master mariners

Serving their masters (clockwise from below) — a tidal wave sweeps over 'Pegasus'; 'Nautigal' passes safely in front of a container ship; 'Bright Star' rail down; 'Bounty's kites were pretty but we fear permanent retina damage; adjusting the main outhaul on 'Lynx'; 'Corsair' on a firehose reach (actually, a firehose would probably be dryer); 'Ouessant' chases 'Credit'; the other 'Corsair' looking pretty — and pretty wet. Left, 'Polaris' in hot pursuit of 'Sequestor.'

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

off StFYC at noon. (In reverse handicap, the slowest boats start first and the faster boats later; so the first in each division to cross the finish line is the winner.) Per tradition, the grand dame of the fleet went at the first gun — the 60-ft scow schooner Alma is the oldest Master Mariner and, as a seagoing ‘flatbed truck’, the only boat left that raced in an original Master Mariners regatta.

Per usual, breeze built through the day to about the low 20s, giving everyone a thrilling ride down the homestretch to the finish just below Treasure Island.

One of the highlights this year was a fleet of eight Bear boats — the largest one design class in this year’s race. Once as plentiful as J/105s on the Bay, the Bears have been in a sort of 'hibernation' for the last few years. The rumors continue that they will once again qualify for one design status in WBRA next year, and we hope the Master Mariners turnout is a harbinger of that. A big congratulations to Magic, which not only won the class but was the third boat to finish behind the mighty schooners

Seaward and Brigadoon. Going back to our theme, we also note that, in several classes and matchups, the oldest boat prevailed. Nowhere was this more thrilling to watch than the Gaff

III contest between Sequestor and

Polaris. The former is a 32-ft Tahiti ketch built in 1948, owned and skippered by Hans List. The latter is a 34-ft Pumpkinseed gaff sloop, currently owned by the Spaulding

Wooden Boat Center in Sausalito and skippered by former owner

Tom List — Hans’s father. Although

Sequestor started 15 minutes earlier, as the two boats sailed under the lee of Treasure Island, Polaris was coming up fast. Slowly, inevitably, Polaris drew even with Sequestor, then a bowsprit ahead, then a boatlength — all within the last 100 yards. Just before they finished, a large cheer went up from the old boat. A hundred years old and still winning. Take that, carbon fiber! — latitude/jr

BIG SCHOONERS — 1) Seaward, Ken Neal; 2) Alma, National Park Service; 3) Lynx, Craig Chapman. (3 boats) GAFF 1 — 1) Brigadoon, Terry Klaus; 2) Aida, Skip Henderson; 3) Yankee, John Collins. (3 boats) GAFF 2 — 1) Makani Kai, Ken & Kristine Inouye ; 2) Sea Quest, Stephen Carlson; 3) Taihoa, Jody Boyle (7 boats) GAFF 3 — 1) Andrew Mulligan, Stephen Canwright; 2) Stardust, Mary Moseley. (2 boats) L-36 — 1) Leda, David James; 2) Papoose, Allan Edwards; 3) Ole, J. Hamilton/C. Leonard. (4 boats) MARCONI 1 — 1) Chrysophyle, Kirk Morrison; Bolero, Tim Murison; 3) Bright Star, Ted Hall. (7 boats) MARCONI 2 — 1) Sunda, Bob Rogers; 2) Nautigal, Jeff Stokes; 3) Unda, Dean Gurke. (6 boats) MARCONI 3 — 1) Vixen, Steve Kibler; 2) Little Packet, Dick & Barbara Wrenn; 3) Vectis, Louis and Sara Nickles. (7 boats) MARCONI 4 — 1) Flirt, Peter Strietman; 2) Glory, Jerry de Rham; 3) Blackjack, Ted Hoppe. (7 boats) OCEAN 1 — 1) Kate II, Roger Emerick; 2) Bounty, Dan Spradling. (2 boats) OCEAN 2 — 1) Chorus, Brad Asztaios; 2) Credit, Bill Belmont; 3) Ouessant, Gene Buck. (4 boats) BIRD — 1) Robin, Pat Kirrane; 2) Curlew, James Josephs; 3) Widgeon, David Cobb. (3 boats) BEAR — 1) Magic, Tim Maloney; 2) Bongo, Jill Lutz; 3) Camembert, Todd Greenberg. (8 boats) Complete results: www.mastermariners.org

