It’s A Small World – RYC Back In The Day

It always means a lot to hear appreciative comments from a reader and I was doubly delighted last week to hear from former New Jerseyan and now Floridian, Bob Schuldenfrei. Bob had been reading my downloadable booklet on How to Buy a Used Sailboat and found it helpful. He shared some of his sailing history and by coincidence he was an active member at Raritan Yacht Club. In his own words:

I just turned 69 years old and I did not think I would ever buy another one, but I have once again been bitten by the boat ownership bug.  Back in the 1970s I owned Tangaroa, a Bristol 26 that my wife and I sailed out of Boston.  I grew up on my father’s gaff-rigged circa 1919 39’ yawl, Turia.  (note the similarity to your last name)  We were living in New Jersey and sailed on Raritan Bay out of the Raritan Yacht Club.  For a 10 minute video about my sailing history you might consider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Th-KGH8Cwk

In 2005 I retired and moved to Palm Beach, FL.  We joined the Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club, http://www.hisc.org/, and now sail with club members.  In addition we have chartered 38’ Beneteau monohulls fromthe Moorings in the British Virgin Islands.  Still not getting enough, we have a long term charter relationship with Island Sailing of Naples, FL.  Here, we sail Island Dreams, a Catalina 309.   If it were not for the 2½ hour drive, we would probably not be looking for another boat; but we are.  I am pretty much an Obsessive Compulsive Disordered (OCD) dude that probably was an industrial “injury” of running a software company for 30 years J.  So, when I found your article today I ordered a copy of Don Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual.  Long story short, by this summer we will probably be sailing once again on “our own bottom.”

Here is Bob and Mrs S in Florida aboard their Catalina: He sent me these lovely photos from his collection. I believe William Schuldenfrei was Bob's dad. Bob and Steve on Turia. This image is Robert Schuldenfrei at the helm of his father’s sailboat, Turia.  The picture was taken in 1954.  Steve is his younger brother. Second Wind is a Pearson Triton (number 434).  It was purchased new by William Schuldenfrei in the early 1960s.  Note that the boat is still sailing as of 2012.  The current owner is Jerry Castricato who sails the boat on the Hudson River near the Tappan Zee Bridge. Cimba was William Schuldenfrei’s first boat.  He bought it just before World War II.  He and co-owner Judd Green sailed her one season before going off to war in late 1942.  Cimba was a casualty of the war as it rotted while being stored on land. Turia is the boat on which Robert Schuldenfrei learned to sail.  It is a circa 1919 gaff rigged yawl.  Turia was 39 feet over all.  The family sailed her in the early 1950s until she came to grief during hurricane Hazel in 1954 having broken her mooring and washed ashore just north of the Raritan Yacht Club in Perth Amboy, NJ. This is a picture of the yard at the Raritan Yacht Club in 1960.  The Blue Jay in the foreground was part of a fleet that the club built en-mass in the late 1950s. My parents bought #734 for my brother Steve.