Photos of the Day

June 18 - San Francisco Bay

Several racing events were held this past Saturday on San Francisco Bay. Commodore Tompkins chose the SSS in the Bay Race to race with wife Nancy Potter aboard their Wylie 39 Flashgirl. For more pretty pictures from the shorthanded regatta, see the photo gallery below.

For results, see the Singlehanded Sailing Society's Web site at www.sfbaysss.org/2001/inthebayresults.html


Photo Latitude/Richard

Erik Schwartz of the Santa Cruz 40 Rusalka reports that he broke his mast in the event, and "Because of pure dumb luck it didn't come down."

Erik went on, "I was cruising along on a close reach and there was a big bang and the jib started to flog. At first I figured the sheet had popped off the winch, then I noticed the headstay was sagging a lot, so I headed up. Next I noticed the windward shrouds were sagging, and then I noticed the mast was displaced.

"Essentially the aluminum failed near the vang attachment and sheared to leeward. The compression on the rig (the backstay was on pretty tight at that point) drove the two pieces of mast together pretty hard, and they seem to have cut into each other.

"The running backs saved it because I could get things stable quickly, then I just started attaching halyards to toerails. The scariest part was all the ferries going in and out of PacBell Park with their big nasty waves.

"I'm just glad it happened this week in the Bay and not last week in the Half Moon Bay Race or a few weeks ago in the Spinnaker Cup [to Monterey]." Erik was sailing singlehanded.

For more of Erik's photos, see his Web site at www.laurence.com/mast.

We'll have more in the July issue of Latitude 38.

Photos Courtesy Erik Schwartz


SSS in the Bay Photo Gallery

June 18 - San Francisco Bay

Before slipping off to Europe, the Wanderer captured these photos from the decks of Profligate. See above for more from Saturday's regatta.


Photos Latitude/Richard
YOTREPS

June 18 - The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace

Who is out making passages in the Pacific and what kind of weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS - 'yacht reports' - at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/

Weather Updates

June 18 - Pacific Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

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/.

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/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.

Pacific Sea State

Seas are normal in the Pacific. But you might check out the Pacific Ocean sea states at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.

Top / Index of Stories / Subscriptions / Classifieds / Home

©2001 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.