LETTERS ⇑⇓THE SOLILOQUY 12 METER MYSTERY There indeed was a 12 Meter named Soliloquy in Marina del Rey in the 1970s. At least I was told she was a 12 Meter, and she had a big '12' on her main. I wasn't going to argue the point as I was only 15 years old when I first saw her. I crewed aboard Soliloquy in my first Newport to Ensenada Race in 1971, and did the same race on her again three years later. In October of 1974, we raced Soliloquy in the Cal Coastal Race from San Francisco to Newport Beach. We finished poorly in those races, but we sailed to a clean sweep — first to finish, first in class, and first overall — in the 1974 Del Rey to San Diego Race, beating a lot of well-known yachts including Ragtime. This was quite an achievement because Soliloquy was not a light-air boat, and because there was a high level of partying going on both belowdecks and on deck. To help Soliloquy move in the light conditions of Southern California, we had both the largest masthead drifter in the land as well as a masthead kite from the great 72-ft ketch Windward Passage. I recall that Soliloquy pointed very well, something that would be expected of a 12 Meter. But instead of coffee grinders, she had just a pair of Barient 35s for the headsail and a smaller bronze Merriam winch for the enormous mainsail. The crew in those days was a real cast of characters. It was mostly made up of local hippies, artists, a clarinet player, an auto mechanic, a photographer (me), a banker, bottom cleaners, yacht brokers, printers, farmers, sailmakers — and always the cute girls in little bikinis that just wanted to go for a ride. It was a great experience for me, and I learned a bit about life. Or at least the life I'd like to lead. Soliloquy was owned by my friend, mentor and local sailmaker Ken Bruns of Venice. Kenny told me that Soliloquy's previous owner was John Lear of Lear Jet fame. The story I used to hear was that she'd been built in Germany in 1928 alongside her sistership Anitra, which miraculously ended up in Marina del Rey also. What was the chance of that? Anitra and Soliloquy became rivals, of course, and the crews took it seriously. For example, I remember that the night before the 1974 King Harbor Race we were tied alongside Anitra on an end-tie at Santa Barbara Yacht Harbor. Both crews had been partying all day and night at the yacht club. At some point there was some sort of testosterone-fueled verbal altercation between some of the crews before we headed back to Soliloquy. When Kenny, a couple of the other crew and I got back to the boat, we sat down in the main salon to enjoy a totally unnecessary nightcap. After a while, we noticed flashing red emergency lights reflecting off the open main salon hatch. When we went on deck to see what was up, we discovered it was the harbor patrol tying onto our port side, with our starboard side not tied to anything! We were adrift not far from the infamous Santa Barbara sandspit. While we couldn't prove it, there was no doubt in our minds that we'd been cast off by Anitra's crew. After all, they were wasted — plus they were still Anitra pissed off that we'd beat them a month before in the MDR to San Diego Race. Those were indeed the days! I did a couple of beer can races in Marina del Rey in the '70s aboard a green ketch named Shamrock owned by Roy Disney. I believe she was about 45 feet long and had been built by Palmer Johnson. She was berthed at the California YC, and I remember the Mickey Mouse hands on the instrument dials in the nav station. Gene Prizer Huntington Beach Page 38 •
Latitude 38
• July, 2013