Interviewed by Chris Museler
I started sailing aboard my father’s
62-foot cutter in the 1950s and then did the 1960 Bermuda Race. It was
my first one and it was a hard one. It started blowing hard from the
south three days out of Newport and kept blowing all the way.
I was mostly a navigator. Since
I was a submariner in the Navy, I was used to taking sights close to
the water. The fascinating thing about this race is that it is
never the same because of the vagaries of the Gulf Stream. And you never
can predict what the weather will be like south of the Stream. It’s
a fascinating piece of guesswork.
Henry Morgan, skipper of Dolphin, will start his 16th Bermuda Race today.
We have fun doing this. We have
had the same crew for ten years and that makes a big difference. I still
have to remind people to stay focused. When I poke my head out from
down below and the helmsman asks me which way should we go, I point
to the bow. Just keep going straight and working hard.
I’ll work on the navigating.
We just get out there and sail.
My father sailed around the buoys a lot and my grandfather had a
wonderful
touch sailing to windward. There would
be something wrong with genetic science if I didn’t wind up being
a sailor.