Photo of the Day

August 13 - San Francisco Bay

Today's Photos of the Day come from last month on Racoon Strait between Tiburon and Angel Island. Having been at the mercy of the light airs of Southern California for the last 10 days, the sight of consistent good breezes made us homesick.

Unusual Crossing to Hawaii

August 13 - Pacific Ocean

A lot of sailors raced or cruised from the West Coast to Hawaii this summer. But Bill Teplow, who took off from the Berkeley Marina on July 21, is the only one we know who did it with a boat under 20 feet - specifically, a West Wight Potter 19 he calls Chubby. According to a message passed along from a ship, Teplow anticipates arriving in Hawaii today or tomorrow. Teplow's wife Naomi, who has known him for 33 years, said he insisted that he was only going to continue for as long as it was fun.

Who Is the Texan?

August 13 - Cyber Space

Sometimes we get cruising reports from people who leave out the most important details. We know that the owners of the Texan are about to start cruising south, we're just not sure who they are, what kind of boat she is, and where she's homeported. Can anybody help? Email: Richard.

New Monohull Channel Record

August 13 - United Kingdom

Jean-Luc Van den Heede and a crew of three aboard the 80-ft Adrien have established a new monohull record for the 138-mile route from Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, across the English Channel to Dinard, France. They covered the distance in 11 hours and 44 minutes - an average of 11.75 knots - to beat the old record, held by the Volvo 60 Silk Cut, by three hours. Steve Fossett's Playstation still holds the course record with an average speed of 21.68 knots. Small wonder that so many top sailors are now gravitating toward multihulls. Van den Heede's record run is really just a tune-up for his main goal, the singlehanded wrong way around the world record.

In Other Words, Not Strong Enough

August 13 - The Sailing World

A month or so ago, the Rothschild family launched the Open 60 trimaran Gitana to great fanfare. Almost immediately, there proved to be structural problems where the all-carbon curved foils attached to the crossbeams. We couldn't help but chuckle at the official explanation - "Engineers . . . have determined that the . . . foils exert greater loads on the trimaran's structure than the hypothesis applied during the design process." Translated into real talk, this means the attachment points weren't strong enough. Gitana X should be up and running again within a month.

Geant's Mast Not Strong Enough?

August 13 - France

While sailing off France on August 9 in 25 knots of wind, Michael Desjoyeaux's Open 60 trimaran Geant had her mast snap in two. Desjoyeaux, last year's winner of the Vendée Globe Singlehanded Around the World Race, like everyone else in Europe with a fast boat, was prepping for November's Route du Rhum from France to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.

Since we're not having to pay the bills, the structural shortcomings of the latest and greatest Open 60 trimarans is a little comical. For before the problems with Gitana X and Geant, there was Alain Gautier's new trimaran Foncia 2, which lost her rig, Jean-Luc Nelias' Belgacom, which lost her rig, and Bertrand de Broc's Banque Covefi, which lost her rig. Come the Route du Rhum, we expect the Atlantic to be littered with very expensive pieces of the latest in racing trimarans.

Mexico-Only Crew List & Party

August 13 - Mill Valley

We're going to run this information again, just to make sure that you all got the message: It's time to think about the Mexico-Only Crew List and Party! Coupons to fill out and mail in to get on the list, which will be published in the October issue of Latitude 38, are available in the August issue, will be reprinted in September, and can be printed out from our Crew List Web pages.

Photo Latitude/Andy

Soon after the list comes out, we'll be following up with our annual Mexico-Only Crew List Party and Baja Ha-Ha Reunion, to be held Wednesday, October 9,
6-9 pm, at Encinal Yacht Club in Alameda. Join us!

YOTREPS

August 13 - 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

August 13 - 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/. The National Weather Service site for San Francisco Bay is at www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey/.

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/Maps/Southwest.shtml.

Pacific Winds and Pressure

The University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology page posts a daily map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds.

Pacific Sea State

Check out the Pacific Ocean sea states at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.
For views of sea states anywhere in the world, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/.