A lengthy and distinguished career has afforded Dave Ullman formidable insight into both the art and business of sailing. As a direct result of his many achievements, Dave has a genuine interest in ensuring that future generations have access to the experiences and learnings of the past. "Ullie" as he's affectionately known by close friends, has known the J family since 1972 sailing in 470s. By 1977, the introduction of the J/24 meant that it was simply another fractionally-rigged, keelboat version of the 470 to Ullie. Experience in "fracs" led to an early jump for Ullman Sails in leading the J/24 class down the path of simply faster sails. While Ullie simply knows the co-founders of J/Boats as Bob and Rod, he and Peter Harken know Bob's next generation as simply "the goddamn kids" (more on that story some other day...includes notables like Peter Barret and current Tufts University President Larry Bacow and MIT colleague Alan Spoon). Here's the rest of the story in Sail-World"So then. Let's actually start with his significant and distinguished past. Dave was born and raised in Newport Beach, California. He came from a sailing family, where his induction to the water was certainly dramatic. ‘Dad was very adversary; we went to Catalina Island a lot, which was 20 miles away, nearly every other weekend. He had a Pram dinghy and when I was about three years old, he would tie a line on the Pram and send me off sailing out the back of the family vessel. When it was lunchtime, he'd pull me in. That's how I learned to sail', was how Dave described it.
This wasn't enough to turn Dave off the sport. On the contrary, clearly it actually engulfed him. ‘I started racing when I was six. There was an adult group who sailed boats called Balboa dinghies. They were like an early version Sabot with one sheet of eight-foot plywood as the main part. They asked me if I'd race with them, to which I said, ‘Sure'. At six years of age, most of the other kids around weren't sailing at all', he said.
The local junior racing program ensued from there and when he was around 14 years of age, Dave got serious with the International Snipe class. Now as a result of that, the first of his international campaigns had been born. ‘It seemed like it was something I could do. I did a lot of surfing at the time, too." Read more about "Ullie's" experience here.
