More Stories about Carl
When I was 13, my Dad arranged a summer job for me with my God Father at his backyard machine shop. “Uncle” Dick was an old family friend, a gifted machinist, studied Physics at Cal Poly, but as a result of considerable trauma during the war in the Pacific, he ended up in a mental hospital till some new medication allowed for his release. His wife bought him a welding set-up to keep him occupied while she worked at North Island, since he was far from employable. My father bought him a metal band saw from Sears, the kind that tilts and is used for cutting metal bar, angle, tube etc. From that unlikely beginning, Uncle Dick built a business that lasted for 20 years, but probably in large part only because of his first real customer, Eichenlaub Marine.
My Dad, who Carl had built a kit Lightening for a few years earlier, arranged for Uncle Dick to meet Carl to see if there was anything he might make for him. I’m not sure how that conversation went but somehow, Carl agreed to let him try to cut the trailing and leading edges on a lightning centerboard, providing the steel and I’m sure assuming it would likely be rendered useless in the attempt. Still he gave him the chance.
If you know anything about metal cutting band saws and the 3/8 inch thick steel Lightening centerboard, you know that cutting a 1 inch bevel in the trailing edge and a round leading edge, with a band saw, seems ludicrous. Just keeping this very acute angle straight and the two sides meeting in the center line of the plate seems impossible. Dick would spend countless hours coaxing the steel plane through the acutely tilted board and blade a tiny fraction of an inch at a time. I’ve no doubt it took him as long to do one centerboard as it took Carl to build the entire boat. Nevertheless, from then on, Dick Sweet, founder, owner, and for a few more years, sole employee (except for me during Summer break) of RMS Marine Foundry Pattern and Machine, made all of Carl’s Lightening and later Snipe boards.
After a dozen lightening boards, the band saw gave way to an old war surplus Lima end milling machine which made the job at least sensible. From the proceeds he bought a lathe and a collection of other machine shop tools, including a radial arm drill press I operated to cut holds in the column base plates for the first UCSD building. A back-yard foundry made from an industrial washing machine lined with fire brick was next. In the end, although never much of a business success, Dick Sweet ended up owning one of two non-ferrous foundries in San Diego County, moving from his back yard to a shop on Newton Avenue and having a meaningful life, making a unique contribution. He earned a reputation for doing excellent quality work and would take on projects others considered too risky or just plain un-doable.
The point is, Carl didn’t need to do this. He was well aware of Dick’s illness and potential for continued instability, and I’m sure there were other, more reliable, competitive alternatives. He did this in large part I’m sure, because Carl, despite, or perhaps because of his legendary business skills, made room to share opportunities with folks who needed a break. Carl and Dick were never personal friends, but they shard one fundamental thing in common, a respect for hard work, skilled craftsmanship, and a mutual respect for each other that seems to have been to a large degree unique to that generation.
I’ve remembered that story as an example of a Carl Eichenlaub less known to the sailing crowd but still an example of his vision, ability to see opportunities where others might not, and a willingness to make an investment in people, which has set an example for me throughout my life. Thanks Carl. You’ll never be forgotten here!
Bill Kreysler
Around 1964 I worked for Carl for a short time. He had some liveaboards who used the shop "facilities" and Carl would clean it with a pressure pot full of acetone now and then. (Thank god he didn't smoke a cigar during it). Anyway I was in college and must have learned that acetone was a "fat solvent" so took it upon myself to warn him. Without a moment's hesitation he said, "Is that so, why I know lots of ladies at the Yacht Club who might pay a lot of money to sign up for a treatment". Seemed funny at the time but he might have been onto something.
Bill Kreysler
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I had the pleasure to do the feature story about Carl in the May issue of Sailing magazine (pp 63) with photos by Bob Grieser. It wasn't easy because you always had to laugh and you couldn't be quite sure when Carl was serving up a
dose of good-humored BS or when he was serious.
