Bubala's 'Old Men Rule' in their special way

by Rich Roberts on 28 Jul 2005 The oldest crew in 43 Transpacific Yacht Races over 100 years sailed past Diamond Head early Wednesday morning with smiles beaming through their grey beards to rival the Hawaiian sunrise.

‘This dream, this impossible dream,’ Bubala skipper Lloyd Sellinger reveled. ‘I'm so thrilled. I don't [bleeping] believe it!’

They were the last of 13 Cal 40s to finish (a 14th dropped out early) and their elapsed time of about 15 days 21 hours was almost 10 days over the new Transpac record set by Morning Glory last weekend. Hasso Plattner and Russell Coutts had long ago left town, but none of that mattered. At their Waikiki Yacht Club welcome party Bubala fans passed out T-shirts proclaiming ‘Old Men Rule.’

‘You know what,’ Sellinger, 72, declared. ‘We won.’

Mike Gass, navigator, is 67; Andy Szaz, watch captain, 68, Herb Huber and Jim Doherty 68, and Gordon Livingston, medic, 66.

Bubala is Yiddish for ‘sweetheart,’ and one of Sellinger's concerns was compatibility on his small boat. He turned away a handful of other candidates, but it was never a problem.

Gass said, ‘We tackled each problem as it came along. There was a little anxiety when things broke.’

Sellinger said, ‘Thank God for the hose clamps that are holding the boom together. And after the third day we had a battery problem and used only flashlights.’

More important, he added, ‘The guys, their enthusiasm, their attitude was wonderful, better than I expected. Not one argument, not even a cross word. And the food! One night we each had a Cornish game hen. We had cold champagne halfway. Food and water was no problem.

‘And at that end we were racing against another boat, Blue, to get here first. We were the slowest rated boat [of 75] in the whole fleet. I just hope people who are as old as we are will take on challenges. Just because you are a little older doesn't mean you have to just wait for the undertaker.’