Disney Sails His Last Act With Volvo 70 ‘Pyewacket’ — the Fastnet Race
Scott Easom wrote in to let us know Roy Disney’s modified Volvo 70 Pyewacket is tuned up and ready for her last race under Disney’s ownership, the 2025 Fastnet Race. It’s the 100th anniversary of the event and has a record 451 entries! The previous record was 430 entries in 2023.
Scott reports that the weather is currently light and will be very tricky as they near Ireland. They’ll be racing in the IRC Super Zero class, which has four Volvo 70s and two Volvo 65s. Pyewacket’s 18-ft draft means she can get powered up! It’ll be very competitive.
According to Scott, this will be Disney’s final act for Pyewacket, as she is actively for sale. They’ll do the race and then leave her in Portsmouth until she sells.
During Disney’s ownership, she’s torn up the race course in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, winning many races and setting records. She’s won the Caribbean 600 and the Pacific Cup overall. She set the Newport to Cabo Race record, won Antigua Race Week, and set the Puerto Vallarta Race record, and has won numerous other events.
The race sets sail tomorrow from the Royal Yacht Squadron line off Cowes, Isle of Wight, heads out around Fastnet Rock off Ireland, and will finish in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France. You can follow the action here.
- Youth Sailing
- DIY
- Working Waterfront
- General Sailing
- Repair & Maintenance
- Current News
- Maritime History
Rocking the Boat Launches Into Next Project
On June 7, the nonprofit youth organization Rocking the Boat reached a milestone: the first-ever Spring Launch Celebration at India Basin Waterfront Park. With the park full of friends, family and community members, a dedication ceremony for Neptune featured students and staff christening her with water from the Bay. The joyous occasion marked the culmination of the students’ effort restoring the 14-ft Whitehall, which was built by students in Bronx, NY, and shipped across the country to be worked on by the first cohort of students at Rocking the Boat San Francisco. Now fully restored, Neptune and her trident-toting purple octopus will join sister vessels La Bella and Phoenix for the first full season of community rowing at the park.
Rocking the Boat makes nature accessible to the youth in the boatbuilding program as well as community members of all ages, through free community rowing events on select Saturdays during summer and fall months. Stepping into a traditional wooden boat built with the dedication, focus, teamwork and skill of young teens is a magical experience! With favorable tides and weather, and the usual cast of birdlife, the deep blue cove off India Basin Waterfront Park beckons one to spend the day in maritime history, surrounded by the beauty of the Bay.
For the next adventure at Rocking the Boat S.F., boatbuilding program manager Anton Hottner is collaborating with John Muir, curator of small craft with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, on plans for the first boat that students will build from start to finish. With the tangible accomplishment of launching a boat restored by their own effort, combined with teamwork, the students are eager to embark on an exciting new project — a replica of the 16-ft Whitehall Alderbrook, a boat steeped in San Francisco history.
One of the most prolific and successful boatbuilding operations on the West Coast at the turn of the 20th century was located just blocks from the Rocking the Boat workshop at the park. The original builder of the Alderbrook, George W. Kneass, established several boatbuilding shops in San Francisco, including one at the base of Potrero Hill, the neighborhood adjacent to Bayview-Hunters Point. G.W. Kneass maintained a reputation for the quality craftsmanship of the boats he built, which by the turn of the century were in great demand in the maritime trades as well as the recreational boat market of the West Coast. According to the Maritime National Historical Museum, Kneass’ workshops specialized in building sturdy, utilitarian small craft, and offered a wide variety of proven designs and vessel types. The first solo transpacific crossing was made in an 18-ft Kneass boat, the schooner Pacific, sailed by Bernard Gilboy in 1882. Pacific completed the 7,000-mile journey from San Francisco to Australia in 162 days.
The Alderbrook is a carvel-planked [planks laid edge to edge] Whitehall and is constructed of eight wooden planks fastened to 17 ribs. The boat has a small keel with a metal shoe that goes up the bow post. The stern has an iconic wineglass shape typical of Whitehall boats. Participants in Rocking the Boat’s Youth Development Boatbuilding Program will put math and engineering into practice, engage in following plans, and use hand and power tools to precisely measure, design, and shape the 16-ft replica of the Whitehall Alderbrook. There is no better program to preserve the legacy of the historic shipyard at India Basin Waterfront Park and instill a sense of pride and possibility in young teens of Bayview-Hunters Point than the boatbuilding program of Rocking the Boat San Francisco. Participants gain self-confidence and learn to work together as a team, likely forming lifelong friendships, and all through the engaging medium of traditional wooden boatbuilding!
A full summer will see our enthusiastic young boatbuilders embarking on their next project as well as swimming lessons and field trips to partner organizations like the Sea Scouts, National Maritime Historical Park, Dolphin and South End rowing clubs, and Hyde Street Pier. A few spots are still open for current and rising 9th and 10th graders! Apply here.
Beneteau Cruise-In 2025: Westpoint Harbor with Naos Yachts
Phil Mills Sails His Arch Davis-Designed Dinghy Home
When Phil Mills saw his photo in Sailagram, he wrote to share the story of his Arch Davis-designed lapstrake sailing dinghy that we’d photographed. He and his son were sailing home after the Master Mariners Wooden Boat Show on Father’s Day when we snapped the shots. Arch Davis has designs for 13-, 14-, and 17-ft lapstrake dinghies, which Phil reports are built of marine plywood and mahogany.
