Gerry Spiess
Gerald F. Spiess (* 1940 in Saint Paul , Minnesota ; † June 18, 2019 in Pine County , Minnesota), usually called Gerry Spiess , was an American single-handed sailor .
The teacher from Minnesota crossed the North Atlantic from Norfolk (Virginia) to Falmouth (Cornwall) in 53 days in 1979 with his self-designed and self-built 3.05 m (10 foot ) long sailboat Yankee Girl . The plywood boat had no ballast . Spiess hoped that this would make it unsinkable , as there was no room on board for a life raft or a rubber dinghy for emergencies.
In 1981 he crossed the Pacific from Long Beach (California) to Sydney (Australia) in five months with the same boat , with stops in Hawaii , the Fanning Islands , Fijis and New Caledonia .
This was preceded by further trips in small, self-built sailing boats - in 1969/70 a trip with the 5.18 m long cabin boat Yankee Doodle from Saint Paul (Minnesota) on the Mississippi via Panama to Ecuador , sometimes accompanied by his wife. In 1974 he sailed from Miami to the Bahamas in the small trimaran Yankee Spirit . A two-year circumnavigation was planned. The company failed after just two days after a storm and a mast break.
bibliography
- Gerry Spiess, Marlin Bree: ... and my boat was so small . Delius et al., Bielefeld 1982, ISBN 3-7688-0415-1 , (only available as used book).
- Marlin Bree: Broken seas. True tales of extraordinary seafaring adventures . Marlor Press, Saint Paul Mn 2005, ISBN 978-1-892147-09-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerald F. "Gerry" SPIESS . Obituary on legacy.com, June 30, 2019 (English). Retrieved July 1, 2019.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spiess, Gerry |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Spiess, Gerald F. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American single-handed sailor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1940 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint Paul , Minnesota , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | 18th June 2019 |
| Place of death | Pine County , Minnesota , United States |