Yachting

NOTE: There are no waiting lists or membership requirements unless otherwise noted. Clubs are seeking new members unless otherwise noted. Alamitos Bay Yacht Club--494 members, all sailboaters. Five sponsors and boat ownership required. Three-month waiting list. Initiation fees and dues are confidential. American Legion Yacht Club--200 members. Two sponsors required. No initiation fees, $25 a year dues. Anacapa Yacht Club--150 members. Two-month waiting list. Two sponsors needed.

While the main body of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival lies on the Empire Polo Field, a connected, but far-flung grouping of parties act as a titillating extension of the main event. In order to get your party on in the most organized and extensive way possible this weekend, here's a rundown of some of the best shindigs in the desert. If all goes well your dance card will be packed four days straight. Note: Locations are often kept secret until you RSVP, and getting an invite often depends on who you know - just like back home.

The Southern California Yachting Assn.'s 61st edition of the Midwinter Regatta, the largest winter regatta in North America, was one of several sailing events postponed last weekend because of the oil spill off Huntington Beach. The regatta has been rescheduled for this weekend. Two clubs in Newport Beach, Balboa and Bahia Corinthian, were forced to postpone their scheduled ocean races when the harbor entrance was closed off by oil booms to prevent the oil entering the harbor.

The L.A. electro-pop duo YACHT has a visual aesthetic that's just as stylish as its music -- equal parts occult and urbane, with lots of triangles and mysticism and affection for Los Angeles. It's a good look -- one that might have been clandestinely appropriated by the mass-fashion retailer Kohl's for a T-shirt line. On Thursday, the band posted this image to its Tumblr account , linking to a shirt sold at Kohl's and Burlington Coat Factory that pretty clearly owes a debt to the band's imagery and the chorus lyric ("If I can't go to heaven let me go to L.A. ")

SAN FRANCISCO — The winds gusted above 25 knots and the swells topped 12 feet. In short, sailors participating in this year's race around the craggy Farallon Islands, 27 miles west of the Golden Gate, faced typically grueling conditions. Then something went terribly wrong. A rogue wave pummeled the 38-foot Low Speed Chase as it rounded the islands Saturday, knocking five crew members overboard. As the captain sought to rescue them from the 50-degree water, the boat capsized and was hurled onto the rocks.

"Tributes to Yachting Triumphs," an exhibit featuring more than 50 trophies in categories including ugliest, oldest and rarest, runs at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum through Nov. 4. The display marks the 100th anniversary of Southern California sailing. In the ugliest category--decorated with dentures and bridgework--is the "Bite Them Before They Bite You Perpetual Angler Award for Those Who Show More Daring Than Good Sense in the Pursuit of Fish."

The annual ritual begins at dawn with last-minute checks to the boats. The newly varnished decks must be free of sea gull droppings. The chrome must be smudge-free. And the ships' flags must be fully dressed and in their proper places. On opening day of the yachting season today in Newport Harbor, and in harbors throughout the world, everything has got to be shipshape.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions yacht clubs? Do you think about the America's Cup or about Dr. I. M. Rich sipping Dom Perignon and eating caviar while playing in the water with his million-dollar toy? Do you think about the Congressional Cup and other regattas or about some millionaire drifting along in I Have More Money Than You, a mile-long boat with more luxuries than some Caribbean nations?

When I lived in Venezuela a decade ago, one of my biggest thrills was joining a friend on his 50-foot sailboat for a leisurely cruise to the out-islands of Los Roques, a little-visited Caribbean archipelago with white, coral sand beaches, fabulous snorkeling in turquoise waters and some of the best bonefish fishing in the world. It was accessible only by private yacht. Now, anyone can go to Los Roques simply by booking toll-free with a U.S.

Like pirate ships prowling merchant routes, 16 wooden sailing vessels slipped out of Marina del Rey last weekend in advance of the starting gun for the 28th annual One More Time Regatta. Their peeled-log masts, varnished railings and cotton sails evoked the seafaring life and by contrast made the whitish fiberglass boats all around look like bathtub toys.

