Roy Disney’s Winning Sailboat Given to School

Orange Coast College’s sailing school has set a course for the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

The nationally renowned School of Sailing and Seamanship, which already boasts its own island off Vancouver, British Columbia, has landed Roy E. Disney’s cutting-edge $7-million sailboat, Pyewacket.

The 86-foot championship boat comes with a grant underwritten by the former Walt Disney Co. board member to help pay for a full-time racing sailor and cover other operational costs.

“Unless you are a professional sailor or a multimillionaire or billionaire, you’d never have the chance to sail on a boat like this,” said Brad Avery, the school’s director.

Disney, a competitive sailor for about 30 years who has won some of the world’s best-known races, retired from the sport last month.

“I had this ... crucial birthday, No. 75,” said Disney, whose uncle was Walt Disney. “And I decided to quit this yacht racing game.”

Disney said he didn’t seriously consider selling the boat because Orange Coast College could put it to good use.

“It’s an exciting boat to sail,” Disney said. “It’s astonishing. It just goes through the water so fast. You don’t even know how fast you’re going until you look at the [knot meter]. A couple times, I’ve been thinking, ‘Oh boy. There’s no wind.’ And I look down and we’re doing 21 knots. It’s an amazing machine.’ ”

Pyewacket, launched in 2004, is a MaxZ86 class custom-built, carbon fiber racing yacht with a mast towering 120 feet and a revolutionary canting keel, which moves from one side of the boat to the other for greater speed.

When Pyewacket was built, it was the largest boat to feature a canting keel. It remains one of only a half-dozen like it in the world, Avery said.

It was named after a witch’s cat in “Bell, Book and Candle.”

“These boats are something special -- going into that new evolutionary class,” said Rich Roberts, sailing columnist for the Log, a boating and fishing newspaper. “They can sail faster than the wind in very light wind or moderate wind.... It requires a little bit more sailing skill. You can’t just put a bunch of weekend sailors on this boat and expect to do much.”

Avery said his sailing students are excited by the prospect of testing their skills on the big boat after training.

He’s already fielding calls from students clamoring for a spot on the yet-to-be-formed sailing team.

It will have 40 members in all, with a crew of 24.

The college’s School of Sailing and Seamanship attracts about 4,000 students annually and is funded by class fees and private donations. About 75% are working adults who take classes at night and on weekends.

The school, which unlike most community college programs operates independently of state funds, has about three dozen boats -- six of them larger than 50 feet. Pyewacket is the newest, largest, fastest and most advanced, Avery said.

The school’s fleet was already well-known. In May, commercial real estate magnate Jim Kilroy donated his 80-foot racing sloop Kialoa III, one of the most famous racing yachts in the United States. The boat, Avery said, is the Pyewacket of the 1970s. The school also owns Alaska Eagle, a past winner of the Whitbread Round the World Race.

Some students in the program were resigned that the boat was, for now, out of their league. “I’m probably not quite ready for Pyewacket,” said Gabi Schwaiger, 39, an information technology director from Newport Beach who has been in the sailing program for two years. “I would love to crew on that boat.”

Andy McVay, 44, who has been sailing on and off since he was 18, said the addition of Pyewacket elevated the sailing program to the next level.

“While there are a lot of boats and opportunities to crew with people, there really aren’t opportunities to crew on this type of boat because they generally have a professional crew,” said McVay, a financial consultant who lives in Orange.

“I’m hoping that my experience thus far will at least give me an opportunity to put my name in the hat, but I think there will be a lot of people that will be very interested.”

The boat will arrive in Newport Beach in the fall, after its keel is reduced from 18 to 12 feet. Right now, it’s too big for Newport Harbor.