Gerry Spiess

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Gerald F. (Gerry) Spiess (b. 1940) a school teacher best known for having sailed the tiny, home-built sailboat Yankee Girl solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1979, and again across the Pacific in 1981. At 10-feet long with a beam of just 5 1/2 feet, Yankee Girl was and remains one of the smallest vessels ever to make these ocean crossings.

Spiess designed and built the boat in his garage in suburban White Bear Lake, Minnesota, from plywood. After a test launch in the local lake, Spiess transported the boat to the East Coast for launch. He sailed from Norfolk, Virginia on June 1, 1979 arriving in Falmouth, England, after a 54 day West-East Atlantic crossing.

[edit] Writings

  • Alone Against the Atlantic. Spiess, Gerry with Bree, Marlin. Berkley Publising Group. 1981. (ISBN 0-89893-506-7)

[edit] Biography

  • Broken Seas. Bree, Marlin. 2005. Marlor Publishing. (ISBN-13: 978-1892147097)
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