March 22, 2007 — Racing is prime on the minds of sailors competing in this weekend’s International Rolex Regatta. For four of these competitors, renewing old friendships and reminiscing about high school hijinks will make the event extra special.
“We’re celebrating our 33-and-a-third-year reunion,” says Wally Bostwick, who with three former classmates — Jack Keniley Jr., Rory Callaghan, and Alex Bursian — will race an IC-24, First Resort, this weekend.
The four men met at the Robinson School, a Methodist-affiliated K-12 private school located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They each graduated in 1974, went their separate ways and only sporadically kept in touch. However, an avid love of water sports has been a big part of all of their lives, perhaps a result of their school’s location only one block from the beach in the Condado. And, it is sailing that reunites them this weekend.
The stirrings for this reunion occurred last year.
Keniley explains: “I came down from Boston last spring to race with my Dad. I remembered Wally lived here in St. Thomas, so I called him ahead of time, and we all ended up sailing together on a Tartan 35, Nikki. It was a blast, and I wanted to do it again.”
A management consultant who attended George Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania after graduation, Keniley has sailed 210s in one-design regattas held out of the Cohasset Yacht Club in Cohasset, Mass. He’ll be the designated skipper on First Resort.
Bostwick’s tie to the sea is even stronger. “My mom bought me a Sunfish before we even moved to Puerto Rico,” he says. After living in Puerto Rico, his family moved to St. Thomas, where he spent his senior year living aboard his father’s 27-foot sailboat.
Through the years, Bostwick has worked in construction and inventory control, managing warehouses and distributorships. He now owns his own commercial painting company, First Resort. Sailing has always been one of Bostwick’s favorite sports, and it was through sailing that he reconnected with Bursian.
“Alex and I raced together many years on Cachando together with the Teixidor brothers out of Puerto Rico,” Bostwick says.
Bursian, who now lives in Harrisburg, Penn., and holds the childhood dream job of being a railroad conductor, lived and sailed in Puerto Rico a number of years after graduation. “I was bowman on Cachando and we did all the big races – the Copa Valesco, Rolex, BVI and Antigua. I even did a transatlantic with them (the Teixidor’s) in 1992, from Spain to Puerto Rico, for the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ voyage.”
He adds, “A couple of months ago, Wally called me and asked if I wanted to come down for Rolex. I told him, ‘You get a boat and I’ll put in for vacation.’ Then I called Rory. The thought of coming down wasn’t on his radar screen at all. But I told him we had a boat, that it was Jack, Wally and I, and that he didn’t have any other choice but to show up.”
An avid windsurfer and kite boarder since 2000, Callaghan, a designer and installer of luxury kitchens in the Washington, D.C., area, says, “I understand where the wind is coming from, and I know how to point a boat. After that, I’m just planning to follow Wally’s orders.”
Callaghan has another talent he’s already lent to the boat’s operation. A fair chef as well as kitchen designer, he whipped up Osso Bucco sandwiches for his crew’s lunch on a practice day earlier this week.
Looking ahead, Keniley says, “Winning is everything and so is staying connected to these guys. We’ve all agreed we’d like to make this an annual event, a way to relive in a cool way our school days and enjoy each other’s company each year.”
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