2010 RACING: 12 GREAT WINTER REGATTAS 1 NCE 993 SI JANUARY 2010 GRENADA’S Two-Weekend Sailing Festival Cuba’s Boating AMBASSADOR Profile: STEVE BLACK Can Sailing Help You Get Into COLLEGE? CHARTERING on a Budget !!! "# $%#! &% ' !"# $ #%&'( ( ) *$+ % ! , = )W )+ )W + >3#= ) + # > + > >3#= 0 /0 - / .0 / GH ( .. 0 / / / 0 / / ? - ,= 0 ! ! )0 8*' 5@:@' + 0 8*' ! 5&*@' 5%99*4 58@9*7 3 + = W B # )#,- = W )#,- ./ /! / / 0 - 0 0 > ! / - :%. %;'7+$ / / / R " /#= / / - / . . 2. / 5:@;%' 3 4 5%*6'/7 58*99 $+ 5:;&'/ 7 5*9;' $!, + 3 7= B $!, / " 0, . " 0, . . ` . / 0 . D / /# /E /)B/> ` / ` - 0 . F . > !0 - /0 0 . . ` ! 0. :''< - / . B 5:;**' 4 5:**' , ! )W ) #+ :'< !, -. /0(122!133!14 /##W, 0(122!13!5442 !6$ 0(517!31!4'& 0(35!31!41 NOW IN THE CARIBBEAN It will safely handle Power, ST. MAARTEN SHIPYARD TO RECEIVE Sail, and Multi-hulls up MODEL 75 SEA-LIFT IN SPRING 2010 to 85’ and 150,000 lbs. PUERTO DEL REY Fajardo, Puerto Rico Sea-Lift is proud to announce the delivery and startup of the most recent Model 45 to Puerto del Rey in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. This newly designed Sea-Lift features expandable width lift arms which enables a greater variety of catamarans to be handled than ever before. The Sea-Lift will haul vessels weighing up SOPER’S HOLE to 45 Tons and 65 Feet. Tortola, BVI Along with day to day usage, Puerto del Rey will enhance their hurricane haul out capa- bilities, further providing unsurpassed speed and safety in boat handling to customers throughout the Caribbean. Visit www.sea-lift.com for additional information. CONTACT KMI SEA-LIFT T: 360.398.7533 F:360.398.2914 6059 Guide Meridian Rd Bellingham, WA 98226 USA [email protected] Port Louis Marina – another great reason to visit Grenada Grenada remains one of the most unspoilt and welcoming cruising Port Louis is owned and operated by Camper & Nicholsons destinations in the Caribbean. Marinas, and our friendly and knowledgeable staff are on hand Now, with Port Louis, visiting yachts can enjoy the security and 24 hours a day to welcome yachts of all sizes from 20ft to 300ft. convenience of a beautifully appointed, fully serviced marina – For more information about securing a berth at Port Louis, located in the lagoon adjacent to the island’s capital, St George’s. including the opportunity to purchase on a 30-year licence, please Grenada’s southern location allows for year-round cruising, contact our Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator, Danny Donelan on including the summer months, and with an international airport +1 (473) 435 7432 or email [email protected] just five miles away, Port Louis is the ideal base for exploring Port Louis Marina – just one more reason to visit the ‘Spice Island’. the wonderful islands of the Grenadines. As a Port of Entry, it’s easy to clear in and out through Port Louis, and our 24-hour security, dockside facilities and marina-wide wi-fi all contribute to making your stay safe and relaxed. www.cnportlouismarina.com ITALY | MALTA | TURKEY | WEST INDIES Letters LETTER FROM THE EDITOR January ushers in the 2010 winter racing season, and in these pages you’ll find an over- Publisher: CHRIS KENNAN view of regatta action from January through March. Where do all these hot competitors [email protected] come from? Many start young in junior sailing programs and some go on to compete at the university level, where our Caribbean kids have been cleaning up lately. Read Andi Editorial Director: Bailey’s article this month to learn how sailing affects college admission. And even if your CHRIS GOODIER junior sailing years are long past, get out and have fun at a regatta this winter—it’s never [email protected] too late to start! —Chris Goodier Creative Director: NICOLE KENNAN [email protected] Art Director: AMY KLINEDINST LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] ALL AT SEA WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU Graphic Designer: NEVA HURLEY SEND YOUR CORRESPONDENCE BY EMAIL TO [email protected], OR MAIL LETTERS TO: ALL AT SEA, PO BOX 7277, ST. THOMAS, VI 00801 Advertising: International CHRIS KENNAN Editor’s note: All at Sea featured a two-part article in 2008 by writer Peter Muilenburg about [email protected] sail maker Manfred Dittrich, who lives and works on an island in Charlotte Amalie harbor. (Read it at www.allatsea.net.) Dittrich’s sailing career began on a square-rigger rounding Caribbean Cape Horn and his work over the past 50 years has earned him admirers like these through- ANDREA BAILEY out the Caribbean: [email protected] Accounting, Dear Editor, Subscriptions: CRUISING & CIRCUMNAVIGATING CRUISING & CIRCUMNAVIGATING Colorful as a Conch Horn, Solid as a Lignum Block: [email protected] MANFRED DITTRICH After