Photo of the DaySeptember 17 - San Francisco Bay Today's Photo of the Day is from the recent Aussie 18s on San Francisco Bay. It's such an explosive shot, we just had to run it again. Photo Latitude/Andy |
Don't Try to Describe the Ocean if You've Never Seen ItSeptember 17 - New York, NY In justifiably ripping former Tyco CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, who owns the J Class Endeavour, Chronicle columnist Joan Ryan begins a list of sins with " . . . The $6,000 gold-and-burgundy floral-pattered shower curtain. The $1 million birthday party for his wife under the stars in Sardinia with Jimmy Buffett crooning 'Hamburger in Paradise' . . ." And goes on from there. As every sailor knows, it's really 'Cheeseburger In Paradise'. And the real one is at Le Select in St. Barts, where Buffett hung out for many years. Photo Latitude/Richard |
West Marine 65?September 17 - Southern California Latitude 38 Managing Editor John Riise spoke with Tom Wylie yesterday, who had some very interesting news. Randy Repass is currently having a Wylie-designed 65-ft cat-rigged ketch built at Westerly Yachts in Southern California. Her unstayed main mast will be like that on a Wylie Cat 48, while the unstayed aft mast will be from a Wylie Cat 30. Randy Repass is 'Mr. West Marine', having founded it from a garage on the Peninsula more than 25 years ago. For many years the company boat has been the SC 40 Promotion. More on the new boat in the October issue of Latitude. |
New Big Cat on Bay to Carry 99 PassengersSeptember 17 - Napa The folks at Adventure Cat, who have been operating out of Pier 39 for years with the 55-ft cat they built, are pleased to announce that the 65-ft Adventure Cat II is now on San Francisco Bay. "We came down the coast from Astoria, Oregon, last weekend and had a great trip," writes Jay Gardner. "It was very calm until we hit Cape Mendocino, and then we got around 25 knots from the north on the last day and had a nice sail to the Gate. The boat has no autopilot but it steered so well that it was no problem, we would just move the helm 4 or 6 inches either way and then correct it again a few minutes later. During the whole trip down we had a bottle of spray cleaner sitting on the bar and it didn't budge, even when we were surfing at 15 to 17.6 knots. Cats, we love them. We will be doing some whale watches and Delta cruises for the East Bay Regional Parks over the next month or so but we have to finish decorating the interior and such, so she'll be based out of Napa for awhile." Photo Courtesy Adventure Cat |
Women Offer Latitude Support, Wire-Cup or PaddedSeptember 17 - Mill Valley After yesterday's
request for attractive and fit ladies with an exhibitionist streak
who want to pose for a sexy sailing cover for the February issue
of Latitude - the request is reprinted at the end of this
item - we got the following response: Another woman wrote in asking why we might limit it to only 'young ladies'. We say you're as young as you feel. Anyway, here's yesterday's item that started
it all: "Frankly, we're a little miffed if anybody thinks we were trying to do a sexy cover, not because we have anything against sexy covers, but because they might think that was the best we could have done. And we can prove it. So if you're an attractive and fit young lady with an exhibitionist streak that would enjoy being sexy on the cover of Latitude, just give us a call. Because as Bonnie Raitt used to sing, 'We'll give 'em something to talk about.' If you want to participate, email Richard." |
Racing and Cruising off Baja in Early NovemberSeptember 17 - Long Beach Having been somewhat overshadowed by the 131 entries in the annual Baja Ha-Ha, October 30, 31, and November 1 will see the start of the Newport Harbor and Long Beach YCs' 1,175-mile first-ever race from Long Beach to Barra de Navidad. This event is going to have the hottest boats on the West Coast. Bob McNeil's 86-ft Zephyrus will almost surely take line honors, but she'll be pressed by Roy Disney and Philippe Kahn with their R/P 77s, Doug Baker's Andrews 70 turbo Magnitude, and Bob Lane's Andrews 61 Medicine Man. Zephyrus V finishing the Pacific Cup at Oahu Photo Latitude/Richard It's entirely possible that some of the
Navidad racers and Ha-Ha cruisers will be crossing paths between
Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria. Arriba, arriba! |
Van Liew Leading Class in Around AloneSeptember 17 - Atlantic Ocean Brian Hancock reports, "The second night at sea for the Around Alone fleet will be much the same as the first, however with less shipping to watch out for and the fact that the boats are free of land should make it a more pleasant sail. It will be interesting to see how long Hexagon and Bobst Group keep up their ding-dong battle at the front of the pack, and if Thierry Dubois on Solidaires, who holds a more northerly position, is able to make some gains." Positions at 2354 GMT Monday Class 2 - 50s and 40s |
One Dead and Three Missing as Keel Falls off Aussie Racing YachtSeptember 17 - Whitsunday Islands, Australia One sailor has drowned and three others are still missing from the overturned 15-meter racing yacht Excalibur off the Australian East Coast this evening. Owned by Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron's Vice Commodore Alan Saunders, the yacht was sailing south after racing in the Sydney to Southport, Mooloolaba, to Airlie Beach Hogs Breath Race Week and Hamilton Island Race Week in Queensland's Whitsunday Islands. Sailing in a 30-knot following breeze last night, the boat was reaching speeds of 14 knots with a double-reefed main and a number 4 headsail, when there was a loud noise from the hull and the boat suddenly overturned. John Rogers, one of the rescued sailors, said six of them were trapped in the cockpit. He cut his tether and escaped to the surface. Earlier in the evening he had strapped his personal EPIRB and strobe light to his arm. On reaching the surface, he activated his EPIRB. The 10-man liferaft had automatically deployed, but it blew away before he and other crewmember could reach it. The crew of a 50,000-ton Swiss merchant ship diverted to the area in response to the EPIRB alarm, and rescued two men from the liferaft when a search aircraft spotted a strobe light. |
YOTREPSSeptember 17 - The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace Who is out making passages in the Pacific and what kind of weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS - 'yacht reports' - at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/ |
Weather UpdatesSeptember 17 - Pacific Ocean San Francisco Bay WeatherTo see what the winds are like on the Bay and just outside the Gate right now, check out http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind/. The National Weather Service site for San Francisco Bay is at www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey/. California Coast WeatherLooking for current as well as recent wind and sea readings from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena and the Mexican border? Here's the place - which has further links to weather buoys and stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Southwest.shtml. Pacific Winds and PressureThe University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology page posts a daily map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds. Pacific Sea StateCheck out the Pacific Ocean sea states
at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
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