{"id":76869,"date":"2024-02-20T13:04:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T18:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=76869"},"modified":"2024-02-20T18:06:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T23:06:36","slug":"one-charismatic-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/regatta-series\/one-charismatic-crew\/","title":{"rendered":"One Charismatic Crew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Tim Landt and his teammates on the Nightwind 35 Charisma set off on the first leg of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Distance Race in St. Petersburg.<\/span>\n Walter Cooper<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n

Tim Landt had a plan and knew exactly how to execute it. There were two minutes to the Cruising class start of the 17-mile Distance Race on last Saturday\u2019s St. Petersburg edition of the 2024 Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series<\/a>, and Landt wanted the favored pin end of the line. Badly. With his Nightwind 35, Charisma<\/em>, well positioned for a port-tack start, Landt needed to burn some time, and called for a quick furl of the jib. His longtime sailing pal, Doug Jones, doused the sail quickly, then unfurled and trimmed it just in time for Landt to nail the start. Sweet perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it seemed like the two sailors had done this all before, well, that\u2019s because they have. Landt and Jones have been racing sailboats since before they graduated from high school in St. Pete, which they attended with another pair of local sailing luminaries named Ed Baird and Allison Jolly, of America\u2019s Cup and Olympic fame, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landt laughs when he recalls those high school days. \u201cEd and Allison accomplished a lot of things and went on to have professional careers,\u201d he said. \u201cDoug and I had to go to work!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And work they did. Landt enjoyed a long career running a string of companies, which afforded him the means to savor his real passion: sailing. He started off with Optis at the St. Pete YC; moved into Lasers (he still races them in Master events); eventually bought his first two big boats, a Columbia 24 followed by a Cal 40; sampled the cruising lifestyle with an Irwin 54 and an Irwin 68; then returned to club racing events on a Morgan 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCharlie Morgan was a friend and he said to me, \u2018Why don\u2019t you get a Morgan 24 and fix it up?\u2019 So I did. It was a great little boat,\u201d Landt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He might still be racing that Morgan but, after years of searching for one, he finally found a boat he\u2019d long been enamored by: a Bruce Kirby-designed Nightwind 35. \u201cThey never come up for sail,\u201d said Landt. \u201cThey\u2019re like a big Sonar. I knew Bruce and I\u2019ve been a fan of his ever since I started sailing Lasers. This one came up, I made an offer, and the rest is history. I put my Morgan up on Craigslist and it sold in two days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came time to name the boat, Landt had one ready to go: Charisma<\/em>. Of course, Landt had a good story about it: \u201cI was a kid in the sailing school in the yacht club when the SORC came in. There was a very successful guy named Jesse Phillips who owned a string of Palmer Johnson boats: Dora<\/em>, Yankee Girl<\/em> and Charisma. <\/em>I got to help him out a bit, he was very humble. It was amazing to me that a guy in his position could be so humble. I knew if I ever got a nice race boat, I\u2019d call it Charisma.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Phillips, Landt hasn\u2019t gone the Grand Prix route. \u201cI got all my old buddies back together and we\u2019re going to go out and have fun with it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep it fun, not too serious. Everyone wants to win, but if you have fun it\u2019s better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n