January 9, 2003

Photos of the Day

January 9 – Alameda

‘Brunch’ was served on the flat waters
of the Estuary on a warm day in January to 43 sailboats of various
shapes and sizes. In this first of Oakland Yacht Club’s five-race
Sunday Brunch Series, three PHRF divisions and the multihulls
sailed a 2.5 nm course, while the Columbia 5.5 one design fleet
covered 4.4 nm in 5 knots of westerly breeze.

Winners were: PHRF 151 & below, Tortuga,
Santana 30/30, Stephen Hutchinson, SSS; PHRF 152-173, Popeye
& I, Cal 9.2, Ruth Summers, AYC; PHRF 174-189, Annie,
Cal 29, Steve Zevanove, OYC; PHRF 190 & above, Pathfinder,
Ariel, Ernie Rideout/Ed Eckers; Columbia 5.5, Drummer, Weaver/Sankey/Sadeg,
OYC; Multihulls, Sea Bird, F-27, Rich Holden, OYC.

For a complete report, more results and
more photos, see Race Sheet in February’s edition of Latitude
38. See also Oakland YC’s Sunday Brunch Web page at www.oaklandyachtclub.com/racing/brunch.htm.
Sailors hungry for friendly competition will be served again
on January 19.

Wild Ride of Bernard Stamm Ends in Victory

January 9 – Tauranga, NZ

The weather might have been revolting,
but the welcome was anything but as Bernard Stamm sailed his
spaceship Bobst Group Armor Lux across the finish line
off Tauranga this morning to win Class 1 of Leg 3 of the Around
Alone. Conditions at the end consisted of 16-ft waves, rain and
25 knots of wind. The last 36 hours had been, as he put it, “HELL,”
but once across the line Stamm breathed a sigh of relief and
dropped his sails. His finish was not a moment too soon; seconds
after crossing the line the tiller on the boat came off in his
hands.

Bernard Stamm sailed a masterful leg from
Cape Town. He took the lead shortly after the start and held
it all the way across the Southern Ocean. It was a wild ride
with speeds in excess of 30 knots and day’s runs consistently
approaching 400 miles.

Leg 3 from Capetown, South Africa, to Tauranga
takes the fleet through 7,125 nm of Southern Ocean. Stamm is
the leader overall after three first places in as many legs.

As Stamm nears the finish, his boat
disappears behind a typical wave.
Photo Thierry Martinez/Sea&See

At the latest position report, Thierry
Dubois on Solidaires was 194.9 nm away from a second place
finish.

For the complete story, see www.aroundalone.com/raceviewer/archive
For more of Thierry’s photos see www.my-photobox.com/seasee/events/imgList.asp?idEvent=23

Solo Circumnavigator Loses Mast

January 9 – Southern Ocean

After 64 days at sea, solo record-seeker
Jean-Luc Van den Heede’s aluminum monohull Adrien lost
her mast. Van den Heede is fine, and will head for Australia
under jury rig. At the time of his dismasting, he was about 1,500
kms (930 miles) from Tasmania.

Adrien passes Patagonia

He explains, “I wasn’t overcanvassed
– far from it. . . The wind was blowing at 40-45 knots. I was
under staysail and third reef. . . The seas were very big. .
. It was building very quickly. It was around 1400 GMT [on Monday],
but the middle of the night for me, when I felt the shrouds become
limp. I tried to tighten them but in reality the foot of the
mast was giving way and it was pointless.” Van den Heede
struggled with it for an hour and a half before it broke in two
just above the mast foot and fell to port. “When it broke
it took out the stanchions and guard rails. The work on deck
to free Adrien of her mast, which risked damaging her,
was very laborious.”

Adrien’s mast step
Photos Courtesy www.vdh.fr

Adrien departed
France on November 3 in an attempt to claim the record for a
solo, non-stop circumnavigation from east to west, the ‘wrong
way around’.

YOTREPS

January 9 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace

Who is out making passages in the Pacific
and what kind of weather are they having? The YOTREPS daily yacht
tracking page has moved to www.bitwrangler.com/psn.

Weather Updates

January 9 – 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.