Goose Gossman’s Pictorial Gallery of a 10-Day Sail

Potter yachter Jim “Goose” Gossman spent over a week sailing between Benicia and Loch Lomond. He set off on Thursday, July 12, to join the Potters in Benicia Yacht Club’s Beer Can races. And apart from just enjoying being on the water, Goose was happy to spend a little time boat-hopping between his own and his friends’ boats.

“From July 12-20 I enjoyed a flurry of boat fun between Benicia and Loch Lomond,” Goose tells us. “It was a mini mess-about week, where I started from Benicia, rendezvoused with Charlie Jeremias from Napa at the confluence of Mare Island Strait, and punched up a nasty San Pablo Bay in 25-30 knots to meet up with four other Potter Yachters (coming from Richmond) for a weekend at Loch Lomond.”

Goose took his first sail aboard Dan and Cosie Carnahan’s recently acquired Catalina 27, enjoyed “sweet sailing” aboard highly modified Potter ReGale with Corsair tri sailor Brett Nelson, and took “a few blasts” on his 1963 Glasspar Ruby.

“Charlie liked LL [Loch Lomond] so much he left his boat there, while I sailed back alone. He missed out on the best-ever sail on a Potter …” Goose continues.

“I surfed home in only three hours, racing a trawler most of the way. Going both ways, I only saw a couple other boats, which sadly, seems to be the norm. Anyway, it’s been fun.”