Sailing Background

My first boat was a Lido 14 (1967). I then raced a Cal-20 for 5 years (7th in 1970 Nationals in a fleet of 60).  I have owned my Ranger 23, Kittiwake, since 1972. My sailing skills and studies of the aerodynamics of sails got me involved in a number of big time sailing activities. In this 1980 photo, I'm the one in the white hat with a red notebook recording performance data on board Jim Kilroy’s maxi, Kialoa IV, off St. Petersburg, Florida.

In the early ‘70s I raced my own boats very actively in Southern California. Kittiwake won Class B in the Little Whitney Series in 1972. I also crewed on a number of other boats including the Ericson 46, Black Bird, in the Big Whitney Series and in the La Paz race. After moving to Seattle I crewed on a number of boats in Puget Sound, including three Swiftsures, and was active in 6-meter racing. I designed a new rudder for the 6-meter, Pacific Northwest Belle, for the 1985 World's in France.

My involvement in the America’s Cup started in 1974 when I conducted CFD and sailing tests in designing the mast for Courageous. This mast was on Courageous in defending the Cup in ’74 and again in ‘77. Dennis Conner’s book, "The America’s Cup," describes the argument between Russell Long and Ted Turner in 1980 over use of "Gentry’s mast." In the trials, Long had hit Turner, springing Turner’s mast. Long was using "Gentry’s mast" as his backup spar and refused to lend it to Turner. Gary Jobson, Turner’s tactician, said, “We ended up with a piece of junk, and the boat was slow.” In a presentation in Seattle after the 2003 cup races, Jobson showed film of the dismasting of the New Zealand boat and made the comment, "that wasn't a Gentry Mast." 

In 1982 I spent a week in Newport, Rhode Island, manning the starboard running backstay for Jack Sutphen on Freedom in practice races against Dennis Conner as he tried out his new boat, Spirit. Spirit turned out to be slow so Dennis decided to build yet another boat, Liberty. I designed the mast shape and also worked on the design of the keel on Liberty for the 1983 America’s Cup. For the 1987 Cup races in Australia, I helped with the keel design of Eagle (she turned out to be slow). I also had a supporting role for the Boeing teams that had primary appendage design responsibility for all of the cup defenses in San Diego.

In 2002-03 I designed a new low-drag mast for the Olympic-class Star boat. The mast is now in production by the Spar Tech Company (http://www.spartechco.com/).

For access to my Technical Sailing Papers and Magazine Articles, click on the Return to Home page link below.