Episode #192: Cole Brauer on Learning to Sail around the World — Part 1

This week we chat with Cole Brauer about learning to sail around the world. During the Global Solo Challenge 2023-2024, Cole became the first woman from the US to race singlehanded around the world nonstop and unassisted, and also set a new around-the-world speed record for Class40.

Tune in as Cole chats with Good Jibes host John Arndt and shares the story of her life-changing, first offshore race, how she fell in love with sailing, the doors that open thanks to beer can racing, how to get yourself on more boats, and the best way to learn everything you need to know about sailing.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll hear in this episode: 

• How Latitude 38 helped Cole get into the Pacific Cup
• How did Cole go from dinghy sailing to yacht sailing?
• Cole’s first ever offshore experience in Hawaii
• Why yacht clubs are more welcoming than you may think
• Cole’s most demanding mentor

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!

Learn more about Cole on Instagram @ColeBrauerOceanRacing

Check out the episode and show notes below for much more detail.

Show Notes

• Part 1: Cole Brauer on Learning to Sail around the World, with host John Arndt
  • [0:17] Welcome to Good Jibes with Latitude 38
  • [0:45] Welcome aboard Cole Brauer – the first woman to complete a nonstop, unassisted circumnavigation of the globe!
  • [2:09] Cole’s first ever offshore experience in Hawaii
  • [5:52] What got Cole into sailing while at the University of Hawaii?
  • [8:56] “Oh my God, how much do you weigh?!”
  • [12:23] Are you thinking of sailing to Mexico or across the Pacific? Latitude 38 has a resource page called “Heading South” & the “First Timer’s Guide” to help you prepare 
  • Sailing
  • [13:12] How did Cole go from dinghy sailing to yacht sailing?
  • [17:01] Did sailing affect her studies?
  • [19:23] Sailors love to see new sailors and beer can sailing
  • [21:22] Yacht clubs are more welcoming than you may think
  • [23:41] Have you looked in our classy classifieds lately? Visit Latitude38.com 
  • Racing
  • [24:29] How Latitude 38 helped Cole get into the Pac Cup aka Pacific Cup
  • [28:43] How did Cole maintain a career in sailing?
  • [32:42] Cole’s most demanding mentor
  • [37:35] Why Cole believes boat captains are the best sailing mentors
  • Make sure to follow Good Jibes with Latitude 38 on your favorite podcast spot and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts
  • Check out the May 2025 issue of Latitude 38 Sailing Magazine
  • Theme Song: “Pineapple Dream” by Solxis.

Transcript: 

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

00:03
It was the most amazing moment. Like we jumped up and down and hugged each other and cried.

00:14
So welcome aboard everyone. My name is John Arndt. I’m the Publisher of Latitude 38 and the host of today’s episode of Good Jibes, a podcast to help you experience the world of sailing through the eyes of the West Coast sailor. And each week we hear stories, tips from West Coast sailors on cruising racing, just plain sailing. And it’s brought to you by Latitude 38, the sailing magazine for West Coast sailors since 1977.

00:40
Today we have a special guest who’s started sailing west of the West Coast, and that is solo circumnavigator Cole Brauer. Welcome aboard, Cole. Thanks for having me. I’m super excited. Yeah, great to have you here. So it seems like everybody knows Cole Brauer, I, at this point in life, but for those that may not, I’ll give you a little background. Cole rocketed to international sailing fame in March of 2024.

01:06
as the first woman to complete a solo nonstop, unassisted circumnavigation of the globe when she sailed her class 40 first light to a second place finish in the global solo challenge. After 130 days of sea, 26,000 miles around the world, Cape Horn and all the great Southern Ocean landmarks, an amazing voyage. Actually, she rocketed to fame over that 130 days with her Instagram following, which was a spectacular media sensation.

01:35
But she started growing up in Long Island and learned to sail University of Hawaii, where she became the captain of the sailing team and grew her Instagram following to that 500,000 while sailing around the world. And so now you’ve been sailing just over 10 years. And also in the one year since you finished the race, just over a year ago, it seems like you’ve packed in a dozen more stories, awards and accolades. So an amazing amount of sailing successes after that incredible voyage.