I am not a habitual braggart, but if you haven’t done so already, check out that piece. I believe it is one of the very few about Carl where he takes a retrospective look on his life and where "victims" of his art, from Mark Reynolds to Bill Buchan, weigh in to tell their side of the story. Mark, BTW, told me that exact same anecdote about sealing Peter Commette's Finn mast prior to the 1976 Olympics. If you cant find this issue of Sailing, go to nttp://www.sailingonline.com/03/may03.htm and click the Order button at the bottom of the page.
Cheers. Dieter Loibner
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Carl always had a great way to empathize a point he was making. In Barcelona at the '92 Olympics we were sitting in a restaurant and Carl was wearing his famous suspenders (unlike his even more famous earlier days where he didn't wear suspenders for those that go way back with Carl!). Anyway these suspenders had "Wanderlodge" printed on them. One of the sailors at the table asked him what Wanderlodge meant. Carl said that the Wanderlodge had to be the second greatest invention on the planet earth and followed that a Wanderlodge is a Blue Bird motor home (Carl had one). Someone then asked if that was the second greatest invention on the planet earth what would the number one be? Carl replied that #1 would certainly have to be the Boeing 747.
In Kingston at the 1976 Olympics Peter’s Finn mast wouldn’t pass the measurement float test, it took on too much water. I was there working on Dennis Conner’s boat and working with Carl sometimes. One thing that always impressed me with Carl is that he didn't go sit at a desk while thinking about a way to do something. He'd just move on and get some other work done until the idea came to him on how to do something else. After Peter had the measurement issue with his Finn mast he went out practicing and left the mast with Carl. Carl was working on the 470 when he got the idea of how to fix Peter's mast which had very small leaks around the rivets in the sail track that were impossible to get to. Carl went to a gas station and got some radiator stop leak. He told me that we had to find some real hot water. He poured the hot water and the stop leak into the mast and one by one the leaks were plugged. There was one larger hole left still leaking and he just stuck his pencil in it and broke it off.
One time as a fundraiser for SDSU Sailing we got a bunch of really good guys to give lectures over a few days. We had Buddy, Lowell, DC, Deaver, McLaughlin and Carl. I was a bit concerned how Carl would do in front of a big group. I had always just heard him talk while working at the boat yard. He followed Deaver and DC that night. He started out a bit awkward with some notes, I think someone had prepared for him, but quickly threw them over his shoulder. He just started out by telling the group the following: "Dick Deaver told you that the key to winning sailboat races was good boat handling, Dennis Conner just told you the key was tactics. That's all really just bull, you just need a faster boat." He went on to tell a funny story of how DC had got a new Ranger 32 and with big expectations went down to the SORC and finished mid fleet. The next year he went to the SORC with the Peterson "Stinger" built by Carl and won. Carl asked the group if they thought DC had become a better sailor in that one year and answered it right away with "no, he just had a faster boat". He told a lot more humorous stories that evening.
Carl has always had very descriptive ways of explaining things. I remember one time he had told my dad to put some "V" in front of the keel on his Star. When my dad asked how much Carl answered "V it like a Chris Craft Cruiser".
No one has an eye like Carl. One time when I was at the yard he was putting the traveler on his new Soling. He just laid the traveler down and started drilling. I asked him how he knew that it was straight and his reply was "it looks straight doesn't it?". Afterward we measured it and it was spot on. In Barcelona there was a rumor that one of the two new Olympic high rise buildings that had just been finished couldn't be occupied because it was leaning to one side. Carl pulled out his tape measure and hung it like a plum bob, eyeballed it, and said it was the building on the right.
People are surprised that there's much for Carl to do on boats that show up at the Olympics thinking that these guys must be pretty ready to go. Carl tells them that many of these boats are less prepared than the normal weekend racer. He has said that the amount of work that he has to do on the Olympic boats is inversely related to the length of the boat. Solings and Stars usually aren't too bad but you can work all day on that Windsurfer just to get the non skid just right. The 470 requires so much work that it might be easier to just show up with a roll of fiberglass and build it in front of the measurers.
