Sailing With Bogie: A Memoir of Humphrey Bogart's Passion for the Sea (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781453807484)

Author Larry Dudley has been called a "sailor's sailor," the kind of guy you want driving your boat when the wind is howling and visibility is zero: Mr. Calm and Collected. Larry never raised his voice no matter how dicey the situation was. The tone of his deep baritone voice complimented his handsome, tanned and weathered features. Well over six feet, Larry instilled confidence in the rest of us mortals who sailed with him. Larry's sailing career began when he was ten in 1930 when he bought his first sailboat. His mother bought the sails for him and he road his bike the 15 miles from Whittier, CA to Long Beach to sail her. As a teenager, Larry crewed on race boats, eventually hired as the skipper on the 56ft. yawl TEVA in the Sea of Cortez when he was just 18. In 1939 he crewed aboard the winning boat CONTENDER in the world famous Transpac race from Los Angeles to Hawaii. When the Second World War broke out, Larry joined the Coast Guard and began a distinguished career under fire on the water surviving 23 major bombing attacks by the enemy. He ferried supplies ashore on LST's in Africa, Europe and the Pacific and at 23 became the youngest chief boatswain's mate in the Coast Guard. Larry saw action from Sicily to Saipan and even to Iwo Jima, he personally witnessed the famous Marine Corps flag raising on Mt. Suribachi. After the war Larry continued his education and was working as a salesman when he got the fateful call from Hollywood's leading man; but Larry wasn't buying it. The voice on the phone said "Hello. This is Humphrey Bogart." "Sure" Larry replied with a tone of sarcastic disbelief, "and this is Queen Victoria!" Thus began a ten year friendship that brought the two men as close as brothers. Larry sailed with some of the finest sailors on the ocean, Irving Johnson, Commodore Tompkins, Dave Fraser, Gary Mull, Tom Schock, Baldwin A. Baldwin and Larry's long time friend Sterling Hayden. He did boat deliveries from Europe to North America and up and down the West Coast. Larry sailed in any number of world class races on world class boats. He raced with the late Roy Disney on PYEWACKET among others. In all, he traveled close to 400,000 miles on several oceans. Larry and his first wife Carol raised four wonderful children. Ten years or so later he began to work in an area that he loved as National Sales Manager for Catalina Yachts. This eventually led to the opening of Larry Dudley Yacht Sales with his wife Ann in 1980 in Ventura Harbor, California. He wrote "Sailing With Bogie" as a tribute to his dear friend with whom he had such a strong bond. That bond was best described in a conversation between the two aboard SANTANA sailing in a full moon and a fresh breeze. "You know, Larry, I just can't seem to explain to people what it's like to be out here. It's beyond words...they'll never understand." All Larry could think of was to quote softly, "The way of a ship with the sea, the way of a man with a maid.... " Larry Dudley passed away on August 24, 2001.