The 1970's & 1980's

When we were courting, Trophy Wife and I shared 14 feet of fiber glass. It was a Schock International 14 which we named Wet & Wild. Of course, it is not like the current INT-14's: our boat had only one trapeze and no open transom. Strictly for race, it gave us lots of thrills & spills racing on lakes and Newport Beach, Alamitos Bay, del Rey, King Harbor, and San Diego, etc. Just learning 'the ropes', we never were competitive in our local fleet, and were crushed by sailors from San Francisco and Seattle. However, we did have our share of days and triumphs over another boat skippered by "Break'em-off-by-the-Neck-Johnson". It was fun.

We also had lots of on-board disputes about tactics as to who should be the skipper and who should be crew. So, we parked the I-14 in the back yard and bought two 13-foot Kites and had a tandom trailer built. Big mistake. Those boats were so heavy, I dropped one the first week I had them. Trophy Wife had been arguing all along for Lasers. She had just read about them in Sports Illustrated. Happily, our Kite dealer was also a Laser dealer and we swapped them out, pronto.

Lasers to resolve this issue as to which of us was to be the boss (on the water). We raced and raced and raced and raced. Eventually, the two Lasers were replaced by three new ones as my 2nd oldest took up the sport and joined the fleet.

By the time we became adults and bought our first keel boat, and until this very day, we have not resolved which of us is the best helmsman. (er, Helmsperson!)