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Cape 31 Overall Winner at Voiles de St. Tropez

The first Cape 31 in France, Peter Dubens’ North Star 2 set an unbeatable pace by dominating their 27-boat IRC D class with a scoresheet of 3,1,1,1,1 in perfect St Tropez conditions at Frances most significant IRC event, Les Voiles de St. Tropez. As a result they were awarded the IRC Sword for outstanding IRC performance amongst all 140 competitors in the modern fleet.

North sailmaker Sam Richmond who was sailing on board said, “Fast, fun racing – big smiles all round. We had a bit of luck with courses and conditions but sailed very cleanly against some super competitive IRC boats.” North Star 2’s owner Peter Dubens who controls the North Technology Group of companies including North Sails and Southern Spars brought his Cape 31 to France just to race at Les Voiles, before joining Cape 31 One Design events around the world.

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• Oct 3, 2021

UK Cape 31, North Star II, wins Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez

After an awesome week in St Tropez Peter Dubens' North Star II came away with a win, dominating their class with a scoresheet of 3,1,1,1,1 in perfect St Tropez conditions. Not only were they awarded the IRC D trophy, they were also given the overall IRC Sword.

With 140 modern yachts competing this week, this is an incredible performance given that the boat was delivered a few weeks ago for its first regatta. With a mix of courses and conditions the Cape 31 really came into its own, showing us once again that these boats aren't just great one design boats they're perfect for IRC racing.

Sam Richmond who was sailing on board said, "Fast, fun racing - big smiles all round. We had a bit of luck with courses and conditions but sailed very cleanly against some super competitive IRC boats."

Kevin Escoffier, Vendee Sailor who sailed with the team for one day of the regatta, said "I was very happy to come and spend a day sailing aboard North Star II, a Cape 31 which has dominated the IRC D group. I'd come to Les Voiles before, a few years back, and I'm always touched by these magnificent boats. This environment is different to that of offshore racing, but it's coloured by the same passion for getting out on the water. It's still boating and I'm delighted to share in the infatuation here. I feel as if I've gone from one extreme to the other; two days ago I was making 40 knots, flying above the water aboard an Ultime and today I'm fraternising with yachts more than a hundred years old."

An awesome showcase of some of the oldest yachts in the world to the newest race boats. Hopefully we'll see a few more Cape 31's out in St Tropez to battle it out next year!

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Peter Dubens' North Star won the Regata dei Tre Golfi maxi class for a second consecutive year under IRC corrected time. Photo: ROLEX / Studio Borlenghi

North Star wins second IMA Maxi European Championship offshore race

With the 26 strong maxi fleet sub-divided into three classes, the remainder of the Regata dei Tre Golfi maxi fleet arrived throughout the course of yesterday afternoon. Giuseppe Puttini's Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf was last home at 17:45CEST. Due to the slower boats experiencing shutdowns around the race's southerly turning mark of Li Galli and gusty rain squalls as they approached the finish line off Massa Lubrense, to the west of Sorrento, the offshore race of this second International Maxi Association Maxi European Championship, has proved to be a big boat affair. For a second consecutive year Peter Dubens' former Maxi 72 North Star has won the race's maxi division, by just over seven minutes under IRC corrected time from the race's line honours winner and new record holder, Sir Peter Ogden's Maxi 77 Jethou.

Supported by Rolex as Official Timepiece and Loro Piana, the 150 mile race from Naples to Sorrento, via Ponza in the north and the Li Galli islands in the south, was organised by the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia (CRVI) in conjunction with the International Maxi Association, the body officially tasked by World Sailing to administer and develop maxi yacht racing internationally.

While the superbly sailed former Maxi 72s occupied four of the top five spaces on the overall IRC maxi leaderboard for the Regata dei Tre Golfi, holding third was Riccardo de Michele's serial Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup class winning Vallicelli 78 H20, topping the combined Maxi 4-5 class.

"It was good that we had wind for most of the race," de Michele explained. "The trickiest part was from Ponza to Punta Campanella. Then at Li Galli we broke a gennaker - our fault, as we didn't realise it had a small tear in it when we hoisted it. As soon as it went up it blew up..." Otherwise de Michele said they had chosen the best part of the course on Friday night passing Ischia as they left the Bay of Naples then the following morning standing off at Punta Campanella (the tip of the Sorrentine peninsula). They had enjoyed having wind most of the way, although from dawn it was accompanied with rain cells. "H20 is a heavy boat and when it gets stuck it takes a lot to get her moving again."

Having finished fourth last year, in sixth place under IRC was IMA President Benoît de Froidmont aboard his silver Wally 60 Wallyño with a crack French including tactician Cédric Pouligny. "It was very tactical as usual here. The wind was unexpected, but was good because it was windy all the time except the usual place - Li Galli." De Froidmont said that had they had better conditions off the Amalfi coast then they might have challenged the former Maxi 72s for the podium. "The boat was okay. All our manouevres were perfectly executed by the crew. From a tactical point of view we didn't make any mistakes." And this was despite being hammered by a couple of rain squalls accompanied by 30 knots puffs approaching the finish.

The conditions didn't favour the middle of the maxi fleet with Maxi 3 won by Guido Paolo Gamucci's canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X, correcting out to 15th in the overall maxi ranking.

