Reunions – If you wish to be reunited with the vessel that you were once associated with, please let us know and we will do our best to reunite all for a special celebration. All helping to preserve and add to the historical significance of these vessels for future generation to come. The Wall of Remembrance – An important classification within each vessels profile that recognizes the dedicated stewardship, preservation, and celebrity of all the men and women that have cared for and sailed on these legendary vessels. The wonderful stories and racing histories of these magnificent craft are important to the overall valuation of each vessels historical record, so please provide as much information as possibly including any home videos that you may have The Registry includes surviving, and destroyed vessels, and inclusion is either by vessel’s historical significance, invitation or request. “It’s all balancing risk and reward.The Classic Yacht Register of Heritage is a database of the worlds Vintage, Classic and Grand Prix (Spirit of Tradition) sailboats. “You’re trying to forecast the future, and of course, we can never do it perfectly,” he said. Shortly after he disembarked another vessel, its keel fell off the craft turned upside down 300 miles off the coast.īut most of the decision-making and risk management Hammitt does while racing is more prosaic, and involves predicting winds, currents, weather patterns, and other boats’ behavior. Twice, he said, he has been on a boat when the mast broke. Given his career researching decision-making under uncertainty, Hammitt is well-equipped to anticipate and manage such contingencies. “For offshore racing, you have to be prepared for storms, for breakage, for malfunctions.” “Ninety percent of winning a race happens before you leave the dock-having the boat, having the equipment, having it prepared, having a strategy,” Hammitt emphasized. Hammitt raced on the Reveille in the “Bermuda One-Two,” although the electronic navigation and communications equipment required some serious updating for safety. The family has sailed to Morocco, Tunisia, Malta, Turkey, and various places in Spain, France, Italy, and Greece on the Reveille, a 41-foot boat built in England in 1985. She inherited the passion from him, and now she and Hammitt have passed it down to their two sons. “My father had found $20 in a bush with a buddy when he was 10 years old and went and bought a boat and raced every day of his life,” she said. Indeed, Klein was an All-American sailor at Berkeley, and grew up racing on San Francisco Bay.
“It’s hard to find people who meet those criteria,” she said, laughing. Klein noted that Hammitt met her two requirements in a husband: that he be smarter and a better sailor than she was.
“About 10 minutes into the conversation I decided I was going to marry him.” And, in fact, my parents had met him at a regatta in Florida like five years before I met him,” Klein said. “Because we’d both been really intensely on the racing circuit, we knew a ton of the same people and had friends in common.
“He was always very levelheaded and in control and just a really naturally gifted, fast, sailor.”Īfter college, Hammitt’s continued commitment to the sport brought him to San Francisco’s “Big Boat Series,” where in 1981 he met his wife. So it was always a pleasure to sail with him because there would never be any yelling,” Henderson said. ’82-another sailing team alum-recalled his time crewing for Hammitt, who was also his freshman roommate. I’m sure he has many more racing successes ahead of him.” America’s Cup Skipper-called him a “fantastic sailor.” “As an undergrad he was voted an All-American during a very competitive year, and has never lost his touch at the helm. His former co-captain on that team, Russell H. (He later sailed that course four more times.) At Harvard, he joined the College sailing team, which he captained as a senior. As a high schooler, he raced the 2,250 miles between Los Angeles and Honolulu in “Transpac”-the most important race on the West coast. Hammitt grew up cruising on the water with his family. The pair finished in first place-news that came as no surprise to anyone who has followed or been part of Hammitt’s lifelong sailing career. Hammitt enjoyed a less taxing journey on the race’s “double-handed” leg with his crew John Paulling, Klein’s childhood friend.