Alan Olsen taught Bob Bitchin how to sail!
Alan Olson, the guy behind Call of the Sea and decades of getting people off the dock and into real boats, just picked up Tall Ships America’s Lifetime Achievement Award on February 11 in Chula Vista.For about 70 years Alan took landlubbers and turned them into seasoned sailors!!
Bob Bitchin was one of those landlubbers!
A little over 50 years ago this huge, tattooed Biker boarded a sail boat for the first time. It was the Tall Ship Stone Witch, that Alan built in San Francisco and he knew absolutely nothing about sailing.
They’d been blocking the building of a nuclear plant and were about to be seized for their efforts, as they were the flag ship for Green Peace. Bob signed on and after sailing to Guatemala from Redondo Beach California, he had been transformed into a sailor. All thanks to Alan Olsen.
Tall Ships America gives this award to people who’ve spent their lives getting others to sea under sail and keeping sail training traditions alive. Alan didn’t just check that box. He built the box, sailed it across an ocean, and taught a bunch of people how to steer it.
They recognized him for more than seven decades of creating sail training opportunities for young people, especially kids who didn’t have much money but had plenty of curiosity. By the numbers, Olson is one of the most prolific sail trainers in American history. Miles sailed, students trained, boats restored, programs built. He didn’t just talk about “transformative experiences.” He made them happen, one watch, one lesson, one squall at a time.
His reputation comes from doing things the hard way and the right way. Curiosity-driven learning. Evidence-based programs. Translation: kids actually learned something, not just got a ride. Through Call of the Sea, he built a community that welcomed volunteers, crew, and staff and treated them like people who mattered, not just line handlers and galley hands.
And then there are the boats. Stone Witch. Maramel. Matthew Turner. These aren’t museum pieces that smell like lemon oil and donations. They’re working sail training vessels that have carried generations of students into the Pacific, into the wind, and into themselves.
Tall Ships America says time under sail builds character through honest challenge. Anyone who’s reefed a mainsail at 0200 in a breeze knows that’s not marketing copy. Alan’s been proving that for most of a century.
This is his second Tall Ships America award. He picked up the Leadership Award in 2018. Frankly, they could have started handing him plaques back when people still thought fiberglass was a fad.
So a big thanks to Alan. Thanks for the miles, the boats, the students, and the stubborn insistence that sailing should be real, accessible, and challenging. The sea needs more people like him.
and tall ships accessible to the wider public.
No man has done more for maintaining the tue feeling of the Tall Ship than Alan, and the marine world owes him a huge debt of gratitude.