02:05
So before we get started, I want to just maybe ask you for one story from all the sailing miles that stands out in your life. Oh, God. I guess I’ll pick the I’ll pick the first one. My first offshore race, we had to retire from it. It’s a race called the whole. Hello. It’s a race around Oahu. And you get to choose which way you go. Like you do go counterclockwise or clockwise.

02:32
I was super excited. Uh, the owners of the boat actually couldn’t go on the race. And so they gave a bunch of us kids from the university of Hawaii, this one D 35 to go out and race. And the guy who was driving, it was only 19. I was 21. I think I was 21, maybe 20. We got to like Kiana point, which is like halfway. So on the North shore and it started.

03:01
blowing about 40 knots. didn’t even have a reef in this specific coastal main. And we started ripping the clue, like the grommet of the clue actually off of the boom. And we’re like, that’s the end of that. And we, but I remember this very clear moment of

03:22
sailing and we’re going upwind, trying to get around Kiana Point in these pretty big waves and there’s a moon, it’s very clear sky, it’s just beautiful. And I’m like smiling ear to ear. And you can just like, just see the puffs coming towards you just with the moonlight. And so I’m like kind of calling the breeze so that they know when these huge gusts are about to hit us. And I am just having the time of my life. And I’m sitting next to the bow girl

03:52
And she turns to me and she can see that I’m like so happy. And she was a lot older than me. I think she’s probably about five years older. And she was like, you must be stupid if you think this is fun. And I will never forget that moment because I turned to her and I was like, oh, you’re not having a good time. Like I’m very much alone in this idea that I’m enjoying this. And

04:20
And that was such an awakening moment. I didn’t realize that like people do this thing and maybe they don’t actually like it. And I was like, why do you do it if you don’t like it? And I was just like totally enthralled by the moon and the waves and being able to see these huge puffs hit us before they actually hit us. And I was falling in love and we turned around, like we took the main down, turned around, gotten the Lee of the Island.

04:50
And these dolphins followed us as we motored like all the way back to Waikiki. And I was just like sleeping in the jib on the bow. And that was my first offshore, like true offshore experience. And I was like, this is magical. Like, I see it. I see why the Polynesians, you know, learned celestial navigation and looked for these other islands. Like, I get it. This makes total sense.

05:20
Wow, that well that’s again another inspiring story. Yeah, I mean that’s a magic moment and I guess then so you solo circumnavigated around the world. Nobody is going to say to you. You’re having fun. You’re just there on your own. I mean, I mean there’s definitely a lot of circumnavigators that I think that do it for maybe not the correct reasons and maybe they don’t actually enjoy it, but I did really enjoy it. that’s fantastic. Sounds beautiful and.

05:50
So maybe stepping in before that, because you then started Sailing University of Hawaii. What got you down to the docks at the University of Hawaii Rainbow Sailing Team docks? mean, what got you to… Yeah, so I was living in a high-rise in Waikiki. It was the only thing that I could afford when I moved out to Hawaii. And I could just barely from my little lanai, I could see the ocean through all these buildings in Waikiki. And I would see these little…

06:19
these little boats just like going by on the horizon. I’m a big list maker. I love lists. And I was sitting there studying and kind of looking out the window and I’m like, you know what? I really want a new sport. I really want something that’s like very fun. like, maybe I can meet people. I didn’t know anybody. I had no friends. So I was like, why don’t, let’s just see if there’s a like sailing.

06:47
or something that I can like kind of join like a club. And then I looked up, you know, Hawaii sailing and up popped the University of Hawaii sailing team and there was Andy Johnson’s email and I wrote him an email. I still have this email actually and it was pretty much I lied and said I had all this experience. I would love to join and I really want to try out and you know if you won’t have me now I’m here for four years so anytime is great.

