In Search of Olson 30 for Zen Sailing
Just because Poco a Poco in Puerto Rico wasn’t the right Olson 30 doesn’t mean the quest for Esprit de Gamelle has ended. Oh no. In fact, the La Gamelle Syndicate now realizes that buying an Olson 30 in Puerto Rico to relocate to the French West Indies would have been just too easy.
For those who missed the first installment in the adventure, the La Gamelle Syndicate is looking for an Olson 30 to bring to St. Barth in remembrance of: 1) the iconic La Gamelle bar in St. Barth and all her late night denizens; 2) the late well-hung Gustavian low-rider Gamelle who, pawing in the sand at Shell Beach, uncovered the $20,000 Rolex needed to fund the opening of La Gamelle Restaurant; and 3) certainly not least, the late George Olson, the soft-spoken but talented designer and builder of the Olson 30, as well as the entire ultralight community in Santa Cruz.
The syndicate’s new hope is that the Olson 30 that will be La Gamelle can be found in Northern California, to be followed by an intensive Bay sailing circuit, a pilgrimage to the ultralight center of Santa Cruz, and stops at all California ports down to San Diego. From there she’ll be loaded on a trailer for some sailing stops at a lake in Texas (suggestions welcomed), New Orleans’ Lake Ponchartrain, and Biscayne Bay, before being loaded onto a ship in early ’12 bound for St. Martin for entry in the Heineken Regatta. Following that, it will be ‘home’ to St. Barth for good, with lots of tradewind surfing off St. Barth.
As such, the La Gamelle Syndicate is now looking for an Olson 30. Since she’s to be used for Zen sailing, it’s important that she be clean and structurally sound. On the other hand, things like electronics, countless bags of sails, a double-spreader rig, and an eliptical rudder are not important. If you have a suitable ‘big bang for the buck’ Olson 30 or know somebody who does, please contact Richard, as she could become part of sailing history.
And please, no offers of other types of boats. The syndicate members are all serial owners of Olson 30s. And as Guillaume Touhadian, who has lived in Gustavia for five years but sailed out of San Francisco with a Olson 30 for nine years, points out, "an Olson 30 is THE perfect boat for daysailing off St. Barth."