The Sea Eagle sails up the Sacramento River, near Miller Park. / Photo courtesy of Harris Studios

Owned by Pocket area residents and entertainers Jack G. and Brenda Payne, the Sea Eagle is herself a very popular entertainer.

A sight to behold, the pirate ship-like vessel never disappoints its onlookers as she draws attention to herself through her very detailed, artistic appearance.

With its many features that result in “oohs” and “aahs” from its observers each time it sails, this one-of-a-kind, custom yacht is like an art show on water.

These artistic features include hand-carved wood in various forms and images, including a pirate-type character, a bald eagle and tropical designs, brass and bronze additions, heavy duty teak toe rails, custom, mahogany splash rails and of course, large sails with a skull and crossed cutlasses image and a cannon.

And a brief description of the Sea Eagle’s features only begins to capture the essence of this highly detailed and well-designed yacht. Only those who have had the opportunity of witnessing this vessel in person can truly begin to understand the sort of time and care that has gone into creating it.

As a sort of celebrity of the Sacramento River, Bay Area waters and more, the Sea Eagle continues to attract new fans on a regular basis, Brenda explained.

“I’m really quite proud of Sea Eagle,” Brenda said. “She is such a special boat. We will be out sailing in San Francisco Bay and we will see people all the way on the other side of the bay, which is a long way away. They will turn in their boats and sail across the bay to look at us and say, ‘Argh.’ That’s the funny thing is they come over and say, ‘Argh.’”

Although the story of Sea Eagle began with its birth in 1969, the 26-foot-long yacht has undoubtedly evolved to have a much more detailed appearance through the many hours that Jack G. and his father, Jack A. Payne, have dedicated to this vessel.

The custom artwork on the Sea Eagle’s stern was designed by Jack A. Payne. / Photo courtesy of Jack G. and Brenda Payne

This work includes Jack G.’s design of the sail and Jack A.’s custom artwork on the Sea Eagle’s stern.

Considering that Jack G. and his wife are accustomed to being showcased as entertainers, the attention that the Sea Eagle brings to their life is just one more way of being on stage.

Working as The Sensational Saxons and presenting their unicycle riding-juggling act and magic performances, the couple’s stages have been both big and small.

Among Jack G. and Brenda’s most notable performances was their work as opening acts for big names like Bob Hope, Regis Philbin, Phyllis Diller and Ellen Degeneres.

As a showman, Jack G. enjoys entertaining his friends and others on occasions by wearing a pirate-type costume aboard the Sea Eagle, thus making him a real life Captain Jack.

Although Jack G. enjoys dressing up in pirate attire and Brenda speaks highly of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, Brenda explained that she prefers not to be associated with real pirates; instead opting for the term privateer.

“I will never approve of real pirates, because they weren’t good people,” Brenda said. “They really were bad guys. On the other hand, the privateers, they were mean dudes and they still went and took the goods from other sailing vessels, but they actually were sailing under the flag of a country.”

Jack G. Payne sails on the San Francisco Bay, north of the Bay Bridge. / Photo courtesy of Jack G. and Brenda Payne

As a bit of trivia, Brenda added that the skull and cross bones-type image on the yacht’s sails were designed prior to the release of any “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.

“This (yacht) was being designed and put together long before those movies, so this has nothing to do with the Pirates of the Caribbean,” Brenda said.

But of course, as entertainers, Jack G. and Brenda enjoy the added attention that these films have brought to the Sea Eagle.

And despite what one might believe, the Sea Eagle has not been void of a movie-like, pirate-type battle on the water.

Instead, the yacht, as Brenda explained, once encountered a brief battle on the Sacramento River.

“We were going by (another pirate-like vessel, the Hawaiian Chieftain), so I pulled out our little, wooden cannon and waved it at them and they fired at us,” Brenda said. “Seriously, I have pictures of the Hawaiian Chieftain firing at us. Is that too cool? I loved it.”

Jack G. and Brenda’s love for sailing together throughout the 40 years of their marriage has led them to sailing adventures in such places as the Atlantic and Pacific U.S. coasts, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the waters of Tahiti, New Zealand, Pago Pago and Hawaii.

And although the Sea Eagle is not the Paynes’ first sailing vessel and perhaps it will not be their last, of all the boats that the couple has owned, no boat receives more attention than the Sea Eagle.

Brenda explained that this draw to the Sea Eagle is due to its extremely unique appearance.

Jack G. Payne is dressed in his full wardrobe pirate attire for a day of sailing aboard of the Sea Eagle. / Photo courtesy of Jack G. and Brenda Payne

“I’ve seen boats literally all over the world, but I’ve never seen a boat more unique than Sea Eagle,” Brenda said. “I’ve seen some that are cute like the Hawaiian Chieftain, but none as unique as the Sea Eagle.”

For additional information and to view more photographs of Sea Eagle, visit the Web link http://www.yachtpals.com/seaeagle.

lance@valcomnews.com

Sailing long distances on the Pacific Ocean, Michael Caplan says, is “hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.”

Sacramento resident Michael Caplan loves to sail the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Hawaii. His voyages have involved encounters with flying fish, squid and whales. / Photo courtesy

The boredom, Caplan said, includes spending hours on watch in some of the remotest spots on the globe, complete with hallucinations and some conversation with yourself, seeing one’s life compartmentalized into only periods of light and periods of darkness, and repeated meals of the same tired pasta dishes and preserved canned banality.

At the other end of the seagoing spectrum are the otherworldly, sailors-only occurrences and interactions that the landlocked will never experience: eyeball-to-eyeball meetings with whales, endless seascapes seemingly meant solely for the viewing pleasure of those lucky few on board to view them at that particular moment and latitude, and occasional moments of mortal terror.

