“This weekend the members of Tiburon Yacht Club, in Paradise Cay, turned up at their clubhouse to see that two of their nautical artifacts had gone AWOL!” reports incoming Commodore Ian Matthew. “The two items were a very large propeller and an engraved bell taken from a USCG buoy which had sunk many years ago and was recovered by two TYC members.” Around the same time, Paradise Cay Yacht Harbor, which is under renovation, had a large amount of wiring and other metal stolen.

 

“The propeller is a 4-blade bronze prop some 9'6" in diameter, weighing almost 4,000 lbs. It had a stainless 'shaft' welded to it to make it a sculpture. The bell is also bronze and is about 18" diameter. It has the original USCG inscription on it: ‘USCG 1912’. It had been recovered by divers Vic Joyner and Dan Higgins in Alaska.” TYC members are afraid their artifacts have been taken to a brass foundry to be melted down.

The time of the theft has been narrowed down to Friday the 9th, around 2 a.m., as neighbors report seeing lights around the club at that time. If anyone has information, please contact Ian Matthew at (415) 883-6339 or the local police. TYC is offering a reward for information leading to either the recovery of these items or the arrest of the people responsible.

Also stolen over the weekend, but possibly already recovered, was the champion J/105 Good Timin’, which disappeared from her slip in the San Francisco Marina. More on that in a future edition.