This is on the Feb. 2000 letters page of the 48° North website.

A Fond Adios to Irv

Irv Jones, one of Portland Oregons saltiest blue water sailors died last year. Irv was a hard worker and an incredible craftsman, who could build or fix anything. As a 17 year old, 40 years ago, he designed and built a 17-foot utility outboard cruiser "Cormorant", still in commission, in which he cruised several thousand miles of northwest waters. He built and restored many other boats also, which he often gave away or sold to friends.
Irv started out as a bait boy with Tradewinds Charters in Newport, Oregon and worked himself up to skipper during his summers off from college. He then spent 32 years working as a biologist with the Oregon Fish and Wildlife department. During his career he had many fabulous adventures, including being the first person to scuba dive into Crater Lake to check for thermal vents and fish populations. He was an active member of boating organizations as well as a patrol chief of the Mt Hood Ski Patrol.
Irv was also an avid and a highly competitive sailor participating in numerous off shore and Swiftsure races and delivering boats to and from Hawaii and the West Coast. He raced several times on a Portland boat, Adios, and on one return trip from Hawaii he composed a song about the boat which he later sang and recorded. This is a copy of Irv's song that I transcribed from his original cassette recording.

Tom Carter

"This is a song written and composed by Irv Jones aboard the sailing vessel Adios, a Columbia 43 owned by Donna and Howard Shaw of Portland Yacht Club. We were on a return delivery passage from Honolulu, Hawaii to Astoria in the summer of 1989, after racing in the 1988 Pacific Cup from Sausalito to Koniohe, Hawaii. We had just weathered a 60 knot storm with 35 foot waves on June 12, and by the 14th of June we were moving along more easily, about 600 miles west of Cape Blanco at a latitude 4348° north, longitude 13748° west . We were feeling pretty good about Adios and the way she had weathered the storm. That night at the wheel, steering to the waves and the rocking of the boat as it surged across the ocean, there was a lot of time to think. The tune started coming to mind and in another few hours it was on paper."

The Adios Song:

Now listen my maties to the story I tell,
A tale of a sailboat that sails,
That sails very well,
A Columbia sailboat thats fit to a tee,
She's won many races on river and sea.

Chorus:
Adios, Adios, what a beautiful sailboat,
Beating and reaching and running so well,
Adios, Adios what a wonderful sailboat.
If you could speak what a story you'd tell.

Attention to detail by captain and crew,
Sweatin and workin to make it come true,
You don't take it easy when your trying to see
That a boats really fit for the storms out at sea.

At start line we're ready for trials that we face,
We syncronize watches and jockey for place.
We're gathering boat speed, "windward boat! We need space!",
The start cannon blasts and were off on the race.

Our opponents are struggling to keep up the pace,
Adios is sailing one hell of a race,
And gleefully we note that they will soon get to see,
The name on our transom and scrollwork at Sea.

Chorus:

Red lights are burning, our watch time is here,
We're out of our warm bunks and into rain gear.
As we stumble out topside, what do we see,
But dolphins and moonbeams on the breast of the sea.

From cold northwest waters to warm tropic seas,
We made many a passage, sailed many a breeze.
All the races we've entered, too many to tell,
We've just tried to make sure they were sailed very well.

So there is the story I've tried to relate,
We do the hard work and the rest leave to fate.
And if you should happen to see us sail by,
You'll know there is a cause for the gleam in our eye.

Chorus:

Adios, Adios, what a beautiful sailboat,
Beating and reaching and running so well,
Adios, Adios what a wonderful sailboat.
If you could speak what a story you'd tell.

Return to the Columbia 43 Specifications Page