Hank Easom

Notable yachtsman Harry (Hank) Easom passed away at the age of 88, succumbing to inoperable cancer on February 14, 2023 at home with his family in Tiburon, CA.

A life-long resident of the Tiburon Peninsula, Hank began sailing a Moon boat with his older brother, Bruce, at age eight, but didn’t win his first race against the adults until age 11. At age 13 he landed a job working at Clipper boatyard in Sausalito on condition that he buy a kit and build a 20’ Clipper dinghy.

After buying and building the boat, Hank daily sailed his Clipper from Tiburon to work at the boatyard in Sausalito. As 15-year-old crew, Hank and his skipper won the 1950 Mercury National Championships out of Sausalito Yacht Club.

Hank mustered out of the Coast Guard on March 11, 1955, and the next day March 12, established Easom Boatworks on the historic Marinship waterfront in Sausalito. While continuing to race at every opportunity, often recruiting his workers as crew, he quickly built a reputation for quality.

Hank sailed his classic 8-meter yacht, Yucca from 1964 until 2017. Built in 1937 and raced competitively under his ownership for 53 years, this beautiful wooden sailboat still graces San Francisco Bay. Not surprisingly, Hank’s current racing boat – the 36’ Sabre Spirit Serenade – frequently finds its way to the podium, as well.

Crewing for Hank is a rewarding experience, given the on-board camaraderie and opportunity to hone skills in sail trim and tactics – navigating the nuances of the Bay’s tricky wind and currents. Many of Hank’s crew have gone on to success racing their own boats.

Selected as Yachtsman of the Year by the St. Francis Yacht Club in 1971 and The San Francisco Yacht Club in 1990 and 2014, Hank Easom is the embodiment of gracious Corinthian spirit – which shapes and guides our lives on and off the water.

To recognize this humble hero, the Hank Easom Buoy was installed and dedicated February 9 on San Francisco Bay, creating an enduring remembrance of an exemplary person and sailor on his favorite playground.

Though he was too ill to accompany the voyage, Hank sent Serenade to be first to round San Francisco Bay’s newest weather mark – and christen it with a bottle of champagne. Hank delighted in seeing his buoy from the Sausalito shoreline on two special occasions during the last days of his life, putting a final, big and well-deserved smile on this hero’s face.

In the perfect close to a legendary career, on February 4, 2023, ten days before his passing, in Hank’s final race – the Golden Gate Yacht Club Midwinters – he was first to finish, first in division and first overall. In a competition usually decided by seconds, the next boat finished 30 minutes behind Hank Easom.

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Victoria Dewise Matthews, 65, passed away February 10, 2023 with her husband Randall White alongside at home in Miami, FL.

Some knew her as a daring world class skipper; some knew her as an athletically tireless road cyclist; folks in Southport, North Carolina knew her as Garden Club President; her friends and family knew her as Adventure Vic or when she was very young, as Blip.

Vickie was born in Elkhorn, Wisconsin on April 30, 1957. As a child she excelled in school, both academically and as a leader among kids, serving on the Safety Patrol and occasionally as a substitute for her teacher.

Her diligent piano lessons paid off with state championships and since her piano teacher was also her church’s organist, teenage Vickie became an occasional substitute organist.

Although music captivated her, the family’s Lightning Class sailboat became an obsession. More than once, Vickie would play organ for the morning service, doff her choir robe wearing a bikini underneath, and bike to the lake to race the Lightning. Her passion for cycling and sailing was to continue throughout her life.

After attending Marquette, Vickie held professional positions that drew on her management skills and leadership, including with architects DeStefano Partners and the investigating and risk consulting firm, Kroll—both in Chicago. She served as President of the Lincoln Park Association.

But Vickie worked to sail. On flat water and open ocean swells, sailing was her true vocation. She became a sought-after crew member with some of the top names in competitive sailing, including Buddy Melges, Bruce Goldsmith, Ed Baird, Larry Klein, Betsy Alison, and Betsy Barrett (Altman).

She landed her dream job as manager of Buddy Melges’ boat yard—and would go on to be his favorite spinnaker trimmer.

In 1983, while with Baird and Klein, Vickie competed in the Pan Am Games in Caracas, Venezuela. In 2007, her all-female crew skippered by Betsy Altman, won US Sailing’s Adams Cup. The cup, inscribed with Vickie’s name, is now retired in the US Sailing Hall of Fame.

Vickie competed in regattas from Nova Scotia to San Diego. She sailed the Baltic Sea and circumnavigated the United Kingdom. She is a member of the Storm Trysail Club, and it was through sailing that Vickie met her soulmate and husband, Randy later joining him in Southport—a home that became the basecamp to adventures, both land and sea…

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CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT, Wash. — Metal clinked on metal as three small groups of U.S. Coast Guard students and their instructors clipped canvas waist belts to both sides of their 47-foot rescue boats, vital lifelines for staying onboard when the big waves come.

And on these waters, they always come.

The Columbia River, the fourth largest in America by volume, surges into the turbulent tides and currents of the Pacific Ocean here at a spot called the Columbia River Bar, where two far-west corners of Oregon and Washington meet at the river’s mouth to form a pincer. Waves 30 to 40 feet high are common in winter as river energy and ocean energy collide and then perversely recombine, swirling in complex patterns driven by tidal surges, winds and storms. Read on, thanks to the NY Times.

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The Environment

New Zealand declared a national state of emergency for only the third time in its history on Tuesday as Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread flooding, landslides and huge ocean swells, forcing evacuations and stranding people on roof tops.

“It has been a big night for New Zealanders across the country, but particularly in the upper North Island … a lot of families displaced, a lot of homes without power, extensive damage done across the country,” Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told reporters after the declaration. Gabrielle is 100 km (60 mile…

More here.

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