The Fanatical Life of Yacht Racer Michael Kane

Esquire Magazine

Michael Kane steers his 55-foot trimaran, Crusader, across the calm, crowded waters of Newport Harbor, gliding past high-priced houses and condos in a paradise of Southern California affluence. It's a bright winter's day and the canal is jammed with weekend boat traffic: windsurfers, rented rowboats, growling outboards, spacious motor yachts, and sailboats of every description. “Boozers and cruisers," scoffs Kane. Most of the ten thousand boats in California's largest yacht harbor don't venture past the breakwater; he says. But Kane and Crusader are different. Crusader is an open-ocean racer, stripped down and built for speed, coated with a fine crust of salt from its thousands of miles at sea. And Kane is asingle-handed sailor; he prefers to sail Crusader by himself.

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