America’s Cup Patron and Hall of Famer Lucy Jewett Passes
San Francisco lost one of its grandest matriarchs just before Christmas. Lucille “Lucy” McIntyre Jewett passed away peacefully at the age of 94, in her Pacific Heights home.
Jewett was passionately and deeply involved with not only sailing and the America’s Cup here in the Bay Area, along with her late husband George “Fritz” Jewett who died in 2008, but also with her other love, the San Francisco Ballet. Together with Fritz, Jewett supported both of her passions financially, on many occasions.
Fritz was inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 2005, as he and Lucy were key backers within multiple America’s Cup defender and challenger syndicates.
On the waterfront with the America’s Cup teams they supported, the couple had a very visible and supportive presence.
Their America’s Cup journey began when they became the owners of Intrepid, which had defended the Cup in 1967 and 1970. The legendary Olin Stephens design was known that summer in Newport, RI, as “The People’s Boat” and came breathtakingly close to winning the defenders trials against Courageous.
“I got a phone call from Fritz, this was in 1973, and he said, ‘Guess what I did? I bought Intrepid (the winning yacht of the 1970 America’s Cup),’ Lucy recounted in an interview with Julian Guthrie. “I said, ‘Great. What will you do with Intrepid?’ He said, ‘I’m going to race her in the America’s Cup,’ and off we went.
“We had fun. We had a lot of fun!” she remembered.
It was then on to the infamous Dennis Conner campaigns, with Freedom in 1980, as well as Conner’s subsequent Stars & Stripes campaigns in 1983, 1987, 1988 and beyond. Throughout these efforts Lucy was the quiet leader among members of the crew, their families, and the team principals, sponsors and supporters.
After winning the America’s Cup in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1987, the entire team was treated like royalty in New York City. “The ticker-tape parade was incredible and drew hundreds of thousands of people along Fifth Avenue,” Jewett said.
They also funded syndicates in 1992 and 1995. The Jewetts returned to the fray again in 2000 as Fritz served as chairman of the board of directors with Paul Cayard and the St. Francis Yacht Club’s America One challenge. Unfortunately, the effort fell painfully short of reaching the America’s Cup Match after losing an epic Louis Vuitton Cup final to Luna Rossa 5-4. (It wasn’t just the green dye in the spinnakers that made the difference.)
“Fritz and Lucy were a great team, a beautiful team,” said Cayard at the time. “Fritz was a very understated, kind of a soft-spoken and gentle leader. Lucy has this fun-loving personality, and she was great on the boat and kept her humor in some tense and difficult situations.”
In 2010, when Larry Ellison brought the America’s Cup “home” for the 2013 Cup on the Bay, Lucy was instrumental in helping raise funds with the America’s Cup Organizing Committee. She worked with Marc Buell, Tom Perkins, Bob Billingham and many others to help the Bay host the 34th America’s Cup.
Fittingly, Lucy was inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 2013 in a “secret” Louis Vuitton Party ceremony (which is customary) with Australia skipper Noel Robbins, and Grant Simmer who was then with Oracle Team USA.
She worked very hard here in the yachting community to help raise the visibility, awareness and some of the funds necessary for a successful defense of the America’s Cup in San Francisco in 2013. The whole spectrum and grandeur of this event is made better by her efforts.
When Lucy and Fritz started in the America’s Cup, “no one was paid these big salaries. You paid for the sailors’ food and clothing and lodging over the summer, when they trained. We bought Intrepid for $75,000.”
Backing an America’s Cup syndicate today in Barcelona, Spain, can cost well over $150 million.
Jewett’s long involvement with and passion for the event and its people have made her an iconic figure in the America’s Cup world, where she is incredibly well respected as both an advisor and mentor. She will be deeply missed.
Good Jibes #123: “A Sailboat Changed Our Lives” and “No Name” (L38 Verbatim)
This week’s host, Ryan Foland, reads two articles from the 2023 February and April issues of Latitude 38. Hear “The Day a Sailboat Changed Our Lives” by Al Fricke and “Trimaran No Name — One Thing Leads to Another” by Stephen Wolf.
