June 18, 2003

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 9×12 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.