07:18
And he pretty much wrote back to me like, you know, go fuck yourself. That was just what you needed to hear, something to make you determined, right? I mean, I was like, yeah, OK, that makes sense. But I was already so stubborn that he ended up inviting me to come to one of the practices. And he was like, OK, come, you know, this get in the because we had these mini bands that would take us from the school over to the sailing center.

07:47
And he was like, just get the minivan at 2.30, go to Cahee Lagoon, you know, and whatever. And I was like, cool, I will be there. And I got into, I randomly walked into these minivans and sat there, you know, three weeks into the season. So everyone was like, who is this random chick, like getting to the minivan. And I was like, he invited me, the coach invited me, I promise. And I’m like sitting in the back in the third row back, just like blending in.

08:16
Yeah, best you can. Best I can. we arrive at the Sailing Center and Andy is like writing what we’re going to do on the board. You know, we had a big white board and he’s like, oh yeah. And there’s this there’s this guy that’s going to show up. But I don’t know if he’s actually going to come. And I was like. Is the guy named Cole? Yeah. And he’s like, yeah. And I’m like, oh, it’s me. He looks at me.

08:46
And he goes, oh my God, how much do you weigh? Perfect answer question. Yeah. And I understand why that was an important question, probably. I was like, I mean, I had already been through so many crazy things in my life at this point that like that wasn’t the craziest question I had ever been asked. So I like answer and I weighed 98 pounds at the time. And I was like, so I said it in front of 40 people, you know, because it’s a big team. And everyone turns to me and goes, oh.

09:16
Perfect, like great, you’re on, like that’s it, you’re on the team. And I went out and they put me in the captain of the team, Adam Pocross, they put me with him and it was super windy, it was squally, my arms felt like they were like breaking in half, you know, because you’re just holding onto this jib and this FJ. And I was having like the time of my life and we finished. Andy was like…

09:41
What do you think? And I told, was very honest. I was like, I’m really focusing on my studies. I just want this to be like a club thing. And he was like, that’s not how a varsity team works. And I was like, what do mean? He was like, you’re either on or you’re off period done. Like you can go. And he was very, he was very strong with me. And I was like, well, I guess if I only have one option here, like I’ll, I’ll give it a try. You know, maybe we try it for a year and we see if it.

10:10
if it’s messing up my studies, then I’m not gonna do it. It ended up working out really well. And then four years later, I was still on the team. And Andy was one of my biggest mentors and people. And he was one of my big rah rah people in my life after four years. So it ended up being an amazing experience, but it could have gone totally sideways and I could have been like, F you guys, I’m just gonna go and…

10:39
do my own thing and say all again. Yeah. Andy sounds like amazing. I don’t know. Um, but I just read sailing scuttle, but I think he had a letter in there because university Hawaii didn’t make the college national competition. that right? Or something like that? No, no way. Really? Oh, no. I think, well, anyway, it’s, more controversial about how it’s selected because, uh, I think the team had the points, but

11:06
whatever the selection process, the University of Hawaii didn’t make it, if I understand correctly. I don’t, I don’t want to. no, that’s heartbreaking. Cause we made it, we used to make it. I mean, they’ve made it every year because it’s like the, you’re part of the West coast conference, the PCC, SC or whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh no. I’ll have to check it out. Yeah. I’ll read that. I’ll send them a really nice message. They just got all new boats. So it’s like,

11:35
really big because we had boats from like 1989 when I was there and they were falling apart and we were each assigned our own boat and if your boat was like out of commission that was it like you were not practicing and if you weren’t practicing you weren’t getting picked for to travel and if you weren’t traveling you weren’t going to nationals and so we were very like we fixed those boats like our lives depended on it.

12:03
Well, you’ve probably did the same with first light because your life. Yes. And then all comes back to the University of Hawaii being like, well, if you want to sail, you got to fix your boat. Like, no one’s got to fix it for you. Good lessons there. Yeah, great. Latitude 38 here. Are you thinking of sailing to Mexico or all the way across the Pacific or maybe even further? We just heard from Joanna and Cliff.