spending most his life in, on, and Diesel Duck, a 41 ft. long range BY PETER MUILENBURG | PHOTOS BY DANIEL PINTO by the sea, Peter Muilenburg wrote “Adrift on a Sea of Blue Light,” Visit his website www.sailBreath.com motorboat, decided in November 2007 in Curacao, while on the way Owned and Published by to Panama, to change plans and de- “Manfred Dittrich is one of the kindest, most generous persons I’ve ever known. If not for Manfred there are Kennan Holdings, LLC many of us sailors who would not be sailing today.” tour to St. Thomas, USVI to modify PART TWO: For half a century, Manfred Dittrich has been living in The classiest act in the harbor—and the noisiest—was Antilles Airboats, low ends and, accordingly, Manfred used a sliding scale, charging the going St. Thomas making sails for everything from Beneteaus to brigantines. the last of the Grumman Goose seaplanes. Reeking with character, price to those who could well afford it—blue blazer yachtsmen, wastrel P.O. Box 7277 Manfred, whose sailing career began on a square rigger rounding Cape chronically low on spare parts, their engines deafened the harbor as they heirs, millionaires and marijuana smugglers. “I have no problem with pot Horn, has emerged from the test of time as one of the East Caribbean’s took off, roaring along the surface, seawater streaming in through the worn smugglers,” he once, famously, said. “They pay top dollar, cash up front.” favorite characters—in a region famous for its characters. In Part One rivet holes, ‘til the old girl soared up suddenly, trailing sparkling droplets of Yet for a cruiser short of funds he’d work out some kind of deal with (January 2008 issue, www.allatsea.net), Manfred left a traveling circus to seawater in her slipstream like a diamond necklace come undone. barter or labor, or let him do some of the work, like lashing on the jib hanks the steady rig by fitting a jib furler, answer the call of the sea and deliver a boat to the Caribbean with a friend. In those days sailboats still carried much of the fresh produce to or hand stitching the clews. Or he’d take payment in kind, or by installments. St. Thomas, USVI 00801 St. Thomas from the fertile Windward Islands to the “down island wharf” in Or—what the hell—he’d dig out an old sail from his extensive collection, Charlotte Amalie’s bulkheaded waterfront. Here the “down island” sloops serviceable enough to do the job and give it away. No wonder that well- TheThe stepping-stonestepping-stotepping-stonee islandsisla they ascended in the Caribbean seemed like a Mike Burke of Adventures in Paradise fame was just getting his and schooners—brightly painted, rust streaked, soulful wooden vessels— known sailing artist Les Anderson declares, “Manfred Dittrich is one of the veritableble stairwstairwayay to heheaven; and when they reached the Virgins, paradise windjammer fleet into operation. It didn’t take long for him and Manfred to unloaded heaps of bananas, plantains, mangoes, limes, breadfruit, and kindest, most generous persons I’ve ever known. If not for Manfred there get a new jib sail and do a little itselitselff blablazed fforthorth frofromom unspoiled beaches and glossy blue coves. Unlike find each other. He put Manfred in charge of making new sails for the fleet. “ground food”----assorted roots with dirt still on them. are many of us sailors who would not be sailing today.” If he took to you, he phone (443) 321-3797 the otherothe islandislandss thetherere was employment. They sailed into the spectacular For the Polynesia, flagship of the fleet, he sewed up, by hand, a 5,000 square St Thomas attracted quite a procession of remarkable vessels over would like as not invite you to dinner at his rustic seaside loft/dwelling, put naturalural harbor ofof St. ThomasThoT with its old colonial town bustling at the start foot mainsail-so big that he had to build it in an empty Miami parking lot. the years. The vessels kept coming and Manfred kept sewing. Three- you up…even give you a job. of an economice bboomoomm bbased in large part upon sailing. Manfred got off the When he wasn’t building sails he captained the windjammers. He masted, elaborately-carved Brazilian river schooners, massively-built He usually had a couple of apprentices in the loft learning their trade from boat in CharlottChCharlotte-Amaliee-Amalie-Am and never got back on. remembered coming into Miami harbor at the helm of a 120 ft. schooner— Colin Archer rescue ketches, the aforementioned island sloops, a the master. Many of them with his blessing established their own shops in modification on the mainsail (steady when the engine suddenly died! There was a strong following wind and the junk built by a Chinese village of solid teak, 100 year old plumb bow St.