At the 1986 Goodwill games upon returning to the harbor I mentioned to Carl that I took on a bit too much water that day and some splashboards would have been nice to have. The next morning on my way to breakfast I saw Carl coming the other way and he surprised me by saying that he made some splashboards for me and I was all set but there was still one minor problem. "I couldn't quite match the gelcoat" he said.
In 1988 in Korea I was using a swivel base mainsheet cleat that I really liked but it was starting to get a bit wobbly. We had just got the latest Harken but I didn't like how easily it turned with the ball bearings. A little load the wrong way and it would spin away from me. I told Carl that I'd switch to that if it didn't turn so easily. Soon after Carl solved the problem and put the new cleat assembly in. Carl had just taken some aluminum metal shavings and put them in with the ball bearings and tightened the whole thing down. It worked perfect. He said that was the fist time that anyone had ever asked him to screw up ball bearings.
Carl would crank boats out of his shop in record time. I heard that one time when the Snipe Nationals were in San Diego one time that his boat didn't measure in correctly so he just went back to his shop and built another in a few days. I'm sure someone can expand on that story. I think Carl could make a Sabot in one day. Carl made my first Sabot hull and my dad finished it off. I was about 4 at the time and I still remember going to Mission bay to go out sailing in it for the first time.
I bought my first Snipe #13332 when I was 13 and it was a wood Eichenlaub. When I bought the boat from Jeff Lenhart, it was painted white on one side, black on the other side and was called "Integration". Had some flowers and peace signs painted on the stern too. I eventually refaired the bottom and painted it all white at Carl's shop. When I was sanding it I went through a few colors and one old color was pink. That's when Carl figured out that it was the boat he painted Pink and called "Preparation H". Carl had built the boat for himself in early 1962 and initially registered it as "Anyslob".
Mark Reynolds
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My grandmother used to work in the front office in Carl’s building. My uncle had a Yacht Brokerage there, "Milt Reynolds Yachts". She constantly got that view of Carl. The shirt goes along good with “any slob can sail an Eichenlaub”.
Mark Reynolds
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The first fiberglass Lightning was built in 1958 and it proved to be very slow. In 1963, Martin Weir of San Diego took a mold off Carl Eichenlaub's wooden hull #8390, Bull II, and used it to build the first cored glass Lightning. This new boat proved to be amazingly fast, and Carl used it to win the Midwinters in St. Petersburg in 1964. This boat, almost overnight, transformed the class, as Lightning sailors soon switched to glass boats en masse. Carl, who built many wooden Lightnings in the '50s is the most successful Lightning sailor in the history of MBYC. He won the North American Championship in 1960 and 1963, and was runner-up in 1962. And those wins came in years in which there were over 1000 Lightnings being raced on Long Island Sound alone! Other MBYC members have collected trophies in various Lightning Nationals since.
Ed Jones, April 1996
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Two people started racing in 1956 who would indirectly have an impact on the Star Class: Milton Reynolds and Carl Eichenlaub. Milt is Mark Reynold’s uncle and introduced the family to Star sailing. Carl Eichenlaub became famous for building Stars which were rather on the light side. In recognition of this fact his boat 3821 was named Flimsy. (Jim Reynolds also crewed for Carl in Flimsy in the 1958 Springs.) Late in the year Carl would begin to build two very successful boats: Bill Ficker’s Nhycusa, 3850, and Lowell North’s North Star III, 3877. These boats would dominate the World’s Championship for the next four of years.
Best, David Bolles
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Dear Lowell and Bea,
(Please forgive the big type. It's easier for me to see) Everyone has his own collection of Eichenlaub stories. Here are three quick ones from my collection:
1. When you enter the gate at Eichenlaub Marine, on the right, you see a green office door. On the door is an old-fashioned Texaco Gasoline logo, and the words: Gila Bend. What's this all about?? Well, when Carl finds himself in the direst of dire straits-on the boat or where ever-he often can be heard to mutter, "I knew I should have bought that Gas Station in Gila Bend!!"
