SIGHTINGS
LATITUDE / CHRIS
build me up buttercup "Buttercup is getting spiffy for her new home at Richmond YC," writes Cinde Lou Delmas. "Steve Enzensperger is bringing her back to life, and what a life she has had!" Cinde Lou's father Len bought three El Toros that were built in a garage in Palo Alto in 1963. "She was really a special boat," says Cinde. "When I was young, I thought I was a hot little sailor until we did 'round robins' at Inverness YC (against Milly Biller) and Buttercup won every race." Milly and Cinde Lou were 8-10 years old at the time. "I remember being so sad on the way home — 'It's the boat, Dad, not me!' He said, 'Cin, the boat does not drive itself.'" "I was 12 when my folks put me in the SFYC junior program, and it was like a duck to water," writes Vann Wilson. "The yacht club had El Toros, FJs and Rhodes 19s to develop young sailors. The program was very race-orientated, and, upon acquiring my first ribbon for placing in a race, I was hooked. Friends since they were kids, Milly "Buttercup Buttercup came into my life from Biller and Cinde Lou Delmas sailed to- the Delmas family toward the end gether on Cinde's Alerion 38 'Another of my second year in the junior proGirl' in the '18 Corinthian Midwinters. gram, and it was love at first sight, although I was very concerned with the name," recalls Vann. "I had heard that it was bad luck to change a boat's name. So one evening right after my folks brought Buttercup home, I quietly went down into the basement and sat beside her for a chat. 'Buttercup, you have always been raced by Cinde — two girls racing together. However now it is going to be you and a boy. When I put your name down on the entry form, if we don't race well the other kids are going to give me a real hard time. I am new to sailing, so if we do well, all the kids will say is, "Boy that Buttercup is a fast boat." If we don't sail well together my life will be over with the teasing I will get racing a boat called Buttercup. I know you are a yellow boat and the name fits you, but still. So what do you say? Can we be fast together?' "The very next year, Buttercup and I started racking up the ribbons. There was one dominant competitor, David Stong, that we could not beat. Also we would get schooled by a couple of the older guys like Jeff Madrigali, Don Jesberg and the like." In Vann's third year with the boat, his parents figured out that Buttercup fit inside their 1966 VW bus, mast and all. "They started taking us to regattas in Palo Alto, Lake Merced, Lake Merritt, Inverness YC, Richmond YC, Alameda Estuary and Huntington Lake. The competition in those days was fierce in all three divisions, Junior, Intermediate and Senior, with the likes of Hank Jotz and Jim Warfield in the Seniors and Paul Cayard and John Bertrand in the Juniors. Buttercup and I got pummeled the first year of traveling, always finishing at the back of the pack. We learned quickly that there was a big world out there of El Toro racing other than in Belvedere Cove. We were learning from watching the Senior and Intermediate fleets who started before the Junior fleet. My strategy was always simple: Copy the good guys — sit in the boat or on the rail, trim the sail as they did, and try to go the same way up the course." Vann's first big success came at his first National Championships at Lake Merritt in Oakland. "My folks had to be out of town that weekend, but Grant Willson stepped in to take me. When they put the measurement jig on Buttercup's bottom they said she was not a compliant El Toro. There was a problem with the keelson and the aft end of the boat did not come up to the jig, things that Buttercup and I did not understand. I was devastated and near tears when Grant said, 'We can solve this problem,' and off we went to an auto body store continued on outside column of next sightings page Page 70 •
Latitude 38
• April, 2018
can you sail with Is it legal to have marijuana on a boat, even in a state that's legalized it, like California? In a word, no. Marijuana is still considered a Schedule 1 drug by the federal government, the most severe of all rankings, and a designation that has not changed with the ideology of whichever administration is in power. And boats, even while at dock, are under federal regulations, which are enforced by the Coast Guard. So even though it's legal to blaze up at the marina entrance, once you walk onto your boat with a lit joint, you're breaking the law. California was the first state in the nation to start the gradual decriminalization of cannabis by legalizing medical marijuana in 1996. But it wasn't until January 1 that the Golden State fully legalized 'recreational' marijuana, where you're not required to have a note from your doctor saying, basically, that it's all right to get high. California is the eighth state in the union to greenlight