We regret having to report the passing on Monday of well-loved Bay Area sailor and businessman Svend Svendsen, founder of Svendsen’s Boat Works in Alameda.

Born in Denmark in 1932, Svend was descended from a family of fishermen, whose bond with the sea went back generations. According to his son Sean, one of his happy early-childhood memories was delivering fresh-baked bread on his bicycle. During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, he continued his rounds, sometimes delivering messages for the Danish underground, hidden within the loaves.

After the war, Svend learned his craft at a boat-building technical college, and eventually migrated to the U.S. in 1956 to pursue his career. After a stint in New York, he migrated to the Bay Area, where he worked for several well-known yacht builders in Sausalito and Oakland, and traveled the country with the world’s fastest unlimited hydroplane boat, which he helped build and maintain.

During a Tahoe ski trip, he met his lifelong partner, Suzanne. They were married for 52 years. The couple founded Svendsen’s Boat Works at the Pacific Marina in Alameda (now Marina Village) in 1963, and moved the business to its current location on Clement Street three years later. Until the end, Svend worked alongside his employees, building the business from a one-man shop to one of the largest boating supply and repair facilities in the country. 

Within the Bay Area sailing community, Svend may be best known for his association with the various one design boats he built and raced. Affectionately called the Godfather of Folkboats, Svend is credited with preserving the Folkboat class, by ushering in the transition from wood to fiberglass construction. A longtime member of the St. Francis YC, he was heralded as the club’s Yachtsman of the Year in 2004 for his substantial contributions to the sport of sailing. Svend was an avid racer and, with his son Sean as crew, won numerous regattas.

In an obituary, his son Sean wrote, "Svend was best known for his good nature, charisma and charm, and for the friendship he bestowed upon all who crossed his path. . . Svend had verve and panache, and was a lover of life. He will also be missed by his employees, whom he treated with the utmost respect and loyalty. Svend will be remembered by all for the positive influence he had on his community and the world around him."

We extend our sincere condolences to the family, as we bid farewell to a Bay Area legend. A public memorial will be announced soon. 

There’s a special place in hell for those who steal from agencies dedicated to doing good, and some thieves got an express ticket south when they stole all five outboard motors from chase boats for the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors. It’s a cruel irony that the thefts occurred over the Memorial Day weekend — after an amazing event on Saturday that featured Artemis Racing’s helmsman Loïck Peyron — as many of those who sail with BAADS are military veterans.

The theft of the motors threatened to disrupt the program but the SFPD miraculously recovered the outboards! Unfortunately, one of the Boston Whalers was badly damaged during the theft. On top of all of this, the group is preparing for the North American National Access Regatta September 3-6 and are trying to scrape together the necessary funds to run the event. If you can spare a few bucks, please consider donating to this wonderful program.

The 71-ft home-built catamaran pictured below has been a conspicuous landmark on the grounds of San Rafael’s Loch Lomond Marina ever since James Lane, his family and friends began assembling it there two years ago. After countless hours of labor, she was finally launched at roughly 2 a.m. on Memorial Day morning. 

The choice of a nighttime launch, we’re told, was due to the high tide at that hour, combined with the family’s desire to minimize the number of spectators on site.

Because the boat was designed by Lane, who is an accomplished carpenter but not a naval architect, the slowly evolving structure drew both praise and critique from local boaters. Say what you will about the cat’s somewhat unusual look, you’ve got to give Lane and his crew a huge measure of credit for seeing this colossol job through. The fact that the big cat floats almost exactly on her lines is a testament to Lane’s engineering skills — even though he’s never built a boat before.

We’ve been quietly observing the cat’s progress since construction began at Loch Lomond, but chose to give the builders their privacy during the construction process. Now that she’s been launched, though, and the project is near completion, we hope to learn more about the specifics of the building process and about Lane’s plans to sail her to Hawaii.