WET NOTESBY DAVE REED
SUMMER 2019
SW
012
Volume LVIII, Number 3 SAILING WORLD (ISSN 0889-4094) publishes four times a
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EDITOR
DAVE REED
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General Counsel Jeremy Thompson
Human Resources Director Kim PutmanTaken For a Ride
An impromptu beer can race doesn’t require thumbs out
—but the experience is two thumbs upQ On the exterior wall of the Santa
Barbara YC is a notice board. Tacked
to the cork is a flyer that reads
in large letters: “Hitch Hiker Wet
Wednesday.” If I’m looking to go
sailing, I’m at the right place.
It’s the middle of March, the air
along California’s central coast is
cool and the water cooler. The San
Rafael Mountains are lush green and
blooming after destructive wildfires
and the rains that followed. It’s 3:30 in
the afternoon, and like most California
yacht clubs this time of year, the
place is quiet, but the grills are set
up and the yardarm is fluttering with
burgees and signal flags.
Photographer Paul Todd and I
follow instructions on the flyer,
which explains that, if I’m inter-
ested in hitching a ride in the club’s
Wednesday night beer can race, I am
to sit on the wall outside the marina
gate, between two orange flags.
Should anyone need a crew or two,
this is where they’ll find us. We take
a seat. Just a couple of blokes looking
for a ride. Soon after, a tall, hand-
some young man steps up and asks,
“Are you guys hitchhikers?”
Indeed, we are. The teen introduces
himself as Paul Harteck. He has a
J/105 and could use our rail meat.
He’s only 18, a freshman at Santa
Barbara City College. He’s into cars,and engines, and obviously, sailboat
racing. The J/105 is technically his old
man Larry Harteck’s, but this is really
the kid’s program.
Young Harteck is a textbook
California youth sailor; groomed in
Sabots and Optis, raised around high-
performance beach cats and 29er
skis, then onto Farr 40s and Pac52s.
Polite, quiet and humble, you’d never
suspect the big-boat experience
he has until he explains he’s been
a nipper for a few of the area’s
pro-laden grand-prix programs.
As we wait for the rest of the crew,
the elder Harteck shares the story of
how he bought Repeat Offender out
of salvage—a boatyard accident—for
$40,000, fixed the holes and the keel,
and had himself a family racer. Since
he was 14 years old, Paul has been
onboard for practically every race.
“It’s my dad’s boat,” he says with a
sheepish grin, “but we like it when he’s
not around. He’s a bit of a yeller.”
There’s a discussion of what sails
are on the boat, and whether the
tack shackle on the jib furler shouldThe Harteck family’s J/105 Repeat
O ender readies for Santa Barbara
YC’s Hitch Hiker Wet Wednesday
beer can race.
PHOTO: PAUL TODD/
OUTSIDEIMAGES.COM