Golden oldies set to take on the Southern Ocean in the Antarctica Cup

by John Roberson on 6 Jun 2002 A group of sailing's 'elder statesmen' have signed up for the Antarctica
Cup, the world's richest sailing race, the Southern California based entry,
headed by Buzz Boettcher are calling themselves the 'Graybeard Syndicate'.

Boettcher, in his early fifties and a former professional skipper on some
of the top racing boats of the seventies and eighties, was still actively
racing sailboats in the nineties, and has got together with an old sailing
buddy Bob Logan, to make use of their age and experience.

Experience is something that Buzz has 'in spades', with 9 Trans-Pac races,
4 Fastnets, 2 Sydney/Hobarts, a trans-Atlantic and a Bermuda race, just
being the cream on his C.V.

Buzz Boettcher cut his offshore teeth on Trans-Pac races from Los Angeles
to Hawaii, and though he admits the Southern Ocean is a different ball
game, believes this experience will be of value.

'No doubt Southern Ocean sailing is a whole world different from doing a
Trans-Pac,' he says, 'but one of the things you learn early on, in being
successful in Trans-Pacific races is pushing the boat just beyond the known
limits'

He adds, 'you kinda look at what does it take to win a distance race, and
one of the primary factors is experience.'

Then Boettcher threw down the gauntlet to his fellow Californian Paul
Cayard, 'obviously the premier entry in this race right now is Paul
Cayard.'

'It seems like I look back over when Paul and I raced each other, and yeah,
he would usually beat me around the bouys, no doubt about it, but whenever
we go offshore, I can't think of a time that he was at the finish line
ahead of us.'

The leader of the Graybeard team said that they were originally going to
have a crew of over fifties, but then realized they needed a bowman, so
bought the minimum age down to forty five.

Talking about announcing his entry, Buzz admitted, 'we'll get the people
who are going to say, 'you guys are crazy, you're absolutely nuts,
somebody's going to have a heart attack, and die on your boat', and others
who are going to say, 'hey, go for it'. That's part of everyday life I
guess.'

He points out that there are three sailors on the current Volvo Race who
are over fifty, and that by the time the Antartica Cup starts in December
2004, there will be more of the current batch of round the world sailors
who have reached forty five.

The Antarctica Cup is a non-stop race around the Antarctic continent,
starting and finishing in Fremantle, Western Australia, and has a total
prize purse of US$6.4 million.

For further details on the Antarctica Cup contact:

Bob Williams: +61 (0) 413 057 559
John Longley: +61 (0) 42 720 1649
John Roberson: +44 (0) 781 124 8223

Or visit our website: www.antarcticacup.com

For further details of the Graybeards Syndicate contact:-

Buzz Boettcher: +1 310 791 2280
e-mail: buzzboettcher@hotmail.com