We are very saddened to announce the sudden passing of our beloved father, Mike Seal. Mike passed away Friday, October 29, in his home, in the loving company of his longtime partner, Joan Barnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our father\u2019s interest in sailboat racing started shortly after meeting our mother, Eileen. Eileen proceeded him in death on October 14, 2007, and had been a lifelong sailor competing in, and winning, many yachting regattas as a teenager in Vancouver B.C. where they met. After they married, our father built his first sailboat, a 16-foot racing dingy called a fireball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he first moved to Bellingham in 1967, he and Eileen would compete in the BYC Wednesday night racing series in Bellingham Bay using this boat. We remember our mother coming home drenched (but with a smile on her face) whenever the boat would capsize. On the helm, Dad would scramble around the hull of the boat only getting his shoes and lower legs wet while Mom, on the trapeze, would get dumped in the drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our first \u201cbig boat\u201d was a Ranger 26, originally named Audi, and renamed Sulica (a name derived using the first 2 letters of each of our names \u2013 Suzie, Lisa, Cathie). After successfully sailing this boat for many years, Biggerboatitis hit, and he traded up for an ultralight Olsen 30, which he named Calisu (see what he did there with the names?). The entire family competed in the Wednesday and Thursday night racing series as well as several regional races and regattas in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After he retired from teaching at WWU, they sold Calisu to purchase their dream boat, an F31 Trimaran named Manu Ara. This boat was fast, yet still allowed them to comfortably cruise the Salish Sea and even down to Baja. After Mom\u2019s death, Dad returned to racing in 2009 when he bought a MacGregor 26M in partnership with his daughter, Lisa. They decided to name it Viking in honor of the WWU Mascot and the famous experimental vehicles Dad designed and built at the Vehicle Research Institute at WWU. Although the Viking was fun to cruise, it was not designed as a racing sailboat. In 2013 Dad circled back to his racing roots with the purchase of Magnifique, another Olsen 30 that he raced in the BYC and CYC racing fleets until the Covid 19 pandemic stopped everything. In what would turn out to be his final sail, he was absolutely delighted to spend Father\u2019s Day navigating the winds and tides to Vendovi Island \u2013 totally in his element with his daughters and grandsons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are very saddened to announce the sudden passing of our beloved father, Mike Seal. Mike passed away Friday, October<\/p>\n