MORA EVALUATION
when lowering the main to reef a pawl in the winch failed and I drove my fist into my mouth . . .
to blazing life. Gads! The CCA (Cruising Club of America) came into being because a small group of meter boat types were strangling East Coast Yachting. MORA came into be¬ ing because Olin Stephens controlled MORC and they would not yield to our demands on safety items, like the height of lifelines (we crawl offshore here, not stand). The lOR is dying and MHS will eventually take it’s place. Olin has lost his ability to hold back new develop¬ ment in yachting (he held off light boats since the 40’s). The San Francisco - Santa Cruz area is unique in America: Big winds, big seas, men who create outside the rules. Those who do it become the experts. We survive, learn, make our own rules. Go it alone. PHRF is workable and cheap. We encourage the future while retaining only the best of the past. MORA can do it. MORA plus Santa Cruz is the future. We do not ask for the future, we take it. Lead the way. The others will follow. In MORA’s beginning St. Francis YC stood behind us. If we
are the best, they will again. Give me a two-year vote of con¬ fidence. Make if you wish, your other officers conservative. Klitza is' a good man, and a knowledgeable one. Who is this critic of MORA and what has he done? In 1954, a year after I left the philosophy and history department of the University of Washington, and a year after becoming a sailmaker’s ap¬ prentice, my ocean sailing began. With the owner, I left Seattle bound for San Francisco on the 24-ft gaff topsail cutter Wanderer II. We took an offshore route, and 130 miles out it began to blow. We hove to each night for 10 nights, then started in for California. Four days later the engineless cutter ar¬ rived in the Bay, with a happy crew on¬ board . My next trip south, there were three of us aboard a light-displacement 60-ft Garden sloop, Mata Hari. It was a fast, uneventful trip. Late October of 1957 saw me and several others hove-to off Cape Blanco
we encourage the future while retaining only the best of the past. MORA plus Santa Cruz is the future.
in southern Oregon, aboard the 63-ft yawl Indra IV. In this storm I discovered prolonged vomiting will dye Dacron sheets green. I also discovered the faults of the old style wire halyard winches, \and new, untried gear. When lowering the main to reef, a pawl in the winch failed, and I drove my fist into my mouth, breaking several teeth. My in¬ terest in yachting was beginning to wane, but the trip in the same yacht across the Gulf of Mexico washed away northern sins. Racing and sailmaking in the Nor¬ thwest became dull to me, so in 1961 I entered the Bay scene. In the mid-60’s I had the good luck to be sailing master on the 110-ft schooner, Le Voyageur, sailing from Central America to Vic¬ toria, and then back down the coast to Mexico. She had 16 feet of draft, 130 foot main mast, and I learned much from her. Then it was back to Bears, Tritons, and the little cutter Esprit. I raced in the last year MORC was in existence, aboard a Cal 20. Buying a Gladiator 24, Growltiger, I joined in the protest that was to found MORA, and became safe¬ ty officer. At this time a large boat was 24 feet; MvORA changed very rapidly when the very fast Cal 28 arrived. After years as safety officer I became vice commodore. As special race chair¬ man, I created the Singlehanded Race, the Gulf of the Farallones Race (I tried to solve the problem of how to round the Farallones, and so: S.F. to Drakes Bay, spend the night, round the Farallones, to Half Moon Bay, spend the night, then home). Next I created the Newport Race, posters and all, then the 500 mile race to Ensenada. Part of the thrill of each race was having no prior knowledge. I acquired many skills doing this work, especially with magazines and papers. MORA at this stage became much talked about and it was exciting. A clarentist from the S.F. Symphony pushed MORA one step further. Don Caroll showed me a book from the Philosophical Society of England. It was High Speed Boats, and in that book was
