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| Bill and Diane Menninger |
By LEN BOSE
I had the chance to interview Bill Menninger the other day over the phone after sending him 10 questions. You might recall Menninger is also a part of the Newport Beach Sailing Hall of Fame. Among his notable achievements: 3rd place in the 1980 J24 Nationals, 6th in the J24 Worlds, 5th in the 1987 22’ Etchells Worlds, 1st in the 2016 Master Regatta, crewed on three Lipton Cup-winning teams, crewed on 4 Baldwin Cup-winning teams, along with 6 Harbor 20 Fleet Championships and 1 Harbor 20 Class Championship. So yeah, if you beat Menninger, the odds are really good you won the regatta. So, what are his winning secrets?
Q: Where were you born, and how and when did you first start sailing?
A: I was born in Palos Verdes. My Dad bought a 40-foot Newport when I was 5 with the dream of doing the Transpacific Yacht Race. We bought it in Santa Barbara and kept it at Cal Yacht anchorage in San Pedro. Our slip mate next door was Lloyd Bridges of Sea Hunt fame. But my Dad’s dreams and our family were shattered as he caught rheumatic fever and passed when I was 7. My mom sold the boat and bought a trailer at the Dana Strand Beach Club. So my early sailing was traded for body surfing. My mom made great friends and one neighbor at Dana Strand was from the LA Yacht Club, and mentioned to her that I could become an immediate member of the yacht club because of my Dad’s membership. So I first started sailing around the age of 8 with Ray Wallace who headed the LAYC program. We sailed Victory 21’s in LA harbor and the small boats were either Guppies or Dink Kittens.
Q: Do you recall when you first felt your passion for the sport?
A: My passion for the sport blossomed when LAYC placed a fleet order for Flying Juniors. Club members bought 15 boats. My mom entertained the idea, but I was super excited and figured that part of the justification could be teaching my stepdad to sail. I was 12. The boat was great, and I started sailing and racing. My stepdad lost out and was replaced by the younger crew, some of them still great friends...Richard Gadbois, Rosie Bell. My days in school were spent drawing sailboats, and I read everything about racing from articles to books – Paul Elvstrom, Stuart Walker.
Q: What was the first big event you won, and which would you consider your biggest win?
A: The first big win was a Southern California Midwinters in San Diego. It was a big silver trophy I still have to this day. And we won in large part because we were one of the only boats to use a spinnaker, but the big deal for my youth sailing was the Governor’s Cup win for LAYC.
Q: What is your favorite sea story either at sea or at the party?
A: One of my favorite sea stories is going out of the Golden Gate Bridge in the J24 Worlds. I was probably 24 or 25, had a great crew, and in a fleet of 75 boats, we went into the fog in about 10th place. Bob McNeill was my tactician and he estimated the time to stay on port and when to tack. After about 10 minutes in ebb tide, we spotted the mark dead in front of us. We set the spinnaker and ran down the beach outside the gate to stay out of the tide. You could only see about 50 feet in front of you. We had no idea how we were doing, but when we entered the bay under the loud horn of the bridge, we saw no one in front of us. Another 15 miles of a bay tour and we crossed the finish line in first. In the same regatta, we tried to win the leeward end start at the Berkeley Circle, but our rudder caught the mark anchor line. It was very hard getting the line off our rudder. Steve Grillon was the next boat to weather and I remember him thanking me later, when he said, “There’s no way I was going to make that start if you hadn’t dragged the mark for me.” He may have won that race, I don’t know...but he was very happy.
Q: Did you have a mentor, and if so, why?
A: There are so many mentors, from Dick Deaver, Roy Cundiff, Tom Blackaller, Steve Taft and Bruce Gollison, but the one that stands out is Bob McNeil. He raced FJs, but he was 10 years older than me and while going through med school he had a Soling. There were about 40 really good guys sailing Solings from San Diego to Marina Del Rey, and the fleet was filled with Olympic hopefuls: Lowell North, Bobby Burns and Benny Mitchell, Earl Elms, Carl Eichenlaub, and I learned a ton. Trimming, tuning the boat, and tactics. Bob was super smart, always trying something new, and reviewing the day’s races to try to get better. We didn’t win very often but I went through a lot of sunburned skin and loved sailing in different venues with such great competition. Bob’s thought was that he’d rather be a decent sailor in a top, tough class vs. winning some class with no competition.
Q: How do you stay so consistently at the top of the H20 fleet? What do you see people missing to come up to your skill level?
A: So many big and little things go into winning sailboat races as you know. I like the boat, and I constantly trim the sails and know where I am comfortable. I try to keep the boat going fast, get decent starts and try to get the crew to be team members. I try to stay out of phase and away from big groups of boats, stay on the lifted tack and stay in the wind and favorable tide.
Q: Do you have a routine before the start of a regatta?
A: I just like to take one timed run, figure out the lay lines for the start marks, take a few tacks and jibes to make sure we are trimmed right and rolling the boat. And get a general opinion of what side of the course may be favored with the tide and wind.
Q: Your son Michael credits his success to his family by providing the tools to succeed. What were those tools and how/what would you advise other families to concentrate on in the early years?
A: He is being gracious in that statement. As a parent, I think you are blessed when your kids gravitate to good friends with good parents, and our family certainly loved the ocean whether it was sailing, surfing, or boating to Catalina with his grandparents. He had great sailing mentors like Caleb Silsby and a great competitor with Charlie Buckingham. I remember early on, sailing against him in an FJ, and I could never shake him.
Q: You just purchased a gorgeous new powerboat. Tell us about it and your plans?
A: We looked at a lot of boats and figured we better spend the kids’ inheritance. They are all doing well on their own, so let’s get on with it. We also figured out our real adventure days to go to Mexico or farther are probably past us, so coastal cruising is what we wanted to do and it’s a nice Duffy for the Harbor as well. We liked Palm Beach and my brother in law, Stewart, found a boat that wasn’t on the market, but the owner was thinking of going bigger. It had the configuration we wanted with the galley up, two cabins, two heads, top speed around 28 knots, and was fuel efficient. It’s been everything we wanted, and if I fall overboard, Diane has the choice of picking me up. On the sailboat, I had a higher possibility of falling overboard with a smaller chance of her returning to get me.
Q: Describe the perfect day on the water for you?
A: The perfect day is sailing with friends, laughing, telling stories and jokes, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Team Racing as being a lot of fun. I don’t like practice so much. I’m not a Dennis Conner. That’s why the Harbor 20 is so great. So little effort goes into preparing for a great day on the water, and team racing is so great because it makes even practicing fun.
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I have sailed with Menninger on some big boats and he is constantly trimming the sails and observing the weather conditions around him. I have read through the interview several times now and will be taking away many of his comments. For example: staying out of groups, keeping the boat going fast and remembering all the good times. I am sure there is more to take away each time I read it.
Sea ya!
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Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport.
