About Huge

Why 'Huge'?

'Huge', a Catalina Mk3 1996, was purchased in 2006 because 3 guys wanted a boat big enough to socialize on and also to have a chance at one design racing to see what they were made of. Well, that is part of the story: it also has a really big ice box for beer.

The name derives from a condom manufacturer, Huge Brand. Their hook is that the packets are bigger, but the condoms are regular sized. The company kindly allows us to use it's clothing as team wear. It was such an appropriate name because of our very own Dr Jeff (Dr Syph to those that know him in the sailing world) who is deeply immersed in the exciting world of sexually transmitted diseases.

Originally, we were going to call the boat "Huge and Wet" (after the personal lubricant company name 'Wet') but despite the urging of his wife to accept it, one of our partners could not overcome his Dutch Reform Church upbringing!

That's ok, we can make the letters of the name bigger now!

 

The Boat partners are:

 

Dr. Jeff Klausner, check writer, social police chief, morale officer (alcohol level), father of the "Healthy Penis " (Ask him!) and bow maiden.

 

 

Mr. Russell Houlston, Inspiration for the boat name, whose job is to shut up and drive (failing miserably on both counts), moveable ballast (a natural), beer appreciator and head sanitation engineer.

If you look really carefully at the picture you will see him on the left!

Mr. Bill Woodruff PhD. , rocket scientist....no really!

Chief boat engineer, equipment purchaser, race coordinator/tactician and Church Lady.

Bill is our sugar daddy with a predilection for racing hardware and the wisdom to know how to use it. He is rapidly eliminating our excuses for coming second! This is causing a crisis on board as we continue to win races while trying to preserve an atmosphere of not being competitive! I guess the answer is, as usual: drink more beer!

If you look really carefully at the picture you will see him on the right!

 

So the three guys needed lots of help from really talented crew.

These profiles are under construction: we are waiting for the FBI reports to come up with dirt!

IIf anyone finds something worthy of reportage or photos on these individuals, please forward to the web Yoda!

The rock stars are:

Stacy Tobias: Main man. Stacy brings great mechanical skills, strength and enthusiasm as well as learning ability to his new job winning races for "Huge",  but his real talents lie in his sense of color coordination and immaculate taste in high end sailing wear.

Stacy is in his element around very expensive toys which require vast amounts of money to keep going. He is a proud plane and  motorcycle enthusiast. At one point, recently, a visit to his impossibly clean garage revealed two Harley Davidsons and a Suzuki road bike, while he apologetically explained that he had to sell one of his two planes.

Such is the perpetual single life. We all feel his pain!

                      NC 17

             Click here for picture!

                    

Matt Wood Grinder and tail man....it sounds worse than it is but we are still trying to find a picture of Matt with his clothes on!

After Matt's many patient requests, we were prepared to put a picture right in his profile, but really, there are no pictures of Matt with his clothes on yet so in the mean time here he is modeling with Maya for Huge! Next time we can get a camera going, we promise a real photo!

 

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Scotty has graduated from our Monday Night Madness Kid's series to the big time races. The fact that the series she is starting with is called the "Party Circuit" had absolutely no influence whatsoever on her decision to participate and learn. If anything it was a detriment to her reputation. We mean it. Really. No! Shush!

Then there was the Friday Night Beer Can Series! Hay, Zip it!

Sailing without foul weather gear in howling wind and waves, soaked to the skin, for 5 hours without complaining qualifies her for at least any sailing experience in which there is one beer left on board.

Linda Salas began her attachment to HUGE when she and certain crew members (not to be named) met in rehab. She crochets star wars spaceships in her spare time and channels ancient Greek warriors. 

Linda, ever mysterious, sent her own profile, because all we really know about her is that she has actually been everywhere and cooks like a superstar chef!

Tanya Keen has recently given up some of her other hobbies including horses and has been working hard to get out of the Hall of Fame and back in the band! Congratulations on bringing some more cow bell to the party, Tanya!
Peter comes to us as a two-fer-one with Tanya and is definitely the cow bell! Although this web site prides itself on "investigative reporting" meaning dirt, we are short of it on Peter because he has a hollow leg and seems to be immune to gift pints of tequila being poured down his throat! Next: the cuffs and a shot of sodium pentathol! (Water boarding wouldn't work on a real sailor like Peter)

 

We do have a glimpse of his Dark Side though!

Mike W. foredeck has a long history of handling difficult situations as a death row lawyer, so when we threw him up on foredeck with no prior experience and asked him to tame our beautiful yellow chute with the rampant lion, he figured he could save us....and so he did.

