May/June 2007

All in the Same Boat

Continued from page 1

By Michael Patrick Gibson

Bertrand remembers being surprised by the local talent on the Charles. "It felt initially like lambs to the slaughter; the local wind shifts and local knowledge were all-consuming until I started to get the hang of it," he recalls. "The Tech Dinghy, although old-fashioned and slow, was a superb training and racing boat, since it was easy to rig and sail.

"MIT showed me many ways to think about and solve problems," he continues. "There was a can-do mentality that was part of the culture. I also learned how to work with creative geniuses like Jerry, which was fundamental in my ability to later put together and work with a world-class group for our successful America's Cup challenge in 1983."

Milgram was asked to teach his legendary sailboat design course one last time before he retires this August. But he warns that the class is not all fun and games. "That's what too many people think," he says. "Then they come in and find out it's a real MIT course, with real MIT learning, real tough stuff, and half of them drop out. They thought it was going to be fun, but a sailboat is a very complex system with complex engineering."