now in highly structured training programmes… and not just going sailing. Sure, continue to do the structured part, but don’t not go sailing because you don’t have your coach around. Non-structured practice should be a pleasure. It’s impor- tant to actually just enjoy the process of going sailing.’
Ullman has a prescription for the larger world of sailing too. ‘Sailing participation is at a low ebb right now, but I think the way to bring sailing back is through the community sailing programmes that are starting up in large cities across the States. ‘People who are not sailors and don’t want to spend the money to join a yacht club or buy a boat can learn how to sail and discover the pleasure of going sailing through one of these community-sponsored programmes. This leads them to a love of sailing. Maybe they’ll join a yacht club or maybe not, and maybe down the road they’ll get into racing. I’m on the board of directors of US Sailing and today the com- munity sailing programme is a priority.’ In 2007, after winning the Melges 24 Worlds at 61, Ullman refocused again: he sold his Newport Beach loft and stepped away from the daily business of sailmaking while retaining his position as president of Ullman Sails International, heading up the global brand. ‘At times I do miss making sails. But new people, a younger crew is coming in, which is the way it should be, and I am now learning from them,’ says Dave. Among the newcomers to Ullman Sails is Brad Stephens, the Australian
sterned 50-footer he’d had custom-built as a cruising boat. A light-displacement fore- runner of today’s sleds, Legend surfed to a big overall win. Rulemakers, stunned, promptly declared the boat ‘dangerous’ and slapped it with a 24-hour penalty for the 1963 event. ‘In reality they considered it “dangerous” because it was so much faster than all the conventional boats. The rating system didn’t know how to handle it,’ Dave says. In 1963, even with the 24-hour penalty, Legend, with 17-year-old Dave in the crew, came within an hour of winning the race again.
developer of the D4 membrane system. After Dave coaches the Annie Haeger/ Briana Provancha 470 team through the 2016 Olympics, his sailing calendar is, at last, open. Well, hardly.
Dave’s wife, Linda, came up with an idea: let’s race a family-crewed sled in the 2017 Transpac, and bring along some talented friends too. Besides Dave (an 11- time Transpac veteran) and Linda, family members, including Ian, Jacob and Charley, Dave’s three sons, and his niece, Kelly, who is vice-president and general manager of Ullman Sails International, have all signed on.
For Dave the Transpac is also a way to close the circle. In the 1957 Transpac his father raced Legend, a narrow, canoe
So picture the 2017 Transpac: it’s 0200 on a black night in mid-Pacific, still a thou- sand miles of hard running to Diamond Head. The Ullman team has the big kite up, everyone scrunched into the back of the bus. The trade winds are squally, kick- ing up over 25kt, and there’s a line-up of phosphorescent swells astern, stacked out to the horizon. Dave is behind the big wheel, feet planted. He is feeling the pressure of the rudder coming through the wheel, and he’s feeling the wind on his face, the lift and surge of the boat as it planes down the swells. The speedo clicks up – 20, 22, 24kt – as the bow wave flies up past the shrouds, a sheet of water. You glance over at Dave and it hits you: he can do this with his eyes closed.
Harriet and Tom Linskey co-founded Hands Across the Sea, a charity dedicated to raising literacy levels among Caribbean children. Please find a moment to take a look:
www.handsacrossthesea.net
The leading annual conference for the business of sailing and yacht racing
SEAHORSE 33
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