Carl Schumacher: 1951-2002

We are sorry to report the passing of Carl Schumacher. He was a talented designer and an even better man. Below is a tribute to Carl written by Terry Alsberg. Please take a moment of remembrance for Carl.

Remembering Carl

From....Terry Alsberg

A few months ago I drove up to Pt. Richmond with my thirteen year old son to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the launching of Light'n up, the Express 27 that won the single handed Transpac. I took Brian along because he was born the month after I had stopped building boats and I thought that he ought to know something about the Express boats and the people involved in them. Because of the press of a busy schedule, I go to Express events infrequently but they are always like family reunions. Carl Schumacher, the designer of the 201 Expresses that I built, was there as were so many of the extended Express family. All of these people were drawn together because of some pencil lines on vellum that Carl artfully drew so many years ago.

Carl died suddenly on the 5th of February. It hit me like a ton of bricks or more appropriately like a round down, stick the pole in the water, banana split gybe.

When I started Alsberg Brother's Boatworks, the temptation was to design my own boats. Every body else in Santa Cruz did. But I wanted to build boats slightly outside the Santa Cruz mold and so I sought outside help. I talked to some of the biggest names in yacht design at the time, Doug Peterson, Bruce Farr and others. Then one day I was talking to George Olson about my ideas for the Express 27 and he suggested that I talk to Carl Schumacher. They had worked together on the St. Francis Yacht Club's Six Meter. George said that Carl knew how to make a boat go fast.

Carl was more than a just a clever designer, he was just the kind of person you liked to work with. He was a can do kind of guy who worked his tail off to please his clients. He was of course creative, intelligent and savvy in the ways of yacht design. Perhaps most importantly, he was the sort of mellow, sensible kind of guy who designed real boats for real people. We shared a common vision, that sailboats should be as user friendly as they are fast. We collaborated on three designs, the Express 27, 34 and 37 over a period of eight years, each one a great boat in its own right. I still have the preliminary drawings for a the Express 44. Like all of his boats, it has a beautiful shear line, a trademark Express cabin and a sail plan that combines power with ease of handling. It's a shame that he will not be around to draw the complete plans and that I will not get a chance to build it.

Though his work was done at his drafting table I remember him most down by the docks and out on the race course. Water Rat said that nothing is a much fun as mucking around on boats down by the water. Nobody was as much fun to muck around with as Carl. He had a sampler on the wall in his living room that asserted, "The lord does not subtract from your time on this earth those hours spent sailing."

Though his time on this earth may have tolled, no doubt he's sailing somewhere in a different place on a different sea. And the boat that he is sailing is as fast as it is beautiful. I am glad that my son got to know him as I remember him, that day down by the docks in Pt. Richmond.