Things began to unravel....
.....On January 7, 1980 Reinhardt Schulz from Johannisberg, South Africa told me he would not come unless Tom Jones was coming. I offered him a boat and he said it would make a difference when he talks to Tom. He said he would drop me a note on the discussion. I knew then they weren't coming. Tom had wanted an Aerowing for the "Sunshine Series" and it would end the week before the OD World Championships. While we are getting ready for the new season of racing, South Africans and Australians are in the middle of their racing season. There was no way Tim Butts could have built a boat and gotten it to Tim on time for the series as busy as he was.
I called Wilfried Wieland from Amstetten, Austria a couple of times but got no answer. In those days you had to call an international operator and give her (no hims then) the international code, country code, the city code, then the number. Then you would be on hold while all that was going on. If they reached the number you were calling, then you would be connected.
I was finally able to make a connection with Wilfried a couple of days later. Except it took another few turns.
I called the international operator and gave her the number. The person who answered didn't understand English. It was a person to person call to Wilfried Weiland so instead of cancelling my call the operator asked for Wilfried. The operator couldn't understand what the person picking up the phone was saying so I told her. The guy said he was going to find someone who knew what we were saying. I talked to the operator for a few minutes while we were waiting and told her about the boat race and Wilfried was a competitor we were trying to get to Texas to race. The guy who couldn't speak english came back and said that Wilfried would be here in a few minutes. I told the operator what he said, then we talked some more about boat racing. She was in the New York/New Jersey area if I remember right. At first she thought I may me saying something outside of a person to person call that the receiving end may get the message and hang up wihout me having to pay. After we talked for awhile she figured out that the call was honest. At this point I had been on the phone with her for about 10 minutes.
Then a guy that said he was Wilfried Weiland answered the phone. I talked to him in English and he said he didn't speak English. I told the operator that this wasn't the Wilfried Weiland I place a call to, but I had his business card and that was the correct number. I said I wanted to speak to the Wieland that raced boats. He knew who I meant. So the operator kept us all on the line and dialed up an operator in Germany that understood German/Austrian. Wilfried Weiland was on hold while the operator from America and the new one from Germany discussed what was going on and they had to ask me questions to make sure I wasn't pulling some trick. When the German operator was satisfied that it was a legitimate call she told the operator I had originally place the call with that she could drop off the line while the new operator would complete the call, the U.S. operator said "No...I want to hear what happens."
After the German operator starts talking to Wilfeid Weiland, she has to bring me in to answer some questions. As it turned out, there were two Wielfried Weilands in Amstetten, Austria and they were not related. The one I knew had just been sponsored by Citizen Quartz running a 700cc Konig on a catamaran and he made up a new bunch of cards. He had just moved or for some reason had a new address that he couldn't remember. Wilfried just called up the telephone company for his phone number and they gave him the number of the other established Wilfried Weiland. The business cards that Wilfried handed out had the other guy's phone number.