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Ancient History

or how did I get here from there?

     Once upon a time in Germany, I thought the world revolved around sailing, and I spent my youth tinkering with sailboats, and building sailboat models, and dreaming up brilliant ways to improve them. So, naturally, I became a yacht designer and boatbuilder.

After stints with the world's finest yacht yard in Germany, and with two of the most renowned racing yacht Naval Architects in the US, I hung out my own shingle in 1974.

My very first commission, the 54ft "Sunset Blvd" (on the left), won the prestigious Transpac race in 1975.

Commissions came pouring in.

In 1980, I decided to put my money where my mouth was, and set out to build my ultimate cruiser, a 46ft ultralight composite sailboat. Before the hull was turned over, I had orders for a bunch more. And since I found the hands-on building much more satisfying than the pencil-pushing, I made it official and started my own boatyard. Through contact with experimental aircraft gurus, I explored advanced composite materials and manufacturing methods, and applied all this knowledge to a gaggle of ultralight racing/cruisers. Life was good.

Then the gung-ho 80s fizzled, orders became sparse, environmental restrictions tougher, and I went looking for some other product to pour my accumulated experience into.

Then I tried windsurfing.

Within the first couple of minutes I knew that I was going to windsurf for the rest of my life. Upon closer inspection I found the exact same materials in windsurfing boards that I had been building boats out of for eons. What was more natural than to try and slowly phase out my working on sailboats in favor of sailboards? The first year, I repaired about 40 sailboards; the second, about 80, the third about 160. Then Epoxy surfboards became popular in earnest, and my workload tripled. Then came SUPs, and it tripled again.

Talking about being in the right spot at the right time!