West Marine Declares Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
We have received a number of emails and comments with questions from readers about West Marine’s recent decision to go through a Chapter 11 reorganization. CEO Paulee Day assures vendors and customers they are not going out of business and says, “Chapter 11 is a legal process that will allow us to restructure by reducing our debt and putting us on a more sustainable financial footing.…”
For Bay Area and West Coast sailors who know this local company, founded in 1968 in a garage in the heart of Silicon Valley (Palo Alto) by sailor Randy Repass, it’s a disappointing fall from its early days when it was a central player in the booming California sailing market. Randy was selling rope out of his garage until he opened his first retail store in the busy sailing area of Palo Alto in 1975, under the name West Coast Ropes. That was two years before an ad (with $125 CQRs) for the store appeared in the first issue of Latitude 38.
The West Marine company history page shares: “I decided from the beginning that I wanted to take care of people,” says Mr. Repass. “The high-tech industry I had been working in didn’t provide me with an effective way to do that. But the boating industry gave me the opportunity to really enjoy my work and interact with customers who shared my interests. I was having a blast and building a business at the same time.”
Times have changed. There are many factors contributing to West Marine’s current headwinds. They face the same challenges that all “big box” retailers face from Amazon and other online retailers. West Marine started when sailboat builders in Santa Cruz, Costa Mesa and across the US were building the vessels as fast as they could. Sailboat building barely exists in the US today. West Marine’s administrative offices, the staff on the shop floor and most of the patrons were predominantly passionate sailors who were deeply involved in the sailing community. Thousands of people in the marine industry got their start at a West Marine store.
The company went public in 1993 until it was taken private again in 2017 by private equity company Monomoy Capital Partners. In 2021 it was bought by L Catterton, headquartered in Greenwich, CT, which calls itself “The World’s Leading Consumer Growth Investor.” In 2022 they moved the headquarters from Watsonville, CA, to Florida. Interestingly, L Catterton is backed by Louis Vuitton, which, as all sailors know, is a major investor (sponsor) in the sailboat race called the America’s Cup. L Catterton, LVMH and Groupe Arnault (the holding company of LVMH CEO, Bernard Arnault) says they are the largest diversified, consumer-dedicated private equity firm in the world.
L Catterton’s purchase appears to have followed the normal private-equity playbook of loading the company up with debt just as we were all emerging from COVID and the fresh-air-powered boating market was having a bit of a boom. Nothing lasts forever. Since the COVID boom faded and consumers have been buffeted by inflation, tariffs, wars and oil-price shocks, retail sales have slowed. That makes it hard to cover those private-equity-induced debts.
One might think that LVMH’s premier role in the America’s Cup would give L Catterton a chance to utilize the high visibility of the America’s Cup to promote sailing, along with the world’s largest marine retailer and retail marine hardware sales, and connect with the passionate sailing community that supported West Marine from its inception in 1968. That does not appear to be the LVMH vision. The America’s Cup is now an entertainment “property” that has also lost touch with sailing, making it difficult to connect with the average West Marine customer.
Most sailors we talk with feel that, somewhere along the way, West Marine lost their local, personal connection. They used to sponsor local events and offer life jackets to youth sailing programs. The Pacific Cup used to be called the West Marine Pacific Cup. The changing world has definitely made it harder for companies like West Marine to offer the kind of support they used to, but private equity has increased the distance and diminished the connection between the owners and the customers.
The LVMH CEO currently owns the 333-ft Feadship Symphony, pictured above, and he is rumored to be the billionaire behind the construction of a 470-ft Feadship at an estimated cost of $650 million. It’s supposed to be a secretive project, and though we shouldn’t believe AI, “Claude” believes it’s true. That would be quite a bit more than that another sailor and marine retailer, Jeff Bezos, spent on his 417-ft, $500 million sailing yacht, Koru, which is now rumored to be for sale. As far as we know, Amazon has never sponsored a sailing event and is a primary reason West Marine and many companies can no longer sponsor either. You can’t shop at Amazon and expect local marine retailers to support your youth program.
Back on the California waterfront, there continue to be local chandlers, riggers and boatyards to serve local boaters. We give shout-outs to those who support local sailors and Latitude 38. The retailers include Whale Point Marine Supply, Fishery Supply and Sailing Supply/Downwind Marine, and you can find gear, paint, polishes, rope and hardware in many boatyards, engine shops, rigging shops and other marine stores that line the coast. You can find great boatyards and other local suppliers in the current issue.
