Olson 30s Are Still Fast, Fun and Available
We were looking at the November 1978 issue of Latitude 38 when we came across the ad below for the just-introduced Olson 30. It was a hot boat then and it’s a hot boat now. Latitude 38 founder Richard Spindler owned a couple of them. One was a company boat that we raced out of the Schoonmaker Point dry-storage area for years. He also cruised it for a few tours of the Bay with Doña de Mallorca. The other was shipped to St. Barts and used as a local daysailer. The boat is well built, sails beautifully, and fits the ethos of a soul sailor who likes to keep it simple.
There are still many Olson 30s tearing up the Bay — Michael and Apryl Berndt’s Flying Fish and Cameron Wright’s Concussion are signed up for tomorrow’s Delta Ditch Run. There’s also one for sale in Latitude 38’s Classifieds for $16,000! Less than the original $20,000 price. It comes with a trailer, “Plus a professional open-transom conversion. Micro-adjustable mainsheet, traveler and backstay. Bowsprit, excellent like-new sail inventory, Pelagic PA1 autopilot. Much more! Sail now!” That’s what the ad says.
We have to admit, for all the great stories we assemble every month for the magazine and ‘Lectronic Latitude, we routinely hear that many people’s favorite reasons to read the magazine and online material are all the great boats for sale. They can be boats in the brokerage ads from our advertisers, or boats like this Olson 30 in the Classifieds. Another great Santa Cruz-built boat was just added, the Express 27 Chimo, available now for $9,500.
Don’t wait to buy. You’ll miss the Delta Ditch Run tomorrow, but buying either of these boats now will help you have a better summer sailing!
You can see all of Latitude 38‘s back issues here.
There are six Olson30s racing out of the Nawiliwili Yacht Club in Kauai, Hawaii!
I delivered one back from Hawaii with my best friend, Karen Selbach, in 1982.
It was a fun ride, mostly, until surfing big waves coming into the coast then totally focused on hand steering. Otherwise windvane did better than we did at the helm. It did not like being over canvassed for sure. Remember seeing George Olson’s prototype named Pacific High tied up at the Monterey Bay YC after an Ano Nuevo Race in late 70’s. It had teak decks. Not exactly like the production Olson 30’s but close. No one knew what it was and doubted it would hold together in heavy seas. Joke was on all of us.
I bought my Olson 30 prior to the Singlehanded Transpac in 1982 from George Olson and Ln Neale. They knew what I was going to do with it, so they took extra care to go over the boat and make sure it was in tip-top shape. Prior to my owning the boat, Collage, it was the “shop boat”, and like many factory-owned boats, it had asymmetrical hardware on it: Lewmar on one side, and Harken on the other (for example). Just prior to taking delivery, George made sure port and starboard were the same brands of hardware. The name, Collage, was a play on words due to the collection of gear that was on the boat when George owned it.
She was hull #26, but my SF Bay YRA number was 8383, which I thought was pretty cool. And not too far away from 8647, but that’s a different story.
Richard (Spindler) bought Collage from me in the fall of 1982, after I had completed the Singlehanded Transpac. I lost to Dan Nowlan by a few hours, but we pretty much dominated that year by sailing OVER the Pacific High, when it looked as if you’d have to sail to the Equator to sail UNDER the high. Still, it was a long race (like 16 days). I’ve been pleased to stay in touch with Dan since that time.
Anyway, Collage became Little O, since there was a Big O in Richard’s life, the Ocean 71.
Great boats, great memories.
Chuck Hawley
We’ve got 11 sailing out of Duluth MN!
There are a few competing in the Race To Alaska currently .