"The race was interesting because we had more wind and more rain and a left shift bigger [after Ponza] than we were expecting," said Gamucci. "Unfortunately we weren't fast recognising that and when the left shift came we ended up reaching and lost some of our advantage." However their biggest issue came after passing Punta Campanella and around Li Galli where they parked for 1.5 hours. However this was not as bad as befell the 90ft Shockwave 3 ahead of them which stopped for 2.5 hours (behind in the race after stopping to respond to fellow Trieste maxi Arca SGR's Mayday the previous night).

Gamucci was sad to see his Regata dei Tre Golfi record from 2016 technically broken yesterday by Sir Peter Ogden's Jethou, but observed: "The race track was different then: We sailed 14 miles more because it finished in Naples - 14 very important miles!"

Tomorrow (Monday) is the first of four days of inshore racing for the IMA Maxi European Championship. For this the maxi fleet will comprise 22 yachts ranging in size from numerous 60 footers such as Wallyño to the longest Shockwave 3.

Looking forward to this is Neapolitan, CRVI Honorary Member and former Luna Rossa Italian America's Cup helmsman Francesco de Angelis, who will be racing on Dario Ferrari's former Maxi 72 Cannonball.

"I like the place - I have spent a lot of time here and I used to sail dinghies here," said de Angelis. "This week will be a mixed bag, with the weather very 'front-related' - different from the usual pattern. It will be tricky to sail. The forecast on Tuesday looks pretty windy while Thursday looks like a light day. But we will have to see how the weather shapes up."

Of the competition he adds: "There are lots of good teams and good boats - it will be a fantastic race."

IMA President Benoît de Froidmont concluded: "The organisation is very impressive for this event. The yacht club invests a lot of energy into its organization which it is good for the owners. Now we have a new village here in Sorrento. And the fleet is extremely competitive, which is a pleasant surprise given the present economic situation."

While the Regata dei Tre Golfi was the second event in the 2022-23 IMA Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge, tomorrow's inshore races will be the second of the IMA's equivalent Inshore Challenge, which began with PalmaVela last weekend.

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Maxi European Championship – North Star sets the pace

Maxi European Championship Race 2 winners:

• Class 1 – North Star, Peter Dubens
• Class 2 – Lyra, Terry Hui
• Class 3 – Fra Diavolo, Vincenzo Addessi
• Class 4 – Shirlaf, Giuseppe Puttini

Following on from the Regata dei Tre Golfi offshore race, the International Maxi Association’s Maxi European Championship entered a new phase with the first of four days of inshore/coastal racing at the Maxi Yacht Sorrento Trophy, part of Tre Golfi Sailing Week.

At the front of the fleet the excellent racing continued as Peter Dubens JV72 North Star went on to win the day by just over a minute from Sir Peter Ogden’s JV77 Jethou, with Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s Reichel/Pugh 82 Highland Fling XI third overall under IRC.

After losing out in his first offshore, the Regata dei Tre Golfi, Terry Hui and his usually dominant Wally 77 Lyra were back on form, winning Class 2 and finishing third across the whole IMA Maxi Europeans fleet.

Among the four maxi classes the day’s biggest winning margin was that of Giuseppe Puttini’s Swan 65 Shirlaf in Class 4, ahead of Luca Scoppa’s Dehler 60 Blue Oyster by almost seven minutes under IRC corrected time.

While the smallest was in Class III where Vincenzo Addessi’s Mylius 18.3 Fra’ Diavolo beat Riccardo De Michele’s Vallicelli 78 H2O by a mere 10 seconds under IRC.

This was despite Fra’ Diavolo being rammed during the top mark rounding by Frenchman Philippe Ligier’s Wally 80 Ryok.

Full daily results available here

IMA Maxi European Championship overall standings here

iQFoil European Championships - Day 1

Merlin rocket silver tiller - birrell and brearey rule at whitstable.

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Spectre is a Frers designed 60ft day racer being guest helmed at the event by Sir Charles Dunstone. Two time Olympic Silver Medallist Nick Rogers will be taking charge of tactics onboard. He says “The International Bicentenary is going to be a great event and we are really looking forward to using it as a platform to get Spectre going.”

Completed only last autumn this will be the first time that the Persico Marine-built flyer will be seen showing her full potential in the UK. With a name evoking the imminent James Bond film, this space aged racer with her large, open and an almost empty cockpit and 4.80m cross beam could have come straight from the set.

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Royal Thames Yacht Club

Peter Dubens

Website by NGR

The Royal Yacht Squadron Bicentenary Regatta is organised by Royal Yacht Squadron Racing Limited, The Castle, Cowes, Isle of Wight, P031 7QT UK

Photography by Paul Wyeth

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Peter Dubens at the helm of his 72 footer North Star - Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez 2023, Day 1

Peter Dubens' North Star won the Regata dei Tre Golfi maxi class for a second consecutive year under IRC corrected time, sailing with minimum crew thanks to her powered winches. Photo: ROLEX / Studio Borlenghi

H20 (left) finished third overall ahead of Wallyño (right) while Jean-Pierre Dreau's Mylius 60 Lady First 3 (centre) was 8th overall in the full maxi fleet. Photo: ROLEX / Studio Borlenghi

