WELCOME
HEATHER COSTELLO
Double Trouble, J/125, Andy Costello — After a few years of cleaning up with his 1D35 Double Trouble on the Bay, Andy Costello decided last year it
having any luck," he said. So he enlisted the help of Sail California's Norman Davant, who tracked down Narrow Escape — soon to be re-dubbed Double Trouble — on the East Coast. The boat was originally owned, incidentally, by Pat Nolan and sailed on the Bay under the name Javelin; it still holds the monohull record for the Vallejo Race. Costello — the new car sales manager at BMW of San Francisco — hasn't wasted any time getting up to speed with the new boat. He's won both the Crewed Farallones and Lightship races since splashing her earlier this year. In between those trips outside the Gate and the Vallejo Race, his three boys, Andrew, 7, Nicholas, 5, and Sean, 2 keep him busy for Corinthian YC's Friday Night Series. "Nicholas gets mad if we don't sail on Fridays," Costello said, laughing. While Nicholas already has a Vallejo Race under his belt, his dad has plans for a race that might be a bit long for him just yet; don't be surprised to see Double Trouble in next year's Pac Cup.
Great White, Express 27, Rachel Fogel — Her want-ad on the class website read, "Need E27 this month!" We wondered, why would one possibly need a boat right away, assuming he or she wasn't trying to escape from the law? For Rachel Fogel, the newest member of the Express 27 fleet, the phrasing was simply a ploy to find a good boat, quickly. And find one she did in the ready-to-roll Great White. "I'd been looking for four months," she said. "I just wasn't finding what I was looking for, which was the best boat I could Andy Costello already has sons (from left) Andrew, Nicholas and find." Sean trained in at least one fundamental sailing skill — hiking. With the help of fleet was time to try something different. members like Jason Crowson, Fogel "I'd been wanting to go offshore for — a doctor specializing in geriatrics awhile," he said. But to do it, he wanted — bought the boat in early January, a something a little faster. J/125s have couple years after a seven-year hiatus won just about every offshore race on from sailing for med school and a resithe West Coast, so that seemed like a dency. natural call. The only problem was that "The Express 27 fleet has been awewith only 16 built over their short-lived some in every way," she said. "It's a production run, there just aren't many wonderful fleet to join. I learned so around. much about the boat just from looking "I'd been looking for awhile and not at boats with them." Page 118 •
Latitude 38
• June, 2009
PETER LYONS/WWW.LYONSIMAGING.COM
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ately it seems that we're bombarded with statistics purporting to show the decline of participation in sailing, that nobody is coming into the sport and no boats are being sold. But as we're out and about around the Bay, we keep finding — at least anecdotally — the opposite to be true. It seems every day we're meeting or hearing about someone who's just bought a boat. More impressive than the fact that these people are either trading up or jumping into the fray for the first time, is the fact that a lot of them have big plans for their new toys. For example, five of the new owners you're about to meet are planning on doing a Hawaii race in the not-too-distant future! And while we only had space to introduce you to five boats, we know of new owners of no less than a: Farr 40, Express 37, Beneteau 36.7, Moore 24, Catalina 22, Vanguard 15, Weta, and foiling Moth as well. We hope to introduce you to them in the not-too-distant future. But for now, here are some people going full-bore with new boats.
Rachel Fogel, left, and Lori Tewksbury are going all-out to prepare for Pac Cup in 2010.
Fogel — a member of Berkeley YC — plans to sail the boat in next year's Pacific Cup doublehanded with friend and sailing colleague Lori Tewksbury. The two hatched the idea while helping Singlehanded TransPac sailor Jim Fair deliver his Outbound 46 Chesapeake home from Hanalei Bay last year. "During the trip we started to feel like it was something we really wanted to do," she said. The two have already started racing just about everything with a doublehanded division, along with the fullycrewed Spring Keel Regatta in March, when class members rounded up a rock star crew to get her going. Unfortunately Great White was T-boned at a weather mark while sailing on starboard. "He felt terrible, and I was shellshocked," she said. Through that mishap though, she ended up getting in touch with rigger Gilles Combrisson, who had the boat repaired and ready to go in two weeks and has been helping her ever since. Since then she and Tewksbury have been out almost nonstop as part of their Pac Cup preparations. The T-boning did mean they missed the Island YC's Doublehanded Lightship race, however. "We offered to return her entry fee," said the IYC's Dawn Chesney. "But
