 Al started sailing as a small kid on a Sailfish off Cape Cod. He's continued sailing on boats ranging from a Sabot to the USCGC Eagle. He's lived aboard, and cruised the Northwest, from Seattle to Alaska since 1981 with his wife, Lou, aboard their 39 foot sailboat, a boat they designed and built themselves. "I've also done lots of buoy racing on friends' boats in Puget Sound". Al purchased Dogbark four months ago after literally dreaming about, coveting and drooling over her for the past three years. "It's a good thing the decks don't leak". The boat sat unused for those three years and has needed a ton of work getting her ready for this adventure. It's a 60 foot fiberglass/divynicell John King design, built and sailed by Kanga Birtles to fifth place in the 1990/91 BOC around the world race. That was three or four design generations back. "I am confident in the boat since it has already sailed around the world 1.67 times". While realizing the myriad of shortcomings, with old gear and sails and limited prep time, with a few strokes of luck, Al hopes to remain competitive on this, his first long distance single-handed passage.
Yes, we had to ask him... it turns out that the name of the boat comes from their dog Gus, as well as "dogbark" navigation (listening to farm dogs along the coast to tell where you are in times of fog). |
