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If you’re on the Pacific Coast and sailing an Islander, then you might want to check out this Islander Rendezvous on July 10-12 in Deer Harbour, Orcas Island, San Juan Islands, Washington State.

There was mention of it last year by Bert & Carey Vermeer (Natasha) having spoke to Doug & Eileen (Tatoosh), the organizers of the Pacific Northwest Islander Rendezvous (http://www.islander36.org/thetis14/thetis14.html)

See the 48 North online magazine here for more http://digital.turn-page.com/i/518907-48n-june-2015/17?

Looks like I’m going to have to find this book mentioned on Robert H. Perry’s biography page (perryboat.com).  Here’s the full description: Yacht Design According to Perry: My Boats and What Shaped Them.

Seems that once upon a time Robert:

“moved back to Seattle and opened the door to Robert H. Perry Yacht Designers. I was already working on the Valiant series, the Islander 28 and the CT54.”

I’d sure like to know more about his memory of the Islander sailboats, maybe I can buy him some fries next time I pop across the strait…

Blue Water Boats .org and others credit Robert Perry as the father of ‘performance cruising’ and note that he was involved in the design of a number of Islanders:

• Islander 26
• Islander 28, #76, 1974
• Islander 32, #80, 1975
• Islander 34
• Islander Freeport 36, #87, 1977
• Islander Freeport 38

So if you’re sailing one of those Islanders, then it seems you’re sailing on a little bit of history!

You can celebrate in February since Boat de Jour proclaimed it Robert Perry month.  They also have some great information about their Islander 28 on their site.

Lucky them since “Robert Perry … considers [the Islander 28] one of his best designs”  according to Randall Marquis of the now defunct Islander Sailboats .com (kindly preserved and made accessible by The Internet Archive‘s Way Back Machine!).  It seems that Randall, who was a webmaster on that site, was lucky enough to meet and interview a few of the well known yacht designers while he was running the site.