We know many sailors are lured in by the price and convenience of Amazon, but we also know the ultimate price we’ll all pay when we’re left with a single source for our marine goods. Most yacht brokers today are in a similar bind as the private-equity-owned YachtWorld has become the default multiple-listing service for boats for sale. Ultimately, like Amazon, they grew big because they provide an excellent service, but unsurprisingly, the price of that service has become extreme.
It’s frequently hard to correlate cause and effect, but over the past decades, we’ve watched an incredible boom in the internet, private equity, wealth, efficiency and apps to provide connection, communication and convenience, all with an apparent concurrent reduction in people’s free time to relax and sail. Simple things like roller furling have made sailing so much easier. There’s lots of improved technology, but seemingly less time to hoist the sails. Sailing and West Marine were booming when people were sailing Sunfish and Hobie Cats. The challenges faced by West Marine may be the same as those faced by sailing itself. We may soon be able to have marine products delivered by drone to our slip or 3D-print them at home, but how will we ever have time to use them? Spreadsheets, data sets and metrics all show us how to earn a penny or save a penny but don’t how us how to have free time.
West Marine CEO Sandra Day says the Chapter 11 should help them get stronger and, hopefully, get back to a level of service that will support the boating market. They hope to emerge from bankruptcy in August. All of us sailors think we know what they should do to improve business prospects, though these are challenging times for most brick-and-mortar retailers and it is surely daunting. It will be good for sailing if Randy Repass’s Palo Alto-founded retailer finds its way back to providing the expertise, support, convenience and products that keep sailing fun and accessible.
It’s Memorial Day weekend! Buy some boat polish at any local marine retailer, give the boat a quick buffing, then get the boat out and go sailing!
‘Ahi’ Skipper Shares Details of Dramatic Duxship Race Rescue
On Saturday, May 9, the Santana 35 Ahi was competing in the YRA Duxbury Lightship race — start in San Francisco, go around the Duxbury Reef buoy off Stinson Beach, then the Lightship, and finish in San Francisco.
Wind was less than 10 knots at the start, but the forecast was for sporty conditions offshore with more wind farther out. Ahi rounded the Dux buoy, and since conditions were building, we put a reef in the main. We were beam-reaching on starboard on the leg between Dux and the Lightship, wind 20–22 and around six-foot-high seas. Boat speed 7–9 knots.
At around 12:45, Ahi was hit by a large wave from starboard and rolled to leeward, followed by a second larger wave that broke over the boat. Three crew were thrown overboard, and two of the three were able to maintain contact with the boat. The skipper (me) was not. As soon as we rolled, one of the crew hit the DSC distress button on the VHF and the MOB marker on the chartplotter. He also issued a mayday on VHF 16.
My PFD inflated and I popped up to the surface. My crotch straps were not tight enough and I struggled to find the adjustment straps to pull it down without success. With the flotation too high and no ability to adjust it, I tried to hug the flotation to try to get farther out of the water, but other than this I could do nothing else.
Meanwhile on Ahi, the boom was broken, and two people were outside the lifelines trying to hang on. One got in with the help of the crew, but it took a long time to get the second aboard due to some entanglement and the fact the boat was still moving. Crew dropped the sails to stop the boat. With everyone aboard and some control, the crew checked for lines in the water and started the engine to go recover the skipper. After a short time, the prop became fouled, apparently on the head of the jib, which had washed overboard.
Fellow competitor Zaff approached me in the water with sails down, made contact with their Lifesling, and were able to pull me to their open transom and aboard the boat. Zaff returned to Alameda.
Back on Ahi, they received word I was OK and tried to figure out their situation. A US Coast Guard (USCG) helicopter was on scene, but the crew declined removal. Competitor Shaman was able to make contact with Ahi and tow her for a time, until a USCG 47-ft motor lifeboat showed up and took over the tow, bringing Ahi to Raccoon Strait where BoatUS took over the tow and brought Ahi to RYC. At RYC, the incredible community jumped in to help the crew get things sorted. By the time I got there, damaged sails were stripped and folded, and they had begun initial cleanup. A 17-year-old junior even jumped into the water and cleared the jib off the prop. Wow!
My eternal thanks to Tim, Rebecca and Rowan on Zaff for saving my butt, and Bart and his crew on Shaman for helping my crew and saving my boat. And of course to my crew for managing a bad situation and making sure we all got home.
The crew spent Sunday documenting what we remembered, trying to figure out what actually had happened.
Stay tuned for more of the story in an upcoming issue of Latitude 38.
Come Visit Modern Sailing’s 3rd Location — Clipper Yacht Harbor!