Giuseppe Puttini's Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf was last maxi to finish the Regata dei Tre Golfi, her time correcting out to leave her 13th in the maxi fleet. Photo: ROLEX / Studio Borlenghi

Maxis – North Star wins second offshore race at Euros

With the 26 strong maxi fleet sub-divided into three classes, the remainder of the Regata dei Tre Golfi maxi fleet arrived throughout the course of yesterday afternoon. Giuseppe Puttini’s Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf was last home at 17:45CEST. Due to the slower boats experiencing shutdowns around the race’s southerly turning mark of Li Galli and gusty rain squalls as they approached the finish line off Massa Lubrense, to the west of Sorrento, the offshore race of this second International Maxi Association Maxi European Championship, has proved to be a big boat affair. For a second consecutive year Peter Dubens’ former Maxi 72 North Star has won the race’s maxi division, by just over seven minutes under IRC corrected time from the race’s line honours winner and new record holder, Sir Peter Ogden’s Maxi 77 Jethou.

Supported by Rolex as Official Timepiece and Loro Piana, the 150 mile race from Naples to Sorrento, via Ponza in the north and the Li Galli islands in the south, was organised by the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia (CRVI) in conjunction with the International Maxi Association, the body officially tasked by World Sailing to administer and develop maxi yacht racing internationally.

While the superbly sailed former Maxi 72s occupied four of the top five spaces on the overall IRC maxi leaderboard for the Regata dei Tre Golfi, holding third was Riccardo de Michele’s serial Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup class winning Vallicelli 78 H20, topping the combined Maxi 4-5 class.

“It was good that we had wind for most of the race,” de Michele explained. “The trickiest part was from Ponza to Punta Campanella. Then at Li Galli we broke a gennaker – our fault, as we didn’t realise it had a small tear in it when we hoisted it. As soon as it went up it blew up…” Otherwise de Michele said they had chosen the best part of the course on Friday night passing Ischia as they left the Bay of Naples then the following morning standing off at Punta Campanella (the tip of the Sorrentine peninsula). They had enjoyed having wind most of the way, although from dawn it was accompanied with rain cells. “H20 is a heavy boat and when it gets stuck it takes a lot to get her moving again.”

Having finished fourth last year, in sixth place under IRC was IMA President Benoît de Froidmont aboard his silver Wally 60 Wallyño with a crack French including tactician Cédric Pouligny. “It was very tactical as usual here. The wind was unexpected, but was good because it was windy all the time except the usual place – Li Galli.” De Froidmont said that had they had better conditions off the Amalfi coast then they might have challenged the former Maxi 72s for the podium. “The boat was okay. All our manouevres were perfectly executed by the crew. From a tactical point of view we didn’t make any mistakes.” And this was despite being hammered by a couple of rain squalls accompanied by 30 knots puffs approaching the finish.

The conditions didn’t favour the middle of the maxi fleet with Maxi 3 won by Guido Paolo Gamucci’s canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X, correcting out to 15th in the overall maxi ranking.

“The race was interesting because we had more wind and more rain and a left shift bigger [after Ponza] than we were expecting,” said Gamucci. “Unfortunately we weren’t fast recognising that and when the left shift came we ended up reaching and lost some of our advantage.” However their biggest issue came after passing Punta Campanella and around Li Galli where they parked for 1.5 hours. However this was not as bad as befell the 90ft Shockwave 3 ahead of them which stopped for 2.5 hours (behind in the race after stopping to respond to fellow Trieste maxi Arca SGR’s Mayday the previous night).

Gamucci was sad to see his Regata dei Tre Golfi record from 2016 technically broken yesterday by Sir Peter Ogden’s Jethou, but observed: “The race track was different then: We sailed 14 miles more because it finished in Naples – 14 very important miles!”

Tomorrow (Monday) is the first of four days of inshore racing for the IMA Maxi European Championship. For this the maxi fleet will comprise 22 yachts ranging in size from numerous 60 footers such as Wallyño to the longest Shockwave 3.

Looking forward to this is Neapolitan, CRVI Honorary Member and former Luna Rossa Italian America’s Cup helmsman Francesco de Angelis, who will be racing on Dario Ferrari’s former Maxi 72 Cannonball.

“I like the place – I have spent a lot of time here and I used to sail dinghies here,” said de Angelis. “This week will be a mixed bag, with the weather very ‘front-related’ – different from the usual pattern. It will be tricky to sail. The forecast on Tuesday looks pretty windy while Thursday looks like a light day. But we will have to see how the weather shapes up.”

Of the competition he adds: “There are lots of good teams and good boats – it will be a fantastic race.”

IMA President Benoît de Froidmont concluded: “The organisation is very impressive for this event. The yacht club invests a lot of energy into its organization which it is good for the owners. Now we have a new village here in Sorrento. And the fleet is extremely competitive, which is a pleasant surprise given the present economic situation.”

