Beach Cat Bet

May 10 - Tybee Island, GA

It began as a bar room bet over a couple of beers in Worrell Bros., the Virginia Beach resort restaurant that was owned by Michael and his brother Chris. The bet: that one could not sail a 16-foot catamaran from Virginia Beach, VA, to Florida.

On October 1, 1974, Michael and crew Steve McGarrett shoved off from the beach in front of the restaurant bound for Florida. After 20 days, two hurricanes, and numerous boat repairs, they made it as far as Fort Lauderdale before their catamaran succumbed to the rigors of the bet.

Intrigued by the challenge of the rugged trip, Worrell, who as a surfer, lifeguard, and later in business, had always been around the ocean, decided to raise the ante and create a radical new type of sailboat race.

In May 1976, four other teams were also inspired by the challenge and entered the inaugural Worrell Bros. Coastwise Race. For that first race, limited to 16-foot Hobie Cats, the rules were almost fewer than the sailors. Sail day and night, come ashore and phone the restaurant once every 24 hours. The first boat to the finish wins. To take advantage of the prevailing winds the course was reversed with the start in Fort Lauderdale and the finish in Virginia Beach.

At 3:10am of the 11th day, Worrell and crew Guerry Beatson, the only team to finish, came ashore on the beach across from the brothers' restaurant.

This year, 18 sponsored teams are competing in the Worrell 1000, currently sailing Leg 6 from Jacksonville Beach, FL, to Tybee Island, GA. As you can see, this extreme event makes for some exciting photography. Here we have but a small taste of Walter Cooper's pictures on www.worrell1000.com. When you check out the Web site, don't miss the series of PYacht Men in Leg 3. (These photos are actually from last year's event, but one hopes new photos will be posted soon.)

See also Catamaran Sailor's Web site at www.catsailor.com/worrell02/worrell02.html

PYacht Women raced last year. No female teams are participating this year.

Coastal Cup Coming Up

May 10 - Alameda

June 15's Coastal Cup Race to Catalina is filling up - to get in on the fun, check out www.encinal.org. Here are the entries to date:

ENTRY NUMBER	BOAT NAME	DESIGN CLASS	SKIPPERS' NAME	YACHT CLUB	PHRF RATING
1	CONVERGENCE	J-120	JEFF WINKELHAKE	ENCINAL	48
2	HAZARDOUS WASTE	J-105	CIHAK / SACK / YOUNGLING	St. FRANCIS	75
3	NEMESIS	ANTRIM 27	MARTSON / SHORTMAN	ENCINAL	78
4	HORSE - PLAY	J-105	RICHARD PARKER	BALLENA BAY	75
5	TAKEOFF	LASER 28	JOAN & GREG BYRNE	ENCINAL	132
6	MAGNITUDE	ANDREWS 70	DOUG BAKER	NEWPORT BEACH.	-102
7	TARA	CATALINA 36	PATRICK & SUSAN PIERCE	ENCINAL	141
8	TIBURON	J-105	STEVE STROUB	SAN FRANCISCO	84
9	LUNA	J-105	GEORGE VARE	SAN FRANCISCO	84
10	ZAMAZAAN	FARR 52	CHARLES WEGHORN	St. FRANCIS	21
11	ZUNI BEAR	J-105	BERGMANN/KENNEDY	St. FRANCIS	84
12	CHANCE	J-120	BARRY LEWIS	SSS	48
13	MEDICINE MAN	ANDREWS 62	BOB LANE	LONG BEACH	-93
14	TOUT SUITE	BENETEAU 40.7	TIM MERRILL	BENICIA	45
15	TANGO	BENETEAU 40 CC	HOWARD RAPHAEL	TPYC	132
16	SALTY HOTEL	EXPRESS 27	DAVID RASMUSSEN	RICHMOND	129
17	WINNETOU	SANTA CRUZ 52	MARTIN BRAUNS	SAN FRANCISCO	-12
18	SLEEPING DRAGON	HOBIE 33	MARK HALMAN	RICHMOND	90
19	CIPANGO	ANDREWS 56	ROB / BOB BARTON	GOLDEN GATE	-24
20	TWIST	J-120	TIMO BRUCK	NONE	48
21	COPERNICUS	SYDNEY 38	MICHAEL KENNEDY	CHICAGO	21

A Ground-Breaking Day in Alameda

May 10 - Alameda

Kame and Sally Richards broke ground on the new Pineapple Sails site yesterday. The mayor attended the ceremony, and the Chamber of Commerce was represented. The new site is near Stone Boat Yard, not far from the Park Street Bridge. Pineapple Sails has advertised in Latitude 38 for 25 years - since we 'broke ground' with our very first issue. Congratulations, Kame and Sally!

