Photos of the Day

August 19 - San Francisco Bay

SFYC's Summer Keelboat Regatta this past weekend counted as the second of five in the new SF Bay Series. All five races in the regatta were fairly windy; the last race of the day on Saturday saw lots of Farr 40s down for the count, as the wind built the way it usually does in the middle of the afternoon on a summer day.

John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti topped the Farr 40 division of 16 boats; Zuni Bear, owned by Rich Bergmann and Shawn Bennett, beat 26 other J/105s; Mark Dowdy's Eclipse did just that to three other Express 37s; Bob Bloom's Jarlen won the J/35 division; Jim Antrim borrowed Always Friday for a win in Antrim 27s; Scott Sellers' Swamp Donkey topped the Express 27s; Team Quantum with Jeff Thorpe at the helm won Melges 24s; and Vaughn Seifers' He Hate Me took first in the Moore 24 division, thereby winning their PCCS, as this regatta did double duty for the Moores. For more photos and other top finishers see Racing Sheet in the September issue of Latitude 38.

A J/105 start

Mark Dowdy and crew 'eclipsed' their small fleet.

Szabo Wins Opener as Celebrities Suffer

August 19 - Marina del Rey

Rich Roberts reports from Marina del Rey that "George Szabo and crew Austin Sperry solved the weather riddles of Santa Monica Bay and made all the right moves to build an unbeatable lead in the first race of the Nautica 2002 Star Class World Championship Sunday, but their final opponent was time. With light, shifty winds forcing the fleet of 105 boats to play beat the clock, the San Diego duo sailed across the finish line 3 minutes 21 seconds ahead of the 3-hour deadline for the 10-mile race, while a bunch of big names behind them prayed they wouldn't. Szabo's finish made it an official race, leaving nine former world champions with finishes of 22nd or worst. Runners-up Mark Mansfield and crew Killean Collins of Ireland were 2 minutes 53 seconds behind, followed by 1990 winner Torben Grael of Brazil. San Francisco's Paul Cayard, the '88 champion, was delighted with seventh place.

"'This is my 11th Worlds," Szabo said. 'The first one I was in at Cannes we won a race but not since then. It's been a long time.' Szabo, 32, works for Mark Reynolds, a double Worlds and Olympic Star champion, at Quantum Sails in San Diego. He finished 77 places ahead of the boss. 'I didn't think he was going to make it,' Reynolds said, 'but it was kind of hard to hope that he wouldn't. Then the breeze came up.'"

New Island Discovered One Day. Fraud Discovered the Next.

August 19 - Pacific Ocean

"I'm forwarding an email from the new Tayana 48 Jolly Tar, which is on her delivery trip from Taiwan to San Francisco," reports either 'Patti' or John Richards. "The owner/skipper is Arnstein Mustad of Alameda, who has one U.S. and one Canadian crew. Here's Mustad's report:

"40 12N x 174 44E, 20-29NE. Move over Magellan! Hop on a bus Columbus! You're a fake, Drake! Cause Capt. Mustad and the fearless crew of the Jolly Tar are in the house. We believe to have discovered a new island at 41 00N x 170 50E. This uncharted island is off the main shipping lanes and appears to be brand new. We circled and sounded it and found a great little harbor within. It's a deep cove shaped like a C and sheltered from the wind, but open to the east. It has no vegetation or animal life. There are some dead fish along the shore. We saw steam rising along the sides of the island and from the water nearby. Black lava rock forms a sharp ridge ring of about 100 feet surrounding the cove. The whole island is about 1.35 nm in diameter. Jolly Tar entered the cove, dropped anchor, and we waded ashore. Alain wanted to claim the island for Canada, but I reminded him about skipper's protocol - and proceeded to plant my boat pole and the Stars & Stripes on the highest peak, along with a a plaque made of wood proclaiming it as Jolly Tar Island. We sang the national anthem together. I have already notified the Coast Guard, State Department, and news agencies via email. Wow, to think my name, Arnstein, will be synonymous with Armstrong - the first explorer to find virgin soil in the 21st century! I understand there's volcanic activity around Japan, what about earthquakes recently? Anyway, we're back underway because the news agency is very eager to do a story on this."

A day or so later, the missive was revealed to be a fraud. Alas, Arnstein will not be synonymous with Armstrong, but with third grade-type pranksters. A clever or intelligent prank is a fine thing, but in our opinion this one was just plain stupid.

Orange Denied!

August 19 - Isle of Wight, UK

So close, but so far. After five days and 21 hours of sailing as fast as 42 knots and as slow as 0 knots, Bruno Peyron, Neal McDonald, and the crew of the maxi cat Orange found themselves becalmed three miles from the Isle of Wight finish for the Around England and Ireland record. It would take them more than two hours to cover that short distance, and as a result they finished shy of beating the current record held by Steve Fossett with the 60-ft trimaran Lakota. Bruno Peyron has long been known as a conservative sailor, whose main goal is to protect his boat and crew, and who is therefore more interested in breaking rather than crushing existing records. It's what he did in setting a new time in the Jules Verne Around the World Race. That conservative philosophy probably cost him the record this time.

Roger Nilson (left) and Bruno Peyron discuss the plan while becalmed.

"What a funny experience this Round Britain and Ireland record attempt has been," said Peyron. "There were just a few miles left to go this morning and we were still ahead of the record averaging a speed of just 5 knots, and then in the last few miles we were stuck in an unforgettable dead calm and there was nothing we could do about it. That's the way the cookie crumbles. The clock decides and we've got no choice but to accept it. But we'll be back! We felt more like we were taking part in a race than on a speed record attempt, because we had left without waiting for the best conditions. The Round Britain and Ireland Record is an amazing and somewhat difficult course, with some tricky and highly tactical bits to it. We've got a great team and I don't think we made many mistakes. We set out in what was supposed to be the quickest way round in view of the weather information we had and the analysis of Roger Nilson on board and Roger 'Clouds' Badham on terra firma in Australia. We gave it 100 % throughout, never taking our foot off the gas, except after the Shetland Islands, where the sea was very rough. Of course we are very disappointed to have missed the record by so little, but we have come up smiling anyway as we've had a great 5 days together."

Near the Shetland Islands
Photos Courtesy Orange

Orange will next go after the Marseilles to Carthage record and the Round Corsica record.

Have a Hobie Day!

August 19 - Two Harbors, Santa Catalina Island

When we were on the hook at Two Harbors a couple of weeks ago, these two guys were jamming back and forth through the anchorage. They were having a great time - as long as they didn't fall in. What's with the cold water this summer?

Photo Latitude/Richard

What Do You Mean Flowers?

August 19 - Honolulu, HI

A couple of weeks ago we ran an item asking 'where have all the flowers gone' in the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor. "What flowers?" wrote one reader. The flowers you see in the accompanying photographs. All right, maybe they are palms rather than flowers. Picky, picky.

Photo Latitude/Richard

What happened to all the palms? Locals tell us that a state worker claimed to have hurt his back trying to run an electricity cable through the dirt of one such palm and sued the state big time. Rather than hire capable and fit workers, the state decided to defoliate the marina. Changes may be on the horizon, however, as it looks as though the Ala Wai is going to be privatized. More in the September Latitude.

YOTREPS

August 19 - 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 19 - 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/.