Caplan, a Sacramento realtor and a member of the Rotary Club of Arden-Arcade, recently completed his sixth Pacific Cup, a yacht race that takes competitors 2,070 miles from San Francisco to the Kaneohe Yacht Club on the windward side of Oahu, Hawaii. Fifty-six boats participated in the 2010 event, the race’s sixteenth running.

The Pacific Cup, Caplan explained, is a race primarily for amateur crews, unlike the Trans-Pacific Race, which is held in odd-numbered years and draws professional racers.

“In the Trans-Pac, the more money you have, the better your chances to win,” he said. “The Pacific Cup is an amateur race, run usually with older boats and amateur crews, and there is an enormous recidivist rate. It really gets in your blood.”

A “water-oriented” upbringing in paradise

Sailing got into Caplan’s blood early; his family moved to Hawaii from Sacramento when he was just four.

“My whole recreational perspective was water-oriented. I learned to surf before I learned to swim,” he recalled. “I started sailing

when I was 12; one of my teenage jobs was sailing in Hawaii. The ocean became my comfort zone.”

Caplan returned to the mainland for college and resettled in Sacramento. As soon as he felt he had the discretionary time he needed to be able to do so, he resumed sailing, first on San Francisco Bay, then on the Pacific Ocean. He entered his first Pacific Cup in 1990 and competed in the 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, and 2010 races. Over the years, Caplan has helped oversee and supervise the race in a variety of roles, including once serving as race commodore, a post he recalls as being “a great deal of fun and very time-consuming.”

How the race was run

A veteran Pacific Ocean sailor, Caplan knows well the sea and its capriciousness. During one race, his boat went from upright to capsized in the blink of an eye.

“One moment, it was five-foot seas and a 25-knot breeze, and then around 3 a.m., a squall hit us. The winds went from 25 miles per hour to 55, and we went from upright and controlled to on our ear with the boat on its side,” he said. “We went from tranquility to utter chaos in seconds.”

Handling the challenges of the rapidly-changing seascape is the true test of a sailor’s abilities, Caplan maintains.

“Usually during a race, there’s a middle ground,” he said. “You’re on the edge, and anything can happen at any time, but you’re managing it well. You’re completely focused on this 30- to 50-foot long piece of flotation.”

This year’s race, Caplan said, was marked by poor sailing conditions, and the conditions influence how fast each race is run. During this summer’s race, Caplan and his shipmates aboard the Whistler V took 16 days to complete the nearly 2,100-mile course; the boat he was on during the 2004 race finished in just 11 days.

“The conditions really were about as bad as you could imagine this year,” Caplan said. “The weather was either calm or unfavorable. Our boat performed pretty poorly, and this race was just slow; even the fastest boats performed below capacity.”

All hands on deck (and in the galley)

Participating in six Pacific Cup races has given Caplan insight into how to assemble a crew for a race. The main trait he looks for in prospective crew members is reliability.

When sailing across the ocean, Caplan supplements the crew's meal provisions by fishing. During this year's race, he caught four mahi-mahi. / Photo courtesy

“Each person on that boat depends totally on every other person and their ability to perform,” said Caplan. “And it’s true what they say, a quiet boat is the most efficient boat.”

Caplan also looks for people who are experienced ocean sailors, and possessing additional desirable skills like the ability to cook or prior medical training or experience, helps one’s resumé. For the record, family ties hold no sway when Caplan is gathering his crew.

“My son-in-law is the only member of my family that I deem reliable enough for this,” he said. “I hope that just he and I can go sailing one of these days.”

For safety’s sake, each boat in the Pacific Cup is required to carry certain amounts of potable water, provisions, anchors, feet of chain, and the like. Expecting the trip from San Francisco to Hawaii to take between 12 and 14 days, Caplan prefers to take provisions for 16 to 18 days, just to be safe. Caplan also supplements the provisions by fishing from the boat; during this year’s Pacific Cup, he caught and prepared four mahi-mahi. Even with the occasional fresh catch, meals and accommodations aboard the boat grow tiresome quickly, Caplan admits.

“There is no shower, no comfortable way to sleep, so you basically race all day, eat, crash, and wait until you’re called for your next watch,” he said. “As far as food, we have each crew member bring in his or her favorite dish frozen, and we eat those first. Then we get into the fortified protein shakes, pasta, Vienna sausages, Spam, that sort of thing.”

The things you see at sea

Asked about his most memorable moments and sights on a boat, Caplan recalls seeing living “Rembrandt paintings” stretch out before him at sunset, scenes so beautiful that exhausted crew members would interrupt their hard-earned naps to take them in.

Caplan says that sailing long distances across the Pacific Ocean involves "hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror." Here, he relaxes during one of the quieter moments on board. / Photo courtesy

He remembers feeling like his “whole soul had been sucked up into the Milky Way” one night under the stars. He tells of flying fish and flying squid inexplicably landing with a plop on the deck of the boat and of birds lighting on one of the ropes or rails and hitchhiking for days. Perhaps most stirring are the encounters with whales.

“They make eye contact with you, and you’re looking at them and they’re looking back at you, and you can’t help but wonder, ‘What the hell is this animal thinking?’”

Unfortunately, Caplan also has seen how human thoughtlessness is impacting the oceans.

“I’ve observed a lot of trash in the open ocean: ropes, parts of fishing nets, and of course plastic bottles and other plastic things,” he said. “It’s really discouraging and disheartening. The nets and ropes are the most disheartening objects, since they can trap fish, dolphins, and turtles.”

Caplan credits his Hawaiian upbringing for his fondness for the ocean and its inhabitants.

“The ocean has always been dear to me; chalk it up to being raised on an island in the middle of the Pacific,” he said. “Spending time ‘out there’ just strengthens the commitment to preserving our natural resources.  I think that most of us that sail feel similarly.”