SIGHTINGS a sailing life with jan pehrson In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams wrote, "A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." For Jan Pehrson, it was sneakers. Not long after Pehrson moved to the Bay Area in the 1970s, she found herself talking to sailors in the No Name Bar in Sausalito. She quickly learned there were plenty of opportunities to do more sailing, all on other people's boats. Determined to be ready for the next chance to sail, Jan always wore sneakers so she could just jump on board and go. This worked well. She was sailing and racing on the Bay frequently, and opportunities, and her passion, grew. Pehrson had become good crew, but she wanted her own boat. She wanted to be the skipper. In the early '70s, many of the sailors Jan knew were smugglers bringing pot from Mexico. It was a common trade in an era with simple navigation and no tracking devices, so the sailors themselves were quite skilled and had plenty to teach. In 1974, Pehrson bought her own Cal 20, which she continued on outside column of next sightings page
ronnie simpson send it all the way to Cape Horn and back to Spain. This is wild. Thanks to everyone who's been a part of it." One of the most important items on Ronnie's checklist was aesthetic: rebranding the Open 50, formerly Sparrow, to the Maine-based brewing company's moniker, which is well known in East Coast bars. "Managed to brand the hull of the Open 50 Shipyard Brewing between wind and rain squalls today, and I'm happy with how it came out," Simpson wrote on Facebook on October 18. "Branded the mainsail on Monday, and *hopefully* will have the materials to finish up required sail painting/numbering before the weekend, just in time to sneak in a test
all Photos CouRtesy jan PehRson
From chance encounters in a bar in Sausalito, to a comfortable, sailboat-friendly pair of sneakers, to the America's Cup (top left), to Greenland (top middle and bottom right), to an Islander 36 (top right), to the Bahamas (bottom left), Jan Pehrson has lived an extraordinary sailing life.
Page 38 • Latitude 38 • November, 2023