June 12, 2002

Photos of the Day

June 12 – San Francisco Bay

Today’s Photos of the Day are of Melinda
Erkelens, Legal Counsel for Oracle Racing, showing the proper
way to christen a boat, while her husband, Bill, Oracle Racing’s
Chief Operating Officer, looks on. Women are frequently too delicate
with the bottle, not breaking it on the first try.

The boat in question was USA-71, the first
of Oracle Racing’s two new boats, both of which were built at
their facility in Ventura. USA-76, Oracle’s second boat, will
arrive in Auckland in early July. While Oracle’s trial boats
featured white hulls, the new one has a charcoal gray hull with
Oracle on the bow in bright red.

Many of the 140+ members of the Oracle
Team were on hand for the ceremony. Conspiculously absent was
Larry Ellison, the man behind Oracle and Oracle Racing. We wouldn’t
read anything into his absence.

For longtime Bay Area sailors, it was great
to see Bill and Melinda in the spotlight. These are locally grown
folks who are nice people – and excellent sailors. We remember
being at the Kaneohe YC in Hawaii about 10 years ago when the
two came in, having finished first and correcting out first in
the West Marine Pacific Cup with a 26-ft hard chine boat.

After the christening, USA-71 was taken
out into the Hauraki Gulf for tuning. When the other boat arrives
in July, the team will go into even more intense training. The
Louis Vuitton Challenger series starts in October. The America’s
Cup Finals will be early next year. Oracle Racing flies the Golden
Gate YC burgee.

What other syndicates have launched new
generation boats? Alinghi, Victory, Dennis Conner, OneWorld (two
of them), GBR, Mascalzone Latino, Prada Challenge, and Le Defi’s
Greenpeace Nuclear Challenge.

The Panamanians Are the Friendliest

June 12 – Panama

“We’re enjoying the remote islands
of the seemingly forgotten cruising area of northwest Panama,”
report Dorsey and Janice Warren of the Tahoe City-based Mariner
48 Sun Dazzler. “We just love Panama! The weather
during the December to April dry season was great. Since arriving
from Costa Rica last December, we have visited many great, remote,
quiet anchorages, in both the northwest and the Perlas. We’re
now visiting the islands of the northwest part of Panama for
the third time. We also spent several months in Panama City,
including hauling out at the new Flamenco Marina Yard, which
was great. They dive on the bottom to make sure the straps are
set right for their 150-ton lift; security guards all around
all night, there are three excellent restaurants adjacent to
the yard; and there’s a small bar in the yard which serves coffee,
beer, and sandwhiches. Try finding that in the Bay Area. It was
a great place to have equipment shipped in to catch up with maintenance
after three years. The Panamanians are just the friendliest folks
we’ve met, and we plan to spend at least another year on both
sides of this great little country before heading towards East
Coast and Europe.”

Some Moron and Geronimo

June 12 – Richmond to Stockton

France’s Olivier de Kersauson, the French
maxi trimaran guru and former holder of the Jules Verne record,
is generally regarded as not the most pleasant or easy guy to
get along with. But now he’s got a reason to be pissed. The other
day, his just relaunched 125-ft tri was T-boned by a 30-footer
sailing in 25 knot winds. “The damage is what you might
see if some moron in a 4X4 drove into the Formula 1 pit lane
during a Grand Prix, and straight into the race car and its pit
crew,” said the understandably ticked off Frenchman. As
a result of the collision, a five-ft by five-ft section of the
hull below the waterline was shattered, and the uni-directional
strands making up the carbon fiber structure were severed. In
order to make repairs, the boat has to be completely stripped,
the mast and rigging removed, and the boat put under a re-erected
tent.
Meanwhile, Tracy Edwards and her crew on the maxi-cat Maiden
II – ex-Club Med – have left to chase Steve Fossett’s
687 miles in 24 hours record. Wouldn’t it be cool if a woman
owned the all-time 24-hour speed record?

Boeckel’s Body Found

June 12 – Long Island Sound

The body of Jamie Boeckel, the skipper
of Blue Yankee who went into the water during a spinnaker
maneuver while at the end of the pole on May 24, was recovered
off Long Island Sound yesterday.

Oops!

June 12 –
San Francisco Bay

Yesterday we reported that some of the
Mari-Cha III crew thought that Zephyrus would beat
them to Hawaii in the Pacific Cup. That’s not true. What is true
is that most of the better racers are favoring Zephyrus.

Zephyrus
Photo Latitude/Andy

Woodies on the Weekend

June 12 – San Francisco

YOTREPS

June 12 – 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

June 12 – 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/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 views of sea states anywhere in the world,
see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/.