The boat with history.

I bought the Portland Pudgy in Montana and towed it back to New Jersey with my bike. Towed it all over the country. Montana to NJ to New Orleans, Florida.. Tracked great!

The previous owner was named Georges de Giorgio. He is donned as one of the true global explorers of our time.

“His father was Italian Count of Santoponte and his mother was of Chilean Indian/Spanish decent. Georges was born in a car wreck in France on the way to Italy in 1928. George’s father moved the family to Chile at the age of 4 where he grew up working in his father’s wooden ship boatyard.

In 1947 at the age of 17, Georges joined an American Expedition to Antarctica becoming the youngest person to ever spend a year there. Georges lived a month alone on the Palmer Peninsula plateau, was the first to cross from the Atlantic to Pacific by dogsled with a joint British/American party, and has a mountain named after him, de Giorgio Mountain. The expedition also was accompanied by two women, this is the first time women had wintered in Antarctica. Did Georges really sleep with 50% of the women on a continent? (yes)

Because Georges was Chilean, his presence secured the Chilean claim to Antarctica. So Georges returned the next year as technical adviser for a Chilean government polar expeditions.

Georges then spent the next 30 years sailing the world’s oceans. Georges was the navigator on the ship Mischief for the famous English explorer HW Tilman. He also hunted for Sir Francis Drakes lost treasure on Robinson Crusoe Island.

Georges was on a boat offshore of Chile when the 1960 Chilean Tsunami hit. His boat survived landing in a field while all others were smashed on shore.

Georges lived and raised his children in Acapulco. He was the Harbor Master for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, a dive master, worked numerous years for Alter Hobi molding Hobi Cats, and won the San Diego to Acapulco sailboat race.

Georges chaperoned the Olympic Gold Canadian Synchronized swim team in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Georges was friends with Marlon Brando, Cliff Robertson, and also dated the actresses Stephanie Powers and Irene Papas. Georges has met Nobel Prize winners Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Nerudo, and Gabriela Mistral. Georges was Chiles first motion picture actor having roles in La Caleta Olvidada, Love Has Many Faces, and The Big Cube. [He also stars in 2-3 other movies].

Georges is also fluent in three languages French, Spanish, and English. He was recently featured in a documentary on the expedition to Antarctica called The Ends of the Earth, Finn Ronne’s Antarctica (www.ronneantarcticexplorers.com).
For the past eight years, George worked at the Lewis and Clark interpretive Center and Cascade Historical Society in Great Falls. George truly is the most interesting man in the world…”

There is a ton left out of this biography, but George keeps dropping bombs on us. I’m not sure if there’s anything he hasn’t done, anywhere he hasn’t been, or anyone he doesn’t know.

This man was smuggled out of Chile into England, I believe. He was trapped in a snow storm on a mountain, for four days, at the age of 11 with three other boy scouts (one with a broken leg).

He learned to fly a plane back in the 30s before he even knew how to drive a car.

He still bikes everywhere and goes for daily hikes, and is knowledgeable about history.

Georges Obituary:

Georges de Giorgio: A Life of Adventure

The previous owner was Georges de Giorgio, a man who could easily be described as one of the last great global adventurers.

Born in France in 1928, Georges entered the world under unusual circumstances. His father was the Italian Count of Santoponte, and his mother was of Chilean Indian and Spanish ancestry. According to family accounts, Georges was born following a car accident while his parents were traveling from France to Italy.

When Georges was four years old, his father moved the family to Chile, where he spent his childhood working in his father’s wooden shipyard. The sea would become a lifelong passion and eventually carry him to some of the most remote corners of the world.

In 1947, at just seventeen years old, Georges joined an American expedition to Antarctica, becoming the youngest person at the time to spend a full year on the continent. During that expedition, he spent a month alone on the Palmer Peninsula plateau and participated in the first dogsled crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean as part of a joint British-American team. His contributions were significant enough that a mountain in Antarctica was later named De Giorgio Mountain in his honor.

The expedition was also notable because it included two women—the first women ever to winter in Antarctica. Georges often joked that he had “dated fifty percent of the women on the continent.”

As a Chilean citizen, his presence on the expedition also helped strengthen Chile’s territorial claim in Antarctica. He later returned as a technical adviser for Chilean government polar expeditions.

After Antarctica, Georges spent the next three decades sailing the world’s oceans. He served as navigator aboard the yacht Mischief for renowned British explorer H. W. Tilman and participated in expeditions searching for the lost treasure of Sir Francis Drake on Robinson Crusoe Island.

He was off the coast of Chile during the devastating 1960 Chilean earthquake and tsunami. Remarkably, his vessel survived after being carried inland and deposited in a field, while many other boats were destroyed along the shoreline.

Georges eventually settled in Acapulco, Mexico, where he raised his family. Over the years he worked as a harbor master for the sailing events of the 1968 Olympic Games, a dive master, and a craftsman for Alter Hobie, helping manufacture Hobie Cats. He also won the prestigious San Diego-to-Acapulco sailboat race.

His Olympic connections continued when he served as a chaperone for the Canadian synchronized swimming team during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Throughout his extraordinary life, Georges crossed paths with an astonishing number of notable figures. He counted actors Marlon Brando and Cliff Robertson among his friends and was romantically linked to actresses Stefanie Powers and Irene Papas. He met literary giants and Nobel Prize recipients Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Neruda, and Gabriela Mistral.

Georges also left his mark in film. Often credited as Chile’s first motion-picture actor, he appeared in films including La Caleta Olvidada, Love Has Many Faces, and The Big Cube, along with several other productions.

Fluent in French, Spanish, and English, Georges possessed not only a gift for languages but also a deep knowledge of history and culture. In later years he was featured in the documentary The Ends of the Earth: Finn Ronne’s Antarctica and spent eight years working at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and the Cascade Historical Society in Great Falls, Montana.

Yet even this remarkable biography leaves out countless stories.

As a boy scout, Georges survived four days trapped in a mountain snowstorm alongside three other boys, one of whom had a broken leg. He reportedly learned to fly an airplane before he learned to drive a car. He was once smuggled out of Chile and into England under circumstances that still sound more like an adventure novel than real life.

Even in his later years, Georges continued to ride his bicycle everywhere, hike daily, and share stories that seemed almost too incredible to believe.

The more time one spent with Georges de Giorgio, the more one realized there was always another unbelievable story waiting around the corner. It often seemed there was nowhere he hadn’t been, nothing he hadn’t done, and nobody he hadn’t met.

Simply put, Georges de Giorgio may well have been the most interesting man in the world. A few years back my niece Lorin in Florida

Georges Obituary: https://www.schniderfuneralhome.com/obituaries/georges-de-girogio