Photo of the Day

January 28 - Key West

Unlike the past few years, the 2003 Key West Race Week, sponsored by Terra Nova Trading, was cold and breezy - i.e., normal summer conditions for our Northern Californian contingent. A total of 290 boats (down from an all-time high of 326 in '01) sailed the 8-race series, representing 20 countries and 30 of the United States. Twelve Bay Area boats went to Key West to test their mettle (see Race Sheet in January's Latitude 38).

When the smoke cleared, two of the NorCal contingent earned class honors: Roger Sturgeon's R/P TP-52 Rosebud took the small, but competitive, PHRF-I group with a 1,1,2,2,1,(3),1 record, and Rich Bergmann and Shawn Bennett's Zuni Bear won the 29-boat J/105 class with scores of 6,12,11,(13),1,4,1,1. Zuni Bear also took overall Boat of the Day honors on Wednesday and - best of all - was named overall Boat of the Week at the regatta's conclusion.

Zuni Bear's winning lineup consisted of Bennett (driver/tactician), Bergmann (offside trimmer), Adam Sadeg (main), Cam Shaw (primary trimmer), Randy Carper (mast) and Tom Purdy (bow). "This was probably the highlight of all of our sailing careers - certainly mine!" said Bergmann.

Tom Coates' J/105 Masquerade, Hall Palmer's WylieCat 30 Lickety Split, and Morgan Larson's chartered Melges 24 #399 also won individual races, but fell just short of the podium. John Kilroy's Farr 40, Samba Pa Ti, with Paul Cayard, got second in class.

SoCal boats also did well at Key West, with two winning Boat of the Day honors (Alex Geremia and Scott Harris' Farr 40 Crocodile Rock and Argyle Campbell's Melges 24 Rock N' Roll) and two winning class honors (Croc Rock and Scott Taylor's B-32 Defiance).

Zuni Bear (in front), and Masquerade (magenta spinnaker) do battle in the J/105 Class
Photo Garry Demarest

For a more detailed report, including results of KWRW and the Ft. Lauderdale-Key West feeder race, see Race Sheet in the February issue of Latitude 38, to be distributed starting Friday. For great reporting by Rich Roberts, a photo gallery, and complete results, check out www.premiere-racing.com.

Miami Olympic Classes Regatta Starts Today

January 28 - Miami

The stars, literally and figuratively, are gathered in Miami for the Rolex OCR put on by US Sailing. Many were already on hand in Key West. Stars on Stars include recently freed up America's Cup sailors Paul Cayard (Kentfield) nominally from Oracle BMW Racing, and Vince Brun (San Diego), Tony Rey (Newport, RI) and Terry Hutchinson (Harwood, MD), all from Stars & Stripes; College Sailors of the Year Bill Hardesty (San Diego) and Andy Lovell (New Orleans, LA); John Kostecki (Fairfax), winning skipper of the most recent Volvo Ocean Race; 2000 Star
Olympic Gold Medalists and World Champions Mark Reynolds (San Diego) and Magnus Liljedahl (Miami), who won in '99 and finished second in '98 and 2001; and Great Britain's Iain Percy and crew Steve Mitchell, the 2002 Nautica Star World Champions.

For more on this event for 13 Olympic classes, see www.ussailing.org/olympics/RolexMiamiOCR/index.htm.

Coastal Commission Unconstitutional?

January 28 - Sacramento

Established as part of the Coastal Act more than 30 years ago by California voters to protect the state's coastline, the California Coastal Commission has suddenly been declared unconstitutional by a state appellate court as a result of a 1999 lawsuit.

According to this morning's Sacramento Bee, the Assembly Natural Resources Committee took just a few minutes yesterday to zip through legislation changing, ever so slightly, the structure of the commission, hoping to protect its legal validity. For the complete article, see www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/6010019p-6966427c.html.

The state legislature had until tomorrow's deadline to change the structure of the commission in order to alleviate the legal technicalities that are the basis of the finding. For a detailed explanation, see www.csmonitor.com/2003/0122/p03s01-usgn.html.

The commission, a model for similar agencies in other states, has battled developers, oil interests, and politicians to protect and preserve the coastline. They're the agency responsible for Coastal Access and Coastal Clean-Up Days. See www.coastal.ca.gov/web.

Kingfisher2 Sidelined by Mainsail Track

January 28 - Plymouth, UK

Kingfisher2 had hoped to start on a Jules Verne Trophy attempt this morning, but is instead sailing under headsail only for Plymouth in southwest England for a full inspection of and repairs to the mainsail track. The problem was discovered after the maxi-cat left her dock at Lorient, France, en route to the start line in the English Channel. For details, see www.kingfisher-challenges.com/uk.

YOTREPS

January 28 - 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 28 - 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.