SIGHTINGS new girl on the block Wilbur Spaul achieved a significant milestone in his bid to sail the smallest boat to Hawaii: In February, he chainsawed the 8-ft Chubby Girl into pieces and tossed them into a dumpster. Her slightly longer, significantly lighter, and hopefully better-sailing sibling is currently under construction. As you may recall from a Sightings in the October 2019 issue, Wil is a longtime sailor and cruiser, with the equally longtime dream of doing this passage. His inspiration — and the person to whom he will dedicate the voyage — is Gerry Spiess, the current smallest-boatto-Hawaii record holder. In 1981, Spiess sailed the 10-ft Yankee Girl from Long Beach to Honolulu. It took him 34 days. Spaul designed and built the recently-departed Chubby Girl out of
through April 7. Our guess is that the shelter-in-place order will extend beyond that and so will the mad dash to cancel or reschedule events large and small. Once the orders are lifted, the Coast Guard will consider marine event permits on a case-by-case basis. "It very much will depend on what the federal recommendations will be regarding social distancing (after the shelter -in-place orders are lifted)," writes the YRA, "and how event organizers are going to ensure that those recommendations can be followed, for both
MITCHELL ANDRUS
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news of the bay
LATITUDE / MITCH
WWW.CHUBBYGIRLCRUISING.COM
Clockwise from top left: An unceremonious end to the original 'Chubby Girl'; Cree Partridge has shepherded countless custom boats through the process of conception to reality; The original 'Chubby Girl' CAD design; How do you sail a 9-ft boat across the ocean? You basically turn it into a floating food locker; Partridge, the man with the building plan.
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Latitude 38
• April, 2020