SIGHTINGS
COURTESY BILL BARTON
the legend of imp There are two boats that came out of the Bay Area that have had a huge impact on the international world of sailing — and coincidentally, both of them were featured in the inaugural issue of Latitude in 1977. One of these boats was Merlin, the boat designed and built by Bill Lee of Santa Cruz. She was a revolutionary large ultralight displacement boat that, in time, would change the way everybody thought about performance boats. The other was Dave Allen’s Belvederebased Ron Holland 40 Imp, which was much more of an evolutionary boat, but one, thanks in large part to the extraordinary sailing skills of some young Northern Californians, that would change everything in the IOR world, which at the time was the height of sailboat racing. The definitive book on Lee and Merlin has not been written yet, but Bill Barton, who often crewed on Imp, has taken care of that boat’s story with the 200-page book titled The Legend of Imp: The Magical Yacht That Rocked the SailBarton’s book will be particularly inter- ing World. It is a superbly written book esting to the main players in the 1970s that will prove fascinating to all sailors, Northern California racing scene. and features such Northern California sailing legends as Warwick ‘Commodore’ Tompkins, Skip Allan, Tom Wylie, Steve Taft, Ron Holland, Dave Wahle, Tad Lacey, Gary Mull, and countless others. Unlike most sailing books, which tend to be big on photos and short on text, Barton has written one of the most detailed and well-researched sailing books ever, one that is packed with history, colorful characters and delicious trivia. We love, for example, Barton’s initial sketch of Dave Allen: “With aquamarine eyes and unassuming air, David positively affected all around him. He was playful and impish at 5’8” and 160 pounds. Clever and smart, a free spirit and trickster of sorts, David was wealthy yet never flaunted his money. He was humble and lived simply, respecting Nature’s resources. He was ‘green’ and promoted green long, long before the term was even coined. He led by example and would use fresh water like it was gold, brushing his teeth with just a quarter inch of water in the cup. His showers were brief, and he would always finish with an ice-cold rinse. I never saw him wear a tie, ever. Even when he went to dinnner at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, there was no tie for David. For that encounter he wore his dark green corduroys, green Imp shirt and a tweed coat. He was not a control freak and had no ego issues. He had no axe to grind, didn’t care to be waited on, and shunned the spotlight, preferring to be the planner and organizer extraordinaire who left no stones unturned . . . I will always remember seeing David in his Peugeot with his six-year-old grandaughter propped up on his lap and her steering the car as he laughed in glee while they cruised around the streets of Tiburon. The man was a non-conformist who loved life and adventure, freely embraced. Bay sailing and ocean treks were his playground, and he relished, more than anyone might fathom, the nasty conditions that Nature can dish out.” Part of what makes the Imp tale so interesting is that sailing, like society and the world, was changing rapidly in the early ‘70s, when the seeds for Imp were being planted. “Skip Allan [who at 18 had been the winning skipper in the TransPac with his family’s Cal 40 Holiday Too] was working at a communal bookstore in Palo Alto in April of 1970 when the phone rang. ‘President of IBM calling.’ Skip could barely hear as there was a loud anti-war rally going on outside, but Vince [Learson] invited Skip east to join continued on outside column of next sightings page Page 72 •
Latitude 38
• August, 2010
charges filed against Four Coast Guardsmen involved in a collision between their 33-ft patrol boat and a 26-ft Sea Ray, which killed 8-yearold Anthony Cole DeWeese and injured five others, had criminal charges filed against them by the Coast Guard on July 1. The accident occurred at 5:45 p.m. on December 20, shortly before the start of the annual holiday Parade of Lights. The patrol boat was reportedly responding to a grounded vessel — not a life-threatening incident — and was estimated by witnesses to be speeding through the crowded waters at between 35 and 45 mph. Petty Officer Paul Ramos, the man at the helm, faces the most serious charges, including involuntary manslaughter for
