'Lectronic Index Previous 'Lectronic Edition

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Photos of the Day December 8 - South of the Border Today's Photos of the Day are from last weekend's big Chili Cook-Off at Paradise Resort and Marina in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. (See Monday's 'Lectronic Latitude for the group shot!) All the proceeds go to the school in nearby Bucerias. In the past, money has gone for desks and computers at the school. Now cruisers are going to build a whole new classroom to hold all the stuff. Nice going everybody! Burgundy of Summertime Dream and Leslie of Doggone might have gotten a few more customers if people didn't think that they were serving chili from the toilet off a boat. Crews from Paradiso, Anticipation, La Dolce Vita, Echo, and others put together the Godfather's Chili stand - and won for best chili. Kyle of Desperado Marine and T.K. of Revenge won the best chili from a restaurant. Note they are stirring the chili with ostrich bones. Jim Keltner, Commodore of the Vallarta YC, which hosted the event along with Paradise Resort. Karen, a former West Marine employee who sailed Promotion in the TransPac and on several boats in the Ha-Ha, guards the beer. Dustin and Jean of Sabbatical sample the chili. Irma of Desperado Marine takes a milk break courtesy of Jeff from the trimaran Moon Me. Nobody was selling vegetarian chili. All Photos Latitude/Richard

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New G Class Multihull Announced December 8 - France The French insurance company Groupama announced yesterday that they would be underwriting a new 105-ft trimaran Groupama for successful 60-ft trimaran sailor Franck Cammas. The boat is designed to break around-the-world and transoceanic records. Designed by Vincent Lauriot Prevost and Marc van Peteghem of Paris and to be built by Multiplast of France, various cat and trimaran designs and lengths were considered. At 105 feet, Groupama will be about 20 feet shorter than Steve Fossett's cat Cheyenne, Bruno Peyron's latest cat Orange, and Olivier de Kersauson's trimaran Geronimo. However, the new 75-foot wide tri will displace four to ten tons less, which is significant. While cats are conceded to be faster in deep running conditions, it's agreed that going any faster than 25 knots in the Southern Ocean is useless because eventually the boat will get out ahead of the weather system it was riding in and into light air. In around-the-world races, the big gains are expected to be made going up and down the Atlantic, where trimarans might have advantages because they are more weatherly and faster in light air. The designers figure their new tri might be about two days faster than existing 120 footers. The boat should be launched in 2006. Photo Courtesy www.multiplast-yachts.com

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RYC Small Boat Midwinters December 8 - San Francisco Bay Fortunately, the weatherman was wrong about last Sunday's forecast and the first of four Richmond YC Small Boat Midwinters went off without a hitch. A gentle northerly blew just hard enough to propel the boats around three different race courses, but not hard enough to make anyone cold or wet - a perfect day for tooling around in little boats! The two inner courses managed to sneak in all five of their scheduled races, while the outer course only got in two races before the wind fizzled. Class winners follow; complete results can be found at www.richmondyc.org. Young David Liebenberg (1657) showed no respect for his elders, topping the 31-boat El Toro fleet CFJ skipper Chris Gregory kept a low profile Vince Casalaina and crew Sherry Eldridge (28856) won the Snipes Whoa! What's this thing? We can tell you the owner is a real Kidder and the boat's a complete Hoot! Tune in to the next issue for the whole story. Big boat sailors Mark Dowdy and Jason Bright (7873) have been doing a little 505 sailing on the side. Mixed mark rounding. How many different classes can you count here? All photos Latitude/Rob EL TORO - 1) David Liebenberg. (31 boats) OPTI - 1) James Moody. (10 boats) SNIPE - 1) Vince Casalaina/Sherry Eldridge. (7 boats) BYTE - 1) Christina Nagatani. (6 boats) CFJ - 1) Jim Parker. (2 boats) WYLIE WABBIT - 1) Bill & Melinda Erkelens. (7 boats) THISTLE - 1) Kristofer Vogelson, 'Arden & Hall'. (4 boats) INTERNATIONAL 14 - 1) Kirk Twardowski/Mr. Margeson. (6 boats) 505 - 1) Craig Perez/John Paulling. (3 boats) 29er - 1) Johnny Heineken/Matt Noble. (9 boats) CORONADO 15 - 1) David Rumbaugh/Kim Anderson. (6 boats) 420 - 1) Michael Kuschner/'Barhydt'. (4 boats) INTERNATIONAL CANOE - 1) Anders Pettersson. (3 boats) LASER - 1) Andrew Casey. (21 boats) CONTENDER - 1) Gil Walley. (3 boats) MULTIHULL - 1) Tornado, Bill Erkelens. (5 boats) PORTSMOUTH - No results yet.

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Remote Control Everything December 8 - More from South of the Border While in Mexico, we've learned that remote control seems to be taking over much of the sailing world. For example, Paul Biery of the Emeryville-based Catana 431 cat New Focus showed us a black box that allows him to control the steering and all engine controls of his boat. "I love it because it allows me to dock my cat myself." The only down side is that the black box, plus the installation of fly-by-wire gear, is not cheap. Paul and Karen of New Focus And then Frank Nitte and Shirely Duffield, who did the 2003 Ha-Ha with their Islander Freeport 36 Windsong, told us that the Opequimar Boatyard in Puerto Vallarta has a huge new Travel-Lift that is also remote controlled. Rather than driving the Travel-Lift, the worker controlling it walks alongside with the control box. Frank and Shirely know all about this because they're having their 36-footer prepped, sprayed with four coats of primer, and sprayed with four coats of Imron, for just $2,200 - that includes the price of the paint! They are using 'Juan The Painter', although a fellow named David is also supposed to be excellent. Frank and Shirley of Windsong Photos Latitude/Richard

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Aikane Deal Off Also December 8 - Puerto Vallarta A short time ago we reported that J.R. and Lupe Dipp, two well-known sailors in the Puerto and Nuevo Vallarta sailing communities, made a bid on a Catana 58 catamaran. Their bid was just a little too low, so they made a bid on an Aikane 56 cat, which was accepted. In fact, we mistakenly reported that they'd closed the deal on the cat. "We were going to close the deal," said Lupe, "but then the owner pulled out a 23-page contract and said we'd have to pay the tax for importing the boat into the States because he hadn't done it himself. So that was the end of that deal." They now have an offer in on a Catana 47. We'll let you know how this novella turns out. JR & Lupe Photo Latitude/Richard