Sally Lindsay Honey and West Coast Sailors Join National Sailing Hall of Fame
The National Sailing Hall of Fame has announced their 2023 inductees, again including some of the West’s best. Gary Jobson, co-president of the National Sailing Hall of Fame, said of all the inductees who join 114 other members, “Their contributions to the world of sailing have deeply impacted and touched all of our lives, and each of them have created a hefty legacy for the rest of us to live up to.”
Sally Lindsay Honey
It was never a matter of if, only when. Sally Lindsay Honey has joined her husband, Stan, as a National Sailing Hall of Fame member. The two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year (1973 and 1974) has a long list of race-winning accomplishments alongside a dedication to sailing that’s had her contributing to the sport at all levels. She’s won in dinghies including 5O5s and Thistles, and offshore, while also running a successful sailmaking and industrial sewing operation on the Peninsula. In 2022, she and her husband Stan Honey (2012 Hall of Fame Inductee) took the prestigious St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy for winning the Newport to Bermuda Race with their 56-year-old Cal 40, Illusion. Moe Roddy spoke with Sally for our 91st episode of Good Jibes.
Sally has continually contributed to sailing as past chair of the US Sailing Safety at Sea program and is current chair of the World Sailing Special Regulations Subcommittee, while on the water continually inspiring and mentoring numerous sailors across the country and up and down the coast.
Bill Lapworth
Southern California sailor and naval architect Bill Lapworth became a household name amongst sailors for designing the Cal line of boats for Jack Jensen of Jensen Marine. He started with the popular and still-sailed Cal 20s in 1961, before designing one of his most renowned boats, the Cal 40. The cult of the Cal 40 continues today with many boats, including the Honeys’ Bermuda race-winning Illusion, being renovated and raced competitively in both oceans. Jim Quanci just won the 2023 Singlehanded Transpac with his Cal 40 Green Buffalo, while Rodney Pimentel won his class in the 2022 Pacific Cup aboard his Cal 40 Azure.
Lapworth was one of the first naval architects to successfully embrace the boat-building industry’s change from wood to fiberglass. His long career in marine engineering and naval architecture resulted in a line of keelboat one-designs built for the downwind speed favored by California and Pacific racers.
Bob Perry
Pacific Northwest naval architect Bob Perry designed his way into the hearts of many sailors and long-distance cruisers who have trusted his cruising designs as seaworthy and seakindly, and noted for their sailing performance. One of his early and most notable designs was the Valiant 40, which carried numerous cruisers all over the globe. Eleven Valiants appear in Latitude 38’s West Coast Circumnavigators list. As Gary Jobson described on the National Sailing Hall of Fame website, “Perry has designed yachts for Tayana, Cheoy Lee, Valiant, Baba, Ta Shing, Hans Christian Yachts, Islander, Passport, Pacific Seacraft, and Saga, to name a few. His expertise is apparent by his courses in yacht design at Evergreen State College in Washington, and his boat reviews that have been published in every issue of Sailing magazine for over 40 years.”
Tim Hogan — Lifetime Achievement Award
Tim Hogan grew up sailing in Newport Beach, has been the president of the Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA) since 2005, and has championed their causes for almost two decades. He and his team virtually doubled the roster of high school teams over the past 20 years, allowing more young sailors to take their skills into their adult lives. He is a three-time All-American sailor and successful offshore yacht racer. Hogan says that his greatest accomplishment is instilling a love for sailing in his four children.
The complete list of 2023 National Sailing Hall of Fame inductees includes:
• Elwood Widmer “Skip” Etchells
• Peter Holmberg
• Sally Honey
• John Kolius
• William “Bill” Lapworth
• John Knox Marshall
• Charles “Charley” Morgan
• Robert “Bob” Perry
• Richard “Dick” Stearns III
This is a great list, and all here deserve it, but can we please add Skip Allan to this list at some point ? He is too humble to want it, but he certainly , completely deserves it .