"Sherman, set the Wayback machine to the late sixties. We are going to San Francisco."
"Will we be hanging out in the Haight with the hippies, Mr. Peabody?"
"No Sherman, we are going to meet David Allen Keiper, one of the pioneers of hydrofoiling sailboats. Our colleague Gary suggested the trip."
"So in less time than it takes to tell the tale, Sherman and I found ourselves back in the late sixties."
"Mr. Peabody, if I didn't know any better, I would think I am hallucinating. Is that because we had mushrooms on our pizza or is that really a hydrofoiling trimaran?"
"Sherman, you are not hallucinating. What you are looking at is the 32-foot Williwaw, the world's first hydrofoil sailing yacht. She was developed by Dave Keiper. The Williwaw cruised around the Pacific in the late 1960s, early 1970s, sailing as far south as New Zealand."
Remembering Dave Keiper and WILLIWAW...
[29 Mar 00] I was lucky enough in life to have sailed with Dave Keiper in the summer of 1971 on the most incredible boat I have ever sailed on. We were anchored in the middle of Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai when Dave came in and dropped anchor. We had seen WILLIWAW flying around Waikiki a month or so before and were surprised to see her here. I had sailed over with a man named Gordy Gladson on his tri, and as all trimaran sailors in those days knew each other, we swam over to have a visit . Of course Dave (most gracious) had to show off the boat. We put out to sea in about a 15 knot trade wind on a beam reach. The boat started heeling like a monohull, and then the foils got a bite and the boat came up out of the water and accelerated like a car...what a rush!!! The boat was so fast and stable Dave could walk away from the tiller and she would run like she was on rails. This was truly one of the most memorable days of my sailing life of 35 years. .... -- Jim Wrenn