While the Regata dei Tre Golfi was the second event in the 2022-23 IMA Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge, tomorrow’s inshore races will be the second of the IMA’s equivalent Inshore Challenge, which began with PalmaVela last weekend.

by James Boyd / International Maxi Association

For more information about Regata dei Tre Golfi and Tre Golfi Sailing Week visit www.tregolfisailingweek.com

Following the tracking for the race here

Full results here

For more information on the International Maxi Association visit www.internationalmaxiassociation.com

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Ken Read interview: The rise and rise of an all-American sailing hero

• April 28, 2020

President of the North Sails Group and one of the world’s most decorated sailors, Ken Read has risen to the top of both business and sport, writes Mark Chisnell

Photo: Amory Ross / Puma Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race

There are many successful sailors and many more successful businessmen, but it’s rare to find someone who has achieved great things in both spheres. Ken Read is one of them. Twice Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, a College Sailor of the Year, nine-time world champion, America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race (now known at The Ocean Race ) skipper, he has also risen to the top of his profession as President of the North Sails Group.

It’s been a long and storied career both on and off the water, driven by Read’s self-confessed intensity. “I remember the fundamental change in my life going from loving to win to hating to lose. And it’s been a long time since I’ve technically loved to win, but man, oh man, do I hate to lose. And that’s in anything. That’s in selling a jib to a guy down the street in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, or sailing in the Volvo [Ocean] Race. Everything in between.”

It’s no surprise then that Read grew up in a family that took sport very seriously. His father, owner of a home delivery milk business, sailed and played ice hockey, while his mother was inducted into the Connecticut College Athletic Hall of Fame. “My mother was the competitive one. My mother was the athlete. She was the one during hockey games screaming in the audience to hustle,” he told me.

The sailing started when the family bought a 30ft Pearson Wanderer and a Sunfish, and while Read didn’t like sailing initially, his father kept him at it and he was soon deeply involved in the Barrington Yacht Club junior sailing programme close to his Rhode Island home. “I read about all these 470 youth champions, and all these hotshot kids travelling the world. We just stayed in Narragansett Bay sailing against each other and did a series of youth regattas.”

It all changed when Read arrived at Boston University. “The real thing for sailors of my generation was college sailing… that’s where you proved yourself, whether you had it or not. And, for me for sure, without college sailing, I wouldn’t have a sailing career. That’s where it all happened.”

Read was a history major, and his original plan had been to go on and take a law degree but being selected three times All-American and awarded College Sailor of the Year changed all that.

Article continues below…

Ernesto Bertarelli: The Team Alinghi mastermind who shook up the America’s Cup

When Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi (SUI64) crossed the finish line for the final time in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2003, the…

Take a tour of supermaxi Comanche, a yacht so beamy she’s called ‘the aircraft carrier’

“The design office were told specifically by me that if this boat wasn’t the worst rated boat in history they…

“I got drafted by Shore Sails and Bill Shore… Bill Shore taught me how to leave 420s, how to leave little boats and how to get into big boats, and what running backstays do, and the little nuances in tuning. Bill and I sailed together. He crewed for me in J/24s, and I crewed for him in Lightnings.

“So I think there were a few years that we never lost a regatta together… preparation, teamwork, putting a team together, being proactive, how to spread out duties. Bill was hugely influential when it came to that.”

Read’s competitive intensity extended to the business side as well and Shore Sails quickly proved to be too small for Read and his business partner Dan Neri (now CEO of North Sails Group).

Read at the helm of the J Class Hanuman . Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Read and Neri licensed the Sobstad name in a period in the mid- to late-nineties when there was a long-running patent dispute between Sobstad and North Sails over their new 3DL sail manufacturing technology. It was finally settled in the autumn of 2001, but by then Read had already switched sides.

“When our license [with Sobstad] was coming up [for renewal], that’s when Tom Whidden showed up.” Whidden is now CEO of North Technology Group but had been president of Sobstad Sails International before moving across to North. Whidden offered to buy their loft and employ Read and Neri.

“Because of the advent of 3DL you didn’t have to be a brain surgeon to know that the industry was changing. We struck a deal really, really quickly with Tom. I believe that was 1996… been there in one form or fashion ever since.”

Cup calling

It was just prior to this transition from Sobstad to North that Read got his invite to the America’s Cup . It had been an unavoidable part of his life, growing up in Rhode Island. “We were around 12Ms in the America’s Cup our whole lives. So whether it was an ambition or not, it’s really unclear, but it was constantly a part of your life, so it would be hard to imagine it wasn’t at least some sort of subconscious ambition anyway.”

Dennis Conner wanted Read to steer his boat for the 2000 America’s Cup in Auckland. They were both racing Etchells at the time, and Conner wanted some of Read’s Sobstad sails. “He called me back and said, ‘Now I really know I want you as my helmsman, because if you can win with these sails, which are the worst sails I’ve ever seen in my life, then you can beat anybody.’ So that was like, welcome to Dennis Conner really stroking your ego. Like, wow, that’s harsh. Okay.”

Ken Read went on to do two America’s Cups with Conner, the first of which was in 2000 and exceeded expectations, while the better funded and prepared second attempt in 2003 failed to live up to them. It caused Read to have a rethink.

Ken Read has won more than 40 world and North American championships in a variety of classes. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

“I was tired after the 2003 Cup. I was tired of doing windward/leewards. I was tired of these big programmes that I really didn’t feel in charge of. I wanted to look myself in the mirror and be able to be self-critical of every good move, every bad move at the end of the day. And that’s where those Volvo programmes came from.”

And so Ken Read set out to run his own projects. He found the perfect partner in global sportswear brand Puma, and the perfect event in the Volvo Ocean Race. Puma became one of sailing’s biggest and most innovative sponsors and together with Read they delivered two very successful Volvo Ocean Race campaigns in 2008/9 (second overall) and 2011/12 (third).

