Tokyo Yacht Club 2010
Those of you who have been reading stories here for a while may remember a visit I paid to the Tokyo Yacht Club around Christmas time 2008. As I'm here this time in summer and not a cold Tokyo winter, I was keen to get back there and managed to do so on Saturday morning. As it was a weekend day I thought perhaps I'd be lucky enough to run into the crew of Yurari who were kind enough to take me out on the bay last time. But she was all locked up and I thought that in the end I'd have to take a look around by myself.
Then right near the public wharf I spotted a yacht with the warming name of Aussie Girl. That was enough of a cue to call out to the soliary guy sitting on board and introduce myself. His name was Izuka San, the bosun of the Northshore 31 that had been brought up from Sydney about 16 years ago. He was setting up for a day cruise for the owner Kawaguchi San and a further nine friends. I was asked aboard and after checking out the roomy vessel we chatted about boating life in Tokyo.
The marina there holds about 600 vessels of all shapes and sizes with about half the boats being club vessels and the other half just private. As bosun of Aussie Girl, Izuka San is kept pretty busy as there's a crew of about eight who one way or the other have the boat out at least 4 times a week. She does a lot of short cruises within about a 20 mile radius of the marina but has done a couple of longer hauls since coming up to Japan. He told me that in order to go further than about 20 miles you need to have an endorsement on your licence and that to go a distance of more than about 100 miles you need further qualifications. A number of yachts in the marina such as Yurari (the boat I was on last time) do the longer hauls but like most clubs around the world the number of boats that just sit there unused outnumber those that are used regularly.
Anyway the guests started to arrive and it was time for Izuka San to get things under way for the day. Around the marina there was a lot of activity as the weather was expected to improve for the remainder of the day. A BBQ party of a member was being held on the club grounds and and he was busy ferrying guests back and forth on his large cruiser behind us. I said farewell and headed off, only to meet an another club member this time an American, who owned a very large yacht. He was going out for the day as well and invited me along. Unfortunately I had an engagement to get to and had to decline. So - visit number 3 to the TYC is in my diary for the next trip and I'll set aside at least a full day next visit.
