Andrew Sharp

Racing

Boat: Moore 27

Skills: Tactics, sail trim, spinnaker handling, …

Role: tactics, sail trim

Usually very moderate conditions in Monterey Bay, averaging between 5-15 knots of wind with light swells. I crew aboard Dan Emerson's Moore 27 whenever I can find the time.

Boats: J-24, Moore 24, Express 27, J-35, ….

Skills: high performance boat handling, racing tactics, spinnaker handling, …

Role: Skipper, sail trim, foredeck, tactics.

Crewed regularly for yacht races in the bay in the '80s and '90s. Regular gigs included several years on a J-24 and several on an Express 27. San Francisco Bay is a high-wind location, with most racing days in the summer averaging 20+ knots of wind. 25 knots gusting to 30 was not uncommon. On multiple occasions I've experienced 40+ knots of wind. Of course, races were canceled when such conditions occurred ~:^)

Member of the Tufts sailing team. Rated #1 collegiate sailing team in the country by Sports Illustrated Magazine during that time. Primary boat was the 14' double-handed racing dinghy.

Racing a 12' double-handed (for kids) dinghy.

Cruising (bare boat)

Day cruises. Too many to count.

Boat: Ericson 41

Skills: Small island and coral reef navigation, provisioning, cruise skippering

Role: captain

Crew: Dana & Tina Seniff; Dan Emerson & friend; one other

My first cruising trip as the skipper. Selected the charter company and the boat and made all the arrangements. We sailed south from Belize City cruising the barrier reef and islands.

Boat: Peterson 44

Skills: Inter-island navigation, harbor navigation, provisioning

Role: crew

Crew: Dana & Tina Seniff; Dan Emerson & friend; Sherry Smith

A one-way charter amongst the leeward islands of the Caribbean, we embarked from the island of St. Lucia, stopping at many islands, some charted, some not, along the way to the island of Grenada.

Boat: Beneteau 36

Skills: inter-island navigation, shallow reef navigation, spinnaker handling, provisioning

Role: crew

Crew: Dana Seniff; Dan Emerson; two others

My first yacht charter cruise with no family involved. We sailed the BVIs back in the days when they were still pretty wild. We were often joined at the various night anchorages by another boat chartered by some friends.

Boat: Unknown cruising 32

Skills: inter-island navigation, provisioning, cockpit politics

Role: crew

Crew: Sharp family

The summer after junior year in high school, my family lived in Bellingham, Washington. We chartered a cruising boat and cruised around the islands of Puget Sound for a week. We met a family that lived on a beautiful wood sailboat which their father designed and built from the keel all the way to the top of the mast.

Boat: Cal 40 - 'Whisper'

Skills: Sextant navigation, spinnaker handling, 4 hour watches, harbor navigation, route planning, provisioning, ship-to-ship/ship-to-shore radio

Role: crew

Crew: Sharp family (2 parents + 3 siblings), Stan Honey

Stan Honey, a veteran of the TransPac race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, and a family friend, heard of an opportunity to deliver a race boat back to California from Hawaii after the race. The fee was just enough to cover the provisioning, diesel and drinking water for the trip, plus a bit extra. We decided to make it a family trip, initially expected to take approximately 2.5 weeks. However we were becalmed just as we got into the vicinity of the Pacific high, and the trip expanded to 28 days. Catching an average of 1 fish a day helped make up the slack in our provisions to last the extra 10 days. One of the most interesting and exciting months of my life. Having recently taken a short course on the basics of sextant navigation, Stan, an expert navigator, bolstered my basic training on the trip with real-world experience, including course plotting and planning. Making landfall off the coast of California while surfing a 40' sailboat with the spinnaker in a 25 knot breeze was an experience that cannot be forgotten.