Don't Let the Door Hit You in the Ass

Most of you know that Tom Leweck and I are not friends. But it wasn't always that way. I used to like him a bunch. He was always a pretty funny guy, who seemed to be fairly cool. It was apparent though that if you weren't in his inner circle, or were in the way of his personal "stardom", that he quickly became a major whiner, and you found yourself on the out.

Years and years ago, Leweck was racing the Sabot Senior Nationals in Ventura, CA. The local hero, Gary Swenson, a guy who hardly ever sailed Sabots, grabbed a borrowed boat and finished second, of course easily beating Leweck in the process. The Ventura paper ran the headline to the effect: "Swenson Finishes Second in Nationals." Swenson went on to beat Leweck just about any time they went head to head in any type of boat. Leweck has held a grudge against Gary ever since and has gone out of his way to badmouth Swenson at every opportunity. Jealousy shows up in many forms, and this is one of them. What a dick.

A few years back, the Santa Cruz 52 I was on beat the Andrews 56 he was on in a long distance SoCal Mexican race. Manzanillo, I believe it was. In fact we were first to finish in a group of very competitive 50 plus footers, taking an SC 52 to a victory against much superior boats. He was so pissed that we had come from behind to win, that the article he wrote for Sailing World about the race was written so that you wouldn't know that we were first in. It was deliberate, unfair bullshit journalism of the highest order. Nothing more than an attempt to basically say "Fuck you Tempesta". And for what reason? It proved he had an agenda, and it was such a punk-ass bitch move, that I knew right then and there what kind of a guy he was.

Want another example? Back when his kid Craig (anybody remember him?) was working for Sobstad, Tom got sails for his Wavelength 24. He of course bought them from Sobstad through his kid, right? Wrong. He got them from North! Can you believe it? This was at a time when Sobstad was making some phenomenal tri-radial sails, but Leweck is such a prick that he went to North. Now I'm sure he got some great deal from North, after all he was Super Tom, but I don't care if he got them for free. It doesn't matter if your kid is working for Neil Pryde, you buy sails from your kid. It's not like Leweck didn't have any money. But again, it shows the kind of guy he is. Me, me, me.

Before the creation of SA, I sent in a few observations or counterpoints to Scuttlefuck and he, like he does to many of you, ignored them. The points I had made were valid, but perhaps because a couple of them might have questioned some of his buddies' motives, but more to the point that I was not one of his beloved Buttheads (what a stupid fucking thing to be known as), he ignored me. It pissed me off, and I let him know it. Then when he became the PR hack for Team Dennis Conner, I really had some fun with that. I believe the congratulatory note that I sent him read something like this. "What a marriage. One of the biggest glad-handers in the sport with one of the biggest assholes in the sport. Congratulations." Funny, that gig lasted about two months, and he never had the honesty to tell everybody what happened. He's about as one-sided, with his own agenda as anybody in the sport.

And quite honestly, he is the primary reason SA even exists. His fucking closed party, where the only people who get in are those who he lets in, is so exclusionary, biased and so non responsive to a large chunk of us, that I started this site. So I suppose I owe him thanks. Thanks Tom! You helped create SA. Hey Tom, if you weren't such a self-serving douche, and had simply printed my letters, I wouldn't be here writing about you!

But it is my guess that I won't have old man Leweck to kick around much longer. Here's, in part, what came out recently as he was congratulating himself for some alleged Scuttlefuck milestone:

"I'm sure I would have thrown in the towel a long time ago. Although 'Butt now takes up far more time than I'd prefer, it's still fun. And as long as it stays fun, I'll probably keep on doing it". - The Curmudgeon.

"Takes up too much time? Probably keep on doing it"? This doesn't sound like anybody who's going to be around much longer. I'll dance the jig when he retires, but I'm sure some other jackass will step in and continue the fun that is Scuttlefuck. And I'll be there to comment on it. Good times.