Here's a nice holiday treat for the heirs of Steve Jobs. A dispute over the Apple founder's yacht has been resolved and the good ship Venus could soon be on its way to the United States.  According to Agence France-Press , the Jobs estate paid a deposit of an unspecified amount to designer Philippe Starck, who claimed he had not been paid all he was owed for his role in crafting the $127-million boat. "The Venus is no longer impounded; we have found a solution," Gerard Moussault, a lawyer for Jobs' heirs, told AFP on Monday. "A security deposit was paid into a bank account, but I cannot say for how much.

Though the details are fuzzy, the mega-mega-mega yacht that was being built for Apple founder Steve Jobs is stuck in an Amsterdam port over a financial disagreement.  According to the Associated Press , the 256-foot super-duper yacht has not been allowed to leave because the Frenchman who helped Jobs design it says he's still owed money. Product designer Philippe Starck and Jobs worked together on the design for Venus. But Starck recently hired a debt collection firm because he claims he was still owed 9 million euros (almost $12 million)

Echo Park's Allston Yacht Club is undergoing a transformation. Come 2013, the restaurant will reopen as Allumette, with 24-year-old Miles Thompson -- who spearheaded the summer pop-up series Vagrancy Project there -- as executive chef. Allston Yacht Club owners Bill DiDonna and Charles Kelly were inspired by their partnership with Thompson to open Allumette, which translates to "matchstick" -- a nod to classical French cuisine ( allumette is also a slender knife cut).

MUSIC For a band at the vanguard of contemporary arty dance music, Yacht sure has staying power. The duo, known for its arch disco and gentle psychedelia, celebrates its 10th anniversary with a career-encapsulating set. The Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Blvd, L.A. 8 p.m. Sat. $15. attheecho.com.

Nature lovers waiting for their ship to come in might enjoy sailing into the Baja California sunset aboard the Safari Endeavour, an 86-passenger yacht-style boat that in December will begin cruising the islands of Mexico 's Gulf of California. The InnerSea Discoveries  ship, which is new to Baja, was renovated this year and will sail  a new itinerary that includes a stop in Loreto, plus stops at Isla Espiritu Santo, Los Islotes and Isla San Francisco and Bahia Agua Verde.

Vagrancy Project at Allston Yacht Club info Vagrancy Project at Allston Yacht Club Where: 1320 Echo Park Ave., L.A. When: Seatings at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays. Bar seating from 7 p.m. Price: Prix fixe menu $70 with optional $50 beverage pairing Info: Reservations made through vagrantayc@gmail.com ; http://www.allstonyachtclub.com

So what's the difference between Olympic yachting athletes today and 60 years ago? "Well, look . . . !" says John Biby, 84, removing his sunglasses. He and fellow Newport Beach resident Richard Moore, 85, smile, revealing laugh lines, not age lines; faces etched with wisdom, not worry. Biby's response is typical of the uncommon grace and wit that mark the two surviving members of the gold medal-winning 1932 U.S. Olympic sail team. "I was around before the Dead Sea became ill," Moore adds.

Mike Cisarik, once one of Southern California's most prominent civil rights lawyers, quit his practice about five years ago and headed to the South Seas by himself in a 40-foot yacht called The Rebel. He said he wanted to leave the rat race behind. The mystery is whether he intended to disappear. Recently his relatives posted a $1,000 reward for information leading to Cisarik's whereabouts.

The first dish served on Miles Thompson's five-course tasting menu during the Vagrancy Project's residency at Allston Yacht Club on a recent Monday was called "Oyster. " But it was so much more. The 24-year-old chef had encased a raw oyster inside a translucent oval of rosy kimchi gelée and placed it on top of a bed of crushed dashi gelée redolent of fish and earthy soy sauce. He then added a soft, pink mound of pied de cochon , a few rounds of pickled radish, some crunchy agretti and slender scallion slices.

NEW YORK -- Investigators were trying to determine Thursday if weather, overcrowding or another boat's wake caused a yacht packed with people enjoying the Independence Day holiday to capsize off Long Island after a fireworks display, killing three children.   Kenneth Lack of the Nassau County police told reporters early Thursday that two of the dead were found inside the cabin of the 34-foot yacht, which remained submerged after Wednesday night's accident. One of the dead was pulled from the water late Wednesday.