First Santa Barbara Channel Relay Swim

Beau Gatch - Personal Account

Saturday, August 18, 1984

Background Information:

On May 22, 1984 I recieved a letter from Ashby Harper stating that he was planning to join me in dual solo attempts to swim the Santa Barbara Channel. After seeing Ian McTarish's failed channel swim on August 2, 1984, I decided to shift my focus from a solo to a relay team attempt. Recruiting the other five members of the relay team was a piece of cake.

Relay Team: Beau Gatch (55), Dr. Herb Barthels, Pam Barthels (Daughter), Jeff Farrell, Keith Martin, Steve Snyder

I am personally grateful to each member of the team for their ceaseless enthusiasm and "can do" attitude. Everyone was excited and proud to be on the first relay team to swim the channel. Our team especially thanks our support crew and Dr. Herb Barthels who not only swam for us, but provided his vintage tugboat "California" as our support vessel. Two of his friends: Mike McCorckle and Jim Isaac functioned as our Captain and paddler. Herb's daughter Pam was our "fearless" femail swimmer.

Team Goals: "To establish that the Santa Barbara Channel is swimmable. We are hoping to make the relay swim an annual event, open to both locals and teams from out of the area." (Santa Barbara News Press, Friday, August 17, 1984.

Support Boat: The California

Crew Memebers:
Captain - Mike McCorckle - Mike was at the helm guiding us to Santa Barbara for over 12 straight hours
Paddler - Jim Isaac - Jim paddled for us until he was totally exhausted.
Coordinator - Vanessa George - Vanessa was our mother hen. She kept our rotation and our swimmers on track.

Remarks: Our swimmers used goggles, one bathing cap, and one porous swim suit. Our male swimmers used the same tank suits we use in masters competition. Our lady swimmer used a light weight, pourous, one piece swim suit.

Wimmer Rotation: Each swimmer swam a half hour leg in a revolving same order rotation. Each swimmer swam the same number of legs except at the finish.

Start Location: Hazzard's Cove, Santa Cruz Island

Start Time: 1:55 AM

Finish Location: Shoreline Park, Santa Barbara, California

Finish Time: 1:42 PM

Water Temperature: Comfortable

Wind and Sea State: Not a problem. Conditions were favorable.