30 years in a 5o5 - An Interview with Barry Kuehl

reprinted from Tank Talk

In the past few years the 505 class has recruited dozens of post-college sailors to its ranks. This infusion of new blood has been tempered by the experience of many long-time 505 sailors who have been competitive for decades.

Barry Kuehl is one of these sailors. Barry celebrates his 30th year in the 505 class in 1998. While many 505 sailors have reemerged from long withdraws, Barry has been with us continuously, quietly going about the business of racing and supporting the class mainly from behind the scenes. Undoubtedly, Barry has seen ‘em come and seen ‘em go. In this interview, Barry reflects on his colored past in the 505 class and offers some interesting insights into its future. The interview is longer than was intended, but Barry’s enthusiasm on this subject couldn’t be curtailed. As Barry aptly puts it, "What else out there is better than the 505?"

  1. This is your 30th year as a member of the 505 class. To what do you owe your longevity in the 505?

    2. I can't count the number of times over the years I’ve been asked, "You STILL sailing 505s?" I usually reply the question with a question, " Is there anything else?" This is usually said in the most surly voice I can dig up (I didn't get to be overbearing very often. Most the time I've asked that question by past 505 sailors who have decided to sail something else. They would then tell me about their present boat and say I should try it out. Fifteen years ago, when I was younger, I would reply "Why bother?" - not very diplomatic! Now I just say that there is nothing more fun to me than sailing a 505, whether it's planing upwind, roaring down a reach with spinnaker up and the crew way back, riding on the hairy edge of staying in control (or crashing with a big burn), and yes, even the runs are fun. The end answer is there is nothing else like a 505.

  2. Tell us how you first got involved in the 505.

    3. My father had been racing Lightnings in the later 40's and 50's, so sailing was always a part of my life. In 1960 a group of parents at the Branford Yacht Club decided a junior program would be fun, so they bought a fleet of Blue Jays from a local boat builder. One batch were kit boats, mine included, that were built in a work shed in back of Carl Miller's parents house. Another batch were pre-built and Mike Loeb got one of those. That was great. I learned sailing, and had a choice of the Blue Jay or Lightning depending on conditions or if I had a crew. Jump ahead a little to June 1965…. I had just come home from my first year at South Kent, a boarding school (I wasn't a great scholar, or more like I didn't apply myself, so I needed added direction!) and was helping my parents open up our cottage in Branford for the summer. All of a sudden, I saw this sailboat rocketing out of the inner Branford Harbor. I had never seen anything like it in my life! I was 15 at the time. I ran in the house, grabbed the binoculars, ran back out and see Carl Miller standing over the side of this boat (didn't know what trapezing was called at that point) that had the numbers "505" on the sail. That was the beginning of the end for me. That was what I wanted. As it turned out, Carl's father had imported 3 fiberglass hull shells from a company that later became Butler 505s, and during the winter, had added wood tanks, deck, and wound up with 3 505s, numbers 1604, 1605 and 1606 as I remember.

    [All of a sudden, I saw this sailboat rocketing out of the inner Branford Harbor. I had never seen anything like it in my life! I was 15 at the time.]

    I watched Carl sail his 505 all summer long, drooling and dreaming. What a boat! A year later, July 1966, I was at work one day at our family pharmacy and the phone rang, "Barry, it's Carl Miller, we're having a 505 regatta in Branford this weekend, can you sail with me?" YES! Then he asked me how much I weighed, 125lb, oh, well maybe it won't get windy! Saturday morning arrived and my mother drove me over to the launching ramp (yeah, I know it's embarrassing, but I didn't get my drivers license until 3 weeks AFTER my first ride in a 505). We sailed the regatta and I learned to trapeze. I was dumbstruck. For the next year, all I could think about were 505s, I wrote all the builders for info, I cut out what few articles I could find, and pestered my parents. In 1967, 3 articles appeared on 505s that were a big help. The first was the Lands End catalogue, back when Lands End was the only spot you could get dinghy parts, and their catalogue was all boat parts (Gary Comer hadn't yet figured out that the money was in clothing). In it was a 3-4 page spread of Ki Kaiser’s Butler Mk III 505, which was an all fiberglass mass produced 505 that was a pretty good boat. The mast was stepped on the keelson, and had a below-deck mast bend preventer, a forerunner to the (Australian) ram that we know today. The next two articles appeared in One-Design magazine, one by a guy named Bob Smith, who did an article called "A boat is a boat" where he would sail various types of boats. Well, Bob Smith teamed up with John Marshall in John's new Larry Simmons 505 for Bermuda Race Week (again, Butler hulls finished by Larry in Southbridge, MA). They won, and the article was the best one he ever wrote (no bias from me of course). A little later that year, Dennis Surtees wrote an article on how to rig a 505. Now I knew what to order!

