June 30, 2003

Photos of the Day: Part I

June 30 – San Francisco Bay

Is San Francisco Bay the Best Damn Place
in the World to Sail?

It certainly isn’t during the winter, but
during the summer it’s nothing short of spectacular. For one
thing, you almost always can take your pick of either challenging
breezes in the Slot for thrilling sailing, or more mellow and
warm places such as Raccoon Strait for easy sailing. Check out
our Photos of the Day, Part I.

Basking in the warmth of the roar of the Giants crowd off PacBell
Park

Sending spray flying from a Newport 30 in the Central Bay during
an ebb.

North Sails Race Week

June 25 – Long Beach

Rich Roberts reports: “A lot of things
can go wrong in sailboat racing, and most of them did at the
19th North Sails Race Week concluding Sunday. The spoils went
to those who overcame their bad luck or blunders (take your pick)
or simply waited for fate to make their days.

“Jim and Lori Thompson, sailing their
new J/109, Shekinah, from San Pedro, didn’t even finish
the first race of the three-day weekend when they sailed over
their spinnaker. But later they were able to discard that result
as the worst of the seven races, break a tiebreaker with Dick
Velthoen and Paul de Freitas’ J/35 Rival and – shazam!
– collect additional honors as PHRF and event Boat of the Week
for winning the most competitive class. They also shared the
Lydia Kent Family Trophy with PHRF 3 winner Paul Kent, one of
eight descendants of the trophy’s late namesake on board.

“A throw-out was introduced this year,
but it didn’t help Samba Pa Ti. John Kilroy’s Farr 40
from California YC, with Paul Cayard as tactician, twice recovered
from jumping the gun in starts Saturday to share first place
with Peter Stoneberg’s Shadow from St. Francis YC going
into the last race. But then a third misstep Sunday was fatal,
and that was compounded when Samba Pa Ti failed to return
back across the line completely to clear itself, requiring a
second restart. By that time, a fickle 4-knot breeze that greeted
the fleet of 130 boats on the final day had built to a brisk
15 swinging hard right for the second race, leaving few passing
lanes to play catch-up.

“Another San Francisco boat, Tom Coates’
Masquerade, also overcame a setback to run away with the
largest class where 25 J/105s contested their Pacific Coast Championships.
Coates wasn’t on the boat. He cut his left hand severely last
Wednesday so, on 48 hours’ notice, tactician/mainsail trimmer
Chris Perkins became skipper and helmsman.

“The Yacht Club Challenge Trophy was
won by St. Francis YC, based on the class wins by Masquerade
and Shadow, and a second place by Bill Wright’s Zsa
Zsa behind Fanger and Mario Yovkov in the 1D35s.”

For the complete story and results, visit
www.Premiere-Racing.com.

Around Alone Skipper Dies Suddenly

June 30 – Savona, Italy

Simone Bianchetti, 35-year old skipper
of Tiscali, which finished third in the 2002/2003 Around
Alone race, died on a boat in Savona, Italy, in the early hours
of Saturday morning after suffering what is believed to be a
stroke.

His wife Inbar called for medical assistance
and an ambulance arrived within minutes, however it was too late
for the Italian sailor.

Zaraffa
Sets Transatlantic Record; Zephyrus Drops Out

June 30 – Cuxhaven, Germany

Skip Sheldon’s R/P 65 Zaraffa was
the first boat to cross the finish line in the 3,618-mile DaimlerChrysler
North Atlantic Challenge from Newport to Germany. It took her
13 days and 15 hours, during which time she hit a top speed of
25.7 knots. Navigator Mark Rudiger of Marin was instrumental
in the fast passage, setting the boat up to catch a cold front.

Zephyrus V
Photo Latitude/Richard

Bob McNeil, also of Marin, didn’t fare
as well. His R/P 86 Zephyrus V has dropped out of the
race after problems with the lower bearing on the rudder. At
the time, ZV had logged 440 miles in 24 hours, and was
going after the current monohull 24-hour sailing record of 484
held by John Kostecki. But with bad sea conditions and a dicey
rudder, McNeil decided to bag the race and head to England for
repairs.

The Trouble with Teak from Burma

June 30 – Washington, DC

“The blurb in Friday’s
‘Lectronic regarding a ban on Burmese teak, and encouraging
a letter to one’s Representatives, sounds like a good idea –
if the only voice heard is that of the manufacturers. In fact,
this is not some random act of Congress. Nine members of Southeast
Asian nations have made the unprecedented move rebuking Burma
in protest of the jailing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi. Japan, Burma’s biggest trading partner, as well as the European
Union, have also imposed sanctions and other penalties against
the Burmese military junta currently in power. I encourage
everyone to do a news search on Burma before making requests
of their Congressional Representative. I’m sure there will be
pain from some business groups, but I think this is a necessary
move for us that will hopefully not be permanent,” writes
Mike Stevens, Cinni, Coronado 25, San Diego.

The fact that ‘Lectronic ran the blurb
for the NMMA does not mean we support their position.

They Say Tourism Is Way off in San Francisco
. . .

June 30 – San Francisco Bay

. . . but there hardly seems enough room
on the Bay for just the Blue & Gold fleet.

Photo Latitude/Richard

Surviving Going Overboard

June 30 – San Francisco Bay

Don Condon has been crewing on the same
Bear boat with the same skipper for 15 years, yet he went overboard
during the Woodie Regatta and darn near died. He and the skipper
have come up with a list of 10 things they did wrong:

1) Stay on the boat. I should have been
better braced for the roll that pitched me over.

2) Know how thy life preserver works, especially
the inflatable kind.

3) Practice MOB drills. In 15 years of
racing, we have never practiced an MOB. We have gone back and
picked up hats and stuff, but not had a specific MOB drill.

4) Have more floating stuff on board. We
have the one horse collar, but took off all the regular life
jackets when we had enough of the inflatables.

5) Wear different boots. Mine filled up
with water. They didn’t pull me down, but I wasn’t able to kick
very well with them.

6) Stay calm. I did all right with this
most of the time I was in the water, except when the boat went
by and didn’t get me. My yelling quickly tired me and increased
the anxiety of those on the boat – which just slowed things down.

7) Think about swimming to shore. It never
crossed my mind until later. I’m not sure if I could have done
it, however.

8) The crew should have had a line ready
to throw to me when they came by.

9) The crew could have untied three stopper
knots and let go of the spinnaker instead of wasting minutes
fighting to pull it back aboard before they could come for me.

10) I should have worked harder to get
the inflatable vest to inflate. It would have made things less
stressful.

We’ll have more on this incident in the
August issue of Latitude
38.

Photos of the Day: Part II

June 30 – San Francisco Bay

Is San Francisco Bay the Best Damn Place
in the World to Sail?

It certainly isn’t in the winter, but the
summer is nothing short of spectacular. It’s not just the variety
of breezes – see item above – but
also the great scenery. Check out our Photos Of The Day, Part
II:

Enjoying the breeze below Coit Tower

Sailing with an urban backdrop

YOTREPS

June 30 – 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 30 – 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.