“Get Down” — to Mexico — With the 32nd Baja Ha-Ha
This time last year we were lamenting the idea that this could be the last Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally to Mexico. Thankfully, that didn’t eventuate, thanks to the bold move of Chuck Skewes, who has stepped in to take over the helm and support the fleet of sun-loving, fun-hearted sailors on its way south this coming November — and in Novembers to come! Today we’re sharing an update from one or two of the folks who’ve already signed up to join this 32nd edition of the famous (infamous?) cruisers rally to Mexico.
Our first mention goes to Steven George and Susan Brooks of the Jeanneau 43 Shadowfax — these Huntington Beach sailors know what’s up and were quick off the mark when early entries opened this year in January. Next we salute the smallest boat signed up (to date) — the Catalina 27 La Vida owned by Pati Royce, who, with a hailing port listed as Augusta, GA, is also one of the sailors covering the most distance before the rally even starts. At the opposite end of the size scale we have the 64-ft Northern Marine powerboat Aquila, with Todd and Anne Taricco from Los Angeles/Zephyr Cove, NV. This couple will be “sailing” in the No Comprende division (but of course). Gerald and Mayder Gainant from Clayton must have had a good time cruising south with the fleet last fall, as they’ve signed up to join the Baja Ha-Ha again this November aboard their Lagoon 42 Jolie Rousse.
These folks are among the savvy sailors getting a head start on this year’s sail south. (The Ha-Ha sailors’ bios will appear in this year’s Meet the Fleet Guide.) They signed up at a discounted rate, and they earned a free Grateful Dead Ha-Ha hat. Chuck enlisted the support of Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, who is also a sailor at heart and loves the new Baja Ha-Ha/Grateful Dead-themed logo embossed on this year’s Ha-Ha hats and flags!
The opportunity to grab your free Ha-Ha “Dead” gear still stands, but only while stocks last! The early-bird signup discount, $50 off registration, lasts only until June 1.
It’s a the same safe, social, low-key cruising rally you know and love — great anchorages, beach parties and new friends — now with even more good vibes and ways to enjoy the beautiful Baja coastline.
As a registrant you’ll get access to exclusive online seminars prior to departure, and super-helpful (and no doubt entertaining) Zoom roll calls while underway so you can stay connected with the whole fleet. This is a great way to ask for or offer help for anyone who has any kind of issue, whether it’s a problem with your boat, a medical issue, or even if you’ve just run out of limes! Ha-Ha sailors are there for you at every tack and jibe.
Come make new memories and new friends, and maybe dance to a few Dead tunes under the stars.
When you sign up, remember to fill out the section that asks for a little more information. Your entry form responses become your Meet the Fleet bio, written by Richard Spindler, former Ha-Ha Grand Poobah. So this is your chance to control the narrative! Sharing these little pieces of your life are how the fleet gets to know one another, so that by the time you meet in person, you’re already great friends! The boats with the best bios — the ones with a little detail, humor or personality — are the ones people remember. Give us something fun, interesting or unexpected — you’ll be glad you did once the rally is underway. (Check out the 2025 Meet the Fleet to see what others have done.)
Cayard, Lamb and Mayo Win 2026 Etchells Worlds at San Diego Yacht Club
On May 11 through 15, an armada of 76 Etchells made their way to San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) for the class’s 2026 World Championship Regatta. Nine races were sailed over the course of the regatta, and Magpie, sailing under Australian colors, claimed her third-straight world championship.
The regatta is just the latest triumph for Cayard in a remarkable past 12 months, during which he won his second Star World Championship in Croatia (37 years after his first), won the Bacardi Cup for the first time in his illustrious career, and earlier this year was awarded the 2026 Magnus Olsson prize. Prior to joining Magpie for the regatta, the 1998 and 2025 Rolex Yachstman of the Year had sailed only 20 days in Etchells.
“I stepped into a very good team,” Cayard says of the regatta, per the Etchells class and SDYC press release. “A lot of great teams were here, so it is an honor to win and have my name on the same trophy as some of my idols like Dennis Conner and Vince Brun.”
Magpie finished with a net total of 56 points, 17 ahead of second-place Rogue, skippered by Scott Kaufman and sailing for USA. Cayard, Lamb and Mayo got off to a bit of an inconsistent start in the regatta. After a 28th-place finish in race one, they won race two, but then recorded 30th- and 16th-place finishes in races three and four, respectively. The fourth would ultimately become their drop.
It was in the last five races of the event that Magpie turned on the afterburners and separated from the field. They finished third in races five and seven, and second in races six and eight, before capping off the world championship with a bullet in the final race. Of note, Kaufman and the team on Rogue were disqualified from race three, meaning that their only drop would be letters.
