At 78 feet in length, she is one of the largest works of art in Chicago, but pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s favorite mermaid is more than just a pretty face.
She graces the sleek topsides of one of the world’s most technologically advanced and fastest sailboats–the America’s Cup yacht Young America.
Beginning Thursday, she and Young America will be the centerpiece for the four-day Strictly Sail boat show at Navy Pier.
Lichtenstein’s floating art work came as a result of a chance conversation with the Young America’s designer John Marshall and a friend of the artist in spring 1994. Lichtenstien and Marshall met, and he agreed to come up with a design for the boat.
In a few weeks Lichtenstein showed the boaters a tenative design. It was, they say, love at first sight. The mermaid represented speed, youthful energy and the beauty of the sea. It became Lichtenstein’s first floating, sailing and racing work of art.
That work will be among more than 125 exhibitors and 200 sailboats on display in the Festival Hall at the pier, making it the biggest exhibition of its kind in the Midwest.
“As a piece of equipment, it is an extremely impressive racing machine,” said designer Marshall, who heads PACT 2000, a group vying to win back the America’s Cup from New Zealand in four years.
“Its size really takes your breath away. When you see it, you get a sense of just how big and powerful these boats are, and you can imagine what kind of teamwork among the sailing crew is required to keep the boat under control,” Marshall said.
The boat weighs 55,000 pounds with 80 percent of that in its keel, a lead bulb that is some 13 feet under the boat; the mast towers at 110 feet, and it carries 3,300 square feet of sail.
“Our thinking in bringing an International America’s Cup Class boat to Strictly Sail was that not a lot of Midwesterners have had an opportunity to see and touch an America’s Cup yacht,” said Mike McCool of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, the group that operates the show.
Young America was sailed last year in San Diego to defend the Cup, sport’s oldest trophy, and sailing’s Holy Grail.
“It was the fastest of the U.S. boats,” said Marshall. “Team Dennis Connor elected to charter it for the defense.”
The New Zealand challenger soundly defeated Connor and the San Diego Club, which had the trophy since 1987. The U.S. now hopes to win the trophy back.
In January the New York Yacht Club, which held the Cup for 132 years until the yacht Australia took it in 1983, announced that it had selected Marshall’s group PACT (Partnership for America’s Cup Technology) to represent it in Auckland at the turn of the century. Young America will be the trial horse of the new campaign, Marshall said.
“Visitors to the show can see the deck hardware, the instrumentation and the structure of the boat,” Marshall said. “Many of those are the kind of things already being applied in recreational sailing.
“We believe that the America’s Cup, at its heart, is not only a sailboat race and sports contest but a technical contest where nations put their best technical and design ideas forward,” Marshall said.
“It is the only sailing event that attracts very large commercial sponsorship and technological support, so, as a result, more progress in technical development of equipment, construction and design takes place in a cup cycle than in the rest of the industry put together.
“You are seeing carbon fiber masts and booms, composite materials being used in construction, new sail materials that are lighter and stronger and better winch systems,” Marshall said, “It’s all a direct result of America’s Cup development.”
“Sailors like to learn; whether they are beginners or seasoned sailors, they like to learn more about the sport,” McCool said. And his group offers something for everyone. “No matter whether they are interested in racing or cruising or just want information about sailing, we have scheduled over 110 seminars covering a variety of sailing-related topics.” The seminars will run throughout the four-day show.
“Some are video presentations, others are slides. The seminars are held in places where you can sit down, watch and listen.
“Certainly we want to reach the seasoned sailors but we also want to reach the entry-level people,” McCool said. “So, for example, we will have a seminar on what you need to know before you buy your first boat.”
There will be musical entertainment; a presentation by Tania Aebe, who taught herself how to sail and then went solo around the world; forums on maintenance; sessions on racing techniques and how to make your boat go faster; and others on chartering and cruising, McCool said.
Chicago’s Bill Pinkney, who made history in 1992 when he became the fourth American and the only black person to make a solo circumnavigation of the Earth by passing under the five southernmost capes, will be giving his slide presentation, “Making Your Dreams Come True.”
Scores of marine accessory and hardware manufacturers will be on hand, along with half a dozen sailmakers to demonstrate how to upgrade your sail inventory while reducing your bank balance.
But what draws people to a boat show are boats and sailors.
“We recognized that the Chicago Boat Show at McCormick Place was not really serving the sailing industry in the Midwest well,” McCool said. The McCormick Place event concentrated on power boats with just a handful of sailing craft.
“We knew that Navy Pier was coming online, and when we purchased the Strictly Sail show, we decided to move it to Chicago.”
For 10 years, Strictly Sail was held in suburban Milwaukee, but the largest boat they could get in the exhibition hall was a 23-footer. That all changes this week.
“There will be about 200 boats on display. For example, Hunter will show all 11 of its models, from the smallest up to its ocean-going models,” McCool said. “Beneteau is bringing six, Catalina will have six also.”
Chicago’s Lightning fleet will have a display and a new 1996 model of the 19-foot racer crewed by three.
“From dinghies to ocean-going yachts, you will be able to get up in them,” McCool said.
“We will bring two brand new Island Packets, a 37-and a 40-foot model,” said Bruce Rosenzwieg of Sailboat Sales. “These are ocean-capable, cruising boats. They are like homes, they are easy to live aboard, with galley space, berth space, you can really be comfortable on the boat for days and not feel like you are camping.”
Rosenzwieg will share an area with Crowley’s Yacht Yard and with Trey Ritter of Sailboats Inc.
“We will have a Sabre 362, a 36-foot model that sells for about $180,000,” Ritter said. “People will have a chance to look at it, to go through it completely. We will also have our charter service represented and our sailing school.”
“We would like to sell new boats,” said Rosenzwieg. “But everybody cannot afford $225,000 for a new Island Packet, so we sell used boats, too.
A huge share of the market is in used boats. There is no planned obsolescence in the world of sailboats, so there are extremely good boats available in the 15- to 20-year-old range.
“A person can buy an excellent starter boat in the 5 to 10 thousand (dollar) range, a boat with an interior, an inboard engine and one you can easily get a mooring for in Chicago,” Rosenzwieg said.
Ritter, Rosenzwieg and others will have listings of used boats.
Several charter services, from exotic places from Trinidad to Tahiti, will be at the show. People who do not own a sailboat can charter one if they have completed a certified sailing course, such as the one offered by Ritter.
“The cost is $450, and it involves eight hours of classroom and 16 hours on the lake,” Ritter said. Most sailing schools offer certification that will allow you to charter virtually anywhere.
Financial institutions that specialize in boat loans as well as firms that handle marine insurance needs will be represented.
“A third of all of the nation’s registered sailboats are in the seven-state Midwest region,” McCool said. “That means there is a need for a good Midwest sailboat show.”
Strictly Sail boat show
Navy Pier, Festival Hall
Hours:
Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Admission:
Adults$8
Children 6 to 12$4
Two-day tickets $12
For information, call 312-946-6262