2. When Carl was building some of the best Starboats in the world, I was in his shop, one day, when the postman delivered the mail. There was a letter from the King of Sweden, inquiring about a new Star. With a carpenter's" pencil, Carl scrawled across the bottom, "Sorry. Sir, too busy", and mailed it back. You can count on one hand the number of people who could get away with that!!! Yet Carl does it now and then, with the rich and famous, and they love him for it!!
3. When we were all a lot younger, the "Eighth Wonder of the World" was what kept Carl's jeans from falling down? One day, several years ago, they did fall. He was climbing a steep ladder to the deck of boat which had been hauled-out, carrying an open can of paint and brushes in one hand, and holding on with the other. The pants fell-and next morning Jean sent him to work in a brand-new pair of broad, yellow suspenders. He's been wearing them ever since!! Use any-or none of this, Saturday-as you see fit.
Aloha, Ted Livingston
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Carl was an incredible person to have known in my growing up in the sailing community. And yes, Outta Sight was the 5.5 Meter he built for us. Let me take you back for some anecdotes I remember..
I first met Carl when I was about twelve, sailing Snowbirds at NHYC. The big guns and their Stars would come to NHYC for regattas often enough we thought this was pretty special, with Ficker, North, Burnham, Edlers and the like, and these really cool boats to look up to(when you are twelve). And then there was Carl, who built the really fast boats from San Diego against the mostly Etchells boats from Newport. I was intrigued that Carl would not only be sailing his boat, but also working on everybody else's. The Eichenlaub boats not only were light and fast, but also tended to develop cracks in that ultra-dry fir that Carl used. So there he was fixing the other boats on the fly, even when racing and doing well himself. And with Lowell he built the skinny bendy masts that became standard in the Star class. They also needed repairing from the compression cracks from over-bending downwind. So out came the sanders and planes for out Snowbird masts, with the first North sail. We figured we had to be like the Eichenlaub stars and bend the mast just like them
At 14, I stepped up to a Snipe. And Carl was building them too. I watched them beat up on the other boats with a more radical design vs the class standard. Much to my surprise, my first Eichenlaub boat came that Christmas and I was blown away. Radical hull, deck, floppy mast with the banjo frame around the large hole in the deck. Plus the 50lb car battery for the electric bilge pump, just to get it up to minimum weight. And it was fast. And it won two Jr.Nationals before I could even drive it to regattas. But what I really remember was the help Carl gave to me in knowing the boat as I learned to sail it. At the Nationals in Seattle they said this hot, radical Snipe was not measuring in. Great, and my mom who drove me and the boat there was not into rebuilding boats. Thankfully Carl was there(was he camping on the club lawn like other regattas?) and said no problem. Out came the belt sander. Measurement guys said the keel plank was too deep, so Carl just took the sander and shaved the bottom plank 1/4" at the two points where it sat in the measurement jig. Measurement guys said "you can't do that". Carl said something like "show me the rule". He slapped some paint on it and off we went to win.
Fast-forward seven years. Brit Chance designed identical 5.5 Meters for Lowell and us, with a radical Delta keel and an idea for a canting mast(hydraulically), and shaped like a "D" with the sail flopping to the leeward side of the D shap. Carl was commissioned to build it and we were excited. In college now, I spent as much time as possible in SD as the boat was being built. Carl would tell stories of how he selected the driest wood at the lumber yard, almost like his special stash. He would then get it past the American Bureau of Shipping inspectors who had to certify the moisture content of the wood as per the Meter rule. I would often sleep in the Eichenlaub's RV parked in the driveway when I spent more than a day there. Gracious to me as I learned a whole new perspective to Carl. They were committed to playing in the orchestra, and I often remember Carl going off to practice after work.
