I first started sailing as a teen.
A family friend asked me to crew for him on his Coronado 25 during a local race.
The day was rainy and cold. I was wearing a winter jacket, jeans and tennis
shoes. At the end of the race I was very cold, very wet and very much addicted
to sailing. I raced with him once or twice a month during the winter for several
years. I also went on a couple of weekend trips with him and his family.
In 1978 I moved to Oregon to attend OSU. While there I concentrated on my studies and my bride to be. Laura and I were married in 1983. Laura knew of my interest in sailing but she had never been sailing.
On a sunny Sunday morning in April 1987, while house sitting for my parents, Laura and I were reading the morning paper while enjoying the view of Puget Sound from my parents home. A lone sailboat sails slowly past. I comment that someday I would like to get a sail boat. Laura says OK – is there anything advertised in the paper? I flip to the classifieds, see an ad for a San Juan 21 and make the call. Before the day was over Laura and I were the owners of a 1970 San Juan 21 that we named U4RIC.
We raced and cruised U4RIC for about ten years. We placed second in the SJ21 Western National Regatta held on Flathead Lake in Montana and we were Fleet Champions of Fleet 1 in Seattle for several years. We took U4RIC on cruises all over Puget Sound. We made a trip to Desolation Sound and even the Snake River. I held all of the Officer positions in Fleet 1 including Fleet Captain. In 1996, Laura and I organized the SJ 21 Western National Regatta when it was held in Oak Harbor.
Laura and I had been talking about getting a bigger boat - one with standing headroom and an enclosed head. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, we decided to go look around a bit just to get some ideas. We looked at a number of boats that afternoon but the last one we saw was a 1985 Catalina 27. We made an offer and she was ours. We took Scintilla to her new home on July 3, 1996. We joined the Catalina 27 Association and spent the next several years cruising Scintilla all over Puget Sound. As time passed, Laura and I decided we wanted a few more creature comforts – a bigger galley and a berth that we did not have to convert to a settee during the day. We had heard good things about the Catalina 34 so we wanted to look at one. A broker in Vancouver Canada said he had a 1988 C34 that was very nice and worth the trip to see it. After a four hour drive we look at the boat and it is awful. Oil in the bilge, mildew everywhere and looking very uncared for and neglected. Walking back up the dock toward the car and the long drive home we passed several new Catalinas that a different broker had. We stopped in to see if he had any used C34 we could look at. He did not but he did have a new one we could check out. Thirty minutes later we made him an offer and she was ours. On April 15, 2000 we took possession of a 2000 Catalina 34 Mark II that we named Unzipped. We joined the Catalina 34 Association and have sailed Unzipped all over Puget Sound. I was Vice Commodore of the C34IA for a year and am currently Commodore and Treasurer.