12:27
saying, my husband and I subscribe to Latitude 38 and enjoy the Good Jibes podcast regularly. They went on to say they’re headed to Mexico in the fall and will continue across the Pacific to Australia. However, they’re looking to simplify all the choices they need to make to prepare. Of course, there’s tons of resources out there, but Latitude 38 does have a page in our website called Heading South. And we also have Latitude 38’s First Timers Guide to Mexico available to read online on the Heading South page.

12:57
or a printed copy that is available to purchase in our online store. There’s a lot to know, but Latitude38.com is a good place to start. So you started out as a dinghy sailor. That’s an amazing great start. And, you know, then you sort of went off into the ocean voyaging world. And I’m wanting as a collegiate dinghy sailor, you might go for the Olympics or stick in dinghy sailing where tactics and race rules are important. But you also had that moonlit night and dolphins and

13:26
offshore experience that you want to take everything in a in a voyaging direction. Is that how did that transformation go from dinghy sailing to keel boat sailing? Where I was living at the time, there’s like a bunch of yacht clubs so you can actually sail every single day in Hawaii. Almost every single day you can sail an event in Hawaii. Just you just go to the different clubs.

13:54
Um, so it’s really amazing. There’s like Hawaii Kai boat club. There’s, um, Kaneohe. And then you have Waikiki and, um, Honolulu that are right next to each other. And so you can pretty much sail every single day. And I wanted to sail every single day. So I would sail skiffs, um, on like the Northeast, uh, side of the Island. And then I would sail keel boats down like in Waikiki area. And it was amazing. I mean, every Friday they would do fireworks.

14:23
So you do Friday night racing and then you drink lots of beer and you’d hang out. I didn’t really drink beer. I drank hard liquor. So that was even worse. But it was great because there’s no frats, there’s no sororities in Hawaii. And so your fraternity or your community becomes like this offshore world. And there’s people of all ages, all backgrounds, and we all come together.

14:53
And pretty much it was like, I wanted to get into this and Andy and Jesse were like, well, all you got to do is you just bring a case of beer and you walk down the dock and you just tell them that you’ll do anything on the boat and you hand them the beer. And most of the time they’re going to be like, yeah, sure. Whatever. Like get on the boat. And that’s pretty much how I got into like beer can racing. And once you get into beer can racing, you get smarter every week, you get better and better at better, and you learn different.

15:23
Like that’s how I learned bow. I learned bow like on one, one regatta. did it around like halfway around the Island. And the bow guy was like, yeah, I kind of want to learn trimming instead of bow. So I’ll train you how to do bow. And this is on like a symmetrical, like this is not an easy situation. He’s like, all right, just watch your teeth, go to the bow, you know, flop the guy and good.

15:50
good luck, you know? And this is like, you know, for me being like 98 pounds in college and just like my early twenties, like this was like terrifying to me. I was afraid to mess things up, you know, and, but they allowed me to make all the mistakes in the universe. And they were like, okay, that was bad. Let’s jive back and do it again. And there was a lot of people that were really into like training.

16:19
me and training younger people. mean, it’s such a small island. There really isn’t that many people there. And so the community is so strong. It’s, it’s amazing. And I ended up on any, any boat, every boat and sailing almost every single day. Fantastic. Well, and another time you figured out why 98 pounds is important. Being on the bow, people love that.

16:46
I was like, this is crazy. It’s like exhilarating. Like the water’s right there. I’m trying not to get hit in the face with this, like with the pole. And yeah, there was a lot going on. Yeah. Yeah. Well, did all that sailing affect your studies? I mean, that was one of your first concerns. I got almost a 4.0. I didn’t know. I think because I had such a large purpose towards sailing, yeah, just the studies, I was really good at

17:16
holding on to knowing that like, okay, well, it’s not like I was going out and like getting drunk and like doing the sorority thing, you know, or like going out to all these crazy parties. Like I didn’t live on campus. My roommates were 26 and 35. And so they were well out of the age of like drugs and alcohol, you know? And so I, it was,

17:43
study, like they were in their masters and their doctorate. And so I was really more or less on the path of like, come home and I study all night long. And then I wake up, I go to workouts in the morning and then I go like full school for the rest of the day. And then it’s, um, training. And then I had a job, uh, from seven to nine PM tutoring kids. And so it was, there was no time for like fucking around.

