The love for the ocean and open spaces runs in my family.  My mother is from Marseille, her father, a decorated officer in the French army, built roads for the colonies.  My father managed fisheries in North Africa, where I was born, and I grew up between France and Mexico where our family was in the textile business.

Very early I followed my father through numerous fishing and hunting expeditions where self-sufficiency and understanding of nature were important values.  As I grew up, getting involved in sports and learning to take risks was encouraged.  Climbing 18,000 feet high volcanoes, diving unknown reefs in the Gulf of Mexico with marginal equipment, living in tropical jungles with the natives learning to appreciate iguana stew, are all experiences I relish from my early years.  Tennis and rugby were also favored activities.  I was captain of Mexico’s rugby selection in international matches.

With the well-equipped machine shops of the textile business I learned to tinker repairing boats and outboard engines.  My first boat was a wreck of a racing motorboat my cousin and I rescued from the dump.  We later moved on to sailing on Sunfishes, 420s and Finns.

After graduation from the Ibero University in Mexico, I went to the University of California at Los Angeles for a Master degree in Business.  Los Angeles allowed me to pursue my passion for the ocean through teaching sailing in Marina del Rey and a very active participation in UCLA’s scuba diving club, while being captain of the business school rugby team.

Upon graduation, I joined TRW’s international operations.  Soon my savings were put in a Catalina 27 and later a J27 onboard which we sailed thousands of miles racing, cruising and diving all along the California coast and Northern Baja California.  As member of the California Yacht Club, I joined many crews in larger boats for extended races.

TRW took me to Cleveland where I continued sailing on lake Erie.  During the long winters I followed the Westlawn School of Yacht Design course thinking about my next boat when we would be back in California.  Unpredictably, we found ourselves in Boston in the early eighties working at Analogic, then three years in Mexico and a return to Boston in the early nineties.

Returning to Boston, I met Richard Wilson and soon found myself experiencing the thrill of multihull sailing.  Onboard Great American II, I had the opportunity to log over 1,000 miles learning the New England coast from Buzzards Bay to Nova Scotia at an average speed well over 10 knots.  I went back into boat ownership with the acquisition of Magic, a Frers 38, while I was working at CMGI.  Magic took us all over New England logging over 3,000 miles in a period of three years.  I prepared Magic for the 2002 Newport to Bermuda race but last minute conflicts had me participating in the race on another boat.

Kathy, Gabrielle and Stephanie enjoy sailing almost as much as I do.