Thanks to cutbacks in flights, some fears of flying, and a weakening
economy, lots of sailors didn’t make planned trips to the Caribbean
over the New Year. We did, however, and are glad we did. Thanks
to a low pressure system easing down from the United States weakening
the Bermuda/Azores High, there were no ‘Christmas winds’ or reinforced
trades. The result was idyllic sailing conditions: 12 to 15 knots
of wind, with flat seas. The unusually settled conditions made
for spectacular blue skies, warm temperatures, and clear water.
It was like dying and going to a sailor’s heaven.
We based out of St. Barts, which attracts
most of the great yachts in the Caribbean for New Year’s and
the New Year’s parade. Many of the cars on the French island
sported American flag decals with solidarity written across them.
In the three days following 9/11, all the stores on the island
had shut down in sympathy. Those that hadn’t closed down voluntarily
were instructed to do so. In addition, there were memorial and
prayer services around the island.
St. Barts usually attracts a lot of bareboats
for the New Year’s holiday, but this year there were almost none.
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any drop-off in the presence
of megayachts, whose owners and charterers usually don’t have
to worry about terrorists hiding on their private jets. The biggest
yacht in the anchorage was Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s
300-ft Tatoosh – complete with two helicopters. He bought
her last year, shortly after her launch, from John MacCaw, who
had taken a beating in telecom stock. The around the island New
Year’s Day parade/race attracted 42 entries, with the average
size boat in Class A a mere 135 feet or so. But a lot of small
local yachts participated, too. We’ll have photos of the event
in an upcoming ‘Lectronic.
Tatoosh
The locals, no doubt sensing the drop in
tourism, were more friendly than ever. In addition to the attraction
of great boats, Jimmy Buffet played a couple of free short gigs
at La Gamelle restaurant and on the quay on New Year’s Eve. Sting
had stopped by Ticonderoga in the afternoon of New Year’s
Eve hoping to jam with Buffett that night, but apparently didn’t
hook up. Buffet danced the rest of the night away at a nearby
waterfront bar, happily dancing and drinking with everyone.
Want some celebrity dirt? Shortly before
Christmas, a bunch of the crews on big charter boats in Antigua
signed up for a beginning yoga class. Halfway through the hour
class – rather on the very late side – a couple joined the class.
They soon proceeded to zoom right past the class and into advanced
yoga techniques, much to the chagrin of the instructor. As the
crews departed the class, there was some grumbling about the
“wankers” who had come so late and then proceeded to
put all the beginners to shame. Nobody knew who they were until
the next class, when an older yoga student identified them as
Sting and his wife Trudy.
While the folks on St. Barts wanted to
make sure tourists enjoyed themselves as much as possible, the
same can’t be said for union workers of the French electrical
company EDF on nearby St. Martin. At a time when the island was
already suffering from a devastating drop in tourism, at the
stroke of the New Year, they pulled the plug on all the electricity
on the French side of the island. No lights, no air conditioning,
no refrigeration for the restaurants or anybody else. And they
kept the electricity off for most of the next two weeks. To say
that the tourists were inconvenienced and then outraged is an
understatement. Tens of millions of advertising dollars won’t
be able to mitigate the negative publicity generated by the selfish
few. Only those on boats or on the Dutch side were relatively
unaffected.
More on the Caribbean on Monday and in
the February Latitude
38.
A sailor’s paradise
Downtown Gustavia, with the harbor in the background
No Logic, a new Swan 112
A 132-ft DuBois chases the 135-ft ketch Sariyah
The French side of St. Martin
All Photos Latitude/Richard
Conner Unveils Latest Stars & Stripes
January 11 – New York City
Dennis Conner posed with USA66, the first
of two new America’s Cup boats he hopes to build, during her
unveiling at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan today. The
San Diego native last represented the New York YC in ’83, when
the Cup was lost to a foreign challenger for the first time in
132 years. Conner says he hopes to redeem himself. The Louis
Vuitton Challenger Series, which leads up to the Cup itself,
begins in October in Auckland.
