-stop, single-handed, unassisted circumnavigation, the CCA presented to her the CCA Special Recognition Award.

In 2020, Banu Oney and her husband, Peter Saggers, made an epic voyage from San Diego to New Zealand covering the 6,900-mile voyage in under six months with Peter quite ill from cancer and with most ports and countries (i.e., Tonga) closed to them due to Covid-19. Banu and Peter, aboard their yacht, Denize II, a Beneteau 46, were able to call into only two ports in French Polynesia and just one port in Fiji before sailing to Christchurch, NZ, where Peter underwent chemotherapy that, amazingly and gratefully, resolved his cancer. For her prowess as skipper during this stressful voyage, Banu was named the CCA-SAF Cruiser of the Year for 2020.

In 2020, Marc Gounard was awarded two John Parkinson Memorial Transoceanic Passage Trophies for his transoceanic crossings, along with his wife Doreen, from Sausalito to French Polynesia in December 2017, and their return to Sausalito in September 2020, in their yacht Imani. Also in 2020, John “Robby” Robinson was awarded the first “Robert Van Blaricom Award,” which will be presented from time to time by the SAF Rear Commodore to the SAF member who, without portfolio, has voluntarily been of significant assistance in the running of the SAF Station.

Period 2021-2024

In 2021, Randall Reeves was awarded the Blue Water Medal, for his “first-of-its-kind circumnavigation.” Randall is the first person to complete a Figure-8 circumnavigation of the globe — an almost 40,000-mile voyage, which he completed in just less than 13 months. Randall received the Blue Water Medal for “sailing his 45-foot aluminum cutter, Moli, alone around Antarctica and then through the Northwest Passage in a single season — departing and arriving from San Francisco.” Randall is the eighth Blue Water Medal winner from the SAF Station going back to 1957.

Also in 2021, U.S. Sailing awarded Chuck Hawley the Nathanael G. Herreshoff Trophy, which is awarded annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the sport of sailing in this country in any associated activity. Chuck was the second member of the CC-SAF Station to win this prestigious award following Stan Honey in 2014.

SAF Station members did some ocean racing in 2021. Michael Moradzadeh, with Liz Baylis as navigator, took Oaxaca on another Transpac yacht race, finishing third in her division and 20^th overall. Jim Quanci took Green Buffalo, his Cal-40, on her sixth single-handed Transpac, finishing 6^th out of 11 boats entered, and Robb Walker sailed his Cal-40, Nozomi, to a third-place finish also in the singled-handed Transpac Race.

Banu Oney and her husband, Peter Saggers, were awarded the 2021 SAF Station Cruisers of the year award for their 2020 cruise in their yacht Denize II from San Diego and New Zealand. This was a particularly adventurous cruise as Peter was battling cancer and many ports, indeed several countries, were closed to Banu and Peter due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Peter received chemo treatment in New Zealand and his cancer is in remission, thankfully, and they are homeported in Nelson, NZ.

In 2022, SAF members Bill Lee and Lin Pardey were inducted into the Sailing Hall of Fame. In 2023, SAF member Sally Honey was inducted into the Sailing Hall of Fame.

At the 2022 CCA Spring meeting at the New York YC, Mary Crowley was awarded the first annual CCA Diana Russell Award for innovation in recognition of her founding and directing the Ocean Voyages Institute, as well as her active support for several other non-profits dedicated to the marine environment. Established in 2022, the award is named for one of the first three women to join the Cruising Club of America. The Diana Russell Award recognizes a CCA member for innovation in sailing design, methodology, education, training, safety, and the adventurous use and enjoyment of the sea. Mary Crowley’s Ocean Voyages Institute has removed one million pounds of plastic from the North Pacific Gyre over the past few years.

In racing, our San Francisco Station members continued their winning ways in 2022.