18:13
You know, like it was it was like straight into, you know, I’d wake up early just to finish like a paper, like go to class in the morning. So, yeah, there was no messing around here except sailing, which could be called messing around, but just was a passion, obviously. That was my like I guess that was like the only place that I could actually like be, you know, like a weird college kid. But everything else was even when you go offshore, like you have to be pretty

18:42
professional and pull it all together and stuff. And I believe wholeheartedly that your reputation is super important and you can mess it up in about five seconds. I fought really hard to try to keep like my ducks in a row. Well, you obviously are good at that and the lists making I’m sure helped you get prepared to go around the world as well. I should have kept them. They’re like insane. They look like

19:11
It looks like a crazy psychopath. Like you just take all my like little lists and chicken scratch and things like that. Yeah, that’s it through it. Yeah. Well, it’s, it’s, it’s, that’s a great classic start. Of course, the beer can racing, we just, have a crew list in the latitude 38 page. We just had a crew party here and we’re always, the only thing we tell people differently, what you said is don’t lie. Tell them you’re honest.

19:35
But I think you find, know, most sailors, a lot of people are intimidated by sailing and maybe going down to the docks with that six packer case. But truly, I think, you know, sailors are loving to see new people get into sailing and beer can racing being one of the great opportunities. And of course, you don’t need to know a lot. There’s jobs that are like sitting on the rail and just being wait. You didn’t qualify for that role, I’m sure. No, no. I mean, I…

20:04
started, I think my first offshore, the way that I got on the boat was that I used to be a photographer. And so I had my really nice like cannon with me. And they were like, Oh, just come and take photos of like the team. And it was this young team that was like trying to start for a campaign for the ocean race. And I was like, cool. So I came on as just like the OBR. And I could like walk around the boat with a camera up to my face without touching anything. And then people eventually were like,

20:34
Oh, like you do sail, like you can do this. And then eventually I just stopped bringing the camera around. And so like, I, I’m not a very good person to put on the rail. I figured out a different way. Like if you can figure out different ways to get on, that’s, you know, that’s super important. You have to keep going. And even when people are like, no, we don’t want you and you go home for the night, but you can’t get discouraged by that because I mean, that happened.

21:03
so many times before I was like, okay, it’s not that bad. Like it’s not that they don’t like me. They just have too many people and you have to, yeah, you have to figure that one out for sure. It’s not bad hanging out a yacht club if you don’t make it on a boat right away, but it’s a, yeah. And also yacht clubs themselves is where the races are held. And a lot of people see that brass plaque private yacht club or whatever and feel like, but, truly Friday night beer can racing, you know, they’re like opening the gates. Come on, we want.

21:33
even if maybe a spot doesn’t show up, but most clubs are like, come aboard, right? Well, most people need people to come sailing anyway. I mean, even like I sail in Newport a lot for like fun, not even for work. Newport’s actually like my fun place to go sailing. Like I sail with one of my best girlfriends. She has a shield and we sail every Wednesday. I truthfully, just be completely honest, we won a shield race. We’ve only won one.

22:04
And it, I cried. was, it was like winning the Olympics. was better than winning the Bermuda one too. It was the most amazing moment. Like we jumped up and down and hugged each other and cried because winning a shields race in Newport, Rhode Island is probably the hardest fleet I think in the entire planet because it’s all pro sailors doing it fun. And our boat is like from 1975, it is falling apart.

22:33
Mass is a noodle and no matter which way we shim it, it is a noodle. And for us to win one race, yeah, I was like winning the Olympics. It was more fun than winning a professional event for sure. That’s saying a lot for that fleet because obviously you’ve gone on to many other great things. But I do know John Burnham who sails in that fleet and I know he’s one of those.

22:58
very tough, good sailor competitors in the fleet and they’re beautiful boats. Yeah. Yeah. And people put a lot of time and a lot of energy and money into those boats and then race them for, you know, no money at all. And it’s, know, you’ve got Ed Adams where it’s like winning every race and you’re, and I’ve been coached by Ed Adams before and I’m always just like, I don’t know how he does it. And we are happily mid fleet.