“Puma was very influential [to me] on how they marketed, how they dealt with the public, how they tried to manage a new sport. I got to know the principals very, very well. So I would just sit there and pick their brains all the time, just watching. It was a great time. Any big campaign like that is something you’ll never forget as long as you live. And as hard as it was at times, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It was spectacular sailing, spectacular camaraderie, adventure.”

Down to business

The two Cup campaigns and the two Volvo Ocean Race campaigns had been sabbaticals from North Sails, and when Read returned to the fold at the end of the 2011/12 race, change was in the air. “Terry Kohler [former owner of North Group] was moving on in years, and he and Tom [Whidden] were talking about selling.

“They came very close around 2008, at the beginning of both Puma campaigns. Of course, 2008 was no time to do anything. And then by the time I came back, Terry was in the process of getting serious again and soon thereafter along came Peter Dubens.”

Peter Dubens’s Oakley Capital invested into the North Group in 2014. “By the time that second Volvo was done, I was ready to take the business side more seriously and Tom was ready, and Peter Dubens was ready… it just kind of all fell together at the right time.”

Read raced the 100ft supermaxi Comanche for her first owner, Jim Clark. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Ken Read now sits atop the world’s largest sailmaker as president. “We make 30,000 sails a year and have 2,000 people on the payroll now.” He brought one rule across from his sailing to running the business. “Surround yourself with the best people possible, and it’s a silly expression, but make sure I’m the dumbest person in the room.

“Understand what your strengths and weaknesses are when you’re doing anything. When you’re on a sailboat, when you’re managing a team, surround yourself with people who do other things far, far better than you do, and make sure that you listen and let them do their thing.”

The move into the top job hasn’t stopped his sailing, although these days his rides are usually a little bigger than before – notably Jim Clark’s J Class, Hanuman , and of course Clark’s legendary Comanche , the 100ft maxi racing yacht.

Below decks on Comanche – Ken Read knows the ins and outs of racing boats better than most. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

“We met Jim in between the Volvo campaigns, and he had just put Hanuman in the water, and they were struggling to make J boat racing fun.” Read and his Puma team were enlisted to help, and after a try-out weekend at the Candy Store Cup in Newport, they became an integral part of the team.

Superyachts and sportsboats

“Before you know it, Jim wanted more of a sailing team and he decided to do this 100-footer. He wanted to break records. He wanted to do the Sydney Hobart … I actively tried to talk them out of it at the time because it’s a crazy project. But in typical Clark fashion; do it, do it right, and the Comanche was the product – such a phenomenal boat.”

Unsurprisingly, Ken Read still has plenty of sailing to do. When I spoke to him, he was aboard a Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 , preparing to race the 160 miles from Fort Lauderdale to Key West with ex-America’s Cup bow person Suzy Leech. The boat meets the criteria for the newly announced Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat class at the Olympics .

“Part of my job is to go where the next trend is that you can help develop. I wouldn’t say I’m launching an Olympic effort for 2024. I’m just thinking that, as leaders in the industry, it’s up to us to look for trends and to help make them happen. This double-handed trend – especially in France and England – is going gangbusters right now for all the right reasons.

The 2020 Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race saw Ken Read competing double-handed with Suzy Leech in the Jeanneau 3300 Alchemist . Photo: Billy Black

“In the few days I’ve done on this little Jeanneau 3300, we’ve had about as much fun as you can have sailboat racing. So it’s time to help bolster it, especially if we can do it here in the United States.”

Ken Read won’t be absent from the superyacht circuit either. “I’m going to sail with Tom Siebel’s Svea for the foreseeable future so that’ll be my J boat fix. The J Class is really starting to get cranked up again, which is great leading up to the world championship in New Zealand as a part of the America’s Cup.

“I think from a North Sails and a Southern Spars perspective, we are actively pushing for the more amateur-ish superyacht sailing to be fun and entertaining… allow different styles of boats to win, and just get people out there enjoying their boats, and not make it fully hyped up, pro programmes, because it’ll go away if we do it that way. It will go away.”

When the top man at the world’s biggest sailmaker says we should dial back the intensity in our superyacht racing we should probably listen.

Ken Read biography

Born: June 24, 1961 Nationality: United States Major honours:

• Nine-time World Champion,
• Two-time United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year (1985/1994)
• Three-time Collegiate All American (1981, 1982 and 1983)
• Winner of the Everett B Morris Trophy as College Sailor of the Year (1982)
• Inducted into the Boston University Athletic Hall of Fame

Career highlights and lowlights

“The 1985 J/24 World Championship in Japan. We had been the best in the J/24 class for a while, but we were young, and didn’t know how to win. And we finally learned how to win.

“And I think finishing the first Volvo [Ocean Race] second after being a single boat, last-minute program against some big spenders and some big programs. What we accomplished there, bringing in the new sponsor into the sport, and having Puma turn around that same day and say we’re going to do this [race] again.”

“Probably under power from the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean heading towards Tristan da Cunha, trying to get diesel fuel off of a Russian ship in order to make it there because our mast had just fallen over the side in the first leg of a Volvo race, which we were probably one of the favourites in – that falls under the all-time low category, I would guess.