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Photo Credit: Ari Bakker

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If you're a wooden boat-lover, here's a little tip: Run around to various Bay Area boatyards in mid-May to see some of the Bay's more interesting examples of the breed getting ready for the annual Master Mariners Regatta at the end of the month. Although unintentional, our annual foray through the boatyards yielded an abundance of woodies — some prepping for the race, others simply (or, rather, not-so-simply) catching up on delayed maintenance. Every boat may have a story, but it's the people behind the boat that make a story interesting. And everyone we spoke to that day in May had a tale to tell — like the sailor who loved to help others but, in the end, needed the 'kindness of strangers' to get his own boat launched; or the young couple working hard to live their dream of returning to her homeland by boat; or the family of 12 siblings who sails — and restores boats — together; or the salvation and resurrection of a former champion by a team with a vision. Though their stories may differ, all the sailors we spoke to had one thing in common: a passion for their boats. From production boat to custom-designed work of art, each vessel boasted an owner who loved her fiercely. We all know that a boat isn't the most fiscally sound investment, but we'd wager that not a single sailor in this article could care less. — latitude/ladonna

Albatros, Atkins Eric — Most folks like to get in and out of the boatyard as quickly as possible. But sometimes a lengthier haulout is necessary, as was the case for Mike Curray's Albatros. She'd been on the hard for six months! "I live in San Diego," Mike explained, "but we've kept her in San Rafael for the last 10 years or so, which was probably too long — the freshwater wasn't good for the wood." In fact, Mike and his wife Gisela have based Albatros out of the Bay Area off and on for the last two decades, in between cruises to such far-flung ports as New Zealand, the Marquesas, Polynesia and Hawaii — a "little" 10,000-mile loop. "We didn't go as far as we'd have liked," Mike said, "but we had to keep coming back to work." And Mike is clearly unafraid of hard work — during this haulout, he'd already added 26 sister ribs, rehung the rudder, and recaulked most of the boat. "I'm going to paint her white again, too, because varnish is too hard to maintain," he said. "It's all just your basic restoration of a 40-year-old cruising boat."

Little Packet, 33-ft Lester Stone — Of all the fabulous wooden boats we saw during our tour, none had a more distinguished lineage than Dick Wrenn's Little Packet. Built in the Stone Boat Yard in 1958, she was one of just a handful of boats designed by Lester Stone himself. "He built her for Chris Jenks, the commodore of St. Francis YC in 1958," Dick said. "She was their flagship that year and was even on the cover of the menu." He went on to detail how she came by her name. As the story goes, when Stone presented Jenks with the design, Stone said, "Isn't this a nice little packet?" Jenks agreed. Dick went on to detail that Jenks had local legend Hank Easom haul her out every year for maintenance. "When I bought her from Chris in 1971," recalled Dick, "she was in perfect shape." Consequently, the amount of work he's had to do on the mahogany-on-oak sloop is minimal, compared to boats that have been neglected. "Maintaining a boat is a lot easier than bringing it back up." Some might think that keeping such a beautiful boat in top condition would limit on-the-water time. Not so with Dick, who's retired. He's often seen sailing the Bay aboard the Berkeley-based Packet. In fact, this haulout was for a "shave and a haircut" in preparation for the Master Mariners Regatta. (Coincidentally, Latitude 38 was Little Packet's sponsor for the race this year.) He also found the time to cruise the Sea of Cortez in the early '80s, where he came home with more than a tan. "I met a Swiss woman," he said with a sly grin. At that moment, the lovely Barbara Widmer walked up bearing cool drinks. "She came sailing and never left." Hard to blame her.

Solitude, IOR 12-meter — "I get by with a little help from my friends." So go the lyrics of a Beatles tune, and so went the haulout story of Edwin Campbell. Edwin, a boisterous South African who's been living in the Bay Area for the last six years, has been sailing since he was a kid. In his early 20s, he left Cape Town on a steel Roberts 45 and cruised up the east coast of Africa, across to Madagascar, the Seychelles, Maritius, Reunion and then back to South Africa. "Now that I'm 43 years old, I finally get to do my own shit again," he chuckled. Two years ago, Edwin found Solitude "rotting up in the Delta." According to him, the one-off aluminum IOR 12-meter is "rumored to be the one and only IOR boat Bill Lapworth drew." Built in San Dego in 1976, Solitude needed a lot of work get her sailing. But before he could work on his boat, Edwin had to help everyone else in the yard. "I have a problem," he explained. "I love to help people, especially when I see them doing something wrong!" "That's me," said Joe Rothwell, one such recipient of Edwin's goodwill. He and several other DIYers were lent a hand by Edwin so, when the chips were down, they paid back the favor in spades. Edwin (shown center) had to launch the day we met him and wanted to be on his way to Ensenada the next, so a work party formed and the group of able-bodied seamen got busy. Last we heard, Edwin slipped under the Gate on schedule — thanks to a little help from some new friends.