Photos of the Day

January 24 - Key West, FL

Today's Photos of the Day - and text - come from Rich Roberts, who is covering the 325-boat strong Key West Race Week in Florida.

While big winds often bring bad news, most sailors will welcome them and take their chances. Some paid the price at Terra Nova Trading/Yachting Key West Race Week Wednesday. Foremost, there was the Titan XI-Decision collision in the PHRF-1 class. Stephen Murray's Decision, an Andrews 70 from New Orleans, struck Tom Hill's Titan XI, an Andrews 68 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, near the windward mark on the first leg of the second race. Decision, on port tack, tried to duck its rival but T-boned Titan XI smack on the middle T. Titan XI looked as if it had been cut almost halfway in two by a chainsaw.

"We thought we were going to sink," Hill said. "The regatta's over for us." Well, not exactly. In what Titan XI helmsman Mark Ploch called "a very gracious offer," Murray put his boat, which suffered what was described as "superficial damage," at the disposal of Hill and his crew for the last two days of the regatta. Madden Randle, Decision's navigator and boat captain, said, "We owed them the gesture. We probably made a mistake - well, we most certainly made a mistake in trying to duck them. We probably waited too long and were going too fast - 10-plus knots by the time we collided."

It wasn't immediately clear how Decision would be scored with the Titan XI crew now in charge, but nobody seemed concerned, and hard feelings were minimal. Hill, the owner of Titan XI, said, "I've run into boats myself, but it's really disappointing. It was a scary moment. The three of us in the back of the boat were ready to bail out." Mark Ploch of Titan XI said, "I was at the helm. At a certain point it was, 'They're gonna hit us, and it's gonna hurt.' " Decision's bow remained jammed in Titan XI's hull for more than a minute. The crippled boat, still heeling sharply to port, was taking on water at an alarming rate. "His bow was pushing us sideways," Hill said. "We thought we were going to sink." Randle took action on Decision. "I felt we were pushing the other boat under," he said. "I started the engine, grabbed the helm and backed the boat away."

Randle said the crash was the result of misjudgment by the unidentified helmsman - not Murray - and not because the crew failed to ease the main sheet, as Titan XI crew members at first suspected. "The main was flagging when we hit them," Randle said.

Wednesday's breeze was up to 18 knots, strongest of the week. The F-28R trimarans loved every minute of it. Although one of the class leaders, Doug Harkrider of Flowery Beach, GA, had to drop out of the second race when the headboard on his mainsail broke, he said with delight, "The conditions were perfect for multihulls. We can even use a little more [wind]. We don't start reefing until 25 knots." Randy Smyth, America's No. 1 multihull sailor, certainly had no complaints, either. He won both of Wednesday's races to stretch his overall lead to four points with three races remaining.

A greater surprise was Flavio Favini's sweep of all three races against the rest of the best Melges 24 sailors in the 2001 World Championships. Favini, the IMS 50 world champion sailing for Switzerland, has won four in a row reaching back to Tuesday. With throwouts considered, Favini leads defending Key West champion Harry Melges of Lake Geneva, WI, 15 points to 24, with four races remaining.

In the marquee class featuring celebrity tacticians, Atalanti XI, the double defending champion with Robbie Haines brainstorming behind owner/driver George Andreadis of Greece, slipped quietly into first place - although it still hasn't finished better than third (3-7-4-4-3). Wednesday's winners were John Thomson's Solution and Jim Richardson's Barking Mad, but consistency is what counts there.

Consistently winning is even better. In the 1D35s, Chris and Kara Busch's Wild Thing from San Diego (1-2-1-1-1) now has an eight-point lead.

After three of five days, the only unbeaten boat left of the 324 entries from 33 states and 14 countries is Kerry Klingler's defending J/80 champion from Larchmont, NY, known only by its sail number, 395.

In IMS, Isam Kabbani's C/M 60, Rima, and George David's Nelson/Marek 49, Idler, remained tied for first place after swapping firsts and seconds - ditto Bill Alcott's Santa Cruz 70, Equation, and George Collins' Farr 52, Chessie Racing, in PHRF-1, as Titan XI and Decision went by the boards.

Mystery Photo

January 24 - Mystery Location

The owner of the cat in the photo calls this place "the hidden paradise." Where is it? (email Richard)

And no, there isn't any prize for getting it right.

YOTREPS

January 24 - 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

January 24 - 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 www.nws.mbay.net/home.html.

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.