 As his picture shows he has the "Eye of the Tiger" attitude.

 This picture was taken after we raced in the Seaweed Soup Regatta in the midst of the storm of the Century. You know, the usual sort of thing: horizontal sleet for 3 hours, high wind gusts and high seas etc..

Clearly he is unstoppable.

Connie Ma went from beginner guest one Friday night, to spinnaker trimmer in the Great Vallejo Race in rain squalls the next day.

Her appetite for sailing abuse is very impressive. Impervious to panic under pressure or on the dance floor, this seasoned architect calls herself a mole and insists she means the rodent, though we think the femme fatale spy thing is more likely.

Her drinking prowess matches her tolerance for inhospitable weather.

For a picture of  Connie's Mole click the link!

Marcia is our new Attack-tician. We have finally found what we have been looking for: someone to make Russell drive into close quarters battle without fumbling for the rule book.

Marcia has the aggression to actually get us across the start line on time and the wisdom to plan situations out beyond the life lines. Bill and Russell are now enjoying focusing on trim and wheel work in coordination.

Jim "Yim" Ilog. Foredeck assistant and a real player in the karaoke world especially "Endless Love". Jim comes to us from ....."Spirit of Elvis" which explains the musical connection nicely. Jim joined us for the Jazz Cup and helped initiate our "Great Yellow Balloon of Death". Though he spends a lot of time on sailboats his real passion is "hitting a small ball around a big ball with an instrument not designed for the purpose" (Golf, for you sea dogs). His claim to fame: he has made a hole in one!

..........No not in the boat, on the golf course...of course.

 

Hall of Fame

Jo managed to escape to Madrid without the required going away party so we will be asking Graham to drink on her behalf at his going away party this January! This will be big shoes to fill! We hope Graham is up to it!

Jo Hudson Winch Wench and marketing director.

Jo has recently discovered a "Huge" talent for promoting our signature product: condoms in a slightly bigger packet.

She also has two hollow legs and plenty of spare time during the day, which is a recipe for ruin for sailors trying to keep up!

Jo is fearless as can be demonstrated by the fact that she and her partner, Graham bought Volt Air to learn how to sail, and took on the San Francisco Bay with no assistance, learning the hard way, always, and yet she still loves sailing.

Jim Margeson tactician. Jim can juggle more data and crew resistance,  than any of the high speed graphics chips he designs for Invidia (in his spare time), while maintaining the manners of a Southern Gentleman. A bucket full of prozac would have less of a calming influence during a race.
Graham has retired at the tender age of 38. He will be found cruising in the Caribbean

 

Graham Salisbury master grinder and brew master (ok, ok, he brings the Corona). Graham is anxious to learn how to make ocean passages as soon as possible so he can save a fortune on air fares (He is a native of Great Britain) and decided the best way was to buy a "hole in the ocean into which he can pour money". We on "Huge" decided to ingratiate ourselves by showing him what not to do and what not to break by practical example. He still loves sailing.

Graham and Russell share a Twilight Zone  connection: Graham is Russell's brother's name. Graham was born April 1: Russell's mother's birthday, and Graham's mother's maiden name is Houlston.....

Chris has definitely been around boats. He has been trimming everything well on Huge and he has had to as he has been moved around the boat quite a bit.

Despite being on the vomit comet voyage to the lightship, he has returned for more abuse.

 Perhaps he is doing this for his children, who happen to have four legs and respond well to the praise "good dog"!

However we doubt it as there is a mysterious quality to this sail jockey which we are not too sure of: compassion for rodentia.... er, Dr. Syph?

David Esser has been absorbed into start up companies before and again finds himself on a new adventure with little time to come out and play. He too will be on the invitation list, but work is a serious competitor!
Heather Harrington has clearly done all the sailing she needs to be an expert already. For her first race we laid on some unique factors: a collision at a start, sailing with the pulpit dangling around on deck, and an early retirement for missing a mark followed by an award ceremony for a season first place (How often can you compress that much into an introductory race?). Heather is calm and pleasant amidst chaos and Norepinephrine over doses from some of the crew.

Heather is also Russell's son Foster's teacher so knowing she is an excellent educator, we are hoping for some great lessons out on the Bay.

