January 16, 2001

Photo of the Day

January 16 – Richmond

St. Barts is an island of sailors, so when you go out to dinner,
groups from various tables tend to meld together and the sailing
stories start flying through the air. Thus it was that while
eating at La Gemelle, we were introduced to Dave “who used
to run ‘Escapade’.” We asked if this was the 74-ft ‘Escapade’
that was designed by S&S and built back in 1938. It was.
As ‘Latitude 38’ readers probably know, that’s the same ‘Escapade’
that hit an unlit buoy off the coast of Southern California last
year, and is now at KKMI being put back together.

So when we got back, we went over to Richmond to visit the old
girl, and found master shipwright Dickie Delfino working on the
bow. He’d already crafted and installed a new stemhead fitting.
We tried to lift parts of the old one – it weighed a ton. Delfino
said that he hoped he’d be done with the new bow and a new deck
so the boat could be sailing again by summer. Classics like ‘Escapade’
are largely ignored on the West Coast. In parts of the Caribbean
and the Med, they are worshipped.

Cruising in the 70s

January 16 – The Mediterranean

We’d like to share the following snippet from two of our favorite
cruisers, Larry Hirsch and Dorothy Taylor of the San Diego-based
Hylas 45.5 ‘Shayna’. They are currently in San Diego while their
boat spends the winter on the hard in Israel. “It’s a mystery
to us why we see so few Norte Americano gringos here in the Med.
A few circumnavigators drift through, but we’re going on three
years now and we’ve met up with less than a dozen American yachties.
The Carib is soft and easy and we want to go back, but there
is simply no way to experience the magic of the Med by “Virtual
Reality” or whatever is the latest hi-tech fad. You need
to get there and actually ‘walk the walk, talk the talk and press
the flesh’. If you’re careful, the expenses are not all that
worse than most other places, and the war talk is all TV hype.
We have never yet felt endangered on that score.”

The couple did feel endangered once: “We continued on to
Corfu town, where we checked into Gouvia Marina. There was much
activity in town for Easter week – the most interesting of which
is the ‘pot throwing’. Crowds gather in the main square to watch
residents throw huge clay pots from their balconies. The pot
throwing is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. The pots all fly at the
same time, some from as high as four floors up, and crash on
the sidewalk below. This is done each year as a symbol of their
release from slavery. It’s not a good idea to be below on the
sidewalk.”

Greece
Photo Jim Drake

For the full report from Larry and Dorothy, check out the
February ‘Latitude’. It’s also a mystery to us why more American
boats don’t cruise the Med. We suppose everyone wants to go to
the South Pacific, and by the time they get that far around the
world, many of them are a little cruised out. Personally speaking,
if we could instantly have ‘Profligate’ transported to anywhere
in the world in May, it would be to the Balearic Islands. After
cruising Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, we’d continue on to Barcelona.
With the boat in a marina, we’d take a short inland trip – say
the overnight train to Paris and maybe continue on to Amsterdam.
Then we’d be back on the boat for the French and Italian Rivieras.
No, the sailing conditions aren’t great, but no, it’s nowhere
near as expensive as you think if you use a little common sense.
From anywhere along the Riviera – Nice or Genoa – for instance
– there are easy train connections to great cities such as Florence,
Rome, and Venice. Heck, it’s less than a day by train to Vienna
and Prague. After the Rivieras, we’d head down to Sicily and
then over to Greece and Turkey, both of which are terrific. When
we had ‘Big O’ in Europe, we only made one mistake – she was
only there for a season!

Why are Larry and Dorothy two of our favorite cruisers? Because
they’re both in their 70s and still cruising like kids. God bless
you both!

Key West Race Week

January 16 – Key West, Florida

Key West Sail Week 2001 opened yesterday in ideal conditions
with some 14 Northern California boats among the monumental fleet
of 326. This event is not only gigantic in size, but also in
quality. Many of the world’s best sailors are in attendance.

One of the best West Coast finishes in the first race was turned
in by Philippe Kahn of Santa Cruz, who chose to race a Farr 40
‘Pegasus’ from among his fleet of boats. Kahn took second in
the first race, overlapped at the finish with George Andreadis’s
‘Atalanti XII’ from Greece, which won the class last year. A
7th place finish in the second race dropped Kahn in third behind
Brack Drucker’s ‘Revolution’ from Marina del Rey, which moved
into second overall.

Ken Read drove Makoto Uematsu’s Farr 50 ‘Esmeralda’ to a pair
of wins on corrected time over bigger boats in Class-1A IMS,
the glamor class. Bay Area sailors may remember Ken and ‘Esmeralda’
from last year’s Big Boat Series. Read did get a little unexpected
help, as Irvine Laidlaw’s Farr 60 ‘Highland Fling’ from England,
which had won the class the two previous years, was literally
knocked out of the first race. ‘Fling’ was on starboard when
she was hit broadside on the first beat by Larry Bulman’s Farr
49 ‘Javelin’, which was on port tack. Skipper Laidlaw was thrown
up into the air and landed on his back.

Melges 24 Action at Key West Race Week 2000

Photo Walter Cooper www.waltercooperphoto.com

In a case of nobody knows the boat better, Harry Melges, who
runs the Melges 24 factory in Zenda, Wisconsin, took bullets
in the first two races in the extremely competitive 59-boat Melges
fleet. Sailmaker Dave Ullman of Newport Beach was in third in
this class, with Peter Stoneberg of San Francisco in fourth.
Doug Baker’s Andrews 70 ‘Magnitude’ was in third overall in Division
B, having taken a bullet in the second race.

Rob Moore, ‘Latitude’s’ racing editor, is on the scene in Key
West, so we’ll have a full report in the February
‘Latitude’. Meanwhile, check out all the results at: www.Premiere-Racing.com.