THE LATE '70s & '80s
'Australia II' covers 'Liberty' at the 1983 Ameica's Cup. The wing-keeled KA 6 broke a 132-year winning streak.
'Nordic Cowboy' storms through the gate in the ill-fated 1982 Doublehanded Farallones Race.
The 1988 Big Boat Series saw a fleet of Maxi's slugging it out on the Bay. Above, dozens of Aussies serve as rail meat on 'Windward Passage II'.
Cabo – one of which was Moitessier’s famed Joshua. Most (including Joshua Joshua) were refloated and sailed on. We also covered the figuratively 'disastrous' 1983 America’s Cup in which the winged-keel Australians finally wrestled the Auld Mug away from the US for the first time in 132 years. Thankfully, 1984 turned out to be quite a bit better than George Orwell had imagined. We interviewed Aussie AC winner John Bertrand, published our first Crew List, and got a ride on the new state tallship, Californian. We also published a few interesting historical pieces, among them, the more famous Wrecks of the Golden Gate, and some famous lighthouses that resulted from some of them. 1985 brought an end to the question that had dominated
Tom Blackhaller, seen here on a Pro 40 catamaran, passed away in 1989.
Hoses snake from the Marina to the Divisadero fire after the Loma Prieta quake in 1989.
Letters for months: the correct way to express speed on a boat is "knots per hour." So there. "No Swan This Penguin" proved truth was stranger than fiction — and that you can go cruising on pretty much anything that floats if you want to badly enough. The two-part article almost every longtime reader remembers is our 1986 interview with Bruce Perlowin — held at San Quentin where he was serving a sentence for smuggling drugs into the Bay Area, almost entirely aboard a "fleet" of boats. That same year, Managing Editor Shimon Van Collie became the first to boardsail around the Farallones. In 1987, Dennis Conner rescued the Mug from the Australians in the windiest A-Cup ever off Fremantle. In May, we launched the first issue of the short-lived, Southern Cal-
April, 2017 •
Latitude 38
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