The Tuna 22 and the Bridge — May 2005
Looking at our past, online issues of Latitude 38, we found one of many miraculous stories that appeared in the May 2005 issue. It started when Joe Schmidt and Dan Brazelton went for a simple spring daysail out of Gashouse Cove aboard Joe’s Santana 22 Yachtsea. It was a great day until, on the way home, they decided to sail the Tuna 22 between Fort Point and the South Tower.
The story noted the pilot’s mantra: “A good landing is any one you can walk away from.” Some surfing photographers caught the action on film. 2005 was before the iPhone was invented, when Kodak was still producing Kodachrome film and “moving pictures” were captured on VHS tape.
The first Gary Mull-designed Santana 22 was built in 1966, and many are still racing or taking their crews out for spring sails today. It’s a colorful fleet that’s outlived Kodak film. There’s a 1975 Santana 22 with a trailer currently available in our Classy Classifieds for $3,400.
You can see all the photos and read the whole story, titled “White Boats Can’t Surf,” online in our May 2005 issue. You can read all 551 issues of Latitude 38 back to April 1977 when you scroll down our magazine page.
The famous South tower. I had just moved to California and wanted to get involved in sailing when Kirt Brooks with his Columbia 29 Rastus asked me to crew on the Farallones race. He decided to take a short cut and go on the land side of the south tower. The wind died and we managed to get slammed into the side of the concrete base. After several hits we were back in the bay with the entire deck covered with clam shells and crabs. We cleaned up the boat and continued the race. I never took that short cut again on my boat.