This episode covers everything from buying a boat to sailing the world. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear:
- How can a sailboat change your life?
- What type of boat should you buy?
- Where is Gashouse Cove?
- What is a Sea Swing?
- Where is the Cape of Good Hope?
- How is the water near Djibouti?
- Where is the Gulf of Tadjoura?
- What is Bab el-Mandeb?
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots — follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re feeling the Good Jibes!
Visit Ensenada Cruiseport on Your Trip South
Enjoy a peaceful stay in the heart of Ensenada at Ensenada Cruiseport Village. For reservations contact [email protected].
Is Heather Richard Giving the Best High School Graduation Present Ever?
With spring on the horizon, are you thinking about a good school graduation present? A local liveaboard and sailing mom has already figured it out. How about a mother/son doublehanded Pacific Cup race to Hawaii, aboard your liveaboard home? That’s the answer for Heather Richard, who’s raised her three kids aboard their 43-ft aluminum sloop Carodon in Sausalito. Heather plans to race to Hawaii with her son Julius this summer. And although she raced in college, Heather has never raced Carodon and has never done a Pacific Cup. But she and her kids have thousands of miles of sailing to their credit.
Heather runs Fine Day for Sailing charters aboard their home, Carodon, taking guests out from Sausalito. She and the kids also spent 2021–22 cruising Southern California. She’s a USCG 100-ton licensed captain and has worked on the Matthew Turner and aboard many of the Bay Area’s charter boats.
We asked Heather for a bit more background on the boat and she replied, “Carodon is a 50-year-old, 43-ft custom aluminum sloop. We have cruised her extensively as a family and she is our only home. She is also used for charters out of Sausalito through my company Fine Day for Sailing. We have not raced her yet, so the Pac Cup will be a first!
“To prepare, so far we have replaced the lifelines and rig and gone through all the checklist items for Pac Cup inspection. We have ordered a new downwind sail and added running backstays as well as an inner storm jib setup, mainly for the way back in case we hit some rough stuff coming home. We are waiting on a new liferaft and the downwind sail, then will go do some coastal practice sailing this spring, doublehanded to get our teamwork down. We are both working with a personal trainer this spring to get physically ready too. Lastly, I have been studying weather and setting up a YouTube channel so family and friends can follow along.”
Asked about other sailing experiences, she said, “I have never done an offshore race, but I sail every day for work and/or wingfoil for fun. My son is on his high school sailing team and teaches sailing at our local club. This will be his first big-boat race too.”
Beyond this being Julius’s high school graduation present, Heather mentioned she’s going because, “I have never been to Hawaii and it’s been on my bucket list for 20 years.”
She continued sharing about sailing with her son Julius, saying he’s hoping to attend Cal Maritime Academy this fall. She added, “I should mention we have shore support from my best friend, who is an emergency room physician, if we need medical help over satellite. We also have shore support from the team at Spaulding Marine Center in prepping the boat for the race, and from my rigger, Jason at Argo Rigging. We have a few friends in the race too, so it feels like a big team right now, but on the boat it will just be me and my son. I want him to see what he is capable of at 18, and give him an experience that culminates his childhood living aboard as well as launching him into the maritime career he has chosen.”
Heather described additional trip details. “We will likely be bringing lots of Patagonia Provisions instant meals, which we both like. With just two of us, we’ll be trying to do some filming, and though we won’t have Starlink, we’ll be staying in touch and getting weather GRIBs [via] Iridium GO! exec.”
With graduation on the horizon, the list of gift possibilities has grown dramatically.
California-Based S/V ‘Lenny’ Completes Her First Rolex Sydney Hobart Race
It was controlled mayhem as 103 yachts of all sizes, shapes and descriptions jockeyed for positions at the start of the 78th Sydney to Hobart ocean race on Boxing Day. Hundreds of spectator and press boats clogged the Harbour while drones and helicopters hovered overhead. The narrow passageway out of Sydney Harbour, guarded by the towering cliffs of the North and South Heads, was a sea of froth while boats attempted to claim rights as they hurtled out to the Tasman Sea.