  3. Tell us about the first 505 you owned.

    4. By the fall of 1967, I really wanted a 505. Bill Healy and Sandy Van Zandt had just won the NA's in a Simmons, and it was for sale for $1900 or so, complete as they were ordering a Parker. My parents were starting to give in, so my father called Bill Healy (they had raced Lightnings against each other for years) and chatted 505s. The end result was my father figured if Healy was buying a Parker because the Simmons was heavy (one of the few bad points against the Simmons), then it would be smart to do the same. So Thanksgiving vacation saw my deposit being mailed off to G. W. Parker & Sons, with forecast delivery of 6 months. The wait was endless. True to form, Parker's forecast was awful, and the boat finally arrived around September 20, 1968 - 2 weeks AFTER I had returned to prep school. Great! The boat was US 3194 and was obviously polyester. It had a Proctor E mast, through tank spinnaker sheets (thank you Dennis) and was a great boat. The boat cost about $1900 delivered from Parker, and since that was before boats were shipped in containers, it had a shipping crate built around it (and extra 25 pounds sterling). Sails were from Van Zandt, a jib was around $75, a main around $200, and a spinnaker (with a full 20' center seam) for around $125. The trailer was $125, and once we found a trapeze harness, bucket type, no back support, we were ready to go sailing. Remember, minimum wage at that time was about $1.65, and an expensive gallon of gas was 27.9 cents! US 3194 is still being sailed a little bit out on the eastern end of Long Island (I keep bumping into people that know about that boat for some reason).

  4. How did you handle sailing the 505 with family obligations?

    5. When I was young, the 505 was the center of my world. Everything else we did revolved around our 505s - school, work, family, and girlfriends. However, the 505 almost always won!! I remember one girlfriend of 2 years saying to me that she wouldn't take a backseat to a boat. That was 2 weeks after I had picked up 7199 from Mark's shop, and 6666 was still in the garage. Needless to say, we didn't make it to 2 years and 2 months. I did finally get married in 1982 to my college girlfriend, Sandy. She was about the only woman I knew who didn't feel threatened by my boat. I got married on a Sunday, and the following Thursday, with Sandy staying home, Tommy Olson and I left for Cork for 10 days. What a great honeymoon! In the first few years of marriage, I was sailing more then ever, frostbiting Lasers and later a Laser II in Essex from October through early December, then Dyer Dhows in Milford through the end of February, and finally back to Essex through early May. Then came the 505 season, it was great! In March 1986, my daughter Lauren was born. No matter what people tell you about how your life will change after having a child, don't believe them. THEY CAN'T COME CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE TRUTH! If you multiply it by 100, then maybe! I had to start trimming my sailing time, and think about real family vacations, instead of all vacation time going to 505 racing. We were able to combine the 2 from time to time, like the NA's in Los Angeles in 1988 . In 1990, my daughter Amanda was born. Fifty percent more work you figure – WRONG! Try four times the work. A little less sailing now, pretty much all 505 only. About 4 years later, Sandy and I decided to get divorced. Did sailing have anything to do with it? Probably not, but the sailing and my friends in the class sure made it a lot more bearable. We did have a rather odd divorce - we didn't fight over anything, and we share the girls depending on our work schedule. So far, it appears to have worked, and the girls, now 8 & 12, have adjusted to our strange schedule.

