‘Wild Spirit’ — Cruising West Coast Waters Since 1978

All sailboats have a history, no matter how brief. But when we discover a sailboat with a history we know about, it’s fun to connect the dots and learn where the boat is now, and perhaps where it’s been. In the case of Wild Spirit — designed by Tom Wylie, built by C&B Marine of Soquel, CA, and launched in 1978 — we recently heard from her current owners, Larry Vito and Kait Reid. It appears that Wild Spirit now spends much of her time cruising in Mexico.

Wild Spirit is a Wylie 36, a custom cold-molded cruising cutter designed and built for Sausalito sailmaker Peter Sutter. In November 1978, we published an interview with Peter in which he told the story of how Wild Spirit came into existence. The boat was the result of a discussion shared among Peter, Tom Wylie, Dave Wahle, and Skip Allan about their ideal cruising boat. They all came up with almost the same designs.

We’re still missing 35 years of Wild Spirit‘s life, but we do know that Larry has been her caretaker for the past 12 years. During that time she has sailed to Mexico with the Baja Ha-Ha, at least once. She was among the fleet of 168 registered boats in 2018. In 2023, Larry and Kait started an Instagram account for their cruising adventures aboard Wild Spirit, though it appears the cruising couple have been too busy enjoying life to get bogged down with social media, and we heartily approve.

At this time, or at least as of early May, Larry and Kait are “bouncing between cruising in Sea of Cortez, Mexico, in the winter” and adventuring in their camper van over the summer — this year heading to Alaska.

If you know where and with whom Wild Spirit spent her time between Peter and Larry’s ownership, we’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, you can read the interview with Peter Sutter in the November ’78 issue of Latitude 38.