November 21, 2003

Photos of the Day: Jack Frost

November 21 – San Francisco Bay

Encinal YC’s Jack Frost Series got off
to a good start on Saturday, November 15, with 49 boats participating.
That’s almost as many boats as the first race last year (54 boats),
but the make-up of the fleet was very different. Last year’s
three J/Boat one design classes (120s, 35s, 105s) are gone, replaced
by the Express 27s and multihulls.

Two-race days were one of the attractions
for the Express 27s, who defected from their usual Berkeley Midwinters
venue. Pro Will Paxton, sailing Motorcycle Irene with
former boss Norman Davant, Rusty Canada, Brian Moore and Matt
Noble, won both: the first by 55 seconds and the second by 1:41.

Chris Corlett of Nelson Yachts took two
bullets in Division I with the Sydney 32 Sydney, accompanied
by a skeleton crew of Bill Colombo, Dominic Marchal and Campbell
Rivers.

John Wimer’s J/120 Desdemona had a shot at taking out
Sydney, but suffered a comical and time-consuming DOB
(dog overboard) in the first race. See Sightings in the December
issue of Latitude
38 for the complete story!

The Melges 24s were the only other class
to get in two races that day – both won by Kevin Clark’s Smokin’.
Clark wasn’t there, having loaned longtime Smokin’ tactician
Tom Rankin the
boat for the series. Rankin was joined by Michael Andrews, brother
John Rankin, and Wayne Best.

Jake Cartwright’s WylieCat 30 Triumph,
with Steve Seal at the helm, won the ‘Wylie Class’ (Division
II, of which five of the eight boats were
different Wylie designs), but the PHRF rating for WylieCat 30s
was just dropped six seconds a mile (from 141 to 135), so Triumph
will have to work a bit harder in the next Jack Frost , set for
January 17.

Bluejacket, Bill
O’Connor’s Cal 29, topped Division III. White Knuckles,
an F-31R trimaran sailed by multihull dealer Gary Helms, won
the six-boat Multihull division. Brian Wade’s Max, an
Antrim 27, encountered, shall we say, minimum competition in
that class, and won by default, sailing one of two races.

For more details, results and photos, see
Racing Sheet in the December issue of Latitude
38.

Last we checked, results were not yet available
at www.encinal.org.

We’ll grant the T-shirt, but bare feet? In November? What latitude is this again?

Profligate’s
Lack of Progress

November 21 – Panama

As reported on Wednesday, after a terrific
dash from Cabo San Lucas to within 50 miles of the Panama Canal,
one of Profligate’s two saildrives crapped out, and the
other started to sound ill. In need of two new saildrives and
a place to haul out, she limped into Flamenco Marina, tying up
next to the J Class yacht Shamrock.

After about 700 phone calls in the last
two days, we learned that Yanmar now makes an SD-40 saildrive
that is more rugged than the SD-31s, and that the experts can
be believed, it will fit on the current SD-31 bed without too
extensive a modification. Originally, we were told the entire
bed had to be replaced, and the SD-40s only accepted Flex-o-Fold
special props, and the FOF guy was at a show in Amsterdam . .
. yada, yada, yada. Apparently, the beds don’t have to be replaced
and the same props can be used.

As things stand this morning, the big problem
is getting the big cat hauled out of the water. She’s at a shrimp
yard with a hydraulic elevator, but the yard manager – for reasons
we can’t understand – wants the boat resting on her hulls rather
than being lifted by her bridgedeck – which has been done every
single time before. As such, it’s unclear whether the boat can
be hauled, in which case we’ll be up Poop Creek. Supposedly, two new saildrives, which supposedly
will fit, will arrive tomorrow. We’ll believe it when we see it.

If all goes bad, Profligate won’t
make it through the Canal at all. If things go well, she could
be through by the middle of next week. If you want certainty,
you don’t want to try to move a boat quickly.

Big lesson learned: Overpitching is as
harder or harder on a saildrive than the engine itself.

YOTREPS

November 21 – 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 Links

November 21 – 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

The site for the Pacific Ocean sea states
has moved to http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/PacRegSSA.shtml.

For views of sea states anywhere in the world,
see http://www.oceanweather.com/data.