“And another big low was certainly the 2003 America’s Cup campaign, with lots of expectations – and after lots of success in 2000 – it just didn’t pan out. Sometimes you get in a programme and what can go wrong will go wrong, and we just could never turn the corner and get our act together in that 2003 campaign. I think about that a lot, and how we could’ve done things different.”

First published in the April 2020 edition of Supersail World.

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Palm Beach council OKs mooring plan to help millionaire keep yacht from being 'destroyed'

Millionaire Peter May has a problem: Wake from passing boats on the Intracoastal Waterway causes his 72-foot yacht to bang into the recently completed dock that extends from one of his Palm Beach properties.

His yacht captain has a solution: Add mooring piles around the boat to secure the vessel and stop the damage.

The Town Council at its Development Review Committee meeting on April 10 voted unanimously to approve two variances to allow May's team to complete the work west of his waterfront property on Dunbar Road. He owns all three properties on the south side of Dunbar’s 300 block, between the Intracoastal and North Lake Way, property records show.

May also keeps a smaller boat on the dock, town records show.

May is a longtime Palm Beach resident, investor and businessman. He is president and founding partner of Trian Partners, a hedge-fund management firm known for its holdings in major companies such as Wendy's and The Walt Disney Co.

The first variance will permit May to install a series of marine mooring piles farther than 150 feet from land, the maximum allowed by the town. The second will allow for one of those piles to be within the 25-foot setback from the north riparian line, which is essentially the line that extends into the water from the property line.

Attorney Maura Ziska, representing May, said the work is necessary and needs to be completed to protect his yacht.

“The boat is getting tossed up against the dock and getting destroyed,” she said.

The mooring piles suggested by the captain should solve that problem, Ziska said.

Mayor Danielle Moore asked for insight into the possible unintended consequences of approving the variances.

The answer from staff and Ziska: There would not be any.

“The Intracoastal is very wide at this part of the island,” Ziska said. “It’s not going to impede boat traffic. No one is going to run into the mooring piles.”

The dock that was approved by the town last year extends as far into the Intracoastal as it does because the depth of water is needed for the boat’s size, she said.

“It’s just logical that to moor it safely, we need the mooring piles on the west side of it,” Ziska said.

Councilwoman Bridget Moran, in her first Development Review Committee meeting after being sworn into office the previous day, said she was concerned that a boat of that size, and that far into the Intracoastal, would disrupt the view of residents who enjoy sitting on the bench at the west end of Dunbar Road.

“You’re literally looking at the broad side of a boat,” Moran said, adding that she feels the boat is too big for the property, while also acknowledging May’s right to have the boat there.

“Just saying,” she said, “moving forward, there is the possibility that at the end of all these beautiful streets, we’re going to be looking at just narrow portions of vista.”

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at  [email protected] .  Subscribe today  to support our journalism.

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Michael McDonald, Silken-Voiced Yacht-Rock Icon, Talks About Writing His Life Story With Paul Reiser (Yes, That Paul Reiser)

By Jason Diamond

Everybody is always a little late to a Zoom interview, so I’m shocked when I log on five minutes early to make sure everything is kosher and see Michael McDonald sitting there patiently, white beard matching his slicked-back head of white hair. He’s 72 and wears it well. He sounds good, too—like it hasn’t been decades since he sang “Takin’ It to the Streets” with the Doobie Brothers, or the floating-down-from-a-cloud backing vocals on Steely Dan’s “Peg.” Once you hear his voice, it’s in your head forever. To steal one from an old Saturday Night Live sketch, it’s like buttah . Blue-eyed soul that melts your inner core, undoubtedly the soundtrack to the conception of thousands of babies over the years. You have to be confident to have a voice like that, but McDonald is polite and soft-spoken when I thank him for dialling in before I did.

“I always figure it’s best to start early,” he says, “because I never know how to figure out these things, getting on Zoom and all that.”

McDonald is here to talk about his new memoir, What a Fool Believes , named for the 1979 Doobie Brothers hit. The book, which he co-wrote with Paul Reiser—yes, the Paul Reiser , more on this in a moment—isn’t your typical Yeah, we trashed a few hotel rooms and banged some groupies, but then things changed… kind of rock-star autobiography. It’s deeper than that, more honest, light on the bravado. It begins way back when, long before the Doobies and Steely Dan, with McDonald recounting his early days as a rock and soul-obsessed kid from the St. Louis suburbs. It was the early 1960s; regional garage-band scenes were popping up all over the country. Guys who’d watched how Brits like the Beatles and the Stones made girls scream and cry and decided they wanted to do that . Usually that was their first reference: John and Paul and Mick and Keef , not the blues and soul the Brits were borrowing from. But McDonald was a little different. He was an explorer. He got so deep into music that there was no getting out, and that’s what we were starting to talk about when his coauthor logged on.

Paul Reiser : How are you doing, Michael?

Michael McDonald : Good. I was doing better until I saw the full screen. I’m like the poster boy for liver spots.

Reiser : No. You look remarkably healthy.

GQ: Yeah, your hair is perfect. So tell me how you guys met.

