Articles06/04/04: Erik Van Renselaar, C18 as
a TV show co-star
Here's a bit of recent TV show trivia relating to the C18 sailboat. For those of
you who have had a interest in the now-cancelled, but heavily syndicated TV show
"Friends", the C18 had a part as a co-star in two episodes. I originally spotted
the C18 on the series several years ago, on a re-run of the episode. My wife
initially noted that the featured sailboat looked much like my C18.
This spring, I purchased the sixth and seventh season DVD collections of
"Friends" in order to more closely investigate the C18's stardom. It was very
nice to be able to see good still-frames of the episode, via the DVD technology.
The story begins in the sixth season (1999/2000) of "Friends". The episode first
aired on 5/18/00 and is titled "The One with the Proposal". The characters Joey
and Rachel attend a benefit event, which includes a silent auction. Through his
ineptitude, Joey manages to be the highest bidder ($20,000) on a Catalina 22
"gentleman's daysailer". An astute eye might catch that the picture shown on the
"Catalina 22" poster is actually that of a C18.
The story continues in the seventh season. In the third episode, first aired on
10/19/00 and titled "The One with Phoebe's Cookies", Rachel and Joey take the
boat out. Rachel intends on teaching Joey the basics of sailing. There are
several good shots of the C18 in this episode, which show it to be a late-model
boat. Plastic cabin hatch rails, Garhauer blocks on the genoa tracks, and
later-style blue Catalina script on the aft side area of the hull are the main
identifiers of a more recent C18 model. I could not see any evidence of a sail
number or C-18 class logo on the particular vessel's sails. The Catalina Sails
logo is clearly visible. The "18" had also been removed from the "Catalina 18"
lettering on the hull.
The technical aspects of sailing are not depicted very well in this episode, and
a moderately experienced sailor will be able to spot the inaccuracies in the
rigging and sail trim.
Those small details aside, it is still pleasing to see a C18 presented on a
widely viewed TV series. It would be interesting to find out the details on that
particular C18, such as what hull number it is, how NBC procured the boat for
the show, and where is the boat now? I intend to make that the topic of my next
article. Hopefully, Catalina Yachts or NBC will be helpful in providing
information for the article.
-Erik VanRenselaar