February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day, dearest reader! In celebration of the lovers' holiday, local sailing couples tell their stories.

Jennifer McKenna and Fred Paxton

Jennifer McKenna, who is in her forties and works for a company that specializes in fine art packing, shipping and storage in Oakland, moved in with Fred in Richmond this December. She races her own boat, the Santana 22 Zingaro, and also crews on a lot of other boats.

"I grew up in a sailing family," says Fred, "and sailing has defined my life. My work for the last 30+ years came from contacts in the sailing world, and most of my friends are sailors. For the last 20+ years I have been an El Toro sailor with no desire to go back to larger boats. My sailing club is Richmond YC and my favorite contribution to the club is helping with race committees."

"We met in 2012 on the Race Committee for the Sarcoma Cup," said Jennifer, "I was helping on a mark-set boat, and Fred was the PRO. We rafted up to the committee boat for lunch and this handsome guy offered me brownies and smoked salmon that he had caught and smoked himself."

"I aways try and give my Whaler crews a break on the committee boat during the races," explained Fred, "cause I'm lucky to get teams that are willing to smash around the Olympic Circle moving marks, etc. I met Jennifer when she was decked out in foul weather gear and I was serving treats to the volunteers while the fleets were on the course."

"I ran into Fred at RYC a couple weeks after the Great Pumpkin," continued Jennifer, "and we started talking, then we started emailing, then Fred asked me out on a date...the rest is history."

"We talked yachts and yachting," said Fred, "then we met the next weekend when I was sailing my El Toro and she was again on race committee. I worked up the courage to ask her on a date and picked a restaurant with a view of the water just to be safe."

"We don't sail together much," said Jennifer, "although Fred has been out on the Santana as race crew and for cruising." He races his El Toro Hippo all over the Bay Area and sailed in the El Toro North Americans at Kaneohe in Hawaii last summer, which is where Fred propsed (they're getting married at RYC in March).

"When not sailing, I'm on the ocean fishing," said Fred. "We are both skippers so not much sailing together, just some very pleasant day sails and a few races together. We have a much happier relationship when we each have our own tillers. It can't be overstated that Fred makes a lousy crew. Perhaps some duct tape would make me more tolerable."

Their advice for meeting like-minded sailors: "Helping on the race committee is a great way to meet new sailors and make new friends."

Kristen Walthour and Andrew Hura

Thirty-somethings Kristen Walthour and Andrew Hura live in beautiful San Francisco. They met during the Great Vallejo Race in 2011. "It was love at first sight," said Kristen, "we have been together ever since."

Andrew and Kristen. Photo courtesy Kristen Walthour

"We enjoy sailing our sportboat together – a custom Wylie 24 Run Wild – as well as other well-known Bay Area boats including JetStream, a JS9000, and Intruder, a Melges 32." They're looking forward to a successful racing season on their boat and to tying the knot June 28 on the shores of South Lake Tahoe.

Their advice to lovelorn sailors: "When you are doing something you love and find someone to share your passion, seize the opportunity to live the rest of your life happy ever after!"

Howard Spruit and Yvonne Vail

Howard Spruit, 71, and his longtime sailing partner Yvonne Vail, 80, live in, and sail from, Santa Cruz. Howard's a semi-retired boat and house builder and Yvonne is a retired architect.

"Both of us were active surfers from the '50s into the '80s," said Howard, " and I raced 5o5s and Hobie 14s and did some ocean racing, including a multihull Transpac. (We WON!)"

Howard and Yvonne met at Pleasure Point, a popular surf spot between Santa Cruz and Capitola, but did not form as a couple until Yvonne came to the harbor looking for sailboat rides.

"In the late '70s, Yvonne and I started Frog Craft," said Howard. "We built a 30-ft ULDB named Prince Charming that we raced and won the MBYRA (Monterey Bay Yacht Racing Association) series championship in '78, and then designed and built some cat-rigged 21-ft monohulls that we failed in an attempt to market. We also built several row boats that did sell.

"In '87 we shipped our 21-footer to Hawaii, and over a six-year period sailed at Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and Maui, then shipped the boat back here and sold it. I then built an 18-ft cruising catamaran, Mokuakalana, that we launched in September of 2008 and daysail out of Santa Cruz on a weekly basis, weather permitting."

Yvonne and Howard aboard their Frog Cat. ©2014 Rainer Stegeman

"One of the things that attracted me to Yvonne was that she was already into surfing when we met but then she came to the SC harbor on her own to hustle sailboat rides, and she was considering buying a Hobie. I already had one so we joined forces.

"Sailing is an important part of our mental therapy for both of us and a major ingredient of the glue that keeps us going together. I suggest that when choosing a sailing partner, make certain that sailing is of equal importance to each person. We have sailed and adventured together for 40 years, and we plan to keep our boat and daysailing program going until they scatter our ashes."

The Reinhart Family Checks In

Steve Reinhart and Laraine McKinnon were featured in 2012's Sailing Valentines story. They're sharing their love of sailing with the next generation, daughters Paige (almost 8) and Taylor (just past 6).

Cascade's race crew includes young Paige and Taylor. "Laraine is aboard, just not visible," says Steve. "The family that sails together!" ©2014 Erik Simonson/www.pressure-drop.us

"We are low-key racing our Antrim 27 Cascade in the Jack Frost midwinters and some club races with the girls, mostly to get them acclimated to the boat and a bit of speed," writes Steve, "as well as doing a bit of racing in the Mercury, including the annual family week with the Mercury fleet up at Huntington Lake where the girls are looking forward to crewing aboard while Laraine drives in the second annual 'fun race' the day before the regatta begins. During last year's fun-race run up at Huntington, we were treated to the view of a sailboat race through the eyes of a pair of grade-schoolers when they announced that 'We are the line-leaders right now.' It's all in perspective, eh? Additionally, our eldest will begin some junior sailing programs, at Encinal and Sequoia YCs."