  5. How does the competition 20 or 30 years ago stack up with the competition today?

    6. One thing the 505 class has always been blessed with is a very high caliber of sailors. Unlike the junior boats, where mom and dad enroll the kid in a program, buy the boat, and make her/him take part, by the time somebody gets to sailing a 505, it is because they want to. Face it, unless you are already a collegiate All-American, when you start sailing 505s, the first experiences are rather humiliating and humbling. I have seen people come in, buy a boat, show up at a regatta or two, and then disappear because they didn't gain instant success. However, the majority hang with it long enough to start going well. The people sailing 505s in the late 60's and early 70's were excellent sailors, but what has happened is the whole level of sailing has increased dramatically since that time. A lot of that is due to what we learned back then. Remember, in 1969 the spinnaker launcher was just being tested, and no one had come up with the idea of spinnaker bags in the deck. So, the way we took our spinnaker down was to send the crew down to LEEWARD, and have him first grab the sheet, pull it in till he got to the spinnaker itself, gather up the foot, then the skipper would pull the boom in a little, release the halyard, and the poor crew would then pull the chute down in the area BETWEEN the vang and the seat tank/bulkhead area, and then (to add insult to injury) would stow the spinnaker on a little mesh basket (it was only an inch deep), and pray it would stay put, as well as praying the boat hadn't tipped over by then! Only then would he take the spinnaker pole off, hand it back to the SKIPPER who, while steering with one hand, would slide the pole out over the transom far enough so that the inboard end would clear the mainsheet traveler bar, and then slide the pole forward to rest in the bilge of the boat until it was either needed again, or lost in a capsize! We didn't have spinnaker pole trolleys until the late 70's, and only in the last couple of years have we seen the real use of the pole launcher.

    [The people sailing 505s in the late 60's and early 70's were excellent sailors, but what has happened is the whole level of sailing has increased dramatically since that time.]

    Back then, we all had an idea about windshifts, and the better sailors even knew that you might have an oscillating breeze occurring in a persistent shift. But, our compass might be a pair on Suunto Tactical Juniors mounted just forward of the helm's position, in a spot where no one could look down to see it. Why? Because the compass was only 1.75" across! Seemed hot then, seems silly now!

    What I am trying to say is that we had the highest level of competition back then, like we do now. It's just now, we know so much more about what we are doing. I am convinced that if we took what we now know and one of our modern boats back to the 1971 World's at Santa Cruz, the Farrant brothers (the winners) wouldn't have known what hit them. I'm not saying our current champion here, I mean the mid-fleet guy going back in time.

  6. Who were the rock stars in the US 30 years ago?

    7. I got into the class just as John Marshall was leaving and Bill Healy and Sandy Van Zandt co-skippered to win the NA's in Marblehead (1967). Then next few years were pretty well owned by Dennis Surtees from Palo Alto, at least when it came to the NA's. In New England, Roger & Nancy Hearn, Bill Pevear & Pete Bevins, Healy and Van Zandt (now each sailing their own boats), and Bill Salvo were leading the way. That was when we used to get 40 boats at a regional regatta. At one such regatta at East Greenwich, RI in 1971, we first bumped into one couple that would alter 505 sailing as we know it. They had a new green hulled, yellow tanked Parker with a spinnaker launcher (about the first one in the country) with the Latin name "Non Sequitor" on the transom, she was a thin blonde, and he was a 6' 6" version of Jesus Christ, and to make things more interesting, he had a cast on one leg up to his hip! Well, Sally (the crew) and Mark Lindsay finished 2nd at that regatta. You know the rest. Around other parts of the US at that time, Dave Zanks and Pete Wallio were hot in Virginia, Ki Kaiser and Graham Alexander in the mid west, and Rick Hewitt and David Court-Hampton from Canada all did well. I think you will also notice that some of these names are still very familiar.

    [… she was a thin blonde, and he was a 6' 6" version of Jesus Christ]

  7. Who have you sailed with?

    8. This is probably the toughest to answer. I have probably sailed in a minimum of 250 505 regattas, not to mention fleet racing when we had our fleet in New Haven in the mid 70s. I have sailed with a LOT of people over the years, a REAL LOT! In no particular order, although somewhat chronological, Mike Loeb, Doug Gleason, Moose McClintock, Dave Penfield, Dave Dyson, Tommy Olson, Chris Field, Bill Pevear, Mike Mills, Gerard Kivney, Todd Johnson, Bruce Tilley, and my present crew, Frank Thompson. Obviously, I've missed about 200 plus other people, mostly due to my brain fade. There wasn't a person that I've sailed with so far that I didn't enjoy sailing with, and didn't learn something from them.

  8. Have you ever held an office in the class?

    9. Being one of those people with no confidence or ability in public speaking, I stayed away from being a class official. However, since the post of Regional Coordinator didn't require any public speaking, I was Regional Coordinator for New England from 1972, taking over from Bill Salvo, until 1997, when Tom Kivney took over.

