Did hard or soft water sailing come first?
Soft water sailing came first for me, but not multihull sailing. My father loves to compete and raced his Tanzer 22 and then a Capri 25 in the local Bay City sailing club. I learned how to walk on those monohauls and loved every minute of it. But then we moved to a new house on the Kawkawlin River, just off the Saginaw Bay. In the neighborhood lived these guys, Jan and Meade Gougeon. They were sailing these strange looking boats that they had built themselves. It turned out that the Gougeon brothers were also ice boaters and we the Strubles got to know the Gougeon brothers very well through the winter months. My father ended up buying one of Jan’s creations called Splinter, a 25-foot trimaran that my father still races today on the Saginaw Bay. So, I would say that ice boat racing led me to multihull sailing. I was forever changed. A class catamarans are my favorite summer sailing machines. That is what I sail now in the summer and am really looking forward to this year. • What is it a
