A Q&A With Author and Chesapeake Sailor Ted Weihe
I first met Ted Weihe 18 ago at the West River Sailing Club, where he happily sailed his Chesapeake 20 Stormy, and welcomed me a few times as crew. Since then, Ted has moved to Sarasota, FL, written a few books, and continues to race (and stay in touch).
Ted has been sailing since the age of four on a Humphy Condor from Cleveland, nearly 80 years ago. Since then, he has experienced many changes in the world of sailing, including the waterfronts he’s lived upon. Here he shares some memories that will resonate with Chesapeake Bay sailors.
What are some of your early memories of sailing?
After World War II, my father moved to Arlington, VA, to apply his avionics inventions to civil aviation. In 1947, he had built a Baymate traditional bugeye in Cambridge, which our family sailed throughout the Bay. We travelled across the Bay before the Bay Bridge… At isolated Tangier and Smith Islands, we were welcomed when they did not service yachts. We sailed in every West River Sailing Club cruise since the first in 1954. My father’s last one was in 1984 when he died of a heart attack in Solomons…