He’d rather be sailing

After a hard week in the Chemistry
Lab, there’s nothing Science and
Technology’s Paul Taylor likes better than
to hit the open waves.

In his time off, Taylor is a devoted
world-class sailor, and is pictured here at
the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club with
nine of the 11 trophies that he and his
buddies Tom Miller and Rick Hermes
won last year. The team sails the racing
sloop “Jumala,” a member of the
International Dragon Class, which has
been a sailing tradition since 1929.

“Basically, Dragon Class means one
design — each sloop weighs the same,
has the same booms, sails, everything —
so the regattas are a real test of skill,” says
Taylor.

 

Hermes normally serves as helmsman,
Miller launches, flies and takes down the
spinnaker, and Taylor is the tactician and
does sail trim on the main and the genoa
(which Taylor explains is nothing to do
with Italian geography, but a big jib).

Among the trophies the team won last
year, Taylor names as highlights the West
Coast, Fleet and Seasons and North
American Championships, as well as the
Blue Bottle match racing regatta. “We’ll
try to repeat our success this year,” he
says, “but the odds are against us. We’d
be happy to win the two regattas we
finished second in last year.”

On the international sailing scene,
Taylor has accepted an American
invitation to compete in the Thunderbird
World Championships to be held in

 

Paul Taylor with
some of the trophies
he and his Dragon
Class sailing team
collected in 1996.

Seattle this July. “This is a 10-day event,
with about 60 boats racing approximately
15 to 20 miles,” he says.

Taylor was also asked to race in
Dublin in the European Dragon
Championships with a team from Hong
Kong, but had to decline because of a
time conflict with the Thunderbird
Worlds. “I’m still checking into a trip to
Ireland in late July, though,” he says.

What else can we do but wish him
clear sailing and red skies at night?