Photo of the Day

June 17 - Golden Gate

Today's Photo of the Day is of 69-year-old John Guzzwell of Seattle and his self-designed, home built 30-ft Seattle-based Endangered Species, one of the eight starters in Saturday's Singlehanded TransPac to Kauai. Guzzwell, you may remember, circumnavigated from '55 to '59 aboard Trekka, a 21-ft Lauren Giles design that he also built.

Photo Latitude/JR

The fleet got off to a fine start in brisk winds. A surprise non-starter was Ken 'the General' Roper, who had done seven Singlehanded TransPacs to date. He reportedly suffered a severe knockdown bringing his boat up the coast.

Coastal Cup a Quick One?

June 17 - California Coast

We haven't heard any results yet, but the Coastal Cup from San Francisco to Catalina, which started the same time as the Singlehanded TransPac, must have been a fast one. According to the weather buoys, the wind held at between 19 and 30 knots through the night, so as long as they didn't die at the east end of the Santa Barbara Channel, they should have done all right. Here's some of the boats starting.

First start

Eclipse at Mile Rock

Disney Does It Again - This Time to Bermuda

June 17 - Bermuda

After trailing the 635-mile Newport to Bermuda race in the early going by as much as eight miles, Roy Disney and crew aboard the R/P 75 Pyewacket turned on the juice to finish first and smash the old course record by nearly four hours. In averaging 11.9 knots, they knocked about 7% off the old record. There were 182 entries - a record - in this 43rd running of the event.

Pyewacket faced good competition, as George Coumantaros' Boomerang, former course record holder, and Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory held the lead after a quarter of the race. Pyewacket had small leads over Bright Star and Blue Yankee. But as the race went on, Pyewacket charged ahead in 20 to 30-knot winds. She eventually finished about 25 minutes ahead of Boomerang, which also broke the old course record. It was a breezy race, in which a number of boats had to drop out. Fred Detweiler's 70-ft Trader had her mast snap in three places after she fell off the back of a wave.

Photo Tim Wright

This last winter, Roy Disney, one of the really nice guys in sailing, took his R/P to the Caribbean and kicked butt. No matter if it was the BVI Regatta, the Heineken, or Antigua Sailing, he and his talented crew walked away from the fleet. The only fly in the ointment was that the competition wasn't as good as in some years. In the Bermuda Race, he faced good competition and still won.

All Zeros?

June 17 - San Francisco Bay

We wonder if this Cal 20 owner might be suffering from low self esteem. He shouldn't, as his Cal 20 was in lovely condition sailing across the Bay yesterday in some of the nicest sailing conditions of all time.

Photo Latitude/Richard

Flash

June 17 - Santa Catalina Island

We've received word that Doug Baker's Andrews 70 Magnitude completed the 295-mile race to Catalina in a sizzling 24 hours, which would be a new record. They reported having a great ride and hitting up to 25.6 knots. Much of the fleet is still out on the water, and some have been having problems: hitting whales, broken boom, that kind of thing.

James Graul of Kiononia reportedly dropped out because one crewmember was suffering from sunburn and another from hypothermia. There has to be a story there.

YOTREPS

June 17 - 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 17 - 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/.