Another Launch

 

Richard Henry Dana Jr. couldn't have asked for a better setup: an innocent from Utah hanging around the Golden Gate Bridge and gazing out to sea, wondenng how he could earn his years before the mast. "This looks really neat," reflected the romantic as the sailboats streamed past into San Francisco Bay. "That's the life for me."

For someone starting out shakily in business, at first the answer wasn't an elegant yacht, but a tiny, one-person Laser dinghy, rented on the shores of a Silicon Valley pond. As fortune would have it through hard work and perseverance, the young man's business flourished. A few years later, in 1976, he was able to sell it for $28 million.

Now that is an occasion that calls for an elegant yacht. And, wasting no time, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell went out and got himself one -- a used 41-footer he renamed Pong. But, by now a typical sailor, he couldn't bear the thought of being outdone. "I got more competitive, and more competitive, and more competitive," sums up Bushnell. So this year he ordered a bigger boat -- a 67-foot, Ron Holland -- designed, ultralight displacement sloop.

The fiberglass vessel was named Charlie, not after Pizza Time Theatre's Chuck E. Cheese, but in honor of Bushnell's father. San Francisco-based Charlie is so capacious that most of the 40 to 50 people of a given Catalyst Technologies Inc. company (see INC., March, page 57) can be feted for a day's outing under sail, with one of the country's most colorful entrepreneurs at the helm puffing saltedly at his pipe.

But it is not managerial camaraderie that most concerns Bushnell. Charlie was built more for fleetness than fraternity. "We set out to be first to finish," Bushnell proclaims. And, sure enough, competing against some of the world's best big boats, the sleek entry with the sea monster painted on its bow left everyone in its wake at its July debut -- the Trans-Pacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu. A "good sailor" by his own high standards, in the jealously fought race, he nonetheless relinquished the wheel to a veteran captain. "I'm more on the navigational and tactical side of things," concedes Bushnell. But hardly by the seat of his pants: Charlie's most effective sailing posture is selected by an onboard Hewlett-Packard computer, which coordinates the boat's electronic sensors -- wind and hull speed, shape of sails, positions of competitors, weather, and so on. The program that it runs was designed at ETAK, a new Bushnell business venture.

Bushnell is quick to agree with the old adage that ocean racing is like standing under a cold shower tearing up hundred-dollar bills. In Charlie's case, though, the denominations are considerably larger -- undoubtedly running into the high six figures, all told. "It's expensive to campaign," Bushnell admits, "but, at the same time, it's very rewarding. I love it."

Even so, he manages to fit in a sail fewer than two weekends a month -- a yearly rate of less than a day per foot. One reason is that Bushnell believes that running a business is equally as absorbing as sailing. "The fascination of doing a project well, whatever it is, is what's totally rewarding," Bushnell proclaims. "I wouldn't be doing any of this crazy stuff if it wasn't a real blast. I mean, money's great, but how much money does anybody need?" Perhaps enough for the next campaigner -- say, something in the 100-foot range.