Boat Name: Bear

Sail: USA 124, ex. GBR 102, ex. BER 106

Year Built: 1989

Designer: Pelle Pettersson

Builder: Batbyggarna AB, Ronnang

Owner: Otto Pohlmann

History: Originally built for Bengt Hellsten and well travelled in her early days. She was owned in partnership with the "Walking Tall" TV show star Bo Swenson. Bear spent some time in San Diego, where she received a new Proctor mast. She was mostly driven by Vince Brun and sailed against Paul Cayard and the St Francis Yacht Club in US 120 St Francis IX in a Northern California/Southern California 6 meter match race/yacht club challenge series in the early 90's. In her debut regatta, the 1989 World Championships held at Marstrand, Sweden, she won 2 races and placed 8th of 37 and followed the next year at the Europeans Championships held at Sardinia, placing 7th of 17. She was later campaigned beyond that in Europe, but records are scarce. Eventually, the boat was sold to Rees Martin and resided in the UK for a while until Andy Parker shipped the boat to Puget Sound. She has an updated Ian Howlett keel and wings and new full draft rudder. She was fully refitted, re-faired and painted top and bottom in preparation for the Worlds in Vancouver in September 2017 where she placed 13th of 24 boats. Paul Scialla initially campaigned the boat in Spain then sold her to Otto Pohlmann who thoroughly refurbished and upgraded the boat's equipment and mast. Otto and team placed 15 of 22 entries at the 2022 World Championships in San Xenxo, Spain in a competitive series. The boat is now for sale in excellent condition.