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But watch out for sickness, boredom• . - . . . . ------t •* I.id10 V17Sailingfor landlubbers can be a lot of fun' r By CLARENCE ZAITZ;JSAN DIEGO (UPI) - A litUe 4flt of sailing for landlubbers can be a lot of fun but the jtbreshold at which it becomes ,H ring or sickening is quicklyreached.t ' ' 1That’s an important business rinciple followed by Captain gorge Falkesgaard, who es-tablished a charter and cruise business in San Diego earlier this year with the 93-foot barquentine California — a replica of the sailing ships of the 1800s.Falkesgaard said he’ll quickly refund the money and send his customers back to the dock if it appears the Pacific Oceanoff San Diego will get choppy. Better no customers at all, he says, than to have a bunch of sick landlubbers who’ll spend the rest of their lives bad-mouthing the California.The California takes tour groups by day and cocktail cruises by night. And when there’s time Falkesgaard willcharter the boat for a meeting of business executives or a convention group.Falkesgaard - who comes from a Danish family which has been involved with the sea since 1376 — admits there’s “blessed little to do on a boat” for die visitor and “the best way to turn them off is bybeating my chest and telling them about all the sailing we’re going to do. About 1 1-2 or 2 hours into it, they begin to get turned off.”So his cruises are short and smooth - usually including a quarter-mile excursion out of Mission Bay into the Pacific. Groups can charter the boatand board in Mission Bay, then sail out into the Pacific and back into adjoining San Diego Bay,and tie up at a restaurant for dinner.“The ladies don’t want to get wet sea water on them or windblown hair,” Falkesgaard explains, they want to look as good when they arrive as theyDAILY FACTS, Redlands, Calif.did when they left the hotel.” That’s why he won’t take them unless conditions are ideal.Falkesgaard brought the California — which has a colorful history that includes use by the Navy in World War II to move Australian spotters behind Japanese lines — here from Marina Del Rey near Los Angeles, where he purchased the boat. He’s already looking ahead to expanding his fleet, two years sooner than his original timetable.It costs about $50 an hour toWednesday, September 1,1978- Alloperate the California, but in his third month of operation Falkesgaard grossed 19,000 and began breaking even after an initial two months of red ink.There’s a lot of interest in sailing on old-fashioned ships, according to Falkesgaard — “it’s the seamanship thatexcites them.”The California has three masts, and the forward one has square-rigged sails. That means crew members scampi high into the rigging to unfurl
Newspaper Details
Redlands Daily Facts
Redlands, California, US
Wed, Sep 01, 1976
Page 16
Full Page
Clipped by
Rutherford B.
OH, USA 15 Feb 2022
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Redlands Daily Facts
