Seasoned Sailor: Ferd Johns

We’ve launched a new set of short interviews with experienced sailors—not necessarily professional mariners (though some are)—but true old salts who’ve logged countless hours sailing, cruising, and maintaining small boats. We ask them to share insights earned from decades on the water. Today we feature sailor Ferdinand Johns.

1. How did you first get started in sailing or boating?

My father, after he returned from the Pacific in WWII, rented a cottage every summer on Gwynn’s Island in the Chesapeake, eventually building our own concrete block summer cottage on nearby Stove Point. The family went out fishing daily in an aluminum johnboat powered by a 7 ½ hp Evinrude. He bought a Penguin, which we kids sailed, rather badly I fear, in the local Yacht Club races. As a teen, I was more fascinated with waterskiing, although I really enjoyed crewing on the larger cruising boats in the Club. I was prized mainly for my ability to get and keep their cranky old one-lung engines running. Years later, standing a frigid December 25 shore patrol watch at the boat landing in Marseille, huddled over a drum of burning diesel fuel, I enviously watched neighboring French yacht owners enjoying Christmas in their bright, warm cabins. I swore I would get my own cruising boat before I got out of the Navy. As soon as we returned to home port, I salvaged and rebuilt a ragged 16-foot MFG runabout with an inoperative 35hp Johnson outboard, and thereafter my wife and I spent our weekends running up and down the Cooper River.

2. What was your first significant boat, and how do you view that design in hindsight?

Well, that first significant boat had to wait until I finished my hitch in the Navy and architecture school. Roger MacGregor was selling a Venture 21 and a Venture 17 in the early 1970s, and the latter was only $1,995 on a trailer delivered to Charlottesville, VA. Knowing almost nothing about sailboats beyond romantic flashbacks to those teen years cruising the Chesapeake as crew, as well as visions of yachts in Marseille, I bought one. I envisioned cruising far and wide with my new wife, fulfilling childhood fantasies awakened by the writings of Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London and C.S. Forester, as well as the nautical art of Winslow Homer and John Barber. Our actual adventures were more of a steep and often unforgiving learning curve. I soon realized that boat was neither well-built nor a terribly good sailboat and started that inexorable quest for the perfect boat.

3. Is there a boat you regret selling or letting slip away? Tell us about it.

Yes, but for an unusual (and probably totally irrelevant and unrealistic) reason! I have owned two Bristols—one a Halsey Herreschoff 26-footer, and the second a Paul Coble 24. My first wife and I cruised the east and west coasts of Florida in the former, and my current wife and I spent our honeymoon on the latter, continuing to cruise the Chesapeake out of Annapolis for several years. She says that Bristol 24 was the only boat I have owned (out of a lot!) that she ever felt good cruising on. Indeed, they were fabulously built sea boats, if not the quickest around the buoys. So, my fantasy is that she would still be cruising with me if I had that boat. I did say that was a fantasy, didn’t I? I cannot complain, as she is always delighted to send me off cruising … by myself or with another curmudgeon. But I still wish she would come along!

Ferd’s ComPac 19

4. What’s your current primary vessel, and what are the design’s pros and cons?

ComPac 19. Rock solid, good-looking, easy for an 84-year-old to handle, moor and maintain solo. Will go anywhere I want to go. Except close to the wind. And perhaps goes a bit slowly … but safely and predictably … she has always gotten me there. True, my wife Beth will only daysail aboard her …. but even a Camano Troll 31 did not suffice for cruising! Flicka headroom would be nice, but I can at least sit up straight below and roll over in the settee/quarterberths. She was easy to convert to a two-berth boat (enough) with a galley and stowage forward, and is super inexpensive to keep, as are all trailer boats.

5. What’s an advantage of owning a small or trailerable boat versus a larger yacht?

See 4. above. You own the boat–it doesn’t own you—nor does the marina!

6. Share a story of a scary or challenging moment on the water—and what seamanship lesson you took from it.

A friend and I sailed an O’Day 23 from Bahia Honda State Park in the Keys to the Dry Tortugas in 2000. We had a great sail out, making landfall at dawn, and stayed a couple of days. Urged on by an impatient shipmate who was enticed by a rapidly clocking but momentarily favorable westerly breeze, I left early … against my better judgment … and ran directly into a horrendous northeasterly just off Rebecca Shoals. It was an all-night ordeal, clawing to windward with only a deep-reefed mainsail against gale-force winds and steep seas, with the dinghy regularly swamping and the auxiliary outboard useless due to cavitation. At daybreak, we found shelter in a lagoon in the Marquesas and waited a couple of days for conditions to moderate before proceeding to Key West for a very welcome hot shower and seafood dinner. Lessons: Never get in a rush. Listen to your gut. Your gut … and your head. Carry a storm jib (or roller furling).

7. What’s a life lesson sailing or boating has taught you?

So, so many. Richard Bode’s great little book First You Have to Row a Little Boat catches ‘em all. Of course, there are all the little trite ones that are on those stupid stickers everywhere; “Go with the flow.” “You can’t control the wind, so trim your sails.” Etc. ad nauseum. But I guess the biggest one for me is that I am not in control. But I still need to try my best to do the next right thing. Without letting fear or ignorance cripple me. And then remember to be grateful if I survive. And then add lessons from that event to the greatest teacher—experience. But I seriously recommend every sailor read Bode’s little book, as it reminds us how much we can learn about living from our sailing adventures. If we just pay attention.

8. Name a favorite piece of gear you always carry aboard.

Wow! So many. But, if I had to pick one, I would have to say my Leatherman. I can sail familiar waters without charts or GPS, I can relieve myself over the side in extremis, etc. But the Leatherman is essential.

9. Where is the best place you’ve ever sailed?

All have been fantastic. Maine, both Florida Coasts, Florida Bay and Keys, Chesapeake Bay, barrier island passage east of the Eastern Shore of VA/MD, Montana and Idaho lakes, Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca, west coast of Vancouver Island from Race Rock to Hot Springs Cove, San Juan Islands, Gulf Islands, Strait of Georgia, Sunshine Coast and up to Chatterbox Falls, Desolation Sound, Johnstone Strait and/or the rapids up to the Broughton Archipelago. I think my favorite area must be the Pacific Northwest. But that is a tough choice! No losers!

10. What trip, cruise, or boat-related goal still sits on your bucket list?

Return to the Broughtons. Planned for next summer. •SCA•