After two years of preparation, Joe Dubey’s Uncle Juicy sailed off to Hawaii in the ’94 Vic-Maui Race. Along with three other CAL-40s, of a 1960’s vintage.
Our closest call came three days before the race. We found ourselves in front of The Empress Hotel, sinking by virtue of a leak in the prop shaft sleeve. Jenkins Marine in Esquimalt performed 24 hour magic, so we started on time.
Sailing with Joe were Bruce Campbell, Mike Frick, Dick Lutz, Bill Maclean, Mark Swartout, and Parks Weaver. A saltier crew shall never be found. The Vic-Maui publicity people estimated that we had 221 years of sailing experience between us. Unfortunately all this experience neatly canceled itself out when run through the committee-decision making process.
Finishing in 16 days, 48 minutes, and fourteen seconds, we got trounced by the other CALs. We corrected fourth in class and fifteenth overall in a class of twenty-three.
Joe, Bill, and Mike stayed with the boat for the return trip. They were joined by Storme Thompson, Scott Maclean, and Don Maclean. After an encounter with the world’s biggest great white shark, the boat has unofficially been dubbed, "Shark Bait, Whiskey, Tang and Alpo, 9999" for radio net purposes.
Tall tales will follow, at our SSSS meetings, until everyone gets tired of hearing about it.
Joe Dubey, Uncle Juicy