July 2, 2003

By Grzegorz | July 2, 2003

Photo of the Day

July 2 – England

Roller Furling Madness

Some of you folks are going to think that
our Photo of the Day, of a roller furling mechanism for a jib,
was doctored in Photoshop. It wasn’t. It’s just the kind of custom
hardware required if you’re like Joe and Luciana Vittoria and
want your latest Mirabella to be 245 feet long. Why does
the furler have to be so big? Because the mast is going to top
out at 300 feet above the water – or about 80 feet higher than
the roadbed of the Golden Gate Bridge. The boat is expected to
be launched this fall in England, and we suspect she’ll be on
the hook at St. Barth in the Caribbean for New Year’s.

Photo Courtesy Mirabella
V

First TransPac Start Is Not so Fast

July 2 – Long Beach

The only thing slower than the www.transpacificyc.org
Web site was Tuesday’s first start of the 41st TransPac off Long
Beach. Rich Roberts reports on the brilliant revival of this
great race:

“The starting gun fired punctually at 1 p.m. Tuesday for
the first of three starts in the 42nd TransPacific Yacht Race
to Hawaii . . . and nothing happened. On a warm, sunny day, with
a breeze of only two knots and an opposing current of 1-1/2 knots,
the first 25 of 58 boats were left sailing in place. Three minutes
later Palo Alto’s Stan and Sally Honey, veterans of many TransPacs
sailing their Cal 40, Illusion, were the first to nurse
their boat across the line. They were followed six minutes later
by William Boyd’s Beneteau 47.7, Beautiful Day, from San
Diego, at the pin end of the line, a couple of lengths in front
of Robert Rice’s Tripp 40, There and Back Again, from
Long Beach. After 45 minutes Kirby Coryell and Neil Weinberg,
sailing Beach Music from Lafayette, doublehanded, willed
their red Tayana 52 across to complete the exercise in agony.

“The group consisted of 10 Cal 40s, 11 Aloha class boats
racing in Division 5. Divisions 3 and 4 will start Friday, the
Fourth of July, followed by the largest and faster Division 1
and 2 boats on Sunday.

“The prospect of sailing 2,225 nautical miles on a liquid
treadmill did not seem appealing, but most of the teams appeared
to be taking the frustration in good spirits – although Greg
Boyer of Long Beach may have considered firing up the grill hanging
off the back of his Cal 40, John B. But as Beach Music
got under way, a southwest breeze was starting to fill and Santa
Catalina Island became visible through a haze 23 miles offshore.
Whether anyone would clear the West End without tacking was doubtful,
barring a significant wind shift to the right.
After their start, the Honeys went west along the Palos Verdes
peninsula for 15 minutes, looking for relief from the current,
but as they tacked to starboard their early lead was threatened
by B’Quest, the San Diego Tripp 40 manned by a crew of
disabled sailors representing Challenged America in Division
5.”

Daily position reports, news summaries, photos will be posted
at www.transpacificyc.org
until the completion of the race. Check the July Latitude
for our preview of the TransPac, plus Racing Editor Rob Moore’s
almost nearly infallible predictions on the class and overall
winners.

Photo Rich Roberts

The July Issue Is Out, but Missing a Couple
of Photos

July 2 – The Bay Area

The July issue of Latitude hit the
streets yesterday. Unfortunately, due to a photo embedding problem,
three photos and the photo captions for the “Eye On The
Bay Race” feature, pgs 134-135, didn’t appear. Who could
believe that modern technology could let us down every now and
then?