  9. In your opinion, what was the single best improvement to the boat since you began sailing the 505?

    10. Originally, I thought this was a simple question, but instead of one improvement, I'm going to mention two as I think they are equal. The first deals with hull construction - not the old epoxy vs. polyester or carbon fiber vs. kevlar debate, but the use of coring in the manufacturing process. Both foam core and honeycomb cores have their advantages depending on who you talk to, but both provide near rock-hard bases for our boats today, and regardless of glue or type of cloth fiber used to make the boat, the boats are all going to be stiff, light and durable. This is a huge improvement from the non-cored boat era.

    My original thought on this question was rig development. When I got my first boat, I had a 28lb Proctor E. Bill Pevear, Tom Kivney and Roger Hearn were all using 18lb Dywer DM-1 rotating masts. Mike Loeb had a Proctor C rotating mast (probably the only one every built), and a lot of people were still using WOOD masts! The E was heavy so I went on to a rotating mast using Ian Bruce's International 14 mast, which at 19lb let my boat get down to minimum all up weight. After playing with rotating masts for a few years, we all migrated back to standard Proctor sections, first the Beta, and then finally to the D. Originally, it was thought that the D was strong enough to be used in the 505. (Oh yeah, people also tried acid etching their E’s to reduce weight aloft, it worked as long as the mast didn't spend to much time in the acid bath!) Once people found the D, they started experimenting with differing stay, trapeze and spreader heights, then spreader lengths, and even angle of the spreaders. We started to get away from the highfield lever (ask Kivney about that one) as the jib halyard adjuster, we got away from quadrant levers for shroud adjustment, and, thank God, we got away from the Proctor 12:1 Vang Drum. What this all boils down to is now we are able to easily adjust how our mast bends, when and where it bends, how the mast is raked, and how tight the shrouds are at any given moment. In 1969, we couldn't do any of that, and we didn't know we wanted to!

  10. I’ve heard that you are on your 10th boat. That’s one boat every three years! Why have you traded up so often?

    11. That's right, I am on my 10th boat. The first two were Parkers, 3194, which I sold to Larry Rosenfeld to make way for 4857 in 1973 (I think). After I got out of college and had worked for a year, I was ready for boat #3. However, Parker wouldn't guarantee a boat down to 280lb all up. That was about the time Mark Lindsay began thinking about building 505s. The end result was that I had the first Lindsay 505, 6246. I sailed that boat for a couple of years, and then got 6666, Lindsay #11. This was one of the boats in the last batch of Parker hulls before Mark started building the complete boat. I later found out that Parker wasn't sending us their best hulls or hull shapes! In fact that batch was off an old mold because Lindsay boats were starting to win lots of races. Up until this point, all my boats had been polyester. I got 6246 in August 1976 and 6666 in the fall of 1978. Mark built about 30 boats in the next couple of years, most, if not all, epoxy and cored. I waited until the big rush was over, and ordered another boat, that was 7199. Although I got that boat in the spring of 1981, (all of Mark's boats came completely unrigged except for maybe the pieces of aluminum for the centerboard gaskets), I didn't get to start rigging that boat for awhile. Finally, Dave Dyson and I decided to sail the Mid-Winters that year. We drove down with a half-rigged boat, and were busy nicro-pressing the shrouds to length at the skippers meeting. The adrenaline rush had a positive effect, however, as we won that regatta in a big way!

    [The end result was that I had the first Lindsay 505, 6246]

