Letter to the Editor: Remembering Sailing Legend Martin Luray

Byline: Gordon and Mimi Glass

“News Briefs” in the Jan. 6-19 issue contained an item about Susan “Charlie” Arms of the California Maritime Academy being named Boating Educator of the Year for California by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators.

It also reported that Arms has been honored with US Sailing’s “Mary” Luray award for outstanding and unselfish contributions to further public access sailing. It should have read “Marty” Luray Award, as the honor was named for the late Martin Luray. (See US Sailing’s website, under “Awards,” for the story behind the honor).

In addition to the qualifications noted on the US Sailing website, Marty was the proud final editor of Rudder: the oldest (1890) U.S. yachting magazine, until it ceased publication in the 1980s.

As editor, Marty made frequent trips to Southern California, where we got to know him well. He was a guest in our home here, and we were guests in his home in Marblehead, on Strawberry Hill. The location overlooks the former Graves Yacht Yard, birthplace of the 12-meter America’s Cup candidate Easterner, well known here as NewsBoy.

Marty was a cruiser, not a racer, with a handsome 38-foot cutter moored — in the season — off the clubhouse of the Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead (not Boston). I remember one October helping Marty move the boat from its mooring, out of the harbor, around the end of the rocky peninsula, through Salem and Beverly harbors, then up the Bass River to its winter home in a rustic, typical New England winter storage yard.

But the significant thing about that day was, of the hundreds of boats in Marblehead Harbor each summer, Marty’s was the LAST one to leave that fall, and yes — it was snowing! That was an example of Marty’s love of sailing.

Gordon and Mimi Glass
Newport Beach