John Kretschmer // Seam'nship, Racing, Life & NOT Retiring!
On the Wind Sailing
Andy Schell
4.8 • 593 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2026
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John Kretschmer is back on the podcast to talk more philosophy and more sailing. If you're new to the show, or new to John's work, he's inspired me more than any other sailor. His books are legendary, and you should read all of them. But start with 'Sailing a Serious Ocean,' if you want one book that best distills his storytelling and philosophy into one volume. John and I talk about everything in this winding episode - which also features a rare appearance from Mia! He was in Paris, we were in Sweden, and we start by debunking the rumor that John was retiring from passagemaking that I accidentally started on this here show! Grab a coffee or a beer and enjoy this one.
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Support the podcast & become a member of The Quarterdeck, where Andy, August & Mia dive deep on the art of seam'nship. Nerd out with us on our members-only forum and talk boats, gear, safety-at-sea, meet like-minded sailors, find crew, and more. Check it out on quarterdeck.59-north.com. See you there!
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This season of ON THE WIND is supported by our friends at Offshore Passage Opportunities and Rutgerson Marin. Support the show by supporting our sponsors!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So much of sailboat design today is predicated on a couple of things that I'm not that interested in. |
| 0:07.0 | And like we were talking grip files, weather routers, and the notion to kind of get off the ocean as fast as possible. |
| 0:14.0 | I'm not that fascinated by any of that stuff. |
| 0:17.0 | I kind of realize that I like to know what's going on. I get information, but I'm in this natural place phase of my life. |
| 0:26.5 | And I like it. |
| 0:27.8 | I'm hoping this one lasts a while because it's a cool place. |
| 0:30.9 | On the Wind is presented this season by two old friends of the podcast. |
| 0:35.0 | Rutgersen Marine, a hardware company in Sweden, close to home for me, |
| 0:39.3 | and OPO, offshore passage opportunities run by our good friend Hank Schmidt, fan of the podcast, |
| 0:44.2 | friend of the podcast, former guest of the podcast, which is a place where you can join Hank's mailing |
| 0:50.0 | list and basically sail for free as a crew member on various deliveries that Hank organizes. |
| 0:56.2 | It's a great way I kind of started my career doing deliveries. And obviously, we'd love for you |
| 1:00.9 | to come sail with us at 59 North, but if you don't have the time or can't afford it, you can |
| 1:04.7 | pay, I think it's up to 150 bucks a year now to join OPO and you get lots of opportunities to go |
| 1:09.9 | on deliveries as a crew member. |
| 1:12.5 | So check that out. That's saleopo.com. As for Rutgersen, I am in the process of ordering a new |
| 1:18.8 | rig for Spica, a new rig in sales. And part of that project is going to include installing a bunch |
| 1:24.3 | of Rutgersen stuff on the mast and sales. So we use the Rutgersen bat car |
| 1:28.9 | receptacles for the sales. We use Rutgersen clutches for the mast and a bunch of other hardware items. |
| 1:34.3 | A good friend of ours, Ludwig is the designer at Rutgersen, so it's really cool to basically have |
| 1:39.2 | access to that. And unlike most other hardware companies, everything at Rutgersen is designed and built in |
| 1:45.9 | Sweden. Ludwig's office is upstairs at the factory and the factory is downstairs. So when there's |
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