It’s fun to see Seattle sailors head out to far flung destinations, and Havana, Cuba is still pretty far flung. Thanks to the efforts of the last Administration, sailors are once again racing to Havana. Even Seattle sailors!
David Brink got one of those great calls from Jamie Stewart looking for a bowman. The boat was Raisin’ Cane, a J/125 owned by Frank Atkinson that Stewart had been sailing with. A Havana Race is not an opportunity to turn down.
The race itself included a lot of reaching, and Cane was third to finish after the Andrews 70 Simon Says and the Class 40 Dragon. Cane corrected out to second in class and third overall.
Racing aside, the attraction of this race has got to be Havana, and Brink was duly appreciative. After resting and recovering for a day, the crew hired a taxi to show them the sites. They all piled into “René”s 1954 Chevy Coupe (yes, they really exist down there!) and got the tour.
“It’s a whole different world,” Brink explains. “After the tour we went to a bar and we asked René some personal questions, like how much does the government pay and things like that. He really opened up. It made me happy to live in the U.S. We have so many opportunities here.”
“Havana is very, very cool,” Brink says. “I say sign up for the race soon if you can. In five years it will be a total tourist trap.”
And if you think scoring a ride is impossible, consider that one of the crew members on Cane had never sailed on the boat before was found by the skipper on the crew list put out by the race organizer.
Brink and Stewart are sailing on Cane in this year’s Transpac Race. I hear Honolulu’s not a bad place for a race to finish in its own right.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.