| Al Hughes Dog Bark Custom 60 |
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 Al started sailing as a small kid on a Sailfish off Cape Cod. He's continued sailing on boats ranging from a Sabot to the USCGC Eagle. He's lived aboard, and cruised the Northwest, from Seattle to Alaska since 1981 with his wife Lou on our 39 foot sailboat they designed and built themselves. "I've also done lots of buoy racing on friend's boats in Puget Sound". Al purchased Dog Bark four months ago after literally dreaming about, coveting and drooling over her for the past three years. "It's a good thing the decks don't leak". The boat sat unused for those three years and has needed a ton of work getting her ready for this adventure. It's a 60 foot fiberglass/divynicell John King design, built and sailed by Kanga Birtles to fifth place in the 1990/91 BOC around the world race. That was three or four design
generations back. "I am confident in the boat since it has already sailed around the world 1.67 times". While realizing the myriad of shortcomings,
with old gear and sails and limited prep time, with a few strokes of luck Al hopes to remain competitive on this, his first long distance
single-handed passage. The name of the boat comes from our dog Gus, as well as "dogbark" navigation (listening to farm dogs along the coast to tell where you are in times of fog).
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