Scientists are saying that it appears as
though El Niño conditions – a warming of eastern Pacific
waters – appear to be developing. El Niño conditions are,
among other things, associated with a greater possibility of
winter storms along the West Coast. However, the correlation
is tenuous, and often there are more storms in non-El Niño
years than there are in El Niño years. So standby for
. . . who knows what?
Ol’ Farrtz
and Young Turks
January 11 – San Francisco Bay
Matt Jones, who was Race Committee, reports
on the first weekend of the new SF Farr 40 Midwinter Series,
in which five boats competed: “With very light and variable
winds, Saturday’s racing started with three practice starts followed
by three short races. Drizzly conditions prevailed throughout
the day with the current going through the end of the ebb and
into a building flood. The North and South Bay flows dominated
as is normal for this time of year. The wind blew at 4 to 8 knots
mainly from the N/NE and paralleled the current somewhat. Shadow
won the first race but they were a little early on the next start
and finished last in race two. Having a little too much match
racing on the mind, Shadow started to come in for a starboard
rounding when it was a port and caused some confusion and general
mayhem, and smeared the leeward mark, popping its anchor line.
“Everyone had some good moments and
even races but the most consistent boat was the Ol’ Farrtz
Racing Team. The Farrtz Team went 2, 1, 2 to take the
day over Shadow’s 1, 5, 1.
“Sunday found the fleet with no wind
at the scheduled starting time. Patience was the order of the
day and conditions slowly improved a little but the wind never
reached a solid 8 knots. Keeping the boats moving was the theme
of the starting drills as the RC got off four practice starts
and one practice race. At this point a gentle breeze settled
in with a little clearing and we set a short windward/leeward
course. Race one saw a fairly mediocre start considering all
the practice we had been doing but my ability to get the starting
line square might have something to do with it. Shadow
nailed the line while Farrtz and Astra were over
early. Non Sequitur sailed very consistently Sunday and
showed good light air speed and positioning to score two seconds
for the day. Team Farrtz recovered from the OCS to finish
third in race one, and a first place in the second and final
race of the day gave them the day and the weekend.
“It was very encouraging to see all
the younger sailors out on several of the boats.
“Special thanks to you all for the
opportunity to brush up on that race management stuff. I used
to know how to set a line and can learn to do it again. I know
I can!”
The five Farr 40s jockeyed for position
one minute before one of Sunday’s starts.
Non Sequitur, ex-Pegasus (note the flying horse
graphic on the main). This team will be headed
to Key West to race a chartered Farr.
Non Sequitur, Ol’ Farrtz and Blue Chip
Shadow, followed by Blue Chip,
approaches
one-man Race Committee Matt Jones.
Photos Latitude/Rob
Twist and Shout
January 11 – St. Barts
During a recent presentation on PlayStation’s
crushing the transatlantic record, Gino Morrelli, the boat’s
co-designer, told the audience that the boat experienced torsional
twists of about 4.5 feet! And that’s only about half the maximum
safety tolerance.
Twisting is fine on big cats. We did the
St. Barts New Year’s Eve Race/Parade aboard Fat Cat, a
Morrelli 74 cruising cat originally from California. The new
owners did an extensive rebuild, during which time Gino was consulted.
He told them not to make it too stiff because that would make
her too heavy. So if you stand on the bow and ooch up and down,
the whole boat shakes a bit. It does the same thing on Profligate.
The lean Fat Cat crew stands by on
the winches. Photo Latitude/Richard
Admiral’s Cup to Return
January 11 – Dublin, Ireland
The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Admiral’s
Cup, based out of Cowes, England, used to be the pinnacle of
ocean racing competition. Indeed, it’s where Dave Allen’s Imp
from Belvedere and a lot of Northern California sailors started
to make their international reputations. Alas, the event has
been eclipsed by bigger events in recent years, and last summer
had to be called off for lack of interest. But the RORC has just
announced the event will return in 2003 in a new location – to
be changed each time – and new format. The next one will be based
out of Dun Laoghaire, which is the port of Dublin, Ireland, and
will include both inshore racing and the 710-mile Around Ireland
Race. Two-boat teams – consisting of an IMS 600 class and an
IRC boat in excess of 50 feet – will represent each country.
YOTREPS
January 11 – 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/
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.