With the hydraulic mast idea, Carl said we need to talk Glenn McPherren, who did live up the hill on Pt. Loma, and yes, Margy's dad. Glenn had been and aircraft engineer at Republic/Convair and figured out all the engineering with Carl for the mast and other parts of the boat. The McPherrens were gracious as well. And yes, as John mentioned(as my pal and crew) Carl did pull out the jackhammer and just dug a hole in the concrete floor to install the rudder, as the deck was about 12 inches from the roof rafters in his shop. We could not believe how Carl came to easy solutions to complex problems. I got to know those rafters well, spending time up there working on the deck layout. I asked Carl what this large shallow box was hanging just above the deck on the boat. I expected it to be something radical for the boat itself. The response was that there was a roof leak(tin roof as I remember), and it was catching the water instead of going in the boat; another solution. We talked about what to paint the boat. Carl said an all mahogany boat like this should be varnished, so it was, and it was beautiful, probably the prettiest Carl had built to date. It was a real trip getting the boat out of the shed, and I think Carl was considering tearing it down. Once on the trailer and ready to take to SDYC, Carl said he might tow it with his Model A Ford as I recall.
I find it right in character for Carl to have been so helpful to so many others in his Olympic Shipwright efforts. Not many are able to give back to the sport like he did, after being a competitor and professional boatbuilder as well. Fair winds and take the lifts Carl,
Scott Allan
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Dear Betty and Brian,
Shirley and I were sad to hear about your Dad's passing. But we immediately started telling each other stories of the many happy times we got to experience with him.
I recall, early 80's, a Laser regatta in San Felipe Mexico, its was SCRA's infamous Lawnchair World Championships. We were surprised about how quickly and far out a 15 foot tide drops. The Lasers, which were left on the water's edge for a lunch/beer break, were soon stranded 100 yards or more down a sandy hill and way out in the mud flats after the water receded.
The group struggled to carry the each Laser back to camp. But not Carl. He gathered some available mainsheets, tied them together, attached one end to the bow cleat and the other the bumper of his old Station Wagon. Varrrooom across the tidal flats and up the hill the car went, dragging the Laser.
Carl got a big laugh out of that, but even bigger laugh came when no one else wanted to use his method to bring the boats home.
Regards Bruce and Shirley.
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I first met Carl when I was in college in the '60s. In the summers, I worked for George F. Thomas, Sailmakers, in scenic Cleveland. One of those summers I spent a few days at Cleveland Yacht Club helping to register & measure Lightnings for some major regatta. The place was abuzz because Carl was supposed to make an appearance with a brand new boat, built for local Lightning ace John Mueller. All of Mueller's many Lightnings were painted flamingo pink & named "Tickled Pink". Whatever Carl thought about painting one of his creations pink, he did it anyway. But apparently, while spraying the paint, the pot on his sprayer exploded. Much of his shop was speckled with pink paint. Carl, motor home, & boats duly arrive at CYC & a crowd, including me, gathered to see the space-aged California Lightning. It was a pretty impressive boat, right down to the name "Pickled Fink" painted on the hull, in honor of the paint-pot explosion. Mueller was initially unimpressed with the name, but he cleaned-up with the boat. I understand that he & Carl were friends for many years.
Thanks for collecting these tales. Rob Pinkel
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From John T. "Buddy" Jack of El Paso, TX, as told to Perry Hurt, July 2014:
Carly came out to El Paso when I was in high school. Our mothers had known each other forever. Carly and I are the same age and he was one of my best friends. When he visited we'd run around doing all sorts of stuff. On this particular visit Carly said, "Let's build a boat!". We rounded up the materials and put it together at my father's business, National Auto Wrecking. It wasn't a sailboat, more like a row boat or one you'd put a motor on, not that we had one. There's not a lot of water around El Paso. We took it over to Ascarate Lake and paddled around. We got bored with that and ended up harnessing the boat to a horse and pulling it through the big irrigation ditches.
About the same time we built a plane and tried to fly it off the roof of his grandparent's barn. Damn near killed ourselves!
(From Buddy and his wife Tillie): Carly always dressed a bit off: plaids with stripes, rope for belt, two different colored socks. And his wrist brace was always beaten up and dirty.
Mark,
A little background: My wife's family is from El Paso and we happen to be here this weekend catching up on relatives. Carl's name came up and all this related history spilled out which we had never heard.
