August 8, 2002

Photo of the Day

August 8 – Southern California

One of the hazards of Southern California sailing: injured toes!
This one is testing the healing properties of Heineken.

More on the King Harbor Race

August 8 – Southern California

Yesterday’s report contained an error (since corrected) in reporting the overall monohull winner on corrected time. We should have attributed that honor to Nemesis, Paul Martson’s Encinal YC-based Antrim 27. Since we’re on the subject, here are some more photos from that overnight race. The ULDB-B (closest) and PHRF-A start Top Photo and Bottom Right Photo Leonard Brownlow

News Briefs

August 8

Getting caught up on some news items that
have crossed our desk in the past week. . .

Kaneohe, HI
On Sunday, July 28, Chuck Hawley, Advisor to the US SAILING Safety
at Sea Committee, presented the US SAILING Arthur B. Hanson Rescue
Medal to Skip Allan at the West Marine Pacific Cup Awards Ceremony,
at Kaneohe YC, for recognizing a perilous situation, rendering
aid, and rescuing a near hypothermic sailor. The rescue occurred
on May 3 during race three of the Moore 24 Nationals at the Santa
Cruz Yacht Club. For Skip’s first-person account of the rescue,
see the May 8 edition
of ‘Lectronic Latitude.

Belvedere
San Francisco YC will host the first annual Northern California
Junior Olympic
Sailing Festival. The event is for sailors who have not yet reached
19 years old to compete for Junior Olympic medals in Lasers,
Splashes, Bytes, El Toros and Optimists. Club 420s, Club FJs
and 29ers will be used for two-kid crews. This all takes place
this weekend, Saturday through Monday. Details are available
at www.sfyc.org.

Isle of Wight, UK
Skandia Life Cowes Week is on through Saturday. This event is
huge! For example, we count 43 divisions. Yes, that’s divisions,
not entries. Number of yachts racing today: 804! You can follow
the action at www.cowesweek.co.uk.

Omarama, New Zealand
Tom Baffico of the local Express 27 Baffett writes, “Have
you seen this? Looks like Steve is trying to set a world glider
altitude record.” Indeed, this is the latest of record-setting
sailor and balloonist Steve Fossett’s exploits. See www.firnspiegel.com/perlan
for more on the sailplane attempt, scheduled for Sunday.

Portsmouth, RI
For the U.S. Yngling team of Betsy Alison (Newport, RI), Lee
Icyda (Stuart, FL) and Suzy Leech (Avon, CT), the fringe benefit
of winning the women’s bronze medal at the recent 2002 Yngling
World Championship at Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, in July almost
outweighed the significance of the performance itself. By finishing
in the top five, the trio secured the U.S. its first berth at
the 2004 Olympic Regatta. They were one of four American teams.

Finishing sixth overall at the Yngling
Worlds were Jody Swanson (Buffalo,
NY) with crew Cory Sertl (Rochester, NY) and Pease Glaser (Long
Beach). Hannah Swett (Jamestown, RI/New York, NY), with Melissa
Purdy (Tiburon) and Joan Touchette (Newport, RI), finished seventh,
while Carol Cronin (Jamestown, RI) with Liz Filter (Stevensville,
MD) and Kate Fears (Key West, FL) followed in eighth.

Although Alison, Icyda and Leech qualified
the U.S.A., they may not be the
country’s ultimate representatives for the Yngling class at the
Olympics.
In sailing, the “winner takes all” at the U.S. Olympic
Team Trials; only
the first-place finisher in each event earns a coveted spot on
the 2004 U.S.
Olympic Sailing Team.

Heeeeeeelp

August 8 – La Paz, BCS

Carol Wellins writes, “I am trying
to contact EEB Mike who did some work on our boat while we were
in La Paz. We need a paper trail to satisfy tax exemption and
his service record would be a big help. Since I cannot hail him
on 27, I am hoping for an email address or phone number.”

“I know you hear it all the time (I
am guessing  you do not tire of it): We love your magazine,
and for my husband it is cheap and very effective therapy. Our
boat on the other hand is effective as well but anything but
cheap.”

YOTREPS

August 7 – 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 7 – 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/.
The National Weather Service site for San Francisco Bay is at
www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey/.

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/Maps/Southwest.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 views of sea states anywhere in the world,
see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/.