Phil’s Penobscot 14 is kept at home in his garage so he and his family can take her anywhere for a row or sail. He says she’s fitted with Shaw & Tenney oars for ideal rowing characteristics. He added, “I like keeping it here because I can tinker with her when I’m bored. A little varnish here and there, repaint it a new color, replace some of the blocks and cleats with vintage bronze ones, etc. Fun! We can also trailer it to Tomales Bay without getting on the highway, which I like.”
Phil also reports that he acquired what he believes is the last San Francisco Bay Hurricane 30 afloat. They’re in the process of restoring her.
Looking back in the Latitude 38 archives, we found a list of classic one-design boats sailing the Bay, though we’re not sure it’s comprehensive or even accurate. But there are quite a few. Who remembers sailing any of these? The list we have is:
- Acorn
- Bear
- Bird
- Buccaneer
- Carina
- Clipper
- Coast 13
- Cox 22
- El Toro
- Farallon Clipper
- Friendship Sloop
- Frisco Flyer
- Golden Gate
- Hawkfarm
- Holiday
- Hurricane
- Junior Clipper
- Maya
- Melody
- Mermaid
- Mercury
- Pacific Clipper
- S.F. One Design
- Seahorse Yawl
- Shamrock
- Spaulding 33
- Sunset
- Treasure Island
- Voyager
- Windward
- Yankee
- Zephyr
What’s missing? Hundreds of other sailing boats and ships have been launched from shipyards, boatyards, backyards and boatbuilding shops around Northern California, so who knows where we should draw the line on a list like this? There are fewer of them still sailing, but with the help of the Master Mariners Benevolent Association, many sailors are inspired and helped to keep the tradition alive.
Sailing from San Diego to Australia — How Hard Can It Be? (Part 1)
When Natassja Shayer and Severin Gatzen-O’Keefe wanted to buy a cruising boat, they looked in the place where “old boats grow like barnacles and monthly slip fees are equivalent to the cost of a small car.” They bought Lochinvar, a Westsail 32, in California. One small problem … they wanted the boat to be in Australia.
Buy a boat and sail it home — how hard can it be?
This is the question we asked ourselves when we first came up with the idea. Boat prices back home in Australia follow a very simple rule: If you can throw the boat, you can afford the boat. Unfortunately for us, this puts most cruising yachts a bit outside our budget. Thus the following plan was hatched: 1) Fly somewhere with cheap boats. 2) Buy one. 3) Fix it up. 4) Sail it home.
This led us to California, the land where old boats grow like barnacles and monthly slip fees are equivalent to the cost of a small car. This made the perfect mix for us to afford our dream boat, the Westsail 32. This full-keel, heavy-displacement portable bomb shelter would safely see us across the Pacific, and hopefully ease our parents’ worries.
After two months of hard work, and help from the broker, the previous owner, a friend of my parents who lives in San Diego, and various other salty seadogs, Lochinvar was ready! Or so we thought.
On the sail from San Diego to Ensenada, we quickly realized that our 1989 stainless steel windvane was so crevice-corroded it might as well have been made of plaster. Epoxy seemed to fix the problem, at least until we tried to use it again.
With some hand-steering and a malfunctioning autopilot, we reached Cedros. This was one of our favorite stops so far, with magnificent mountains and lovely locals. The next leg took us to Magdalena Bay, where we discovered our forward bulkhead was completely rotten. A Texan sailor and mechanic by the name of “Starboard Mike” (to distinguish him from “Port Mike,” who was in the same anchorage — both were named according to the color of their boats) rafted up to us and spent two weeks helping us rebuild our forward bulkhead and samson posts.
One would be hard-pressed to find more abundant sea life than in Magdalena Bay. The whales would swim so close you could feel the spray from their blowholes on your face (turns out they have not yet been introduced to breath freshener).
And so we set off once again, with a shiny new bulkhead and a jury-rigged windvane, which worked for nearly two hours before breaking again — a new record! Hand-steering, on to Puerto Vallarta!
In PV, we ended up tied to an abandoned marina known as “The Boneyard,” where all the docks had sunk long ago, and only the concrete pilings remained. Sunken boats loomed from the depths all around us — and underneath us, as we discovered when the tide dropped and Lochinvar ended up sitting on another boat. We had to move when the tide came in again.
Continue reading, then look for Part 2 in Latitude 38‘s August issue, out on 8/1.
Sausalito Boat Show Exclusive Flash Sale for Latitude Nation
From Friday, July 25 through midnight Sunday, July 27, take advantage of a special Buy One, Get One Free offer on all pre-sale tickets to the 2025 Sausalito Boat Show.
All tickets eligible for this limited-time BOGO offer: Day Passes, Weekend Passes, VIP Tickets
Whether you’re planning a day visit or going all in with VIP access, now’s the perfect time to save and bring a friend along. Click here to buy and use discount code L38BOGO at checkout. Offer ends Sunday, July 27 at midnight.