Can’t afford a yacht? Build your own.

If you thought racing yachts was strictly the province of Fortune 500 CEOs, the salty dogs at the Sun City Model Yacht Club would beg to differ.

Yes, model yachts—miniature versions of the real thing.

The Sun City Model Yacht Club started nearly 13 years ago in the Sun City community, an upscale 55-and-over retirement community in nearby Bluffton. The group sails two types of boats: an East Coast 12 Meter (5 feet long by 6 feet high, weighing 26 pounds) and a Soling One Meter (1 foot long by 4 feet high, weighing 10 pounds).

The club has 32 members and sails four days a week on Lake Somerset, competing in spring, summer and fall series. In addition, the club hosts two regattas.

But the Sun City sailors aren’t alone. The American Model Yachting Association boasts thousands of members around the country and even has its own AMYA Hall of Fame.

The boats themselves are radio-controlled and cost anywhere from $1300 for a build-it-yourself model to $2500 for a professionally built one. One hand controls the rudder while the other controls the sails. “You’ve got to marry the two perfectly or you’re not going to get the optimum speed,” advises Fran DiTommaso, who retired to Sun City from upstate New York. “It’s all in the thumbs,” he says emphatically.

Most of the club’s members are Sun City residents, with a few active members sailing well into their eighties. “It’s the kind of activity where you can do it for many, many years during retirement,” DiTommaso says.

Like many of the club’s members, DiTommaso used to sail the real thing, though he concedes he prefers sailing models. “No, I gave up big boats,” he says with a laugh. “It was just too much trouble keeping a boat, keeping it maintained, finding crew and then [sailing on] bad days,” says the club’s EC-12 champion for four years running. “With models, it’s pretty easy. If you look out the window and see it raining, you just don’t go.”

Interested in model yachting? Visit www.modelyacht.org for tips on how to get started.

See it Live

Wanna see the sailors in action? The Sun City Model Yacht Club hosts its signature event, the Sun City Regatta, on September 19–20. For more information, e-mail frandito@sc.rr.com

Do you speak Savannah-ese?

Seer suckered

v., to wear a thin, comfortable, all-cotton fabric at a socially inappropriate occasion; in the South especially, it is traditional for men to wear seersucker during the hottest months of the summer, usually from Memorial Day to Labor Day; any seersucker garment worn after September 1 is typically considered inelegant or gauche.

Example:

Though not quite fall, the sun had unofficially set on summer. Gone were the incandescent late-afternoon strolls in Forsyth Park; the swelter of August’s moist, stifling midday heat a mere memory. Yet, there they strolled, a cadre of young Savannahians, clad in the uniform of the summer, seer suckered by the specter of a season gone by.

Submit your own Savannah slang to editor@thesouthmag.com. For more inventive words and phrases, visit writer David Gignilliat’s official Quixotica blog at

www.quixoticawords.blogspot.com

Savannah’s bachelors reveal pieces of prime real estate suited for the single life.

The American bachelor pad is iconic, to say the least. In its most recognizable form, it boasts chic, black leather furniture, a well-stocked wet bar for entertaining, and possibly a view of the city skyline, all meant to swoon unsuspecting bachelorettes.

But in Savannah, a city notorious for attracting some of the world’s choosiest style connoisseurs, it’s no surprise that the bachelors know how to put a spectacular Southern twist on the macho abode. To prove it, four eligible men invited The South into their homes for a glimpse of how a few good single men live here in the South.

Bar • Food: BBQ Wontons

Nestled in the Habersham Village, Bar Food proprietors Johnny Baker, Alicia Cannon and Paula Letcher have created a back-to-the-basics approach to their French–Asian-themed restaurant. Each dish is priced under $12, and the menu is refreshed with new selections weekly. “We look at what is selling the most and listen to our clientele to guide us when changing up the menu week to week,” explains Baker, “but the BBQ Wontons aren’t going anywhere.” It’s a good thing they’re sticking around. The tasty pork pieces are slow cooked for 12 hours and spun with sesame and sauce. They are served in bite-sized crispy wontons, also made daily in the kitchen. Simply delicious. Bar Food, 4523 Habersham Street, 912.355.5956, www.barfoodsavannah.com

Uga VII, the University of Georgia’s beloved bulldog mascot, lives in Savannah with the Seiler family, who has owned the line of white English bulldogs since 1956. Swann Seiler, whose parents raise and train the dogs, spoke to The South about Uga VII’s second season at the head of the Dawg pack.

