Story by Terry Rapp, Past J/30 Class President (1992-1995)

As many of you know Dorsey Owings passed away last November 2009. Dorsey, his wife Gail and crew were two times J/30 North American champions. Dorsey and Gail sold their J/30 and bought a Farr (Mumm) 30 about seven years ago. All of their boats were named Seabiscuit. Most of the J/30 crew came with them to the Farr 30.

Gail asked some of the current Seabiscuit crew and friends to put the Farr 30 back together again in order to keep the tradition and spirit of Dorsey’s legacy going. The boat was in the barn with a beautiful new deck, but not a fitting to be found on board.  Spearheaded by Pat and Amy Teeling, plans were made to fit the boat out and get sailing again. The weather this past winter did not cooperate very well, but in March we were able to put a few weekends of work together. Then the boat got moved to Annapolis and at a frantic pace in the evenings, leading up the night before the NOOD Regatta in Annapolis, the boat was finished. A quick test sail on Thursday night resulted in a few last minute fixes and the boat was ready to go.

Chris Conway, Peter Colby, Tony Rankin, Mike Sipala, Terry Rapp and Gail Owings set out with the traditional beer at the first buoy encountered on the way to the course.  Sailing went well as the boat and crew got used to each other. It would have been a great to finish first, but we did not. No one held their heads low as we sailed hard and did what has become the legend of Seabiscuit, we had fun! We did however remember Dorsey with another tradition, the Seabiscuit cocktail (Vodka, Tonic and a thin slice of cucumber cut with Dorsey’s Leatherman knife) on the way back to the dock.

While we all felt Dorsey’s spirit with us last weekend, he will be missed but hardly forgotten. It was great to see Gail and company enjoying the sailing.  Thank you to Gail and of course Dorsey.