Sixty-Something: Epic Yachts and Gardiner’s Bay Sailing Stories

There is nothing easier to write or read about than something you really enjoy and love. The quest for adventure in life leads us all on various journeys, sometimes with surprising results. As we age, we accumulate various life experiences. Eventually we take stock of we what we have done, and what we still have to do. I can say with certainty, no one has sailed in Gardiner’s Bay over the last twenty years more than me. I probably have averaged four days a week, from May to November, for the last twenty years.

It was never my life’s dream to be a sailor. In my younger years my dreams were filled with climbing peaks of mountains. “Bagging a peak,” was my way of feeling a sense of accomplishment that went all the way back to my early teens  (14 yrs. old) when on a Boy Scout adventure at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. In 1967, Bill Sanford led us young teens on a hike to the summit of the famous “Tooth of Time,” 9,003 feet high.  It had phenomenal views of the 214 square miles of the Scout Ranch.

Eventually in 1996, I summitted the tallest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, Mt. Blanc, standing at 15,774 ft. On that adventure, the day of our summit, we had to descend a different route than our planned route because of an accident below. That same morning some Italian mountaineer soldiers were killed when a serac collapsed on them just below the Refuge Vallot Hut that stands at 14,311 feet on the Dome du Gotter below the Mt. Blanc Summit. I had taken a photo of them passing the Vallot hut at 6 AM, them on the way down, us on the way up. That climb was my last high mountain adventure.

Then one June day in 2003, twenty years ago, wearing a suit and tie, I purchased a sailboat from then Southampton Press Editor-in-chief, Joe Shaw, off the lawn of his Hampton Bays home. I had driven out from Manhattan to recoup a friend’s deposit and ended up buying the boat on a split-second decision. That split second decision changed my life forever. Within a week, I launched the boat in Gardiner’s Bay from the very same marina I am still at. Amazingly, I have departed to sail from Three Mile Marina four days a week, seven months a year, with 2023 being my twentieth year.

My first sail changed my life. It was a very warm day, perhaps eighty-degrees. There was a slight wind and Don Vanderveer, the owner of the marina, gave me my first and only sailing lesson. He called the outboard motor “my iron sail,” and  taught me how to set the jib and raise the main sail. To this day, I still hear his voice when I hoist my main sail. I do it step by step as he taught me that day as we exited Three Mile Harbor and entered Gardiner’s Bay. Who knew, then, that I would make that trip over 2,240 times?

Sailing Gardiner’s has been a great pleasure of my later life. It is a view and existence of the Hamptons not all get to experience. I have seen great sailing boats. Yachts like the Adix, a 65 meters long sailboat, built in the 1930s. It has three huge masts. This schooner is still one of the largest sailing yachts in the world. Watching it traverse Gardiner’s Bay with such ease and grace in full sail was like observing a religious service.

Equally as thrilling was watching 130’ sailing yacht Endeavor, (a J-Class sailboat.) It was built in Gosport, England in the early 1930s  to try to win the America’s Cup in the 1934 race. Back in 2006, It was in Gardiner’s Bay just before its then owner Elizabeth Meyer sold it, this after restoring it and owning it for twenty years. I witnessed something amazing. With Ms. Meyer seated royally next to the captain and a large crew of well-dressed sailors, I watched Endeavor devour Gardiner’s Bay. The J-Class sailboat was crisscrossing Gardiner’s with ease as its roughly 85’ mast and huge main sail completely mesmerized me and Richard Ivan who was sailing with me. I ended up composing a paid article about that day.

Yet, the two most amazing vessels anchored in Gardiner’s Bay that I have observed over the last 20 years are two privately owned mega-yachts. One has to be  Le Grand Bleu, once reportedly owned by Russian businessman Roman Abramovich. The story goes that Eugene Shvidler “passed on the yacht” to his business associate, as Abramovich had the delivery of his new yacht Eclipse (571ft.) built for a reportedly $1.9B. The Le Grand Bleu is reportedly 374 ft. and is powered by two 4,570 bhp (boiler horse power each) engines. The crew can vary from 35 to 65, depending on what it is being used for. It has two heliports, with a 70-plus foot sailboat mounted on one side and a 70-plus foot powered fishing boat mounted on the other.

The most impressive yacht I have ever seen in Gardiners Bay was during the 2020 summer of the pandemic, when billionaire David Geffen, who owns a Further Lane mansion in East Hampton, parked his 452’ yacht, Rising Sun in the middle of Gardiner’s Bay. It was there for about a week around July 4^th. When my 50 year-old 22’ sailboat sailed by, heaven only knows what those on board thought.