Photos Latitude/Richard

C’est La Vie
Finally Leaves New Zealand

July 2 – NZ

“Kia ora from New Zealand for the last time,”
write Keith and Susan Levy of the Richmond-based Catalina 47
C’est La Vie. “The wind and rain have been relentless
and C’est La Vie has been tugging at her lines in the
Opua Marina. Winter has beset the island, which means the days
are short, the water is the color of the Nile, and the sand flies
have become ferocious, so it’s time for us to go. We’ve sold
our car, made all the repairs, and provisioned the boat. So we’re
saying goodbye to the excitement of the America’s Cup, sheep-dotted
hillsides, Franz Joseph Glazier, the fjords of Milford and Doubtful
Sound, fly fishing on the shores of Lake Taupo, the geysers of
Rotorua, white water rafting in Queenstown, the euphoria over
the All Blacks rugby team, Maori culture, the Haka – and some
of the friendliest people in the world. Good on all of you. The
barometer is falling fast, the high has come and gone, and the
low pressure now over the land promises southerlies on the backside
– so Des on Russell Radio is telling us it’s time to get going.
We’ll have to don our longjohns, fleece ,and foul weather gear
for a good part of this passage, but the promise of warm, tropical
weather in Fiji lies ahead. As we’re about to leave, we’re wondering
where our old buddyboats are – Aventura, North Road,
Li’l Gem, By Chance, Mobisle, Final Straw,
and Raven? We will be making this passage alone. No worries,
mate!”

Keith & Susan in front of the conga line in PV.
Photo Courtesy C’est La Vie

Alinghi and Oracle to Battle on the Bay
in Moet Cup

July 2 – San Francisco Bay

Alinghi, winners of the America’s Cup, and Oracle BMW, runner-up
in the Louis Vuitton Series leading to the America’s Cup, will
do battle on San Francisco Bay September 15-20 with their best
boats in a new event called the Moet Cup. This will be serious
stuff, with many of their best crew, including Gavin Brady and
Chris Dickson aboard Oracle BMW’s USA 76, and Russell Coutts
and Brad Butterworth aboard Alinghi’s SUI 64.

The America’s Cup course racing will be staged within viewing
distance of Pier 39 and the Marina District, with the Golden
Gate Bridge as a backdrop. The event is expected to recapture
the drama of America’s Cup Class match racing as the teams prepare
for their upcoming campaigns for the America’s Cup in Europe.
It will be the first authentic America’s Cup match racing event
in the USA since the trophy was lost to New Zealand in San Diego
in 1995. The same international umpires who governed the racing
in New Zealand will make instantaneous calls from patrol boats
on the race course to ensure a fair playing field.

Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing are working together to improve
the 152-year-old competition. The Moet Cup is a first step toward
making the event more accessible to the general public and sailing
fans worldwide. For the teams, this highly anticipated competition
provides a training platform and the opportunity to try out new
crew in an authentic racing environment.

The Golden Gate YC, in partnership with the Treasure Island Sailing
Center, will run the Moet Cup on-the-water Race Committee. Moët
& Chandon is the official sponsor of the Moet Cup, with event
partners Oracle Corporation, BMW, Hewlett-Packard, TAG Heuer
and Henri Lloyd.

In last month’s Sausalito Cup, Oracle BMW was a walkaway winner.
In the Moet Cup, she’ll have stiff competition from Alinghi,
winners of the America’s Cup.
Photo Courtesy Oracle BMW

Good and Bad News for Tim Kent and Horizontal
Everest

July 2 – Bermuda

The Canadian Around Alone skipper, whose Open 50 Everest Horizontal
flipped during the Bermuda 1-2 after her keel fell off, is in
a bad news-good news, situation. His trip to try to find his
upside-down boat some 100 miles from Bermuda failed. But when
he got back to shore, he learned that another boat had spotted
Everest Horizontal while he was out searching. The other
boat just hadn’t been able to reach Kent by radio. So now Kent
is running around Bermuda trying to find a suitable tow boat
before the Everest Horizontal‘s lastest position grows
stale.

Two Great Special Events

July 2 – San Francisco Bay

If you’re around San Francisco Bay in July, we highly recommend
you take part in both the San Francisco YC’s Midnight Moonlight
Marathon – a pursuit race from Raccoon Strait to Vallejo and
back, and the Silver Eagle Long Distance – 67 miles in-the-Bay
race. The former is on July 12, the latter on July 19, and they
are great fun. For details, check out the July issue Race Calendar.

The Fourth of July

July 4 – Mill Valley

There will be no ‘Lectronic Latitude
on July 4. We’ll be out sailing – and you should be also! Happy
Holiday and good sailing!

YOTREPS

July 2 – 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

July 2 – Pacific
Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

Check out this guide to San Francisco Bay
Navigational Aids: http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/sfports.html.

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.

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