Reiser : I’ve got a picture of Mike with my kids, so it's got to be 15 years maybe. Mike was performing at this private event that I was invited to and I walked in and went, Holy shit. Michael McDonald is the entertainment? That's pretty cool . And then I went over and said hello and told him what a big fan I was. Then, in a jolt of moxie that I don't always have, I told him I live 40 feet from here, and I have a music studio with two pianos just in case something like this ever occurred. You want to come over and play? And, God bless him…

McDonald : …I said, yeah, sure . So we sat and played and that was where it all started. I was very familiar with Paul's work and I was pleasantly surprised that he was a fan of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, and so we hit it off right away just talking about music. Then we literally walked across the driveway to his house, and there are these two grand pianos. We were sitting there playing our favorite Beatles songs and our discussions were fun because I don't normally get to talk to people about things like all the great bridges from Beatles songs. There was an era of Beatles songs, like from the Something New album to Beatles VI , where all their songs had these great bridges , and I was always amazed by that. So we were sitting around picking out the bridges from different Beatles songs and just really having fun the way that only two people who are that neurotic about Beatles songs can have, I guess.

I’ll be honest and say maybe eight times out of ten, I hate music memoirs because they feel like they’re just there to sort of boost the faded legacy of a musician. But you guys did such a great job with this. One thing that stood out is how honest you were, Michael, about what you say was a “subconscious resentment towards women” when you were younger. That struck me, because a lot of male musicians from your era tend to revel in the macho antics of their younger years. What made you want to discuss that?

McDonald : I don't know what I thought it would explain, to be honest with you, but I thought it was somehow a bit of insight. We threw a lot of stuff against the wall. Paul interviewed me for a month before we even did this and we then transcribed all these interviews. So he's worked a lot harder on this book than I have, but we talked about the certain things that should stay and shouldn't stay and that was one of 'em. And I think we both felt it was important. It was some kind of insight into all that would take place later in my life, it has been an issue for me in relationships throughout my growing up period and my adulthood. So I didn't have to dig too deep. It was not like a shrink session.

Reiser : Mike has done so much exploration and understanding of his life, which is why it's great that he decided to do this book now as opposed to 10 or 20 years ago. I think there's a vantage point that he has of who he is and how he got here, which is really what the book is about. But if there's one thing I can say about Michael McDonald it’s that he's remarkably honest and humble, but also forthcoming. He owns every piece of his life that he can. So it didn't take a lot of excavation. It was two of us talking on Zoom and he was just sharing this stuff. I was a big fan of Mike’s, and the reason I first said “You should write a book” to him was because I really wanted to read it. I didn’t know his story. I love his music, but I really know very little about him, and now I do.

Paul, people know you from your standup career, from Mad About You, or as the author of a few best-selling books of your own, but two of my favorite things you’ve done as an actor are Barry Levinson’s 1982 film Diner and the Amazon series Red Oaks . And a thing about those projects was you were interpreting another person’s nostalgia as an actor. Here, you’re doing something similar by taking Michael’s memories and shaping them into a story. How did you approach doing this project?

Reiser : We approached it thinking, This might be the dumbest idea in the world or it might be fun . I would periodically ask Mike questions, about Steely Dan or the Doobies and how he went from one thing to the other. And at one point I jokingly said You should write a book, so I didn’t have to ask you all the questions . He said people had mentioned that to him, but he didn’t know if there was a story there or how to do it. And that's when I said, well, let's just do this .

I had no approach and I had no tone that I was going for; I was just asking genuine questions that I was curious about, and Mike was sharing everything that came up. A lot of the stories ended up not being used because they weren’t really about Mike. He’d go, I'll tell you a funny thing that happened to my friend . I’d say, Well, that's great. That goes in his book . That's not your book . This is Mike's story. I didn't write it. These are all verbatim Mike's stories. Mike's laying himself bare, and all I did was sometimes pull it out of him a little more or ask him to go deeper or explain and then just sort of help organize the material. But it's not a book I wrote— it's just Mike's book that I was honored to and flattered that he let me help him walk through it.

McDonald shakes hands with Peter Frampton onstage at the Oakland Coliseum, 1977

The book shows Michael’s rise from local garage bands playing parties to a band like the Del-Rays who put out a single on Stax, then session work, and eventually bands like the Doobies and later the solo success. It made me think of the old-school rock journeyman thing other guys of your generation like Bob Seger or Glenn Frey did before they found success. I haven’t seen many books that really focus on that part of a career as much as you did. Why was it so important to focus so much on that era?

McDonald : I think it was what Paul was saying, how a lot of the times I would say, Oh, I think this is a great story to tell , and I was fortunate to have Paul, with his ability as a writer, to look at something and go, Here's your story right here . All this other stuff, you're repeating yourself because you think this is important. And you keep repeating it like you think that reader is an idiot . It was really in the organization and editing that we did along the way that the story came together. That was the expertise I was able to tap into with Paul.

Reiser : One of the reasons I think this book is resonating with people and one of the reasons I think we're both proud of it is it works on a couple of levels. There are not a lot of artists who have the scale and the scope of Mike's career, from playing church basements in St. Louis to rock festivals and then to all his success to arenas and then his solo career. So there is a story there, and that, as the French would say, dayenu —that would've been enough just to have this chronology of rock and roll and rock and the L.A. music scene in the seventies that nobody knows better than Mike McDonald. But along the way, out of excavating these stories is this arc of Mike the person and his very unique, distinctive childhood and musical influences. His dad and his family, the St. Louis music scene, his journey through alcohol and drugs; Mike finding himself and finding Amy and finding his center in light. So they kind of work in dovetail together. You're getting all the nuts and bolts. I think anybody who wants a really accurate and detailed telling of pop history from the ‘70s to now, it's in this book. But what really carries it is this guy and how his personality really comes out. I think that's a testament to how honest and open Mike was with sharing everything.

