October 25, 2002

Photos of the Day

October 25 – Long Beach

Last weekend the Long Beach/Los Angeles
Women’s Sailing Association hosted
the 11th annual Women’s One-Design Challenge 2002. Eight teams
competed, one of which was from the Puerto Vallarta Yacht Club.
The race was held in Catalina 37s, the same boats the Congressional
Cup uses.

The regatta consisted of seven races over
two days, and when the sailing was done, Marina del Rey’s Liz
Hjorth (who won in 1997) and her California Yacht Club crew emerged
victorious.

For Rich Roberts’ Long Beach Press Telegram
wrap-up of Saturday’s racing see
www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204%257E21475%257E936743,00.html.
For coverage of Sunday’s racing, see
www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204%7E21475%7E938755,00.html.
Also check out www.scya.org/lblawsa.

In Race 4, eventual winner Liz Hjorth leads the pack.

Host club LB/LA WSA’s crew shows off their
tatooed biceps and great looking crew shirts.

Hold on Puerto Vallarta!

October 25 – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Hurricane Kenna, with gusts up to 200 mph,
as expected has taken a turn to the northeast and is currently
headed almost directly for Puerto Vallarta. It should make landfall
within 24 hours or so. Fortunately, Puerto Vallarta is shielded
to the south and southwest by very tall mountains, which are
very likely to blunt the
counterclockwise rotating storm, so perhaps the damage will be
muted. The best scenario would be if the storm came ashore south
of Cabo Corrientes, where there are few people and tall mountains.
In any event, prayers are in order for that entire stretch of
the coast.

With regard to the Baja Ha-Ha, expected
to start on Tuesday, it continues to be a go. The Grand Poobah
has spoken with two forecasters at Commanders Weather – which
has done routing for the likes of Steve Fossett’s PlayStation
and Roy Disney’s Pyewacket – and both have said conditions
look favorable for next week. First of all, a massive hurricane
such a Kenna takes a tremendous amount of energy out of the atmosphere
in the region, and it usually takes time to “reload”
for another hurricane. It can happen, but it’s less likely this
late in the season, when the water temperature and other factors
in hurricane development are going south. A second important
factor is that the jetstream will be quite a bit further south
than this week, which means it would be more difficult for upper
level conditions to favor hurricane development. In addition,
there are several other factors that make it look good for a
go, all of which will be discussed at Sunday morning’s Skipper’s
Meeting. For what it’s worth, in the last 50 years there has
never been a hurricane in November that has crossed the Ha-Ha
route. Indeed, there have only been a handful of hurricanes in
Mexico in November, all of them considerably to the south of
Cabo.

You can track Kenna at http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/e_pacific/2002/index.html.

Says Conner, “I Am Glad I Lost the
Cup.”

October 25 – Auckland, NZ

Dennis Conner made the comment Thursday
to an audience of yachties and businessmen at an Air New Zealand
luncheon at Sydney Tattersalls Club. The loss
he refers to happened 20 years ago, when he lost the Cup to Australia
II in 1983. The loss ended the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year
stranglehold on the Auld Mug.

“Me losing after 132 years was the
best thing that ever happened to the America’s Cup and the best
thing that ever happened to Dennis Conner. Before the win by
the Australians, the America’s Cup was only big in the minds
of the yachties, but the rest of the world didn’t know or care
about it at all. But when we lost it it was a little bit like
losing the Panama Canal – suddenly everyone appreciated it.

“If I hadn’t lost it, there never
would have been the national effort to get it back in Fremantle,
and without that there never would have been the ticker-tape
parade up Fifth Avenue in New York, lunch with the President
at the White House and all the doors of opportunity that it opened.”

Now in Auckland with the New York Yacht
Club, for whom he had historically lost the Cup, Conner commented,
“They did not like me for a long time, after all I was that
big fat loser, but they’ve not been able to mount a good campaign
without me, so now we are back together.”

Conner explains that only two campaigns
are without a B: his and the Kiwis’. “B’s: billionaires.
Usually there is one billionaire in each campaign. This time
there are seven billionaires to race against. We have four of
the top 50 richest men in the world and two of the top 10.”

Who does he think will win the Challenger
series? If Stars & Stripes is not in the contest,
“I’d have to put my money on Russell Coutts – he is the
best sailor in the world. The Alinghi team knows the Gulf and
they have a B behind them.”