• Close to home, Skip Allan and his crewmember, Sean Callagy, won the 82nd International 110 National Championship regatta on Tomales Bay, California, on August 8-12, 2022. Hosted by the Inverness Yacht Club, twenty 110-Class boats competed with Skip and Sean taking home the winners’ trophy.
• On the other side of the country, Stan and Sally Honey’s Cal-40, Illusion, trounced the 2022 Newport to Bermuda Race Fleet to take line honors, win the St. David’s Light Trophy and 12 other trophies! Remarkably, Illusion and Carina, owned and skippered by Rives Pott (ESS) won the Thames Sailing Club Trophy for the Best Performance by a two-yacht team. (The combined age of the two boats is 110 years!) Following the race, Stan and Sally sold Illusion to their nephew, John Vrolyk (SAF) and purchased a 48-foot powerboat, Sarissa, which they have known and admired for many years. We are pleased to report that, on October 14, 2022, Sailing World magazine anointed Stan as “The Smartest Man in Yachting.”
• Alex Mehran sailed the 3,542-mile 12^th Route du Rhum, Single-handed Race from Saint-Malo, France to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. Alex raced his “Class 40” yacht Polka Dot and crossed the finish line at Pointe-à-Pitre on November 25, 2022, in 14^th place, of 55 yachts, in the Class 40 Division, after 16 days 14 hours 56 minutes 15 seconds. (Alex actually covered 4,124.63 miles at an average speed of 10.34 knots.) Alex was awarded a Transoceanic Pennant.
• Jim Quanci raced his Cal 40, Green Buffalo, and won the Single-handed Transpac from San Francisco to Hanalei Bay, Kaua’i, Hawai’i, a distance of 2,125 nautical miles. This was the second time that Jim has won the single-handed Transpac, which is likely to become an unmatched record. Since 2008, Jim has sailed Green Buffalo on fourteen transoceanic passages totaling more than 30,000 nautical miles to Hawaii and back!

On October 29, 2023, Ronnie Simpson crossed the starting line of the “Global Solo Challenge,” a single-handed, non-stop, around the world race via the three great capes of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin, and Cape Horn, from A Coruña, Spain. Ronnie was racing an Open 50 Class yacht named after his primary sponsor, Shipyard Brewing, of Portland, Maine. Unfortunately, not too long after rounding Cape Horn and into the South Atlantic, on February 12, 2024, Shipyard Brewing was dismasted some 5,700 NM from the finish at A Coruña. Ronnie was being overtaken by a strong storm, and he was reaching to the east to distance himself from the worst of it, when the boat took off a wave crest and dismasted upon landing in the trough of the wave, approximately 650 Nautical Miles due east-southeast from Buenos Aires. The approaching storm was too much for the disabled yacht to weather and Ronnie was rescued by the Bulk Carrier Sakizaya Youth, of Taiwanese ownership, and was delivered to Necochea, Argentina, the ship’s original destination, on February 16, 2024.

After eight years of constructing his 121-foot LOD, three-masted schooner, Anders Swahn launched Wolfhound in 2021, and promptly put some miles under her keel. During January and February of 2022, Anders sailed Wolfhound 5,400 nautical miles from Wilhelmshaven, Germany to Charlotte Amalie, USVI, her home port and then, during May and June 2022, Anders sailed her 4,900 miles back to Wilhelmshaven, where she is now berthed. Anders was awarded two Parkinson Memorial Awards for his two transatlantic crossings.

Sylvia Seaberg and Tom Candy spent the Covid pandemic in New Zealand due to the fact that they were not allowed to leave at all. NZ Immigration kept renewing their visas and, when the South Pacific cyclone season ended in May 2022, the NZ Immigration told them to leave and Sylvia and Tom sailed Cinnabar to Fiji at the end of August 2022.

In September 2023, Jeanne Socrates solo-sailed Nereida II from Victoria, BC, to Berkeley, California and from there to Mexico, French Polynesia, Tonga and New Zealand. Jeanne was effectively “marooned’ in Far North Queensland (FNQ) when she could not leave Australia and return to Nereida II in British Columbia, for over two years, due to the Covid pandemic. Jeanne made a lot of friends in Queensland during that period, and she wants to revisit them and cruise Aussie waters. It was from Neiafu, Vava’u, Tonga, on September 21, 2023, where Jeanne Socrates joined a live video link to Les Sables d'Olonne, France, for a Cape Horn Hall of Fame event, where she was inducted into the Cape Horn Hall of Fame. Jeanne also received a Parkinson’s memorial trophy for her voyage from Mexico to Nuku Hiva, F.P.

In August 2023, Ashley Perrin and her husband, Merfyn Owen, completed a five-year circumnavigation of Newfoundland via the “long way” of Greenland and Labrador, which began in 2018. (Their planned three-year voyage took them five years to complete due to Covid.) Ashley was named as the SAF Station Cruiser of the Year for this 5-year voyage.