    Starting in about 1978, Mike Loeb, Steve Taylor and I were partners in a dinghy-oriented boat shop, Afterguard Marine. Mike and Steve were sailing FDs at the time, and our concern was that when we wanted a part for our boat, we wanted to make sure we could get it - the Lord know we never made any money at it! In 1984, I was approached by Macy Nelson, after he had come back from the Worlds, with the idea of looking into importing the Milanes & White (later Rondar) 505s from England. Mark was no longer building 505s, Larry Tuttle was out on the West Coast building his Waterats, and there was the thought that a reasonably priced boat would be a hit. I talked with Peter White, who was also the 505 World Champion in 1972, and we worked out a deal. The problem was that no one had ever seen one of their boats. So, in June 1985, I drove up to Ottawa, and met Peter and my new 505 (7823) on the tarmac at the airport. Back then, Ward Air would let you bring excess baggage with a round trip ticket, Peter's extra baggage just happened to be my boat and a Rapide trolley/trailer, a couple of extra masts, and a trolley for Kivney! Total shipping charge was about $350! Not a bad deal. I sailed that boat for a year, although I held onto 7199 just in case I wasn't happy with the M&W. Well, I liked that boat, sold it, got another one, 7943, (although I was selling many 505s, M&W had great 420s, and they sold well), sold it and got 8059. While I sailed that boat, M&W became Rondar Boats, and they started their move to epoxy boats. End result was, in 1990, I got there 3rd epoxy boat, 8311. This was a great boat, it came in 8lbs under, and when I sold it in 1996, it was still 7lbs under. Originally, I had planned on that boat being my last 505, and 9th boat. In 1996, being a pharmacy owner, and not happy with the what I saw as the future of being a pharmacy owner, I decided to take really good deal from Stop & Shop. I sold them my store (a 73 year old family business started by my grandfather), and went to work for Stop & Shop. It was also about this time we found our Region as hosts for the 1998 Worlds, and with some extra cash in hand, I decided to go for boat #10, 8641, another Rondar. We jokingly call this boat "Thank you Stop & Shop". This is the sweetest boat of all, not to mention that it took about 15lbs of lead to get up to 280lb. As I turn 49 in November, I'm pretty sure this WILL be my last 505!

  11. What is your most memorable 505 event and why?

    12. Like most people, I remember the good times the best. Dave Dyson and I won the 1981 Mid-Winters in a new boat (7199) that we were still rigging as everyone was launching. We got out to the starting line as the 5 minute gun was going off, sailed down the line, started the race, and it wasn't until the 3rd race somebody (Mike Loeb) finally crossed our bow, and yeah, we won that race also.

    [The next thing we knew, the wind had caught up to us, I was sitting on the transom, …]

    The other time that really sticks in my mind was Cork and the Canadian Nationals in 1977. I was sailing with Dave Penfield at the time. We had just won the 2nd race at Cork, and on the way in ran into a wind front, then sailed out of it. Dave wanted to hoist the chute, and I said "Dave, what about the wind behind us?" He replied "Don't worry about it, I can always take the chute down." With that the chute went up, as it was a run back to the Kingston Olympic Harbor. The next thing we knew, the wind had caught up to us, I was sitting on the transom, Dave was trapezing with his rear foot right next to me, the pole was on the headstay, and we were flying along at an incredible speed. John Pulverman and Duncan Skinner saw us coming, and hove to as we sailed by, they later told us they could see air between the hull and the AFT edge of the centerboard. THEN, the mast went. Dave hit the water, went down about 6 feet under and I got thrown clear up to the mast step area. I didn't see the mast go. Dave did and started gulping air. That was my most memorable ride in a 505, or anything else for that matter. After CORK, we went up to Ottawa for the Canadian Nationals, and we won. Made the broken mast seem worth while. When we got to the mid-winters later that year, Dave confessed to me that it was a good thing the mast broke, because there was NO WAY he was going to get the spinnaker down!

  12. With 30 years of sailing the 505 under your belt, is there anyone in the past or present that you considered an "arch rival" on the racecourse (i.e. is there anyone you will go out of your way to beat)?

    13. Yep, I can think of two guys that I enjoy beating, although I can't say that I'm ahead in the win column. First, for years I've dragged myself to the windward mark, only to find Tom Kivney a boat ahead, or maybe a boat behind, but almost always there at about the same time. I met Tom for the first time in 1969 at a regatta at Essex Ct., and a few weeks later we went off to Marblehead for our first real away from home regatta, and somehow managed to be housed at Kivney's house. That was the weekend Mike Loeb came down with mono, Tom wasn't real happy with Mike's continued dropping of the toilet seat, and somehow, the vodka that was in my suitcase wound up in Mike's water glass. That's about the best story I can tell without totally embarrassing either Tom or myself, but you get the idea. We used to joke about sailing Salty's, a little 6 foot frostbite boat, against each other on some secluded lake, figuring we would save some money and the end result would be about the same. Lately, Tom's been able to figure out how to spend more time in the boat without getting his wife Sally mad at him, so he is a bit further ahead now, although every once in a while we get him.

    The other person I enjoy trying to beat is Mike Breton. I've been sailing against Mike since the early 80's, I beat him for awhile, he started to beat me later, and now, sailing with his son Dylan, it depends on who has the luck factor as to how we wind up. Regardless of who beats who, both Mike and Tom have become close friends of mine due to sailing 505s, as have many other people over the years. Being able to see long time friends at regattas is almost as important as the racing, and that is why I keep coming back for more.

