Reader Responses to Ocean’s 11

Great article. Well thought out, informative, and interesting. I’m glad to see that Brown treats sailing as a club and as a sport. Well done.

This is a wonderful article. I’ve loved sailing since I was 12 years old. I sailed for Brown as an undergraduate; taught sailing, boating and racing as a summer camp instructor and as sailing coach at Worcester Academy; organized a team of business students with sailing experience while studying for an MBA at Duke, which challenged and beat the Duke sailing team; raced with a team on a Tartan 10 in Chicago; and had a Columbia 26 in Chicago and St. Paul. Sadly, sailing is not part of living in New Mexico—not enough water for a decent sail. This article is insightful, not just about sailing, but about ocean conservation. Thanks for including it in BAM.

Thank you for covering the important work of Charlie Enright ’08 and Mark Towill ’11. Major congrats for their big win in the Round the World Race. And I wish them much success in their honorable environmental cause. As a professional ocean racing sailor in one of my previous lives who logged well over 85,000 miles at sea, allow me to add a footnote to the article. Although for personal family reasons I declined an invitation to crew in the 1981-82 Whitbread Round the World Race aboard Conny van Rietschoten’s Flyer, I had two close comrades who raced aboard this winning yacht. I believe it is inaccurate and somewhat unfair for the article timeline to say that the event back then was made up of “Shaggy sail-trimmers… seen chugging beer and doing backflips.” To be sure, many of us in ocean racing circles were known to have a cold one now and then. And, in fact, it’s quite possible that in the doldrums, with boats stalled and not moving, a quick dip over the side was a welcome endeavor. That said, I can assure you that the sailors aboard Flyer, and for that matter any of the dozens of successful racing programs in which I participated back in the day, were comprised of quintessential professionals. To this day, I hold my past mates in the highest esteem and will always be glad that I sailed with such talented, responsible professionals in, at times, the most severe conditions imaginable.