August 15, 2001

By Grzegorz | August 15, 2001

Photo of the Day

August 15 – Redwood City

“I snapped this beautiful photo from Pete’s Harbor in Redwood
City the other day,” writes Greg Retkowski of an unnamed
Morgan Out-Island 41. “Since I moved aboard, I’ve been surprised
to find sunsets like this are the norm rather than the exception.
I’m preparing for the Baja
Ha-Ha, and then bringing my boat back to her place of origin,
Florida. I’m looking for crew to share the food and fuel costs.”

Photo Greg Retkowski

Where the Girls Are

August 15 – Two Harbors, Santa Catalina
Island

If your teen-age boys complain there aren’t enough teen-age girls
where you go sailing, take them to Two Harbors, Catalina – where
this shot was taken last week. “There were hundreds of under
18 girls in bikinis on the beach,” reports Latitude’s
Andy Turpin, “much to the delight of the young guys on our
boat. Hundreds and hundreds. Friendly, too.”

Photo Latitude/Andy

Believe it or not, sometimes relationships
that start at Two Harbors last past the end of summer. Two of
the Wanderer’s best friends met at Catalina. She sailed over
with her parents; he came over with a gang of guys. They hooked
up, married, have two kids, and live in Mill Valley.

Summer Keelboat Regatta

August 14 – San Francisco Bay

The pulse of Bay Area yacht racing is quickening now, as witnessed
at last weekend’s excellent San Francisco YC-hosted Summer Keelboat
Invitational. Five one design classes sailed on two different
race courses on either side of the Berkeley Circle. Conditions
were splendid, as evidenced by the shots of Farr 40s below. Topping
the 13-boat Farr 40 class were, once again, John Kilroy and his
well-oiled Samba Pa Ti crew. Other class winners were
Sails Call (J/105, Ian Charles), Eclipse (Express
37, Mark Dowdy), Motorcycle Irene (Express 27, Will Paxton)
and Monsoon (Melges 24, Bruce Ayres). Complete results
can be found at www.sfyc.org.

Photos Latitude/Rob

Winning Farr 40 Samba Pa Ti

Fastnet Race

August 15 – Cowes, UK

Three days after the start of the 608-mile Rolex Fastnet Race
– from Cowes, England, to the Fastnet Rock off Ireland, and back
to Cowes – and the winner of the Fastnet Challenge is still up
for grabs. Giovanni Agnelli’s 92-ft almost all carbon Frers-designed
Stealth was the first monohull to finish, despite taking
something like seven hours to cover the last nine miles. It was
a fine finish for the six-year old boat, which is said to have
been designed to “go to lunch, not to weather.” Although
the boat rarely races, Agnelli, the honcho at Fiat, is never
aboard. He treats the boat like a racehorse.

The second monohull across the line was Mike Slade’s R/P 90 Leopard
of London, five hours behind Stealth, followed by
Ludde Ingvall’s 79-ft Nicorette, which finally overtook
Hasso Plattner’s 80-ft R/P Morning Glory in the light
air right near the finish. The maxis were followed by the Volvo
60 Newscorp, which overtook John Kostecki and the Volvo
60 illbruck in the fluky air near the finish. One Volvo
skipper said the Fastnet was “too short to be long and too
long to be short” to give many hints on the upcoming Volvo
Around the World Race.

For a time, it looked as though the Dean
Barker driven Morning Glory might have a chance to correct
out first, but then American Skip Sheldon and the R/P 65-ft Zaraffa
temporarily took over the corrected time lead. Now everyone is
waiting to see if David Lowe’s Farr 52 Loco can replace
Zaraffa at the top. Some of the smaller boats in the 225-boat
fleet are not expect to finish until Friday, thanks to lighter
winds.

The first boat to finish the Fastnet, of
course, was Francis Joyon’s dated Nigel Iron’s 60-ft tri Eure
et Loire. They reported that it took them just 30 minutes
to overtake the Volvo 60s that had started 10 minutes ahead of
them. All the monohulls played the tides at the beginning of
the race, but not Eure et Loire. Since they were sailing
upwind at 17 knots, finding favorable tides wasn’t as important
as finding flat water.

There are some interesting contrasts between
the first to finish multihull and the first to finish Stealth.
Stealth was driven by Kenny Read, and crewed by 17 other
veterans of the America’s Cup and Whitbread Races. Eure et
Loire had a crew of four, including 58-year-old Rodney Pattison,
a winner of several Olympic medals long ago. (In fact, Pattison
wore the same fleece top he wore when winning the Flying Dutchman
Gold at the Olympics in Acapulco back in ’68!) The crew on Stealth
said they sailed to the Fastnet Rock at 15 knots, and back
at 14 knots. The crew of Eure et Loire said they sailed
both ways at 24 knots until the wind went light. Madforsailing.com
quoted Pattison as follows: “The speed and the thrill and
the sensation of sailing them [60-ft trimarans] – it’s like a
drug, it just hooks you. I’m sure the Volvo 60s are fun to sail,
but I don’t think they had a lot of fun out there. We have though.
While they’re all getting drenched on the weather rail, we’re
all up on the weather float keeping dry.”

Volvo 60s at the start

The South African Simonis 65 Merlin
rounds Fastnet Rock

The happy crew of Stealth

Team NewsCorp
finishes in the fog

illbruck
was the second Volvo 60 to cross
the finish line off Plymouth Sound

Photos Strategic Courtesy Royal Ocean Racing Club

Nonetheless, don’t expect multihull racing
to overtake monohull racing anytime soon. The thrills are there,
but not the close and tactical competition.

For more details, results and photos visit
www.rorc.org.

Mistaken Identity

August 15 – Sea of Cortez

“The picture on page 215 of August issue of Latitude
38 is identified as San Evaristo, but is actually Isla
San Francisco in the Sea of Cortez,” writes Doug Clark of
the Oyster Cove-based Gypsy Soul. “I’ve enclosed
two photos, one of San Evaristo, and of Isla San Francisco. Both
were taken during our cruise last winter. The closest boat is
our Morgan 462. San Evaristo is a short trip across the channel
and a bit north of Isla San Francisco, on the Baja mainland.
One of the many fascinating features of the anchorage at Isla
San Francisco is the zillions of herring, sardines or whatever.
These fish form a solid, moving layer several feet thick below
the boat. Although the water is clear, you can seldom see the
bottom due to these fish.”

San Evaristo

Isla San Francisco

Photos Courtesy Doug Clark

Thanks for the correction.
We remember when the waters of Bahia Cabo San Lucas were so thick
with fish that you couldn’t see the bottom. That was in the late
’70s.

YOTREPS

August 15 – 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 Updates

August 15 – Pacific Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

To see what the winds are like on the Bay
and just outside the Gate right now, check out http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind/.

California Coast Weather

Looking 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/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.

Pacific Winds and Pressure

The University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology
page posts a daily
map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds.

Pacific Sea State

Check out the Pacific Ocean sea states
at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.

For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.

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