  13. Who do you admire most in the 505 class and why?

    14. Over the past 30 years, we have had an incredible group of talented people sailing 505s. I think the guys that I most admire are those that have won World Championships. Specifically, Steve Taylor and Dave Penfield, Steve Benjamin and Tucker Edmundson, and Cam Lewis teamed up with Ethan Bixby one year, and then Gary Knapp the next year. None of these guys lucked into winning, they worked hard, they were talented sailor, and were largely responsible for the level of competition we have today. Of this group, Ethan and Cam are still sailing together, and still pushing for that last ounce of speed. However, there are a large group of people that have been sailing 505s for a long time, done whatever they could to make the regattas, run the class, and try their best to get new people sailing 505s. There are too many names in this group to list, but without these guys, there would be no 505 class here in the US. And, I rank these guys equal in admiration to the World Champions.

  14. What is your opinion of the initiative to implement an asymmetrical chute to the 505?

    15. I don't think much of that idea for several reasons. First, it appears we can't even get the class to gradually lower the all up weight of the boats because it will outdate older boats. Even if we only dropped a kilo every 3-4 years, there is concern people would have to buy new boats to stay competitive. Realistically speaking, the shape of the 505 foredeck and hull don't really lend themselves to easy rigging of an asymmetrical chute and it would be very expensive even it could be done. If you thought we had a lot of people complaining about a 2lb drop in weight every few years, just imagine the complaining we would get if we all had to rig our boats for an asymmetrical chute! That is a sure invitation to the death of our class. I'm also not convinced it would make the 505 a better boat. People are always commenting how the reaches are non-tactical parades, and that the run is the place where tactics (and luck) change the outcome of a race. What I've seen of classes with the a-chutes off the wind can be summed up as " if you ain't reaching, you ain't racing". I also don't think that the design of the 505 that's in the water would be a good platform for this type of spinnaker. I think it would overpower the hull, giving very little, if any, added performance under most conditions, ultimately making the boat less enjoyable to sail.

  15. Has the recent class growth in the US been surprising to you?

    16. No, we've been sitting on one of the best kept secrets in the world. Finally, the secret is out about how great the 505 really is. In my obnoxious youth, I would admit that maybe the 505 wasn't for everybody, but then suggest suicide for those few poor souls. Being older, wiser and more mature now, all I would say is if you're not sailing a 505, you're missing out on a great experience. I think that the work the class has done over the past few years getting us visibility is paying off, and I hope that the people that have joined the class are here for the long term.

  16. Where do you see the class going in the future with so many new designs to compete with?

    17. There have always been, and there will always be newer types of boats to sail. Many of them will even try to compare themselves to the 505 when they try to sell themselves to the sailing world. The fact is, none of them are a 505. Look at the Lightning and Thistle. Both designs are older, and in our minds less high performance then the 505, but the level of competition in these two classes is outstanding. Newer classes, including the 505, haven't bothered them, and I don't see newer classes bothering us. We may lose someone from time to time as they chase the Olympic dream, but other than the Aussie 18s, which I don't think any of us could keep upright, let alone sail without an incredible amount of practice, what else out there is better then a 505?

  17. What do you expect the Hyannis Worlds to be like?

    18. I think this is going to be a great regatta, and I am really looking forward to being there. Hyannis is a great spot to sail, there are enough outside activities for non sailors to enjoy, and the chance to see 100 or more 505s blasting around Nantucket Sound should put a smile on all our faces!

  18. Who do you favor to win the 1998 Worlds?

    19. I haven't a clue. We have so many good sailors here in the US who have the ability to win, and yet there are an equal number of foreign sailors who can win. In the end, there will be one team just a little more together and a little more lucky during that one week. They will take the top trophy home with them.

  19. Age old 505 question – who are the better sailors, drivers or crews?

    20. What a loaded question! Of course I'm going to say the driver. No, not really, the 505 is a team boat if there ever was one. For every time the crew misses a shift, the skipper drops the mainsheet or slams a wave, the important thing to remember is that both are always trying their best. More importantly, we are all out there to have fun, because when it stops being fun, it's time to rethink your reasons for sailing a 505.

    […the 505 is a team boat if there ever was one]