'Lectronic Index

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Photos of the Day

October 13 - Oxnard

Today's Photo of the Day was taken last Friday at Channel Islands Boatyard in Oxnard, and shows the difference between a racing catamaran and a cruising catamaran. The cat on the left is Bill Gibb's 52-ft cat Afterburner, which has frequently bested the biggest and fastest monohulls boat-for-boat in races such as to King Harbor and Ensenada. She displaces 8,000 pounds. The cat on the right is Latitude's 63-ft Profligate, which displaces 36,000 pounds when empty.

Channel Islands is one of the few places in California that can haul a cat with 30-ft of beam, so we pulled Profligate there and had her topsides painted by newlyweds Joe and Cheryl Slagle. It wasn't easy for them, as the distant Day wildfire, the biggest in California history, burned for weeks, covering the cat in ashes, making it impossible to paint. They did the last of the spraying at 4 p.m. on Friday, and since we had to be at Catalina with the boat Buccaneer Day the next afternoon, we gave the paint all of 90 minutes to dry before ordering the boat to be put back in the water. Fortunately, the boat just sat in a slip initially, as Joe and Cheryl had to spend the early evening, full moon rising behind them, replacing about 100 fasteners for the forward tramp. What a way to spend a honeymoon! What a way of busting their tails to help us out! A tip of our hat to Joe and Cheryl, and to the whole crew at Channel Islands Boatyard for hanging around long after quitting time to launch Profligate.

Photos Latitude/Richard

Speaking of multihulls, Antigua Sailing Week, the granddaddy of all wild and crazy sailing weeks in the tropics, has decided that for its 40th anniversary event next April, it will once again allow both racing and cruising multihulls to enter. Multihulls weren't initially allowed to race at Antigua, but the race committee finally relented in the early '80s, thanks to all the pestering on the part of D. Randy West, who later became our catamaran guru. Then, on the first or second race, D. Randy slammed his catamaran into the side of the 72-ft Mistress Quickly, which at the time was a megayacht. The result was that almost as soon as multihulls were allowed in, they were banned for 25 or so years. Having done six Antigua Sailing Weeks with our 71-ft ketch Big O, we've got a feeling we may be back for a seventh - but with a cat.

- latitude / rs

"Where Did the Two of You Meet?"

October 13 - Berkeley

A lot of couples get asked that question. We think that Jennifer Sechrist Mai has about the best answer we've ever heard, which would be, "I met my husband Phill during a Berkeley YC Friday night race last July. I'd fallen overboard, and he was the captain of the boat that rescued me. We were married last weekend."
Our congratulations to the both of you.

- latitude / rs

Some Is Good, Moore Is Better

October 13 - Santa Cruz

It was the nautical equivalent of Woodstock 30 years later as 39 Moore 24s and their ready-to-rock crews arrived in Santa Cruz for the 30th annual Moore 24 Nationals last weekend. When it was over, 11 races and 1 throwout later, Rowan Fennell's Paramour band 'headlined' the leader board, narrowly edging out veteran class rock stars Dave Hodges and Scott Walecka on Adios. It was the second big win for Fennell, who also aced the PCCs earlier this year.

Rowan Fennell's Paramour in the lead at the PCCs in May
Photo Allen Dekelboum/Tiburon YC

Amazingly, this was the second largest fleet to sail the Nationals. The largest was 41 boats in 1983, which Hodges won. In fact, walking around the docks at SCYC between races, it was major deja vu for all the great Moore 24 races of the past, as many of the same faces were there, albeit with a bit more gray hair and wrinkles: Joel Verutti, Chris Watts, Vaughn Seifers, Pepe Parsons, Mike O'Callaghan - even the Great Reef Master himself, Ron Moore. Ron built some 150 of the little speedsters between 1972 and 1988 at his famed Moore's Reef boatyard in Santa Cruz. Enthused as ever, Ron sailed the last race with Forrest Fennel (the winner's brother) aboard More Amour.

Look for a complete report - including perhaps the most incredible halyard retrieval story we've ever heard - in the November issue.

1) Paramour, Rowan Fennell; 2) Adios, Dave Hodges/Scott Walecka; 3) Gruntled, Bart Hackworth; 4) CAL, David Albright/Will Paxton; 5) Bruzer, Chris Watts. (39 boats).

Complete results: www.scyc.org.

- latitude / jr

Calling It a Season

October 13 - Baranof Wilderness Lodge, AK

Rick and Jenna Fleischman, who during the summer operate their Catalina 50 Bob as a charterboat in Alaska, report that the season is over and they are setting up for the winter. While Jen stayed in Sitka to finish a remodel job, Rick motored Bob to 90-mile distant Baranof Wilderness Lodge, where the couple will be caretakers for the third straight winter.

Bob anchored at Glacier Bay National Park

"We had another great summer of sailing in Southeast Alaska," the couple report. "Although it was one of the wettest winters that I can remember, the fishing and wildlife were great. In fact, it was an exceptional year for viewing bear, as many of them were working the beaches and streams."

Bears

More bears
Photos Courtesy Bob