Graphic of the Day: Sausalito Cup

June 18 - San Francisco Bay

Today's Graphic of the Day is of the course for this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday's Sausalito Cup for IACC boats on San Francisco Bay. There will be one race on Friday starting at 1 p.m., and two races on both Saturday and Sunday, with the first start at 10 a.m. and the second starting shortly after the finish of the first. The boats, normally based at Treasure Island, will be on the hook right off the Sausalito YC for prime viewing.

Organizers John Sweeney and Tina Kleinjan have created a mostly reaching course designed to give as many spectators on shore as possible a chance for a good look. Yellow Bluff will be a prime viewing location as will the San Francisco Cityfront. The couple welcome folks with boats to tag along for as long as they can keep up - these IACC boats reach at speeds of around 17 knots - but please give plenty of room to prevent collisions.

Yachts scheduled to race this weekend include USA-11, with Sweeney and Kleinjan sharing the helm; Oracle BMW Racing, with Larry Ellison at the wheel; NZL-20, with David and Karie Thomson driving; Il Moro di Venezia, with Peter Stoneberg at the helm; and certainly not the least, NZL-14 with Mary Coleman behind the wheel. Former members from Seattle's OneWorld Challenge will be on board NZL-20, with Charlie McKee as tactician and David Endean on bow. The new Oracle BMW Racing team will see Gavin Brady and Chris Dickson in the afterguard. On board Il Moro di Venezia Dee Smith will be on tactics. USA-11, sponsored by Wells Fargo, will have David Barnes calling tactics. For Mary Coleman, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Farr 40 owner and skipper, Ha-Ha vet, and really fun person, the regatta will be her first time behind the helm of an America's Cup Class yacht. Coleman has chartered NZL-14 for the event and will have Sylvain Barrielle, veteran of four America's Cup campaigns, supporting her as tactician.

This is the first of four ISAAC events Sweeney and Kleinjan have set up for the summer, with the really big one slated for October. It's going to be very exciting to see how these boats - which were mostly built for lighter winds - do when the summer breeze starts snorting through the Gate during the afternoon races.

If You Want a Post-Ha-Ha Berth in Cabo, Now Is the Time to Get Your Entry in

June 18 - Tiburon

Baja Ha-Ha Honchoette Lauren Spindler reports that 113 Ha-Ha entry packs were mailed out last weekend, and already the first entries have come in. For those wanting a berth in Cabo right after the Ha-Ha, it's critical to get your entry in immediately. There are never enough berths, and the Cabo Isle Marina assigns slips in the order people get their paid entries in to the Ha-Ha folks. So don't wait.

If you're interested in a Ha-Ha entry pack, send $15 to Baja Ha-Ha, Inc., 21 Apollo Road, Tiburon, 94920. Include a 9x12 self-addressed envelope. It's hard to believe, but it's only four months to the start of Ha-Ha X!

Catnip Cup

June 18 - San Francisco/Vallejo

The weather couldn't have been more ideal for last weekend's ultra-mellow Catnip Cup rally from the Golden Gate to Vallejo and back for cruising multihulls. About 20 people showed up in about seven cats and one trimaran - ranging in size from Tom and Ginny Dost's Warrior 29 Beamy Reacher to Latitude 38's 63-foot Profligate - for gentle but steady wind, tons of sunshine, and warm temperatures.

Catana 431 Jitterbug in foreground; Bob Naber's Kantola 38 tri Devoras in background.

Glenn Fagerlin's Kronos 45 Perception sailing between the Brothers.

With berths set aside by Jim Haussener at the Vallejo Municipal Marina, everybody was able to dock next to each for easy touring of all the boats and sharing of information. Two of those with the most interesting stories were Gary and Claudette Miskell of the Catana 431 Jitterbug, which they bought new in France two winters ago and sailed across the Atlantic before having her delivered the rest of the way to San Francisco.

The usual great time was had by all.

As Good as It Gets

June 18 - Angel Island

To celebrate Father's Day, Latitude's John Arndt reports that he "took the kids for a later afternoon sail to Ayala Cove and pulled in at about 5 pm when the last of the ferry boats was picking up the crowds. The day was gorgeous, the cove calm and warm. By six many of the slips were emptied, and we were left at Ayala Cove with just the kids, 50 empty picnic tables, a sun high in the sky and wildlife returning from Angel Island's hills to pick over the scraps left from the day.

"We had done the same for Mother's Day, getting to Angel Island at 5 pm on a warm Sunday and having an identically beautiful evening. You do that and you know you're lucky to have a boat and a family that enjoys it. Don't tell anyone."

Not the Kind of Ice You Want in Your Sundowner

June 18 - Santa Cruz

Seventy-three year old Ray Erickson of Santa Cruz was sitting on the deck of his powerboat on February 10 when a couple of chunks of 'blue ice' dropped out of the heavens and through the 'skylight' of his boat. Actually, the stuff didn't come from heaven, but rather the frozen liquid toilet waste that leaked out of an American Airlines jet flying overhead. Erickson conducted his own investigation to determine which plane it was and filed suit in small claims court. American offered him half of the $3,200 it cost him to repair the damage. Erickson - who will no doubt be happy to retell his story when he does this fall's Ha-Ha - stuck to his guns and was awarded $3,200. More in the July issue of Latitude 38.

Identify these Breasts and Solve a Troubling Mystery

June 18 - Pt. Richmond

Do the boobs in this ad look familiar? If so, please contact 'Lectronic to perhaps help solve a troubling mystery. A couple of weeks ago we received the ad featuring the breasts from the email address DeWittGalleries at hotmail.com. It was a clever ploy to make us believe that renowned artist Jim DeWitt - who has some of his terrific marine artwork printed on ties - had sent the ad over in jest. So we published it in 'Lectronic. Alas, it was a phony ad that had hijacked DeWitt's name and reputation. So now we've got cyber sleuths on the case, and they say, "Identify the breasts and you'll identify the perps." So who knows 'em?

Clarification on the Taki Too Capsize

June 18 - Garibaldi, OR

In Monday's 'Lectronic, we reported that all the folks who survived the Taki Too fishing charter capsize were wearing lifejackets, and that all that died had not been wearing lifejackets. Several readers wrote in to correct us. At the time of the capsize, nobody was wearing PFDs. Those who were able to grab a PFD survived. Those who weren't able to, died.

YOTREPS

June 18 - The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace

Who is out making passages in the Pacific and what kind of weather are they having? The YOTREPS daily yacht tracking page has moved to www.bitwrangler.com/psn.

Weather Updates

June 18 - Pacific Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

Check out this guide to San Francisco Bay Navigational Aids: http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/sfports.html.

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/Maps/Southwest.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.