Gary Jobson
World-class sailor and ESPN Commentator Gary Jobson regaled a St. Michaels crowd Thursday night with stories of sailing with Walter Cronkite, Ted Turner and the dignitaries of Europe.
Not afraid to poke fun of himself, Jobson showed video of the boat he was sailing in last year’s Newport-to-Bermuda Race as it crossed the starting line before the gun.
“Has anyone here been over the line at the start of a race?” he asked as the crowd broke into laughter. “Welcome to the club. As the fleet was heading to Bermuda, we were heading back to the starting line.”
Jobson, an America’s Cup sailor, was honored with the Miles River Yacht Club Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award following a fund-raising dinner at the clubhouse on Long Haul Creek.
The MRYC Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports youth-oriented sailing, swimming and educational activities around the Chesapeake Bay. It has made grants and donations to the Sultana Projects, St. Michaels sailing and swimming programs and the MRYC Junior Sailing Camp.
About 130 area residents attended the Foundation dinner with proceeds from the dinner, a live auction and dinner-wine sales going to support future donations.
Jobson, whose parents, the late Tom and Helyn Jobson lived in St. Michaels, spent the better part of an hour sharing stories of sailors and the sea. He said he has competed in 5,400 races in his career and crossed the Atlantic six times, the last time on a tallship.
“I climbed to the top of the rigging twice,” he said. “It took a week before I did it the second time.”
He told the audience that one of the more rewarding parts of his life as a sailor has been his opportunity to be a mentor to young sailors.
“As you can imagine, I have had a nice career on the water,” he said. “I have sailed on every continent and in most of the regattas and a couple of Olympic campaigns.”
The crowd grew quiet as he talked about how he had been involved in the early founding stages of The Leukemia Cup Regatta, an annual series of races around the country that has raised $40 million to help find a cure for cancer.
“It was ironic that 10 years later I was diagnosed with the disease.” He said that one point during his treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, when he thought the end was near, it was his early training as a sailor that helped him get through depression.
“Here is my real message,” he concluded. “When you help someone else out, in the end, the person who is helped most, just might be you.”[slideshow id=54]
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