McDonald : I think the message is a universal one; it’s about the randomness of life and how miraculously sometimes we just skirt the disaster right and left. You don't realize that life is really not made up of our choices; it’s made up of random events and the amount of providence that we're blessed with along the way. And many times it flies in the face of our own actions.

Reiser : If you trace Mike's trajectory, it's like, okay, the Doobie Brothers came because of Steely Dan, and Steely Dan came because of how a guy that he played with once called him a year later and said, Hey, can you come down right now and try out ? And Mike just jumped in his Pinto and had no time to prepare, and after five hours of what became a rehearsal period, Mike was never told he was in the band. Okay, well now you're in Steely Dan. So to me, that checks both boxes. It's like that's how rock history happens. The guy says, can you come down and put your Wurlitzer in the Pinto and get over here? The next thing you know, you're in Europe backing up Steely Dan, and then you're back in Glendale playing a bar to 12 people. And then you get another call, and now you're in the Doobie Brothers. Is that how it happens? Yeah, that's how it happens. There was no curriculum that you could sign on to join the Doobies: You got a phone call and then because you have Mike's skills and unique talent, you’re in.

McDonald with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines on the set of McDonald's “Sweet Freedom" video, 1986

Something that might get overlooked is how much comedy and music have in common. The endless touring, the small clubs, the hecklers. Were there times where you guys were discussing your paths and you realized your stories have a lot in common?

Reiser : Yeah. It was like we had hecklers and we both had a couple of stories about terrible audiences we were sharing, and out of that came some of the stories in the book about opening for Cher in France, then hearing a whistle and going, I think they like us. No, they're telling us to get the fuck off the stage . So we all have our nightmare stories and to me those are the most fun parts. And as a comedian, I remember whenever there was a horrendous night—and there were nights that were just terrible—in the back of your head, you're thinking This will be a good story . It's a terrible night, but this will be a funny story later.

McDonald : Microcosm of life right there. I think comedians have it worse, though, because they have to have the audience’s attention. Musicians can get away with it because people largely ignore them in lounges and places like that.

And people tend to be drunk at comedy shows; they’re usually on more drugs at concerts. Paul, I know you’ve talked in the past about how comedy records were so important to you growing up, but you were also a musician, so you appreciate both forms. Michael, were there any comedy records you liked back in the day?

McDonald: I remember one record we used to get stoned and listen to. It wasn't a comedy record, but it was Jack Webb reciting poetry and it was so great. The cover was him, those little thin ties, the real stern look on his face, just like Dragnet . And pretty much his delivery of the poems was not too different from the way his dialogue was on TV.

McDonald with Danielle Spencer and the Doobie Brothers' Tiran Porter on the set of What's Happening!! , 1978

Was there a lot of overlap with comedy in your early days? Albert Brooks and Richard Pryor and George Carlin were playing in some of the same clubs. Maybe Cheech and Chong ?

McDonald : We didn't play with those guys, but we went to their club. We were kind of scheduled to do the second Up in Smoke movie with them. They had a club up in Vancouver where they would try out new material, and they were both loaded that night, and it ended up being one of those nights that went on and on. It was fun to watch. I remember when we did Saturday Night Live once, we went to a party after at this warehouse in Manhattan, maybe Lower Manhattan, where the guys rented the place out, always had a fully-stocked bar, and after every episode, they would go and hang there.

The Blues Bar? Aykroyd and Belushi’s place?

McDonald : Yeah. That was a riot. Seeing comics after the show, that can be a really interesting character study, especially if there's a little alcohol involved. It gets pretty crazy. I remember Bill Murray trying to moon us while we were leaving. He fell down and started rolling down the street.

Did you open for a lot of bands, Paul?

Reiser: Not a lot. My first real gig was at the Bottom Line where I opened for Buddy Rich—which was not a particularly salient pairing, but it was fine. But I did a couple of short tours with the Pointer Sisters, and opened for Melissa Manchester. That was a more civil crowd. I can't remember too many more than that. But yeah, you open for bands, a local band sometimes. It was usually tough. It's like you just couldn't wait to get the check and get out of there.

Since we talked about early bands, Paul, is there an old garage band of yours that will have an old single dug up and reissued at some point?

Reiser: Oh, I hope not. I had a band—the Upper Deck was the name. We were very big in my building, and we were 12, 13, 14. And then about five years ago, we decided to all get together again. Everybody came out to L.A. and we played in the room where Mike and I first played, and I was very tickled to see that in 50 years time we had gotten no better and actually got a little bit worse. We played “Gloria,” and a couple of Traffic songs. We were just really bad. Luckily, there were no recordings made.

Michael, you worked with Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, two of the most famously obsessive musicians of the modern era. How does working with Paul Reiser compare? Who cracks the whip more?

McDonald : [laughing] Paul’s much nicer to me.

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