For Rob Kothe’s complete story, see www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=7553.

Friday’s races were postponed due to high
winds. Over the weekend you can keep up with the action at www.louisvuittoncup.yahoo.com.

Fossett Reclaims Record

October 25 – Ramsgate Harbour, UK

Steve Fossett and a crew of 13 aboard maxi-catamaran
PlayStation have set a new Round Britain and Ireland sailing
record, 55 minutes faster than the previous record, set by Maiden
2 this September. The new record is 4 days, 16 hours 9 minutes,
36 seconds

The big cat came flying through the mist
off Ramsgate Harbour at 18 kts to
cross the finish at the Royal Temple Yacht. Their average speed
for the 1,787 nm course (the official distance recognized by
the World Sailing Speed Record Council) was 15.93 knots.

Steve Fossett: “This is great – a
big success – very hard won. We’ve worked hard all night. We
went out on a MAJOR weather system. Luc Trullemans’ forecast
and start decision were key. Every one of the boats targeting
this record has been unable to sail fast all the way around –
ourselves included. But we did pretty well.”

Fossett has now reclaimed the record he
initially broke on Lakota in 1994. See www.fossettchallenge.com
and http://sailing.org/Article_content.asp?ArticleID=3306.

Dismasted Tiscali Will Continue
Around Alone

October 25 – La Coruna, Spain

Around Alone competitor Tiscali dismasted
five days ago in stormy conditions 90 miles off Northern Spain.
The Open 60 is now docked in El Ferrol del Caudillo, a Spanish
Navy base, for repairs. Yesterday, the race organization received
the good news that Simone Bianchetti and Tiscali would
continue in Around Alone.

The dismasted Tiscali waited for the weather to
settle in the Spanish fishing village of Carino.
Photo Around Alone/Tiscali

The 34-year old Italian skipper commented:
“We’ll do everything possible to repair the damages and
start again. Our determination, Tiscali’s and mine, is
still intact. I have no other choice than to keep fighting.”
Simone still has time to sail the boat down to Cape Town in order
to make the start on December 8 alongside the other Class I competitors
for the third Southern Ocean leg to Tauranga, NZ.

Ocean Planet
has rejoined the fray in Class I. Current standings in Class
I are:

1. Bobst Group Armor-Lux, 4,766.36
nm to finish
2. Solidaires, 5,037.87 nm
3. Pindar, 5,076.65 nm
4. Hexagon, 5,163.62 nm
5. Ocean Planet, 6,611.71 nm
6. Tiscali, 6,799.83 nm

Class II standings:

1. Tommy Hilfiger, 6,455.01 nm to
finish
2. Spirit of Yukoh, 6,508.84 nm
3. Spirit of Canada, 6,530.51 nm
4. BTC Velocity, 6,532.03 nm
5. Everest Horizontal, 6,532.86 nm
6. Bayer Ascensia, 6,592.61 nm 6

See www.aroundalone.com
for more.

Chronicle’s Latitude Story Online

October 25 – San Francisco

Thanks to Joseph Oster for sending in the
link
to the article about Latitude 38 which ran in Sunday’s
San Francisco Chronicle. See www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/10/20/BU144080.DTL&type=business.
For our response to the very flattering piece, see Tuesday’s
‘Lectronic Latitude.

Zihuatanejo Insurance Requirement

October 25 – Zihuatanejo, Mexico

Craig Gottschalk writes, “Thanks to
the derelict Freedom, which is now slowly working its
way to China, the Port Captain in Z-Town has begun to require
proof of insurance as part of the clearance procedure. This is
according to world renown multihuller and surfer Ted V., on the
35′ trimaran Mustang out of Santee, CA, who was the first
cruiser in the bay this season. He was forced to pay $100 in
port fees and locally purchased insurance for four days on the
hook. On the fast track to Costa Rica, but with Kenna forming
to the south, Ted did what most conservative sailors would do
– headed to Isla Ixtapa for a couple days of surfing on Playa
Linda. By the way, Kenna went by with hardly a ripple.”

Freedom, you
may recall, was a victim of Hurricane Julio which wound up on
the beach with no one to care for her. See ‘Lectronic Latitude
from October 4 and October
8.

YOTREPS

October 25 – 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

October 25 – 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/.