Sally Helme
Elizabeth “Sally” Snowden Ely Helme of Middletown, R.I., beloved daughter, sister, aunt, niece, cousin and dog mom passed away unexpectedly on March 20, 2024, at 70.
In her younger years her family summered on Shelter Island, N.Y., where Helme developed her skills and passion for sailing and boating. She sailed one-design boats, Woodpussy and Comet, at Shelter Island Yacht Club (SIYC) on the east end of Long Island for multiple regattas. She later moved up to sail large handicap boats as crew and occasional skipper of the family’s Bristol 34 Typhoon. She was SIYC’s first female sailing director. Helme’s involvement with the club extended into her adult years, when she was appointed as a trustee, the first female to hold that position.
Helme devoted her nearly 50-year career to recreational sailing. Starting as a summer sailing instructor for SIYC in the ’70s, she went on to work for numerous employers McMichael Yachts, Greenport, N.Y; C & C Yachts, Portsmouth, R.I.; Lewmar Winches, UK and Guilford, Conn.; and The Yacht sailing magazine as a founding member. Her most recent and final post was as publisher (emeritus) for Sailing World and Cruising World magazines where she served for more than two decades. Helme was the first female publisher in the sailing industry.
Helme was also recognized as a champion for women sailors and was a founding member of International Women in Boating. Helme also helped create and sponsor the National Women’s Sailing Association’s “Take the Helm” series of women’s educational and networking events. She was a past president of Sail America, and a former vice president of Marine Marketers of America.
Helme previously served on the boards of Sail Newport and US Sailing and was a board member of the Sailing Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. and Imtra Corporation in New Bedford, Mass. She also served on the communications committee at the New York Yacht Club.
Throughout her career, Helme received many accolades. Always humble, she downplayed these achievements and often her family didn’t know until after the award had been presented. “I have also always valued what sailing can bring to our lives — providing a wonderful escape, instilling a sense of confidence and self-reliance, and simply offering cherished time on the water with friends and family,” said Helme.
Bruce Kessler
Bruce Kessler, an adventurer who left his mark as a professional automobile racer, a Hollywood director and one of the first Americans to circumnavigate the globe on a motoryacht, died April 4 at the age of 88.
Kessler was born in Seattle, lived most of his life in California, and died in Marina del Rey, his longtime home. It could be said that he was never more at home than when he was at sea. Over his lifetime, he logged more than 100,000 nautical miles on his cruising boats.
At 16 Kessler began competing in Sports Car Club of America events driving his mom’s Jaguar XK120. He rose quickly as one of America’s top drivers, moving up to a custom Scarab built by his close friend Lance Reventlow.
Surviving mulitiple crashes, he retired from racing and made his first film, a short subject called “The Sound of Speed,” featuring Reventlow testing his 1960 Formula 1 Scarab at Riverside International Raceway. The film was the U.S. entry in its category at the 1962 Cannes International Film Festival. That was his entrée into the Hollywood film and television industry.
“The Sound of Speed will probably be the most remembered film of my career,” he later told a friend, “because of its honesty and the groundbreaking techniques for when it was made.” It was the first film to use car-mounted cameras to show the driver’s point of view.
Film making became Kessler’s vocation, but boats were never far from his mind. His first boat was a 26-foot sport fisherman in 1960, but he soon found that he wanted to fish farther and farther from home, and his sportfishers grew in size, topping out at 48 feet. By then he was roaming deep into Baja, Mexico, far from his San Diego homeport. “At that point I realized trawlers had become a logical progression for me,” he told a friend. “Range and sea-keeping abilities were paramount in my mind.”
He turned to naval architect Steve Seaton, for the design of his next boat. Then he approached Delta Marine, a renowned American manufacturer of commercial fishing vessels, to build a long-range trawler yacht for him. They showed no interest. Eventually Delta built the 70 feet vessel with a 20-foot beam, 10-foot draft and displacement of 116 tons. Zopilote was a big boat.
At the time, no one had any idea what a groundbreaking trawler yacht she would become. In the world of offshore cruising boats Zopilote proved to be a game-changer. Delta ceased building fishing boats and shifted to yachts and eventually superyachts.
In 1990, almost five years after the boat was launched, Kessler and his wife, actress Joan Freeman departed California, bound for the South Pacific on what would play out as a 35,000-mile circumnavigation. When they arrived in Fort Lauderdale from Europe after their final leg in 1993, Zopilote became the sixth powerboat in history to complete a circumnavigation.
Kessler became a popular speaker at TrawlerFests, boat shows, yacht clubs, and other boating gatherings. He also helped create and promote powerboat rallies, including the FUBAR Rally and the historic Nordhavn Atlantic Rally.
