Joli was originally owned by Bill Niemi, a partner with Eddie Bauer (the man) and president of Eddie Bauer (the company) in Washington State and she had a beautiful dark blue hull. After a number of years racing and cruising on the west coast, he sold the boat to skier Mike Lund. In 1978, Niemi unexpectedly ended up with Joli once again when she was impounded for drug smuggling. Lund disappeared and on a side note, was arrested in 2001 after his identity was revealed through finger-printing when he was jailed for child-support charges.
2001 - Suspect in huge 1978 pot bust captured She was sold again, to a surgeon in Arizona. He changed the name to Triumph and added stripes along the hull with "Triumph" incorporated into the stripes - very 1980's style! Triumph was featured in a video from 1983 about Antigua Race Week.
Spinnakers in the Wind
Triumph moved to the Great Lakes, mainly Lake Huron and Lake Michigan in the mid- to late-80's when she was bought by a CEO of Dana Corporation. She raced many Mackinac races under several different owners over the next 15 years. We found her at Torreson Marine, Muskegon, MI in 2001 and brought her to Lake Erie (Sandusky).
In 2004, we had a bit of an accident with a mooring ball at Put-in-Bay (the ring on the mooring chain failed) and the hull was badly scratched. Actually, it was more than a scratch, one whole side of the hull was gouged! That's a whole other story for another time.
In winter 2005, we had Toledo Beach Marina paint the hull and deck to repair the damage. We decided on white for the hull since we eventually want to sail in the Caribbean and blue hulls can get very hot. We also decided to go back to her original name, Joli. Below shows the fresh paint with the Sandusky Junior Race Team (Sandusky Sailing Club and Sandusky Yacht Club) on board, ready to sail to Put-in-Bay for the Junior Bay Week Regatta.
