October 26, 2001

Photos of the Day

October 26 – Le Havre, France

Kostecki and illbruck Victorious
in Leg One

October 26 – Cape Town, South Africa

It was a terrific victory for Northern
Californian John Kostecki and the German boat illbruck
in the England to South Africa first leg of the Volvo Around
the World Race. illbruck held an early lead, lost it,
then overtook and passed the vastly experienced Grant Dalton
and Amer Sports One with just a couple of hundred miles
to go. Kostecki and the illbruck crew had been practicing
hard for two years, while Dalton only got his boat a short time
before the start of the event. In the tight reaching heavy wind
conditions of the last several hundreds miles, Kostecki’s experience
showed. This is the second Whitbread/Volvo in a row where the
first leg was won by a Northern California skipper. Last time
it was Paul Cayard in EF Language. Invariably, the winner
of the first leg has gone on to win the whole event.

illbruck Challenge skipper John Kostecki is congratulated
by
Volvo Ocean Race CEO Helge Alten in Cape Town.
Photo Richard Langdon/Electronic Image
Courtesy www.volvooceanrace.com

Dee Smith of Novato was aboard Amer
Sports One, which, given their short prep time, did a fabulous
job. Here’s his report:

“We finished 36 hours ago, and it’s
good to be on land after 31 days at sea. Sorry we couldn’t hold
the illbruck off. We have some problems that are being
sorted out now. Basically, we couldn’t change sails very well
with our halyard lock problems. Then we would wait to see if
the shift or pressure would change. By the time we did change,
the shift would be gone – so we just couldn’t stay ahead of the
game. Were we slow in that condition? Don’t really know, but
I’m sure we could do a lot better. And yes, we should have been
able to hold them off. We were lucky to be far enough ahead of
everyone else that it didn’t matter. The good news is we did
get a second place, and a huge time advantage on the other boats
during the stop over. We have more time to rest, six days off
next week. More time to get the boat sorted and go over all the
data from the race. I was very worried that we could have started
the regatta with a 6th place finish. Now the crew have confidence
in the boat and ourselves. We know we are not faster, but not
slower either. It is time just to take a deep breath and be happy
where we are. I am very happy with the way the back end of the
boat is working. Grant and Roger’s vast experience in sailing
around the world (13 trips combined) match up with Bouwe and
my tactical knowledge. What we did do well was not make any big
mistakes, in fact only a couple of small ones. This way, when
the opportunity came up to grab the lead, it was possible because
we were close enough. Still much work to do, but we think it
can only get better.”

Thompson Continues to Lead Mini Transat

October 26 – Atlantic Ocean

Brian Thompson, the Brit who spent a bunch of time in Northern
California aboard Steve Fossett’s Lakota, continues to
lead the 3,000-mile second leg of the Mini Transat from the Canary
Islands to Brazil aboard I Must Be Mad. The Mini Transat,
of course, is a singlehanded race for 21-footers, of which 55
are competing. Two surprises: The 6’5″ Thompson, who was
also a watch captain aboard PlayStation, claims the 21-footer
is actually pretty big. And, that a lot of what he learned on
the big multihulls translates down to his little 21-footer –
specifically, knowing when to back off the throttle.

Blue & Gold Goes Soy

October 26 – San Francisco Bay

Oski, one of the Blue & Gold tour boats on San Francisco
Bay, is switching from diesel fuel to organic soy diesel. As
a result, there is supposed to be less smog and a sweeter smell
on the Bay. We’ll see.

Survivor
Back to South Pacific

October 26 – The Marquesas

Survivor, the popular television show that we’ve never
managed to see, will be returning to the South Pacific for the
next season. The new location is Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas,
perhaps the most popular destination when cruisers sail from
Mexico to the Marquesas. We’re not sure that bringing Hollywood
to the Marquesas is such a good idea – but nobody asked us.

‘Lectronic Editor Heading off to Ha-Ha

October 26 – San Diego

The normal editor of ‘Lectronic will be off on the Baja
Ha-Ha for the next two weeks, so there might be fewer ‘issues’
coming out during that time. If all goes well, however, we’ll
get a number of nearly live photos and up-to-date reports from
the Ha-Ha mother ship and beach parties. So be with us to follow
the action.

YOTREPS

October 26 – 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

October 26 – 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/.
(Note: This page seems to be working correctly again.)

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.