'Lectronic Index

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Spring One Design Regatta

March 21 - San Francisco Bay

St. Francis YC held its third and final Spring Invitational this past weekend, hosting 40 'big' boats in three classes - J/120s, J/105s, and Express 37s (the Beneteau 36.7s and 40.7s were also invited, but couldn't get organized). It was a windy, occasionally rainy weekend and the crews had their hands full. Spinnakers blew out, the J/105 Aquavit broke her boom, three people fell off J/120s but were rescued, and so on. StFYC in-house photographer Chris Ray snapped some great shots of Saturday's action, a few of which appear here. Check out www.shutterfly.com/pro/crayivp/SpringOne for more.

When the hurly-burly was done, the standout boat of the weekend was once again the J/105 Good Timin', steered by Chris Perkins. Tied with Scott Sellers' new steed Donkey Jack (ex-Luna Sea) after three races, Perkins threw the gloves off in race four, hammering Jack and the fleet with a decisive bullet to win the series and start Good Timin's quest for a sixth consecutive season title. It's no exaggeration to say that Perkins, also the tactician on Tom Coates' winning J/105 Masquerade at KWRW and Miami Race Week, is the hottest J/105 sailor on the planet right now. His crew - brothers Phil and JP, Dave Wilson, John Collins, and Susie Gregory - aren't exactly slouches, either.

The Good Timin' gang
Photo Latitude/Rob

At the award ceremony on Sunday afternoon, the Good Timin' gang also received a surprise honor - Tom Roberts present them with a US Sailing Arthur B. Hanson Award for rescuing a swimmer off a J/120 in last year's Spring One Design Regatta. . . What is it about J/120s that they keep misplacing crewmembers?

Weekend winners follow; as always, full results can be found at www.stfyc.com.

J/120 - 1) El Ocaso, Rick Wesslund. (8 boats; 5 races)
EXPRESS 37 - 1) Elan, Bill Riess. (3 boats; 4 races)
J/105 - 1) Good Timin', Chris & Phil Perkins/Dave Wilson. (29 boats; 4 races)

Photos Courtesy Chris Ray except as noted

Newport-Cabo Race

March 21 - Pacific Ocean

Forty boats are currently still sailing in Newport Harbor YC's 792-mile race to the Cape. Magnitude, Doug Baker's Andrews 80, appears to have a great shot at breaking the course record of 2 days, 22 hours and change, set back in 1987 by the SC 70 Blondie.

Bay Area boat Flash

We don't know much more than the position reports and comments posted at www.nhyc.org, which show the following boats currently on top of their classes: Scout Spirit (R/P 77), Sorcery (Mull 80), Pendragon (Davidson 45), Tabasco (1D-35), and So Far (Swan 48).

Morpheus

We did get a sailmail Sunday afternoon from Jim Gregory aboard his Schumacher 50 Morpheus. Sounds like they're having fun!

"Great sailing! Roll call this morning found us in third in class and fifth overall! We are all thrilled with that and pushing the boat hard. Andrew currently screaming at the wheel, wind of 24 knots and boatspeed in the low teens.

"Good winds since the start. Spinnaker up before midnight yesterday and now we are running as deep as possible 80 miles short of Point Cedros and about 30 miles offshore. Many boats in sight. All owe us time!

"Interesting events:
- Water intake for engine plugged and engine overheats on way out of the harbor to start.
- Merlin drops rig in 10 knots.
- Genuine Risk retires with canting keel troubles.
- Alchemy retires with holes in boat.
- Huge pod of dolphins (100s) all around the boat.
- Whale waves to us on the way by.
- Bird flies into spinnaker.
- Mainsail leech splits on second jibe. Luckily, it could be repaired. . . hope it holds."

Merlin dismasted
Photos Rich Roberts

It's Been a Good Bash So Far

March 21 - Turtle Bay, Baja California

Everyone dreads the weather on the Baja Bash from tropical Mexico back up to San Diego. And with good reason, because it's often rough and very cold. But for Doña de Mallorca and her crew aboard Profligate, it has been 'so far, so good' - at least as of their report yesterday afternoon. They had departed Nuevo Marina Vallarta last Wednesday, and had a pleasant 300-mile trip to the Cape. Having enough fuel, they bypassed Cabo and continued north in not unpleasant conditions. In fact, here's something that will make some of you Bashers sick: they were still wearing swimming suits north of Bahia Santa Maria! It had cooled down a little by the time they arrived at Turtle Bay yesterday, so they were wearing long pants and T-shirts when Ernesto came out to sell them fuel. Alas, things were to have changed last night, with the wind on the nose at 15 to 25 knots, gusting to 30, as they made their way through the southbound Cabo Race fleet just north of Cedros Island.

This morning Blair and Joan Grinols report they've had to motor Capricorn Cat toward Cabo from P.V. in light conditions. But tonight's forecast calls for 20-25 knot winds as they begin their offshore or 'clipper route' sail back to California. "It should be interesting," they say.