Eight Bells: John J. Bergan, M.D.

For every avid sailboat racer, pulling a horizon job is quite a feat, and John Bergan pulled his final HJ on June 11 at 87 years. He was a former member of the Chicago Yacht Club and more importantly, he was a member of the Island Goats Sailing Society having raced 37 Chicago to Mackinac races.

John learned to sail on Diamond Lake in Southern Michigan and campaigned in the Snipe class with his brother. Upon moving to Chicago in the mid-50s, he developed a wonderful relationship with one of his mentors, Dr. Walter Maddock, who owned the R Class Gypsy. Known as “The Chief” for being the crew leader on Gypsy, John enjoyed the one design fleet racing off Belmont Harbor and eventually bought his Udell (a Swedish design based on specifications of Richard Latham, once a president of USYRU – the former organization to US Sailing), Valkyrie.

Known for her British Racing Green hull, Valkyrie responded to John’s steady hand on the helm and sailed to many season championships, Red Horse trophies, and even the one design Champions of Champions regatta in 1968. John encouraged family to join the crew and his youngest daughter delighted in foredeck duty. All through this one design career, he developed friendships with leading offshore sailors and club members, crewing for Mark Baxter on Chimera and Dave Howell on Decision, and with Richard Latham, among others. The taste of offshore sailing led John to form a partnership with his daughter Betsy and her husband Chris Chatain to purchase a C&C 33 in 1975.

John instilled the love of sailing in his whole family and the vivid red boat called Cayenne was his opportunity to sail together with his children on a larger scale. Under John’s detail oriented leadership, Cayenne won many races in the Chicago offshore fleet and in 1977 was Boat of the Year in the ¾ Ton Class. Each summer was punctuated with the Chicago-Mackinac race and according to his son, there was nothing more special than being on deck with Dad in the middle of the night racing to the island. John truly loved boats, loved tinkering on them, loved outfitting them and thus, Cayenne became a C&C 34 in the 1978.

The problem with the boat, one of the first off the production line, it was white. John and a small crew faced a stiff test to deliver Cayenne to Milwaukee to be painted over the winter, a fierce northeaster. The overnight journey was a rough upwind slug and in the middle of the night, the jib halyard failed and it was time to start the engine to find safe harbor. Unfortunately, the jib was swept into the water off the foredeck and the head of the jib wrapped around the propeller shaft. A skilled swimmer and brave man, John, in the dark of night, dove over the side with a tether and cleared the mess. Making matters worse, the engine then failed and the Coast Guard was summoned. Exemplary leadership in a time of crisis, John shrugged it off when he reached the dock on the Milwaukee River. While a bright red boat with an electric orange, yellow and while racing stripe emerged from the shed the next spring, Cayenne was outclassed by the Peterson 34s who invaded the section and John yearned for his one design days.

Urged mightily by good friend Lindy Thomas, whose fleet of Goblins won plenty on Lake Michigan, John bought a Tartan 10 and Cayenne found herself in the thick of a very competitive class. By then, Ben Altman had joined the family and was known for his aggressive sailing of the boat in heavy wind. The races to Mackinac regularly featured more than 25 boats and John continued to develop strong bonds with his family, close crewing associates and competitors.

As his personal life changed, John wanted to include his new wife amongst the crew and the Tartan 10 was not an appropriate boat. Encouraged by Scott Graham, who designed the boat with his partner Eric Schlageter, John purchased a S2 10.3 and Elisabeth B was born. Featured in Yachting Magazine, the new boat was a gem and John enjoyed several more years of sailing along Chicago’s shores, before relocating to La Jolla (Calif.) in 1988. The boat was trucked west where she would enjoy many more years of day sailing under John’s capable hands.

Although John’s hands were critical to his success as a surgeon, they were the foundation of the details he would apply to his boats. The first Cayenne had a metal wheel and John took it upon himself to braid an intricate rope weave to give grip to the skipper. It took him nearly 9 hours, a labor of love overnight, and the result had his signature all over it. On top of the braid at the center point of the wheel, John weaved a tight turk’s head knot further distinguishing his work.

That was his style and no matter the boat, you would see rope weaving on shackles, you would see spliced rope ends rather than knots, you would see a man whose eye for detail was extraordinary. A series of safety at sea columns written by John and illustrated by his good friend, Dick Latham, for One Design magazine and later One Design and Offshore Yachtsman led to the publication Sailing and Yachting First Aid in 1992. The manual speaks to John’s long sailing career and respect within the community. His life was an un-chartable navigation, but now he has left friends and family back at the dock.

That dock will be the Belmont Station of the Chicago Yacht Club on July 7, 2014, from 4:00pm – 6:00 pm. Please let us know if you plan to attend the Memorial so that we can plan accordingly. Please use the following email address to do so: BerganMemorial@gmail.com.

Sail on John, for all of us, you are our new North Star.

The family has enjoyed many remembrances already and encourages you to post yours and along with photos on Caring Bridge. The site is very comforting to everyone: www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnjbergan/guestbook

In lieu of flowers, if you feel so inclined, please make a contribution to the…
John J. Bergan, MD Lectureship
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
420 E. Superior Street
Rubloff Building, 9th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60611

Contact: Bridget at 312-503-6099 with any questions

– John Bergan, son of John J. Bergan