santa's sailboats

Up at the North Pole, Santa has been surprised by the number of letters he has received from Bay Area sailors asking for new sailboats. What’s on the Wish list for this Christmas? Here’s a sample of what boats lo¬ cal sailors would like to find stuffed in their stocking and why.

Colin Gilboy Sausalito

“I have a Cal 20 and I’d like to move up to something a little bit bigger — an Express 27 or maybe a J/27, which is a pretty similar boat.” Sally Lindsey Palo Alto

“I want a Cal 40 to cruise around the world, but I don’t want it yet. Tell Santa to wait until 1987. Externally, the boat would be basic vanilla. I want it to be nondescript so it can be left in foreign ports without attract¬ ing any attention. The topsides would be all chalky and ugly, but it would be perfect down below.

“The plan is to work for a couple of mon¬ ths and go off and cruise for a couple of months. I’d leave it in Singapore, Australia and various other places.

“But I’d also take a new Larry Tuttle 505 rigged exactly the way I wanted.”

Peter Hogg Stinson Beach

A 60-ft proa. That’s an asymmetrical tri-ijj maran with the center hull offset. Basically, it has the benefits of both the catamaran ^nd the trimaran — optimizing both. You have the main hull to step the mast. The cross¬ beams, don’t have to carry all those loads, like you do on a catamaran. I’d like mini¬ mum accommodations and maximum speed. I’d use it for racing. I’d like to act as a catalyst for a singlehanded race from San Francisco to Sydney.”

Steve Taft Alameda

“I’d like a 150-ft motor yacht. Maybe that’s too big; it would be hard to get around. How about 85-ft with a helicopter on it. It doesn’t need to be a big helicopter. It should be in some warm location such as the Med or the South Pacific. It wouldn’t have any sails and wouldn’t have a telephone. It would have to have a couple, of windsurfers and a waterski boat. If I had that I think I’d be real happy. I could probably stay there permanently.”

Sue Hoehler Tiburon I d like a fleet. A Swan 55 for the ultimate in cruising pleasure, a J/24 for fun and frolic on the Bay, a Laser for lagoon sailing — and all with the maintenance price tag of an El Toro. If I had a cruising boat, I’d like it to have a bathtub. I thought a tub sounded silly until I saw how some people used one on a cruise two years ago in Fiji — you can do your laundry, soak your feet or clean fish! Both Ray Osborn and Colin Gilboy think along the same lines.” Ray Osborn Hayward

It would have to be an Express 27 ready to go race in the ocean with life raft, Loran, stuff like that. That would be nice to find wrapped up under the tree.”

Carl Schumacher Alameda

“Being a designer (Express 27 and 37, Capo 30, etc.), I spend a lot of time at my drawing board fantasizing, but I’d like a 40-ft cruising canoe. The hull would be canoe shaped, long and narrow, probably 8 feet wide and 8,000 lbs — with a carbon fiber mast and all the electronics one could ask for. It would be just a fun light displacement boat to go sailing on.”

John Bertrand San Francisco

“An Aussie 18. It is probably one of the fastest, most responsive boats in the world. Sailing^ is like total reflex. If you take time to think about something, you are usually, as they say, ‘in the piss’.

“At the level they race them in Australia, they have a full pit crew. The boat is shored up in a rack that can be turned easily to one side. About 15 minutes before the first gun, they decide which rig they are going to use, plug it in real fast, pull the sails up, right the boat, walk it down to the water, jump in and go. A lot of times only four square feet of the hull — the back corner of the transom — is all that’s in the water The rest is out, flying. I’d want a crash helmet to go with it.”

“On the family side, the personal side, I’d like an Etchells. My two boys are growing up, so I’ve already got my crew lined up.

“On the other hand, I have the boat I want — Clockwork. One of the nicest things about my arrangement with Lee Otterson now is that I can enjoy all the benefits of sailing the boat without having the burdens of owning it. I organize the campaign, do the prepara¬ tions and keep the boat in shape. I get to steer the boat. If we win, Lee keeps the trophy. That’s the tradeoff.

“Of course, we wouldn’t mind a brand new 46-ft full-on custom state-of-the-art stripped down racing boat . . .” Judy Gabriel San Francisco

“I’d have a Laser to play around on be¬ cause that can be put on a big boat — a com¬ fortable 50-ft cruising boat with a garden. It would have to be a simple rig, and teak decks would be nice. I like the idea of having a hole cut in the bottom so you can look out at the coral — a glass bottom sailboat.

“I don’t want the interior to look like a condo or a living room, but I want it to reflect me which means there will be tons of stuff around; lots of space for refrigeration and a freezer large enough to store big fish. How about a gimballed champagne cooler? It

station toys and one of Santa’s elves who can run it all; a good stereo; a washer/dryer, headroom in the galley and a place to hook your¬ self in for rough weather. And let’s not forget an alarm for when the bilge gets too full in * tase 1 run over some rocks and break the glass bottom. “I’d like some extra supports on the davits so I can fill up the dinghy with hot water and hook in a Jacuzzi so it will be warm and bub¬ bling while I bounce around in it.”

Will Santa Claus come through this year? You never know. Just remember that old North Pole saying. “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” • — glenda carroll