Real Entries or Smoke and Mirrors?

May 10 - Freemantle, Australia

Perhaps you've heard of the Antarctica Cup, a non-stop race around the Southern Ocean, leaving the three great capes, Leeuwin, Horn and Good Hope to port. The fleet will compete in identical Ron Holland-designed 82 footers, starting from Freemantle, Australia in December of 2004. There will be a total prize purse of $6.4 million U.S. Here's the latest release from the organizers:
"Paul Cayard, Roy Heiner and Australia's Grant Wharington have all booked their places in the Antarctica Cup, with another American group wishing to remain anonymous at the moment . . . entries are also anticipated in the near future from Brazil, Ireland, Japan and England, with keen interest registered from New Zealand, France, Italy, Sweden and Denmark."

We'd love to know what is meant by "have all booked their places." Does this, for example, mean they have committed to putting up the substantial entry fee? Time will tell.

Kiwi Boat Hits Reef in Red Sea

May 10 - Red Sea

Jim and Mary Haagenson of Glen Cove, who did a circumnavigation with the Force 50 Illusion, report receiving a sad message from Wattie and Jill Spriggs of the 41-ft Kiwi boat Cariad. The Spriggs write:

"Hullo everybody. We ran on a reef at El Qesir just south of Safaga in the Red Sea. Cariad was towed off the reef, but leaked, and sank to the cabin top while being towed. That she didn't sink further was to everybody's surprise. She's now sitting off a wharf waiting for our next move. We've very tired, having slept only two hours in the last 36. Sorry have not been in contact since Massawa, as there's no email. We have not enjoyed this stretch much, as headwinds have been strong at times. I'm contacting my son to come and help. Wish us luck."

"We passed the same spot last year on our circumnavigation," report Jim and Mary. "It is a desolate area. We completed our voyage in January and have moved back to land. Illusion is for sale in Fort Lauderdale."

Synergyzer Drops Rig Near Cape San Martin

May 10 - Morro Bay

"We made it from Cabo to San Diego in eight days," reports Larry Weinhoff of the Daly City-based Ericson 28 Synergyzer. "And we were on schedule to be home last Monday. But we got nailed by a bad gale 120 miles south of the Golden Gate, just north of Cape San Martin. A port shroud let go, and we lost the mast. We've managed to get 55 miles south to Morro Bay, as it was impossible to continue north. Seas of nine feet had been breaking on top of a 9 to 12 foot swell."

Backhus Kicks Butt in Auckland to Fiji Rally

May 10 - Musket Cove, Fiji

"I wanted to let all my friends know that we arrived safely in Fiji last Friday afternoon, having had a safe, fun, fast, and at times, exciting passage up from Auckland," report George Backhus of the Sausalito-based Deerfoot 62 Moonshadow. We won line honors in the Ponsoby Cruising Club Rally, finishing more than 12 hours ahead of the second place yacht. The conditions for the passage were ideal for my Moonshadow - mostly 25 to 45 knots of wind from behind the beam. We completed the 1,150 mile course in five days, four hours, and forty-two minutes, for an average speed of 9.2 knots. When the breeze got up, we had some fantastic surfing and firehose reaches, hitting a top speed of 17.6 knots, with the fun meter registering in at 13 to 15 on too many occasions to count. Many thanks to my dream team crew of Graham, Todd and Nick for helping to make it a great passage. We all had a blast and didn't break one bit of gear! We're relaxing in Musket Cove where the conditions have been nearly perfect."

YOTREPS

May 10 - 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

May 10 - 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 another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.