Carl's mother and Louise Watson Jack (Buddy's mom and my wife's grandmother) were life long friends. They met in El Paso at least as early as high school, worked together at various times, and visited with each other up until late in life. Everyone in the family referred to Carl as "Carly" and his mom as "Aunt Billie". No one here could remember Aunt Billie's real name, so it was a bit of a surprise to see it as Wilhelmina Pennybaker in one of the write-ups about Carl. Do you happen to know if that was her maiden name, or was she married more than once? Aunt Billie and Carl are remembered as great joke and story tellers, always the life of the party.
Perry
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CARL'S SARTORIAL ROLE MODEL
(In the notebook, I had a couple of pages about Carl's unique wardrobe ideas, but did not try to put forth a reason for this deviation from
"yachtie attire" Now I may have a clue.
In Carl's first year (1946) at MBYC, during which he stayed overnight a number of times aboard his "good yacht" Inner Sanctum, he had a neighbor on the water, living aboard the only houseboat (two storied !) on the bay. It had once been quite elegant, but now was 'way over the hill. It was occupied by a gentle recluse named Hazard (I don't know if he was related to Hazard Construction or not). His nickname was "Hap"Hazard, and the name fit perfectly. To "Hap" importance of dress was purely a matter of function over appearance. (A brown sock and a black one kept a person just as warm as a pair that matched) Hap and Carl appeared to get along fine, and as the months--and years passed—Carl took on more and more similar customs (much misunderstood and generally maligned) The stories are many, and I'm sure you've heard some. But this MAY be the origin. So what's so bad about marching to a different drummer????
Aloha, Ted
US Sailing Olympic Website
Carl Eichenlaub, a sailing technician from San Diego, Calif., has been a mainstay of the U.S. Olympic Sailing program for more than 20 years. In 1979, he accompanied the squad attending the Pan Am Games as the official boatwright, a position he has held for the USA at six subsequent Pan Am Games, two Goodwill Games and six Olympic Games. This August will mark Eichenlaub’s seventh trip to the Olympic Games, again as the invaluable boatwright or "fixer of all things." The Games veteran is 74 years young.
"Carl embodies the Olympic Spirit more than anyone I know," says Olympic Director Jonathan Harley, who himself is a veteran of five Olympic Games and will serve as Team Manager this time around. "He is selfless and well known among foreign teams for his willingness to provide support and share knowledge during international competitions. At last year’s Pan Am Games in the Dominican Republic Carl was selected by the U.S. team captains to be the U.S. Flagbearer for Opening Ceremonies. It was the first time a U.S. Pan American Team had selected a non-athlete for the honor."
Eichenlaub’s dedication to the USA sailors is unfailing and never was more apparent than when he suffered a broken hip at the Athletes’ Village during the 2000 Olympic Games, yet maintained his duties while on crutches. He is frequently approached at international competitions by foreign athletes with damaged equipment and seldom refuses a request for assistance once his work for the U.S. team is complete. With an ability to fix boats that has become legendary, Eichenlaub now travels to each event with a specially outfitted 40-foot container that holds, among other things, a swedging machine, drill press, compressors and a microwave oven for curing resin.
"We come better prepared and with better equipment than anyone in the world," he said. "I'll have welding equipment, cables and a complete array of hand power tools."
"Sailing for me goes back to when I was 10 years old, built my first boat and did my earlier sailing in the San Diego River," Eichenlaub said. "When I got to be 15, I built a bigger boat and joined the San Diego Yacht Club."
Eichenlaub, with the design help of Lowell North, built top-flight Star boats from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, and his boats, in the hands of such skippers as North, Bill Ficker and Joe Duplin, won several world championship titles during the 1950s and 1960s. The owner and operator of Eichenlaub Marine, he can be found playing the oboe with a local symphony when not tinkering with boats.
Sail Magazine - Great Moments at the Games
Carl Eichenlaub, team mechanic and master tinkerer, for taking it to the nth degree. He's never limited his attention to the U.S. team. There was that time, for example, at Barcelona, where the women's 470 from Argentina was all but totaled in a collision, and Eichenlaub worked through the night to fix it. But here's what makes this guy special. By the time the dawn touched the treetops, the gelcoat matched.