23:25
All the time. That’s the other good thing. Remember to be happy whatever place you finish. Oh yeah, we go for oysters every single time. Just we’re like, okay, it’s oyster night.

23:39
Hey good Jibes listeners and Latitude 38 readers. Have you looked in our classy classifieds lately? It would be impossible for us to know how many boats have sold to new owners over the last 45 plus years of publishing Latitude 38. But we’re sure they have helped countless people realize their sailing dreams. Every month there are new boats listed that will fill someone’s sailing adventures. If you have a boat you want to sell or looking for that next boat in your life, the pages of Latitude 38 will surely have something to suit your fancy.

24:09
Pick up a magazine at a local marine business or visit our classy classified pages at latitude38.com to find boats, gear, job opportunities and more. Then tell us your next sailing story. So then you did between Hawaii and the Global Solo Challenge. It wasn’t just a hop, skip and a jump, but you spent a little time in the West Coast. think California did a Pacific Cup. I saw I was looking at your Instagram to catch up on a few things, but then you have family and

24:39
California too, right? Los Angeles? Yeah, mom’s side of the family lives in LA. I’ve spent some time in San Francisco when we were training for the Pac Cup. Latitude 38 was where I found the Pac Cup team. there was an advertisement in Latitude 38 and my boyfriend at the time was from

25:08
Santa Cruz. And so he used to get Latitude 38 to the house that we lived in in Hawaii. And so I was sitting there like on our couch reading it one day and I opened it up and it was this woman that was looking for an all female crew for the pack up. And I was like, done, like, I’m doing this. And I emailed her and I was like, I want to go like I will pay my way. I’ll do whatever it takes.

25:34
And so I flew out to Oakland, California, and we started training. love that, like the women on the boat were fantastic. But then the team ended up like falling apart. There wasn’t enough money, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah. At this point, I had zero dollars to my name. Like I had no money. And so I was stuck in California. Not the worst place in the world to be stuck, but yeah. Yeah. I was living in Berkeley at a friend’s place, like on her couch.

26:04
It was just like, there was a problem. We were not having a very good time, but I had met these guys when doing my safety at sea in San Francisco. And I contacted them and I was like, hey, if you’re still doing the pack up, I’d love to do it with you. And they were like, no, we don’t want any women on board. And I was like, just give me a try out.

26:31
Like whatever you gotta do, just give me a tryout. And this was on a shock 41. So we went out and we did a race to, oh God, I can’t even remember, but it was offshore. And we broached so badly. And one of the guys was like underwater, holding onto the sheet, refusing to let go of the sheet. And I went over and body checked him off the winch and like just blew the sheet off. And the boat then like settles down and like, and this was a symmetrical kite, you know? So it’s like,

27:01
Like we were chicken winged. And afterwards we get to the dock and they were like, yeah, you get the job. Like you’re, that’s it. Like you’re good. Like you just body checked the guy across the boat at 98 pounds. Like you’re going to be fine. I ended up doing the, but I said no, because I wanted to bring another woman with me. And they were like, we didn’t even want to bring one.

27:25
Now we’re going to bring two. And I was like, well, it’s me with another woman or it’s not me and you guys will die out there. To ponder. And, um, yeah. And so then I ended up moving into their basement. They were all young. mean, our average age was like 24. And I moved into their basement in, uh, oh God, Santa Rosa.

27:53
Yeah, it was it was great. I think we got like second to last in the pack cut. Like we almost didn’t make the time limit. Yeah, but I loved it. What a great race. Oh my God. I like coming into Kani Oe Bay. I recommend that race to everyone. It’s they when they say that’s the fun race to Hawaii. They are not kidding. That is that’s the best one of my favorite races of all time for short. Really great. Well, it’s a Transpac.