“The last five races we could not have sailed any better,” Lamb says, again per the press release. “I’m so proud of how the team pulled together, just attacked the race course the whole time. This is probably the hardest Etchells Worlds I’ve ever done. Just to be mixing it up with the countless Olympians, America’s Cup winners and world champions feels good, but to win is incredible.”
Rounding out the podium behind Magpie was Kaufman’s Rogue in second with a net total of 77 points and John Sommi’s Encore (USA) in third with 80 points. Of the 76 boats racing, 21 were Corinthian teams. The winning Corinthian team was the British Etchells No Dramas, sailed by Andrew Larson and Graham Vials.
You can find the full scores for the 2026 Etchells World Championship here.
San Francisco Yacht Club Hosts Annual Elite Fleet Regatta
On May 16 and 17, the one-design keelboat fleets of San Francisco Bay resumed their regular racing season at San Francisco Yacht Club’s (SFYC) Elite Fleet Regatta. Six classes raced across the two-day event, with 62 boats competing in total.
Most of the fleets that were racing had not been on the water competitively in longer than would be normal for mid-May, but as St. Francis Yacht Club’s (StFYC) April Spring Fest regatta was canceled due to the West Marina harbor dredging, many fleets hadn’t raced since mid-March.
The event was sailed in unseasonably light to moderate, albeit shifty, conditions, with sun shining down all weekend. The wind only got as high as the mid-teens while boats were competing.
Moore 24 Fleet
Sixteen Moores showed up for the regatta, which was also serving as the class’s 2026 Pacific Coast Championship. The regatta was won by Firefly (RYC), sailed by Joel Turmel, Karl Robrock, Noah Barrengos and Rob Duboc. The Richmond-based boat finished outside the top two only once, and ended the event with a net total of six points from five races (Firefly’s drop was a third in race four). Turmel and team won races two and three.
Second behind Firefly was Rowan and Vikki Fennell’s PARAMOUR (SFYC) with a net total of nine points. Peter Schoen, Roe Patterson and Erica Ryan rounded out the podium aboard Mooretician (RYC) with a net total of 10 points, and won the final two races of the event to jump onto the podium.
J/105 Fleet
J/105, the biggest one-design fleet on the Bay, was back in action with 23 boats on the starting line for the weekend. Randy Hecht’s three-time defending North American champion Niuhi (SFYC) won the event with 12 points (the J/105s were not afforded any drops). Hecht and team won races three, four and five, including a few horizon jobs, and finished fourth and fifth in races one and three, respectively.
Tim Russell’s Ne*Ne (SFYC) was second, just two points behind Hecht. They had been leading the regatta going into the last race, but finished fourth in race five while Niuhi won. Though Russell and team didn’t win any of the races, they were never outside the top five. In third was Nicole Breault aboard Arbitrage with 32 points. Breault was sailing with an all-women team in preparation for the 2026 New York Yacht Club Women’s International Championship in September. The She-Wolves leapfrogged their way onto the podium with a strong day two, finishing fourth and second in races four and five, respectively. (You can read more about Breault and the She-Wolves in Latitude 38’s June issue, out on June 2.)
This racing editor was also competing among the J/105 fleet, and our team aboard Peaches had an uncharacteristic regatta. It was one of those weekends when our wonderful sport has a way of humbling us and reminding us that it’s important to have fun with the process, even when the results don’t go the way you want them to.
Other Fleets
The other four fleets that were competing in the regatta featured between four and eight boats. The biggest of the non-Moore or -J/105 fleets was the Melges 24 fleet, won by Duane Yoslov aboard Looper (SFYC). Yoslov recorded a picket fence for a perfect score of five points from five races. Six J/88s competed, with 2025 Rolex Big Boat Series winner Brice Dunwoodie’s team aboard Ravenette (StFYC) taking the win with eight points and wins in races two, three and five. Brandon Mercer’s Tenacious Cuttlefish (RYC) won the five-boat J/24 fleet with seven points, never finishing outside the top two. The smallest fleet — four Olson 25s — was won in picket-fence fashion by David Gruver’s Sketch (SFYC).
All of these fleets will now turn their eyes to June, and the peak of the windy season on San Francisco Bay. You can find the full scores for SFYC’s 2026 Elite Fleet Regatta here.
Spaulding Marine Center — Full-Service Boat Yard and Education Center
Repairs, painting, custom work, apprentice program, kids summer sea camps, event space for rent.