Lunch With Carl
Sailing Anarchy
All this Frisco sailing talk reminds me of a pretty funny story. Back when I used to be pretty good, I sailed in a few BBS's. Never did worth a damn (hey maybe I wasn't as good as I remember), although I did manage to break a mast once. Actually the owner did it but I was driving…but that's a whole 'nother story. -Ed.
This was a few years back (hell everything I did on the water was a few years back - I'm semi-retired now), and I was sailing in the BBS with the truly legendary Carl Eichenlaub on his latest Cadenza, this one the N/M 45. Never a particularly good boat, and a stone downwind, we were at least sort of in the hunt, I believe ending up fourth in class for the series.
It was the first race, pretty breezy, and we got to the weather mark in fair shape. I was the tactician for the series, and it was really cool to be sailing with Carl. Those of you who know Carl, know that he has some sort of a problem with one of his hands, and always wears something like an oven mitt over it. Okay, so as we rounded the top mark, we set and didn't quite get squared enough because as soon as the kite filled, the boat started to round up.
I looked over to see poor Carl, with his one good hand trying like hell to keep the fuckin' thing from spinning out, only to lose the battle and get thrown off the wheel and end up on the cockpit floor; he just couldn't hold that bitch down with the one hand. I quickly grabbed the wheel, and Carl, as nonplussed as ever, just looks up at me from the floor and says, "I think Scooter (that's me) better steer on the runs."
It was one of the funniest fucking things that I've ever been a part of. Not because of Carl's hand problem, god bless him, it was just the whole scene of seeing him get launched and how completely unfazed he was by it all. It was one of those things that you couldn't laugh at the time (too much going on, the owner getting bucked, etc), but afterwards the boys and I (after a couple of belts) laughed so hard, we almost pissed ourselves. One of the funniest moments in sailing with one of the great men in sailing. It just doesn't get any better than that.
The Ed. (Scot Tempesta)
From Team-Building with Tomac, Part One
In 42 years of racing everything from Lido 14s to superyachts, North’s Tom McLaughlin (right, known the world over as “Tomac”) has learned from the best—growing up in San Diego he crewed for boatbuilder Carl Eichenlaub in Snipes and Lightnings and he worked for Lowell North at the North Sails, San Diego, loft. (In fact, Tomac may be the longest-serving employee of North Sails.)
From Yachtracing.com interview with Champion sailor Dave Ullman
Question:
Who is one of the most interesting characters you have met in the sailing community?
Dave Answers:
That would have to be Carl Eichenlaub.
Snipe Nationals - Fort Worth, Texas, July 28-August 3, 1963
1) Robert Huggins, Lake Merritt, California
2) Carl Eichenlaub, Mission Bay, California
3) Lewis Bedford, Mission Bay, California
Sailed on Eagle Mtn. Lake, 74 starters
ANDY GRAM OLYMPIC TROPHY
1989 - Carl Eichenlaub (SDYC)
1976 - Carl Eichenlaub (SDYC)
US SAILOR Of The Week
April 18, 2007
Carl Eichenlaub
When Carl Eichenlaub’s daughter Betty Sue Sherman was named to be the first woman commodore of the San Diego Yacht Club, he decided she needed a flagship. So he built her a 32-foot Pacific Class sailboat of ash and mahogany. It took him longer than usual because he was recovering from his third joint replacement. The 76-year-old San Diego native is legendary for his ability to “bang stuff out in record time,” a reputation he earned during more than 25 years of service as the boatwright for the U.S. Olympic, Paralympic, and Pan Am Sailing teams. There are countless stories to tell about how Carl saved the day by ensuring the equipment used by our U.S. sailors (and sometimes sailors from other countries) would be in perfect shape. A recipient of US SAILING Herreshoff Trophy, perhaps one of Carl's most memorable experiences is when the U.S. athletes at the 2003 Pan Am Games selected Carl to carry the USA flag into the stadium at opening ceremonies. These days, he is focused on racing his own sailboat, which he built of welded aluminum. For Carl, the only thing better than building boats is racing them.