28:22
summer this summer and also single-handed Transpac this summer coming up for west coast sailors. So Hawaii is the magical destination from this coast. is. Oh, it is. totally, you’re preaching to the choir. Yeah, well, so yeah, you got offshore spend time here and then you went, I guess, to Maine, but you kind of again made this a career suddenly after all this sailing. there again is a long stretch of time between

28:52
that pack up and global solo challenge. And you basically stuck as a Marine delivery work on boats. It’s all been boat life. So what, what, what, what, did you decide to stay that direction? Cause I also looked in your bio university of why you studied nutrition. You might’ve gone another direction, but yeah, no, mean, yeah, totally different direction. I graduated. Um, and then I stayed in Hawaii for an extra year and then I, I really couldn’t make

29:22
good money. was like scrubbing teak to pay rent and stuff, which wasn’t really paying rent very well. And I did other little jobs. I painted bilges with no mask. Oh God, was just like, just terrible. I was like a little homeless kitten that was just doing all the dirty jobs. And then I got a job. I got a call one day because I was working as a high school sailing coach in Hawaii at one of the private schools. And then I got a call from Maine.

29:52
Hey, I just met your mom at yoga. And she says that you’re floundering out in Hawaii. We have a job at this yacht club to be one of the high school sailing coaches at Booth Bay, which is where my parents live. And they were like, do you want to come home? And I was like, well, it would be a lot cheaper to live with my parents. So I moved home back into my parents’ house, which was, oh, God, how rough.

30:19
And they didn’t want me to be there. And I worked at the yacht club as a sailing coach. And then I ended up, I just was like that, that’s still like that crazy kid that like wasn’t afraid of anything. I’m much more afraid now. It’s crazy to think about, but I had a little Boston Whaler. It was my dad’s Boston Whaler. was like a little two-stroke outboard engine.

30:43
I saw this beautiful like carbon racer, cruiser like coming across like, and in Maine everything’s wooden. like when you see black sales, you’re like, holy smokes, like what’s going on? You know, know Maine, like it’s all wood here. And so I like, I was like, oh my God, this thing is beautiful. And so I got my little dad to stroke and like, you know.

31:09
and smoke out the back and like went to this boat and it was a 85 foot back. It’s called a Maxi Dolphin, an MD. And it was just, oh my God, I was just enthralled by it. And it was it was it’s an Italian made boat. the like there was like this gold like speck like in the paint. And it was just like this.

31:37
I was just, I didn’t even know what to do. So I’m circling around this boat and I’m like, I have to talk to somebody like, and they were like, oh, well, we’re going to more. Um, they were on a New York yacht club cruise. They come up from New York yacht club and they were like, uh, come meet us at the yacht club. You know, if you really want to check. Cause I was like the crazy person who’s like, my little boss. Yeah, like totally weird.

32:04
And so I get to the yacht club, they’re all sitting there drinking. And I was like, I just got to talk to the boat captain or somebody. And so I, I met the boat captain, his name, Timmy Fetch. And he was like, you know, what do you want? And I was like, I would love to work for you. Like I want to work on this boat. I want to work on this boat. Like, how do I, how do I get a job? Cause I was making like 16 bucks an hour or something, which I thought was pretty decent, but I was like,

32:31
you know, if you can pay me 20, I’ll go, I’ll go right now, you know? And he said no. he- somewhere. Yeah, he said no, but I got his phone number from the guy who was chartering the boat. And I just texted him every week for about three weeks. And he finally was like, he texted me and he was like, all right, I’ve got a job for you, but it’s not on that boat.

32:59
and he got me a job cleaning a J 80. Similar, but a little different. A little different. Yeah. Got me cleaning a J 80. So I cleaned this J 80. Like you could eat off the floor. Like you, this thing was like beautiful. And then he was like, okay, so let’s move up. I’ve got to, I’ve got a swan 42. Let’s, we’re going to take the keel off. You got to help me like, you know, take all the Tef gel off of these nuts off, you know, and like clean the

33:28
floors and, you know, we’re going to maintenance the engine. I was like, done, whatever you want. Do you want me to lick the floor too? Like I’ll do whatever. and then after that, we moved up to another boat that was just a little bit bigger. And then he finally, I started working for Tim and he allowed me to sail a delivery on this, what I thought was this most magnificent boat. Yeah. And the moral of the story was that it wasn’t really about

33:56
boats. I was working for Tim. And so I started working for Tim Fetch. He lives in Charleston. And we did deliveries all the way south. We, you know, this is like coming to the time everything in Maine starting to close down. Right. He was really brutal. He was kind of mean, sometimes, but like, in a good way. And we worked on in a year and a half, we worked on almost 32 boats together.

