He’s a Winner

On August 10, before going sailing in the afternoon, Dan Larson’s crew needed to pick up a repaired sail at Pineapple Sails in Alameda. He invited Dan to come along. “We picked up the sail, and on the way out the door I saw the stack of current Latitude 38s and remembered I had not picked up my copy yet. I picked up two copies and asked my crew if he had one yet. He said he did, so I returned one. We loaded the sail into the car. As we got in, I started to thumb through my copy, and as I did, out fell the golden ticket! We drove back to Santa Cruz and had a wonderful 18- to 23-knot wind for our afternoon sail. Thanks Pineapple Sails and thank you Latitude!”

Dan sails the Beneteau 323 Toad, named “directly from the  book Wind in the Willows. I have sailed out of Santa Cruz for 44 years, and Toad is my second boat,” he says. “My first boat, a 1973 Cal 25, made the 30+ year club, as I owned her for 33 years. I purchased her in 1975 and sold her in 2008 to purchase my current boat. She served me very well over the years and only taught me I needed a larger boat on our first return trip from the Delta.”

“I usually do one midweek race and one daysail each week. I sail her up to the Bay and the Delta every other year for the summer months. I’ve done the Delta Doo Dah and look forward to doing it again next year.”