Pyewacket is more wind in OCC’s sails

With Roy Disney’s donation of a $7-million racing vessel, Pyewacket,

Orange Coast College’s School of Sailing and Seamanship officially

has left the shallow end behind and is now in deep water. Not that

the renowned program wasn’t already pretty close or pretty well

prepared to set sail for bigger adventures.

In the past few years, the school has been the beneficiary,

through the fundraising Orange Coast College Foundation, of several

notable gifts. In 2003, former Yugoslavian president and local

businessman Milan Panic gave the school his $2-million private motor

yacht. It allowed the school to start a program designed to teach

students about operating such large boats.

In May, the school landed another dream gift, courtesy of Marina

del Rey boat owner Jim Kilroy: the 80-foot racing vessel Kialoa III.

During the 1970s, the boat won numerous competitions and broke the

speed record in the 1975 Sydney to Hobart race.

It also claimed victories in transatlantic and transpacific races,

and it won the China Sea and the World Ocean championships.

Now, the college is the owner of more than $10 million in big

boats, including one of the most famous and successful racing yachts

in recent years -- Pyewacket. Just prior to its retirement to OCC,

the boat placed third in the Transpacific Yacht Race, better known as

the Transpac, and won the inaugural First Team Real Estate

Invitational Regatta, held in late May off Newport Beach.

The sky -- or perhaps the horizon -- now appears to be the limit

for the school of sailing. The experiences and training it can give

its students are unparalleled.

Perhaps the most amazing piece to this story is that Disney, the

nephew of the legendary Walt Disney, has agreed to pay the boat’s

operating costs, which amount to about $12,000 a month.

There’s simply nothing but clear skies and a hearty breeze to this

story. At the very least, it should draw the proper attention to the

gem of a school that OCC has built. At the most, is an America’s Cup

too much to ask?