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August 3, 2018

TGI the Weekend

Latitude Nation, another weekend is upon us. For those of you who didn’t play hooky during the week, we hope you get to stretch your legs on the water over the next few days — and don’t forget to send us your stories and photos. Here’s a shot taken by local sailor Greg Clausen last Friday:

A scene from Friday night beer cans at Tiburon Yacht Club, as Lion leads the pack, followed by Siento el Viento, Kinda Blue, Hurricane Gulch and Highlander. It’s a windy upwind start to the first mark — it does get windy here, with the wind spilling over the low cut in the Tiburon Ridge.

© 2018 Greg Clausen

Boats Aground All Over the Bay Area

At least two boats found themselves aground in the Bay Area this past week. On Wednesday in San Pablo Bay, a 31-ft sailboat ran aground west of Mare Island.

It’s rare that you can see the boat in the grainy (but totally captivating) videos that the Coast Guard shoots during a rescue. We won’t make any guesses as to the make of the boat, but we know from experience that San Pablo Bay — or the waters between San Rafael and Vallejo — can be shockingly shallow.

© 2018 United States Coast Guard

The sailors eventually called the Coast Guard at approximately 4:30 p.m. Because of the shallow waters the boat was in, the Coast Guard sent a helicopter, and eventually lowered a rescue swimmer, who helped hoist the boaters to safety. They were flown to Napa County Airport.

Coast Guard helicopter rescues have been a common occurrence on the West Coast this summer.

© United States Coast Guard

"The boaters opted to call the Coast Guard early instead of potentially allowing the situation to worsen overnight," said Lt. Adam Frye, the pilot, in a press release. "This allowed us to execute the rescue during daytime under favorable conditions and get everyone home safely." The boat is anchored where it ran aground while the owner makes plans for salvage (one of our readers said they could see the mast from Highway 37).

In Point Reyes, we saw a sailboat high and dry on Limantour Beach yesterday — from the photos, our best guess is that the boat, Rosebud, is a Cal 2-27.

At the moment, we have only questions about what might have led to this boat’s grounding.

© 2018 Sarah Arndt

We made several attempts to reach Point Reyes National Seashore, but they didn’t get back to us by press time. We will keep you updated as we learn more. If you have any information on this vessel, please let us know.

No, this boat is not a regular part of the many interesting attractions at the Point Reyes National Seashore.

© Sarah Arndt

Crossing Tracks with the King Harbor Race

Yacht racing is everywhere in California, both inshore and offshore. You never know when you might run into (we hope not literally) a regatta underway. Latitude 38 contributing editor John Riise was "out sailing last Friday, on our way back from Santa Cruz Island to Oxnard, and we barged through the Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race (81 miles around Anacapa Island)."

Left: Freedom, a Beneteau 550C owned by David Norman of Dana Point YC, was sailing in the Cruising Division. Right: Thomas Wilson’s Velocity was one of three Hobie 33s in the ULDB E Division.

latitude/JR
©2018 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

"The view is looking WSW. The fleet was headed for Anacapa, just east of Santa Cruz Island." The course of the King Harbor Race takes Anacapa to port.

The Cal 40 Celebrity, sailed by Jerry Finnegan of KHYC, is seen here with Santa Cruz Island in the distance.

latitude/JR
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC

We’re planning to include top results from the 100-boat race in the September issue of Latitude 38. For more info, see www.sbyc.org/2018-sb-kh.

48 North Donated to NW Maritime Center

The Pacific Northwest sailing rag 48° North, based in Seattle, has been for sale for a while, as owners Richard Hazelton and Michael Collins want to retire. Yesterday, the editor, Joe Cline, announced that the magazine is being donated to the nonprofit Northwest Maritime Center, located in Port Townsend, WA. The editorial and advertising staff are staying on. The Maritime Center, you may recall, is the organizer of the Wooden Boat Festival in September and the one-of-a-kind Race to Alaska.

For more, see nwmaritime.org/48-north-magazine and 48north.com/2018/08/02/48-north-joins-nwmc. Our congratulations to all parties!

A team of four race to repack a twisted spinnaker. © Fred Fago Saturday’s YRA race out to Point Bonita finished down the Estuary and ended at a party hosted by Encinal Yacht Club.
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