Race Visitors Have included:

Nocera Yu Xie comes to us from the medical field where she is doing a study on  men in their twenties and their ability to function under the influence of alcohol. Where better to do the research than sailing on Huge? As this was a double blind test, we threw in a couple of old timers and beer (Jeff and Russell volunteered...again). Pretty soon the evening looked like a typical night of sailing!
Kim Kober fits in extremely well in salty sailor company. His stories are so good, even in light air or the doldrums, he is the perfect crew. The fact that he applied to join a sorority just adds to his mystique! Also, when Scotty is out of earshot, just ask where she got her name!
Jana has eluded all questioning as to her shady past in Los Angeles or her career in Volleyball. Currently working closely with Dr Syph and immersed in the world of sexually transmitted diseases, she enjoyed a saline bath (without flinching) on our opening Friday Night while wrestling with the jib like a trooper.

For a view with Jana wearing just her sunglasses click here

Andrea Toth: Foredeck. The picture of Andrea caught in the galley is displayed for its rarity. While on sailboats you will find her managing foredeck like a professional. In fact when the "Great Yellow Balloon of Death" was raised and jibed and dropped and raised while jibing etc, a comment was made by one of us less experienced sailors (Less than 20 years of experience, that is) about how easy spinnaker was. (How little they really know....). Perhaps the coordination between Andrea and Bill Woodruff comes from their sharing a Pac Cup Race together or perhaps it is just because they really know what they are doing; we mortals will never know.
 Mike Kastrop: coach. Mike is the leading expert for the Catalina 30 one design racing community. On his boat "Goose" He has won a large number of very important races. Mike has offered his services as coach to almost all the fleet at South Beach and we could tell that in every case it was a great improvement in performance for the recipient boats. (It was about time for us!)

Mike's tact and philanthropy have elevated the sport considerably. Thank you, sir!

 Maggie Coogan: Maggie perfected the art of absorbing waves over the bow to protect her Captain, and bore her task with fearlessness and good humor. Coming from Florida, and used to bathtub warm sea water, her ruggedness shone through.
\ Kelly Coogan: The fastest moving rail candy the boat has ever seen. Her responsiveness to the never-ending calls to maneuver was a legend of our "Ocean's Thirteen" race. She also shared her sister, Maggie's selfless side, in absorbing waves breaking over the bows. When asked if she liked the experience she said yes and offered that it was more intense than skydiving.
Dani: Dani was initiated into the sport of sailboat racing with a jibe in high winds followed by an absence of sheeting out on the main which left her slightly below water on the rollover side!

Despite such an auspicious beginning she recovered her dignity instantly and went on to enjoy water no longer attached to the Bay, deck gymnastics in incredibly crowded quarters , and her cousin Dr Jeff Klausner's strangely psychedelic shorts as a backdrop for her views of the Bay.

Dani: you did great out there!

Maia Earle: Maia was scheduled for a date with Huge for another race earlier in the year, and we won that one. This time she made the trip and we won. Clearly we cannot do without her.

Maia has recently transitioned from a desk job at Google to being a firefighter. Well endowed with the warrior spirit (No! There is no comma between 'endowed' and 'with' you salty lot!), she has had no difficulty dealing with drama on the high seas, but then again, being half naked and surrounded by large bodies of water might make any firefighter feel safe!

Maia is also a photographer, so very soon we will have a large number of pictures featuring us with all our competition in the background. We will make those pictures available soon, sorry Catalina 30 fleet! (Demonic laughter in the background...think: Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon.)

We at "Huge" hope to see our lucky mascot back on board soon.

 

Katherine: as a good friend of the Woodruffs, Katherine has sailed aboard Huge as a guest and to experience being single on the high seas. We forgot to tell her about the reprobate quality of sailors but she actually came back for more!

Katherine is a launcher (in the business world) which unless we are mistaken is required equipment for a rocket scientist! At least we think so. Bill?

We tried to persuade her to launch condoms, but having a "would  my mother approve if she saw me" test, we had to desist for now....though we are sending all the links to her Mother for pre approval along with all the bios, so Mom can see just who her daughter is hanging out with already!

Ernie "The Override" Ziesman. Ernie was hurled into the world of sailboat racing in the "all the marbles" race of the season, which would be pressure enough. Unfortunately for this (cough) power boater, he will forever be associated with an override so spectacular it may be compared to the Gordian Knot. The knot was so spectacular we had to disassemble the winch to free the line during the race. We know he feels bad but we are trying to convince him that all good overrides are actually a team effort!
Yu Yee Wu Deck Jewel, lucky mascot and winch wench. Yu Yee joins us from the hallowed decks of Tupelow Honey, winner of the Rolex Cup, as the wife of the owner, not just a sailor. As such she has experienced the pain of owning a boat first hand and has decided it is much more fun to watch other people break their own stuff! Her sympathy and understanding are great team assets.