While we had Rich du Moulin shares the following BIRW memory:

At great personal risk, I will relate my adventures at Race Week 1967. I crewed on Jakob Isbrandtsen’s [One of the founders of BIRW] beautiful 68 foot Good News on the feeder race from Larchmont along with Jakob and very young son Hans, navigator Jim Moore, cook Les Commons (of spherical body), Joe Burbeck, John Browning, and the one and only Victor Romagna- inventor of the double sheet double guy gybe.

Running down the Sound in the dark with spinnaker, the breeze picked up to about 20-25 knots and veered to the northwest. We had to gybe. I was steering with Joe and Victor on deck. I suggested waking the off watch. They would have none of it and dip-gybed the pole and then came aft to gybe the main. Iron men and wooden sailboat!

We arrived safely at Block and tied up at Champlin’s across the dock from our rival the 58-foot Thunderhead crewed by Paul Hoffmann, his wife Marge, sons Paul (Binky) and Charlie, (all four in the 200-300 lb. size range) and other crew of normal size. As usual when we pulled in, most of the crew were polishing the brass winches and fittings, while others were touching up varnish.

That night, after much partying at Champlin’s (no“Mudslides” in those days, but plenty of other booze- Harvey Wallbangers?), Les Commons, John and Tommy Browning, and I decided to raid the constable’s farm up near the airport. In the dark, Les grabbed a big fat goose and took off down the hill towards the harbor. The rest of us followed as the angry goose kept trying to bite off Les’ ear. Champlin’s was quiet when we arrived. Les ran down the dock and to our surprise jumped aboard the empty Thunderhead, slid open the main hatch, threw in the goose, and shut the hatch.

The next morning when John and I arrived for racing the docks were abuzz with the word that the Hoffmanns were sure the culprit was Les Commons (thank heaven he was the sole suspect) and they wanted to get even in and “not a nice way.” Apparently, when they arrived at Thunderhead that morning, they found the goose down below and the cabin and upholstery covered in all textures of goose crap.

Les stayed hidden all week, often getting a ride out to the starting area and secretly boarding Good News. The final wrap-up of this story occurred in 2022 when Andree Isbrandtsen Pruett (bored during Covid?) called me and, having heard rumors from her family for decades, confronted me to suggest I meet face-to-face my friend Binky to apologize. The three of us arranged to meet at the Larchmont Yacht Club bar (my treat) where the full truth was finally told. We have lived happily ever after...so far.