California sailing legend Paul Cayard, Australian-born racer Jimmy Spithill, and Susan Henn, the first known woman to compete in the America’s Cup, have been announced as the Herreshoff Marine Museum/America’s Cup Hall of Fame Class of 2025. Each sailor is recognized for their personal achievements and positive influence on the sport and in America’s Cup racing.

Paul Cayard has been in the sailing news for decades and has won seven world championships and the Whitbread Round the World Race, competed in seven America’s Cup campaigns, and is a two-time Olympian. He has also been highly active in official roles behind the sailing scene including board chair for the St. Francis Yacht Club, former executive director of US Olympic Sailing, and president of the International Star Class Association.

Cayard’s first America’s Cup campaign was as a sail trimmer aboard the 12 Meter Defender in 1983. He served as tactician in the 1987 America’s Cup in Fremantle, Australia. He went on to win multiple sailing events and championships including the International Star Class Worlds, the Maxi Yacht World Championship, and the 1997–98 Whitbread Round the World Race. In 2000 Cayard launched an America’s Cup campaign on behalf of his home club, the St. Francis Yacht Club, with his team AmericaOne. He is also an inductee of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Jimmy Spithill was just 4 years old when Australia II won the 1983 America’s Cup. His first boat was a race-ready dump-find, recovered from a dump and made ready for racing, and in 1989, together with his sister, he won the first race he ever entered. In 1997 he captained his crew to win the Australian High School Sailing Championship. That same year Spithill was named New South Wales Youth Yachtsman of the Year.

In 1998 Spithill was recruited to race the Rolex Sydney Hobart race aboard Ragamuffin, and in 2000 at age 20, he became skipper of Young Australia for the 2000 America’s Cup in San Diego — the Cup’s youngest-ever helmsman. Subsequent America’s Cup campaigns followed, including roles with the USA’s American OneWorld and ORACLE teams, and Italy’s Luna Rossa. In 2024, Spithill retired at the conclusion of the America’s Cup in Barcelona but not before having led numerous teams aboard foiling trimarans, the foiling wing sail AC72 and AC50 catamarans, foiling AC75 monohulls, and the foiling F50s as captain for the US SailGP Team.

Susan Matilda Cunninghame-Graham Henn (1853-1911) is celebrated as the first woman to compete, and ultimately command a yacht, in the America’s Cup. Henn sailed aboard the 102-ft steel cutter Galatea in the 1886 match against the Mayflower. Henn and her husband Lt. William Henn sailed across the Atlantic for the race against Mayflower, proving Henn’s disposition for a life at sea. When her husband became ill during a race, Henn took charge of their yacht, once more demonstrating her exceptional sailing skills.

The America’s Cup Hall of Fame has inducted over 100 individuals since its founding in 1992. Candidates eligible for consideration include sailing team members, designers, builders, syndicate leaders, supporters, chroniclers, and other individuals of merit. Each nominee is judged on the basis of outstanding ability, international recognition, character, performance, and contributions to the America’s Cup. The members of the Selection Committee are intimate with the history and traditions of the America’s Cup and are committed to maintaining the integrity of the Hall of Fame.

Cayard, Spithill, and Henn will be honored on October 16 at the America’s Cup Hall of Fame Induction at the New York Yacht Club.

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A rough rendering of the Coast Guard’s Feb. 26 encounter off Southern California.

We are not alone in the universe!

On February 26, a USCG/Department of Homeland Security press release read: Coast Guard encounters over a dozen aliens off the coast of southern California.

How was this not bigger news?

After centuries of speculation and generations of fiction imagining other worlds and new beings, suddenly — on a Tuesday morning — the Coast Guard made first contact somewhere off SoCal.

Will the world ever be the same? Surely, something of this magnitude would forever change humanity.

Star Trek posited that after making first contact with an alien species, the nagging problems plaguing humanity vanished, or rather, humanity abandoned war and strife and instead sought to embrace what was beyond Earth. Aliens opened the door to a utopia.

Or maybe an alien encounter would be more like Star Wars, where war and strife were taken to the stars. (Not to worry, the bad guys have terrible aim.) Or maybe the alien encounter would be more like Watchman, where a false-flag attack from an extraterrestrial brought the US and Russia (still the USSR) back from the brink of nuclear war — uniting two foes against a common external threat.

Juxtaposing the Coast Guard’s previous press release, on January 21, a USCG headline read: Coast Guard interdicts 26 migrants near Oceanside Harbor. “Coast Guard crews interdicted a panga-style vessel. A boarding team safely embarked the 26 individuals who represented multiple nationalities, including those from Mexico, China and Vietnam,” a press release said.

The alien event on February 26 was, of course, a near-identical situation: The Coast Guard said that three assets “participated in the encounter … [Coast Guard] crewmembers turned over custody of the aliens, including Mexican, Chinese, and Indian nationals, to Customs and Border Protection for further processing.”

The Coast Guard added in the February release that they “work closely with federal and international partners to disrupt human smuggling operations and ensure the safety of those at sea.”

Latitude considered asking the Coast Guard about the language change, but decided against it. That would have been inappropriate. The Coast Guard is just following orders … and they have better things to do, like saving lives.

Clearly, the language change came from high above.

The day after the new administration was sworn in, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a memo directing ICE to use “alien” instead of “noncitizen” in all communications, rescinding previous guidance from 2021. “Alien” had long been the legal term in federal law but had fallen out of favor in some agencies due to its negative connotations. This is only natural — language is dynamic and has always evolved with time.

Being the starving writers that we are, we here at Latitude believe in the importance of words. We are open to words changing our minds, and we hope that our own words might give people who don’t agree with us something to ponder. Believing in language is a little like believing in life outside Planet Earth, though — it requires faith and hope, and it’s a little scary. Who knows if the message will be received?

Language can be manipulated (both sides do it) and set-in-the-stone morals can be flip-flopped. (Liberals now hate Teslas and conservatives love them.) Who is the enemy? (Those fu@king Canadians?) Whom are we afraid of? And where does that fear come from? From the words we read, or from what’s happening in our everyday lives?

We thank the Coast Guard for watching after migrants, aliens, extraterrestrials, individuals, commercial mariners and pleasure boaters with equal care and skill.

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