For all her glory, Zopilote met a tragic end, striking an underwater ledge in Alaska and sinking in minutes in 1994. Kessler and his crew of four escaped to a liferaft with no one lost or injured.
Kessler built a new Seaton-designed 64-foot passagemaker, Spirit of Zopilote. Over the next 27 years Bruce and Joan lived and cruised aboard the boat. They chose Maine’s Southwest Harbor as their homeport.
Over his lifetime, Kessler logged more than 100,000 nautical miles (and 25,000 hours) underway. He was a recipient of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America’s Spirit of Competition Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from PassageMaker magazine. He was a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2001 he was the first powerboater elected to membership in the Cruising Club of America.
Kessler was also a member of the Ocean Cruising Club, a longtime member of the Del Rey Yacht Club, the Southwestern Yacht Club (San Digeo), the Marlin Club (San Diego), and the Tuna Club (Avalon, Catalina Island), and an Honorary Commodore of the Seven Seas Cruising Association.
In 2007 Kessler founded the FUBAR (Fleet Underway to Baja Rally), a 980-mile powerboat flotilla cruise from San Diego around the tip of the Baja peninsula to La Paz, Mexico, as a continuing fundraiser for junior sailing at Del Rey Yacht Club. FUBAR later changed its name to CUBAR (Cruise Underway to Baja Rally) and is now run every two years by the San Diego Yacht Club.
Gloria Melges
Longtime member of the sailing community Gloria Melges passed away on July 20, 2024. Born in New Jersey on May 27, 1931, she spent her summers aboard a Great Lakes cruising sailboat out of Chicago, where her father served as commodore of the Columbia Yacht Club.
Gloria graduated with honors from the Northwestern University Dental School. During her time at the university, she met and fell in love with Wisconsin yachtsman Harry C. “Buddy” Melges, Jr. After a strong start to their relationship, Buddy went to serve in the Korean War. They maintained their bond through exchanging letters while he was away.
Upon his return, Buddy proposed and he and Gloria were married soon after. During their 69-year marriage, they had three children, Laura, Harry III and Hans. Throughout their time together, Gloria always supported Buddy’s sailing career on and off the water.
Gloria also forged her own legacy, starting with being the first female commodore of the Lake Geneva Yacht Club in Wisconsin. She was a crew member in Classes A, E and C, a race committee member and Principal Race Officer for Lake Geneva Yacht Club fleets. She also participated in national events including the Star Class World Championship, Pan American Games and the America’s Cup.
Gloria was honored as the first recipient of the Huse Inland Lake Yachting Association Sportsmanship Trophy in November 2019. She earned accolades as a U.S. Sailing Senior Race Officer and an Inland Lakes Sailing Association Senior Race Officer. Gloria’s contributions to sailing were further acknowledged with the Ed Malone Judges Trophy as Inland Lake Yachting Association Race Committee/Judge of the Year and the Bilge Pullers Cannon as Outstanding Inland Lake Yachting Association Race Management Corps Volunteer. Two times, she also received the Dr. and Mrs. Will F. Lyon Award for Outstanding Race Committee Service from the Lake Geneva Yacht Club.
Many sailors considered Gloria a “second mom” because she cultivated a warm and welcoming sailing community throughout the world. One of her favorite activities was hosting international competitors at the Melges’ home on Geneva Lake. She and Buddy created an environment in which young sailors thrived, learn and develop a love for the sport.
A celebration of life for Gloria and Buddy will be held this fall.
Donald Street Jr.
Donald Street, Jr., 93, died April 30, 2024, in County Cork, Ireland. He spent his final day working on the 92-year-old Gypsy, readying her to be the first dragon launched for the season.
Street spent most of the 1950s and 1960s cruising the Caribbean — before the guidebooks, mooring balls and the amenities. He wrote many books and drew charts that led the way to making the Caribbean so accessible today.
His Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles, published in 1966, opened the eastern Caribbean to cruising yachtsmen and made chartering possible. It’s worth noting that he did most of this aboard his 46-foot engineless yawl, Iolaire, built in 1905. He has made 12 trans-Atlantic crossings, all of which were hand steered with no autopilot.
He was a frequent Sailing Scuttlebut commentator, often sharing stories from his early years growing up in Manhasset Bay on New York’s Long Island. He had little tolerance for boats being abandoned at sea and was known for his contempt of inadequate bilge pumps. After another sailor died of seasickness, he was quick to share his remedy.
Street grew up learning sailing from likes of Jack Sutphen, Arthur Knapp, and his sisters. He served on submarines during the Korean war and quit a New York City banking career to go sailing in the Caribbean. His most recent passion has been racing his dragon boat in Glandore, with a predominantly teenage crew that he trained.
He is survived by his wife Trich and children Dory, Donald, Richard, and Mark (Ted), and nine grandchildren. ν