Doug MacAyeal
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
sailing
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introduction
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SAILINGI learned to sail at a summer camp my parents sent me to when I was 12. Since that age, sailing has been an important interest and source of fun in my life. When I was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie, I sailed an Endeavor 26, a small "classic" keel boat built out of fiberglass by W. D. Schock and designed by Bill Lapworth (it was one of Lapworth's first designs, but lacked the lines and spade rudder of his line of "Cal" boats which came out several years later). This boat sank during Hurricane Agnes in 1972 (a storm surge on the lake submerged the breakwater at Cleveland harbor, and this caused waves to crash through the marinas, eventually sinking the boats that
broke loose from their docks).
Following the loss of the Endeavor 26 (named "The Big E"), my parents bought a Bristol 28 designed by Halsey Herreshoff, grandson of the famous Nathaniel Herreshoff of Bristol, Rhode Island. This new boat, named "Jeannie One" after my sister, was sailed for 3 years while I was in college (at Brown University, where I was a member of the collegiate sailing team there, a crew member for Brad Dellenbaugh and Rick Hood). My dad eventually sold this boat and I lost track of it for about 25
years. In 1995, I found it again in Chicago, owned by a nice man named Tom Gibbs, and I started crewing aboard "Great Scot" (the new name for the same old boat) on weekends.
Eventually, I went on to sail the Chicago-to-Mackinac race sponsored by the Chicago Yacht Club (and the longest fresh water sailboat race in the world, at 320 nautical miles) 6 times aboard "Great Scot", helping to compile a good record (our best
finish was a second place in the division and a sixth place in the PHRF fleet).
I currently own 3 sailboats (plus an inflatable tender and a kayak). The largest is a Cal 2-25 (this is the non-flush deck version of Lapworth's 25-foot pocket cruiser) named "Polynya". In 2003, I painted the hull teal green and the deck a combination of off white and a " natural red"; so the boat looks pretty striking (in my humble opinion) at its can in Jackson Harbor (you can't miss it). My other two sailboats are small 14-foot centerboard dinghys that were bought for " fun sailing" on hot, windy days in flat water. The Megabyte is my most powerful (and fast) single-handed dinghy. The Barnett 14 is a practical, well-designed and lively learner's boat that my son uses. He has named his boat "Draco".
I sail the Cal 2-25, "Polynya", mostly on Lake Michigan in the
afternoons and evenings after work. The two sailing dinghies are sailed on smaller lakes (Wolf Lake in Hammond Indiana, Lake Charlevoix in Michigan) during July and August, and sometimes in Lake Michigan off the 63rd street beach on hot sunny days in August when the wind is out of the Southwest.
Click on the links associated with sailing to see photographs of my boats and some casual pictures of me and my friends under sail.