If you go down to San Diego Bay on any given Wednesday night in the summer, you will find it peppered with boats and enthusiastic sailors competing in the weekly Beer Can Races. Legend has it that the popular beer can races are named for the bobbing cans of beer that used to mark the race course years ago. This tradition carried on in yacht clubs all over the country, and although race officials have become more organized over the years, the fun, informal spirit continues today. To maintain the integrity of the tradition, you will also find beer (canned, bottled, on tap, etc.) at the after parties hosted by a different yacht club or restaurant in San Diego each week to celebrate the night’s racing and the fun of sailing.
However, at San Diego Yacht Club, there is another piece of history surrounding beer cans. Native San Diegan and longtime SDYC member for over 50 years, Doug Deeds, has been sailing since he was a little boy. After attending Pomona College, Deeds left San Diego for a few years to attend graduate school at Syracuse University in New York and propel his future career as an Industrial Designer. It was during his time in Syracuse that Deeds accidently developed an idea for the next phase of his life.
As a whimsical experiment in his sculpture class, Deeds built a chair entirely out of recycled beer cans, emptied with a lot of help from his friends. Beer cans during this time period were made out of steel and Deeds brazed them together to create different pieces of furniture. This concept turned into a project that he eventually used for class credit. Over time, many of the items that he made were recognized as museum-worthy art pieces. Deeds’ big break was when a variety of his designs (the beer can furniture as well as light fixtures made from paper cups) were selected for the California Design 8 in 1962.
Since its creation, Deeds’ furniture has been featured in Pasadena Art Museum’s California Design Exhibitions in the 1960s and 1970s, and some designs made it as far as the Museum of Contemporary Craft in New York. During this time, Deeds was named San Diego’s most celebrated industrial designer associated with the California Design series. Locally, one of his chairs is a piece in the Mingei International Museum’s permanent collection in Balboa Park.
At the same time, Deeds worked as an Industrial Designer creating fiberglass composite furniture and lighting systems in LA. He has been praised for his practical design innovations that utilize aluminum in functional and esthetic ways, like when he built a lightweight “Cylindrical Core Structure” that two people could have easily picked up, but was also strong enough to support a car. One of his most impressive projects was when he designed a modular structure for the US medical expedition to Mount Everest. According to Deeds’ wife, “we even have a sports car he designed and built in the garage. He can do anything with fiberglass.”
Years later, Deeds now spends his a lot of his days at SDYC. He is on the Library Committee, has served on the Facilities Committee, and enjoys working on his boat Cruzando. Deeds built the 40-foot composite boat (with help from his friends) in the 1980s. He has toyed with the idea of building a boat out of beer cans, but the issue is that it’s difficult to weld aluminum cans. He is still constructing furniture, but out of fiberglass, not beer cans. Still reeling in contemporary exposure, the LA County Museum of Art plans to feature some of Deeds’ fiberglass furniture in an exhibit next year.
Though frequently recognized for its success in bay sailing, ocean racing, cruising, angling, and its world class youth sailing program, at San Diego Yacht Club, one can also find many uses for a beer can.