Express 27 San Francisco Bay

I relocated to the Bay Area in 1984. I spent several weekends touring boat clubs looking for something exciting (and affordable). In the spring of 1985 I found it, crewing on an Express 27, sailing under the fog in view of the Golden Gate bridge. The fleet was very active and the boat was hot, which meant there were none for sale. A friend in Texas found one in Fort Worth and I drove there and hauled it back during the 4th of July weekend. I bought a dry slip for $50/month in Richmond and spent every weekend with co-workers from Texas Instruments. We raced a couple of times and were very DFL. A friend from the M20 fleet in Dallas moved to the Bay Area that year and we formed a partnership to race Jalpeno in the YRA series. For the next 12 years we raced in the bay and in the Gulf of the Farallons.

Melges 20, Texas and Wisconsin Lakes

Bill Leonard, one of my SMU professors introduced me to sailing in 1975 on Whiterock Lake in Dallas. I bought a used boat from another advisor and raced it for two years before discovering it was water-logged. I took breaks from writing my dissertation, to re-core the fiberglass hull of this old boat. For six weeks I spent days covered in fiberglass powder and nights in the lab fabricating GaAlAs solar cells. I received a PhD in EE and finished the boat about the same time. The boat was stiff but still heavy from too much fiber glass probably. In 1980 after joining the semiconductor research lab at Texas Instruments, I ordered a new M20 from the Melges boat works in Zenda Wi. We drove to Wisconsin and spent a couple of days with Olympic medal winner, 3 time Mallory cup winner, 2 time Star World champion, and future America's cup competitor, Buddy Melges. From Zenda, we trailered the boat to Madison, to compete in the M20 Nationals regatta. Back in Texas we raced on lakes in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio. Dr. Leonard died of a heart attack at the helm of his M20 in the late 80s.