The Off-Season

“A lot of people don’t realize that Uga doesn’t just work during football season; he works year-round. He is very busy attending other university events, and his calendar is still full.”

The Treats

“One of his favorite things is on Saturdays, I would take him to McDonald’s to get a hamburger, and he just loved it. We used to get him cheeseburgers, but we noticed he was putting on weight, so we cut it down to plain hamburgers.”

Chart House Executive Chef Jim O’Connor believes good food is all about the details.

A restaurant group based in Texas can’t know much about coastal provisions in Savannah … or can it?

Chart House, overlooking River Street, is one of the few restaurants under the corporate umbrella of Landry’s that proudly allows its chef the creative freedom to build a local menu. Executive Chef Jim O’Connor started with Landry’s Restaurants in Alexandria and Annapolis before landing the Savannah location, where he has created a Lowcountry menu. And Savannahians are taking note.

The menu at Chart House changes nightly to feature such local fare as stone crabs from Hilton Head. O’Connor attributes his success in Savannah to his emphasis on consistency. “The details make the difference. It’s the little things that make food great,” O’Connor professes when the question of his food philosophy is brought up. “When a step is missed, it simply won’t come out right. I really want the details taken care of.” 

Hosting a dinner party in the Hostess City involves a pinch of skill, a dash of courage—and a little strategy.

I love to cook.

And I love to watch other people savoring my dishes; it’s a natural form of nurturing.

Naming a gathering “dinner party” can be intimidating while living in the Hostess City and being bombarded with the social expectations marketed by recent icons of everything perfect. Even though I am determined to be a first-rate hostess, I cannot claim to be an expert. In fact, it may even bring me bad fortune and cause my next sauce to curdle, my soufflé to fall and my meringue to weep.

Entertaining is an art form practiced by men and women all over the South. Southerners know there’s a difference between asking someone to supper and inviting someone to a dinner. In the South, the distinction is in the preparation, the guest list and the goal. In that spirit, here is my simple recipe for having a successful food fete.

Can a Savannah-based high tech firm forever change the way we see light? The answer may be in the bulb.

We use them every day. At the flick of a switch or a turn of a dial, they turn on. Another flick, and they’re off. They’re so omnipresent that we take for granted their existence; we assume we’ll always have enough energy and resources to turn them on whenever we want. It’s just a lightbulb, the main conduit for artificial light, an invaluable part of our daily lives, and the move is on to forever change the bulb as we know it. Move over, incandescent—the new CFL’s in town.

Hip new trends in home and interior designs from an industry insider.

Turquoise desk and stool with zebra fabric. A bright color on an otherwise simple piece of furniture can bring instant zest to a space. An old metal desk painted turquoise with black zebra fabric on the seat adds pop to a neutral room. Mix the old with the new for a fabulous style.

Buy Locally: Habersham Antiques, 2502 Habersham Street, 912.238.5908

The latest dealings in Savannah’s business world.

Paula Deen Enterprises is launching a new furniture line from Universal Furniture International, Inc. The 50-piece Paula Deen Home Collection draws inspiration from plantation-inspired antiques, coastal designs and the thriving arts community in Savannah. “This furniture is inspired by my life and my home in Savannah,” Deen says. Signature pieces in the collection include The Bag Lady’s Cabinet and the Savannah Poster Bed. Items from Deen’s furniture line will be available for purchase in early fall. Select items can be found at Whelan’s Furniture in Savannah, 12430 White Bluff Road, 912.925.5604. For more locations, visit www.universalfurniture.com/locator.asp