Among the fleet was the only American boat in the race (one of 10 international entries), the newly commissioned Beneteau First 44 Lenny, skippered by California-based veteran ocean racer and boat dealer (Naos Yachts) Charles Devanneaux. “The race fulfilled a lifelong dream,” Devanneaux said. “I’ve watched the start for years on TV. Now I am here. What a moment!”
Fast forward four days and 20 hours, and a tired Devanneaux is relaxing dockside in Hobart, a glass of red wine in hand. “This was one of the toughest races I have ever done,” he said. “In comparison, the Fastnet, the Transpac and Pacific Cup and Mexican races look almost ‘easy’ after a tough Sydney to Hobart.” Lenny finished 71st in the Line Honors category and 15th in her IRC3 class.
Devanneaux described the run down Tasmania as the most challenging part of the race. “Passing Tasman Island was really tough. Solid 35 knots of wind, squalls with smashing rain, 4-5 meters of swell … and obviously it is when the electronic system shut down. But we got through it. The team was great.”
Devanneaux named his boat in honor of ASA (American Sailing Association) founder Lenny Shabes, who passed away at the age of 75 earlier this year. “Lenny started so many people on the road to safe sailing,” Devanneaux said. “We talked about this race often. It’s an honor to have him represented in this race by this great boat.”
When we wrote about the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race last week, Andoo Comanche and LawConnect were tussling for line honors; at one point little more than 300 yards lay between them. Over the last mile of the race the lead changed five times, with LawConnect winning the tacking duel at the gun.
“After being the bridesmaid so many times, crossing the line first is a dream come true,” LawConnect‘s owner/skipper Christian Beck said at the finish. “When the boat made the final turn towards the finish line, I didn’t think we’d do it. But we hung in there and ghosted across the line.”
LawConnect‘s navigator, US sailor Chris Lewis, described the stormy seas during the race as “wild” with 180-degree wind shifts. “My strategy was to get out in front … read the conditions … and stay in contention until the end.” Also crewing aboard LawConnect was Australian/American sailor Rodney Daniel, from Alameda.
The overall winner of the race on corrected time is the Reichel Pugh 66 Alive, skippered by Duncan Hine. Alive was the fourth boat to cross the line, with an average speed of 12.5 knots and an elapsed time of 2 days, 2 hours and 19 minutes.
Asked how he felt to win a second Sydney Hobart, Hine laughed and said, “It goes to prove finally that it [2018] wasn’t a fluke.”
“It was a cliffhanger right up to the bloody finish, wasn’t it? The Derwent River always pulls something out of the bag,” the skipper added.
The final boat has now crossed the finish line, a week after the race began. Co-skippers Robert Williams and Chris Warren and their “crew,” a cat named Oli, doublehanded their custom Alan Payne sloop Sylph VI to finish 85th on overall line honors, 13th in two-handed line honors, and second in the two-handed PHS division. Oli is believed to be the first cat to complete the race.
Reflecting on the experience, post-race, Devanneaux and Lenny’s crew enjoyed the wines they’d carried all the way from Shabes’s California cellars, for just this moment.
“We didn’t have any grand expectations other than to have a good time, sail a good race, and arrive in Hobart safely. Mission accomplished,” Devanneaux said. “As a sailor, I was happy to finish one tough race. As a competitor, I am not satisfied by the result.”
“Will I do another Hobart? I am thinking I will come back. I like the challenges, and now I know what to expect. The next time I will be better prepared for the fast-changing conditions.”
“C’est si bon. It’s all good!”
You can see more of the author’s photos of the race here.
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San Francisco on the Bay: “The List”
Dine, Drink, Smoke, Stay, Play and Shop. Discover San Francisco Bay and all that inspires those of us who live or visit here.