34:25
Wow, fantastic. Yeah, he was a mentor. He taught me electrical. There would just be a random day where he would just hand me like 110, like volt plug and he would just be like, put this in the boat. Like I need a plug for this thing in this boat. Drill hole, do the like, find the electrical. You got to shut it down first and you got to do this thing. And he would just, he would just give me a project and, then he would tell me how slow I was at it.

34:55
And I was like, of course I’m slow. I went to school for nutrition. Like, I clearly don’t know electrical engineering at all. But he was really good. We spent a lot of time talking about sailing and I got paid, which was even more like enlightening because I was like, I’m getting paid to do something with my hands outside. And this is so cool.

35:23
He didn’t know that I had already been a racer. He didn’t know that I was like a real racer. So he was just training me how to be a yachty. We went sailing on. This was the first year that the IC 37s were being like introduced into Newport. So we ended up a year later that next summer in Newport. And he was like, all right, you know, like we’re going to, we’re going to try this regatta. We have to do this because one of his owners like

35:52
wanted to charter a boat and he was a New York Jack Club member. And I was like, Tim, like I’m, I’m a racer. Like I can do this. And so he puts me on bow. He doesn’t trust me at all. And, it does great. I knew how to do a string drop because I had been sailing skiffs in Hawaii. So I could do a string drop. This was just a lot bigger of a string drop. And, and we did really well. We went out like when no one knew the boats, the ice 37s.

36:21
and had a great time. And then Tim was like, oh, like you’re an actual racer. And then so then he started introducing me to everyone that he knew. And that was kind of the beginning of my professional racing career was just I had to prove it. It’s not like I was like, Tim, I’m a racer. And he was like, cool, here’s

36:46
you know, $500 a day for racing, you know, it just did not work like that. Like you, every day you were on tryout and every day you had to prove. And if you didn’t meet up to that expectation, you were, you know, go back to your other job, you know, clean those bilges and. Wow. Well, you know, of course that great running into all those great mentors and, and yeah, there’s a lot of opportunity for sailors and non-sailors to.

37:14
step up to that, but in knowing how to work a boat beyond sailing, like the electrical, the mechanical, all that edge of river. Yeah. It’s always, it’s all important stuff. And I’m glad that I had Tim, who’s a fantastic boat captain as my mentor, because I think sometimes when you just have racers, you can learn tactics from like, from being in college, you can learn tactics from

37:43
a bunch of these books, you know, you can learn tactics from dinghies or just beer can racing, but to actually be very good at fixing things on boats, like that is trial and error. That is having someone that’s watching you, making sure you’re not electrocuting yourself. That’s like practicing and learning the actual mechanisms of why things break in the first place. that’s time on the boat. And so I think it’s super important that

38:13
people like if people are interested in getting into professional sailing, like actual pro sailing, your mentors need to be boat captains. They have to be boat captains and they have to be good boat captains. Like there are bad boat captains out there, like really bad. Like nobody should be paying those people, but there are really good boat captains that know everything about like mechanical engineering and they are what make really good mentors, honestly.

38:43
That’s right. There’s more to sailing than trimming and oh, you can train a monkey to trim. That’s easy. Well, all right. Well, Cole, thanks so much. And for all of our listeners, if you want to stay tuned in to Latitude38.com, you can find all our Good Jibes podcasts and give us a review or a thumbs up. Subscribe to our podcast or any of our newsletters. We’d love to have everybody on the West Coast. Find a way to the water and find a way to sail. So.

39:12
Thank you, again, Cole, for coming aboard!