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Remembering George

Per request, we received several nice remembrances of George Olson, who passed away on November 12. We’d intended to run some of them in the December issue, which went out the door this morning. However, there was so much other good stuff stuffed in there, that we didn’t have room. So we thought it would be nice, on the day before Thanksgiving, to bring a few of them to you here.

"I did my first distance ocean race with George in 1973, on a Cal 25 from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara. A couple of years later he was working at Bill Lee’s and told me they needed a carpenter for templating and producing interiors for the soon-to-be Santa Cruz 27. I told him I was a house carpenter and had never done boat carpentry. He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll teach you what you don’t know.’ He did and after we sent the first boat out, Bill had no more orders, so George and I told Bill we would like to use the molds and build ourselves each a boat. ‘Sure, why not?’ was Bill’s reply. We did that over the course of several months and became good friends.

"Always humble, always helpful, always fun — George will always be remembered by his many friends."
                                                                                            — John Humphrey

 

"I grew up sailing in Santa Cruz and look back fondly on the sailing scene there exactly because of people like George Olson. He represented the quintessential pioneer and everything that was good about Santa Cruz. Coupled with his extraordinary talent was the ability to connect with just about everyone.

"I purchased Olson 40 hull #1. This presented me with the opportunity to participate from the early stage in this wonderful boat. All my visits to the shop were greeted with patient enthusiasm. I remember going on the first test sail where George determined the keel needed 500 additional pounds. He just knew not to overdo it on the first pass and guessed correctly on the increase.

"I always felt that Pacific Yachts and George didn’t receive all the recognition they should have. We campaigned my 40, Notorious, for seven years and well over 30,000 ocean miles. To say the least, we put this boat through every kind of test imaginable and never had a structural or mechanical failure. We had many exciting sails, including one time when we briefly hit 22 knots and buried the bow all the way back to the main hatch. The final vindication came with our first overall finish in the ‘89 TransPac. I give a lot of the credit to George!"
                                                                                            — Scott Pine

 

"We were fortunate to own one of the last boats George built himself, the Olson 34 we named Ozone. We  sold her a few months ago after 21 years of hard sailing and she was a jewel — one of kind.

"When we went to Santa Cruz to meet with Buzz Ballenger to discuss the rig, Pacific Boats had just closed their doors. We went over to the shop across the parking lot from Ballenger and met George.  He was laying up a fender for his old Dodge pickup with a sad look about him, since he would be out of the boatbuilding business.

"George was one of kind. His boats were the best and he revolutionized the industry and light displacement boats. It was a pleasure to have been associated with him in some way. He will be missed by all sailors.
                                                                                        — Carl & Jini Bauer

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Having had great experiences at the San Diego YC and the El Cid Marina in Mazatlan, Lewis Guiss and Mary Lee, members of the Cal Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, have been loving their time at the Nayarit Riviera Marina with their Beneteau 473 Merry Lee.
It may be raining today, but this weekend’s forecast is for sun, sun, sun!