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BUSINESS CONNECTIONS

COMMUNITY PROFILE - Larry Jacobsen, Circumnavigator

Roger Brigham
Connection Staff
September 2007

It is one thing to dream about doing something really exciting and unusual, like sailing around the world or writing a book. It’s quite another thing to turn the dream into reality.

But that’s exactly what Larry Jacobsen, 52, and his partner Ken Smith, 43, did. They sailed out of San Francisco Bay in December 2001 while the world was still reeling from the shock of 9/11, and for the next 5 years and 8 months circumnavigated the globe. This August they finally completed their journey to drop anchor and spend their next few years in the place they now call home: Emeryville.

Emery Cove Marina to be exact. That’s where they are living on their 50-foot Stevens cutter rig sloop.

“Emeryville is the perfect place,” Jacobsen said. “It’s perfectly situated between the East Bay and San Francisco. And I own a berth here in the marina. When I sold my half of the house to finance this trip, I bought this berth so we’d some place to come home to.

“This is the only place in the Bay Area you can actually own your own berth.”

The former Berkeley resident retired from his marketing incentive business and sold just about everything he had to finance the trip. Now he plans to write a book about what he learned on his voyage, then work as a motivational speaker.

“In order to get into the speaking market, it’s better if you’re an author,” he said. “The book will be about changes and lessons that I’ve learned from this trip. I wrote about emails to about 200 people while on the trip, describing changes to me and what was happening, I want to see if I can come up with something out of that that is meaningful to more people than just sailors.”

Jacobsen listed New Zealand, Turkey and Israel as the favorite places he and Smith visited.

“The spirit of the people there was amazing,” he said. “All of them are in out-of-the-way places where people have to learn to depend on themselves.

“The most surprising thing was how much the trip cost and how hard it was to maintain the boat and keep it going. I’m glad that I did it, and glad that I made my dream come true, but it was the most difficult thing I have ever done.

“We had breakdowns in Indonesia, bad storms in the Red Sea, gale force winds in the Mediterranean, auto pilot failures at sea, rigging failures in a storm off Australia, and a few other incidents. But for the most part the trip was great, the people friendly and welcoming to us all over the world, and I come home optimistic about life in general.”

It was those times of stress that proved most educational for Jacobsen.

“Every once in a while we would break down,” he said. “For example, we would be motoring into an anchorage and the engine might shut down. Maybe a wire broke off or something. Your heart just sinks because you think you’re out in the middle of nowhere.

“On the other hand, those are some of those high points. You overcome more than you think you can.

“We were sailing between an island group in the South Pacific and Australia. The autopilot went out. There were just two of us.

“That means one person steers, while the other does every other task you have to do to keep things going. We were 36 hours from Australia when that happened. Then 12 hours later we lost our forestay. That holds the mast up, basically. “We had to jury-rig two halyards to take its place.

And the weather was so rough. Of course, it always happens at 2 o’clock in the morning and in a storm! It took 20 minutes just to crawl forward to do anything. That’s when you learn how strong you really are. You don’t have any choice.”

So, what message will he give people when he speaks of the trip?

“You can make things change and you can make dreams come true. I’d just like to share that message with people.

“It can be anything in life. I think people get stuck in doing things and they get comfortable. They identify with something in their comfort level.

“Say I’m a secretary. To move on to something else, you have to get uncomfortable by stopping being a secretary and then you have to be uncomfortable in a new position.

“When people ask me, ‘What do you do?’ I would say, ‘I’m a sailor.’ Most people look at other people and judge them by what they do for a living.”

And the first step is the scariest, Jacobsen said.

“The scariest moment of all was untying the dock lines and leaving the comfort of our country,” he said. “Heading out into the unknown after quitting my career seemed crazy but it turned out to be quite liberating, enlightening, and fulfilling.

“In order to sail out to sea, you have to untie the dock lines, you have to leave in order to get to the next place,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson has been around sailboats most of his life, starting at the age of 13 in Long Beach. He raced for UC Irvine while he was a student there. He and Smith started sailing together on the bay when they first met 14 years ago, then decided to purchase the boat Jacobsen named after his 85-year-old mother, Julia.

“My mother Julia is the most inspirational person that I know and has more strength than anyone else I know,” he said, “and I wanted to carry that strength into my journey.”

His thoughts, now that the trip is done?

“I gotta tell you,” Jacobsen said, “I’m glad to be home!”

In Emeryville.

Roger Brigham is a writer for The Emeryville

Connection. If you have a question or comment, please contact him at ecocnews@gmail.com