Storm Trysail Foundation Award presented to Ted Turner and Crew

by Barby MacGowan on 20 Nov 2010 The Storm Trysail Club’s charitable educational foundation, the Storm Trysail Foundation (STF), has awarded Ted Turner and his 19-man crew of Tenacious--winner of the infamous gale-battered 1979 Fastnet Race--with its newly inaugurated Storm Trysail Foundation Award. (Crew members are Peter Bowker, Richard Collins, Courtney Jenkins, Gary Jobson, Duby Joslin, Jim Mattingly, Rives Potts, Jane Potts, Tom Relyea . Rick Rodoreda, John Samama, Greg Shires, Bud Sutherland, Bobby Symonette (deceased), R.E. 'Teddy' Turner IV, George Varga, Steve Ward, and Chris Williams.)

The Storm Trysail Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, educates young sailors as they bridge the gap between learning to sail and becoming accomplished blue water seamen. The Storm Trysail Foundation Award 'represents the rich heritage and tireless spirit of the great sport of ocean sailing and is awarded to honor the skippers, the crews and their yachts and highlight the many historical and noteworthy blue water passages of the past.'

All 19 members of the Tenacious crew will have their names engraved on the award: a brass bell cast specially for the occasion. Twelve of the crew were on-hand for a celebratory evening at Stamford Yacht Club (Conn.) in November, including Gary Jobson, who introduced the crew (and encouraged insight from each about the race ), and Jim Mattingly, who in the famous ’79 photograph of Tenacious surfing down a monster wave on the run back from Fastnet Rock was at the helm in his Black Diamond sou’wester hat. (Crew member Bud Sutherland, who took the famous shot, was also in attendance.) Over 150 people attended to hear Turner, Jobson and others tell extraordinary tales about an even more extraordinary race and take part in a Christie’s auction of items that ranged from sailing with Ken Read on PUMA Ocean Racing’s new Volvo Open 70 to a vacation at the Bitter End Yacht Club.

Jobson recalled that when Turner heard the forecast prior to the race, he predicted 20 sailors might die as a result of the impending severe weather; indeed 15 people lost their lives, and the sport is still learning lessons from that race. Turner described how Tenacious was winning the race in the light-air beat to Fastnet Rock before it crushed the fleet in the 60-65 knot blow and 35-40 foot waves they battled on the leg back from Fastnet Rock. The heavily-built Sparkman & Stevens 61 did not suffer a single breakdown in the storm, and Tenacious won by over three hours on corrected time. 'It was like winning a basketball game by 60 points,' said Turner.

Jobson said Turner’s finest effort was the midnight-to-4 a.m. watch when he drove Tenacious through the worst of the deadly storm, and the crew’s most heroic actions were when they doused the boat’s triple-reefed main and wrestled the massive, soaking sail off the boom to get it below. 'It was a true all-hands effort.'

On a lighter note, crew member Jane Potts said she had planned on cooking lasagna but she served roast beef instead. 'If you have to see your dinner twice, lasagna is not the best thing,' she chuckled. 'And I remember Duby Joslin lying on the cabin sole in sloshing water mixed with vomit after falling from a windward bunk. The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I wonder how much golf clubs cost?’'

One of the lessons learned from the race was that, statistically, the most prepared and seasoned boats suffer the least damage in such circumstances. Joanne Fishman wrote in her August, 19, 1979 New York Times article: 'Among the 57 Admiral’s Cup boats, the elite of the fleet, for which this was the last in a five-race series, there were no fatalities and no severe accidents.' Jobson concurred that sailing in the heavy air races before the Fastnet gave the crew of Tenacious much more confidence for handling the boat in the storm, and this is one more reason the Storm Trysail Foundation deserved support in giving junior and college sailors more big-boat and safety experience early in their lives.

The Storm Trysail Foundation, which received its tax exempt status in May 2009, is in the early stages of creating an endowment for the education of young big-boat racers. Over the last 10 years, over 2500 juniors between the ages of 14 and 17 have had hands-on safety training on keelboats thanks to the Junior Safety at Sea seminars that the Foundation has run across the country. Its Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta, run for 11 years in coordination with Larchmont Yacht Club, has become the largest college sailing event in the country, using 40 borrowed keelboats and hosting over 300 sailors each year. (Thanks to the Foundation, sponsors, and the generosity of boat owners, the regatta is free to the participants.)

'The Storm Trysail Foundation would like to further expand the regatta and its hands-on Junior Safety at Sea Seminars to promote better seamanship,' said Storm Trysail Foundation Chairman John Fisher. 'The better young sailors are prepared, the greater the chance there is for perpetuation of safe sailing.'

The Storm Trysail Foundation Award will be on display at the new Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis, Maryland.

www.stormtrysailfoundation.org.