'Lectronic Index

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It's Been a Wild Worlds for Hobie Tigers

March 30 - Santa Barbara

Photo Sean Douglas

Jeremy Leonard of Surf City Catamarans in Santa Cruz has the latest from the Hobie Tiger Worlds in Santa Barbara: "The wind has been blowing very hard and the races were called off for yesterday. We had races on Monday in very high winds, with crews having a difficult time keeping their boats upright. Fortunately, the weather looks to be a bit calmer today and we expect good racing."

Photo Greg Ketterman

Photo Steve Worzman

Sunday was hazier and a bit tamer.
Photo Greg Ketterman

For more photos, see www.hobieworlds.com/tiger2005/default.asp.

Photo of the Day

March 30 - Newport Beach

Today's Photo of the Day comes from Devan Mullin of Newport Beach, and is a shot of his three-year-old son Brady responding to a powerful stimulus strolling down the beach. People in Newport go to a lot more trouble to present an attractive beach look than they do in, say, Berkeley or San Francisco.

Photo Devan Mullin

We're publishing it as a little 'eye candy' for those folks who have been attempting to do the Baja Bash over the last few days. When Doña de Mallorca and crew did it about 10 days ago on Profligate, the worst they had was 10 by 10 (10 foot waves at 10 second intervals) at latitude 29. The rest of the time it was reasonably smooth and they even got lots of sun-bathing in swimsuits south of Turtle Bay and even some to the north of it! Not so the boats bashing now, as a series of lows has been throwing 25 to 35 knots of wind and big seas down the Baja coast. For folks with plenty of time, that's not so bad, as they can duck into anchorages and . . . well, stare at the overhead. For others, such as Orange Coast College Sailing School's Alaska Eagle, co-captains Richard and Sheri Crowe are on a schedule and have to get their group to Newport by Sunday.

Good luck to all you bashers.

Kialoa III Donated to Orange Coast College

March 30 - Los Angeles

Jim Kilroy of Los Angeles, the first American to tour the world with maxi boats in search of top-flight racing competition, has donated Kialoa III to the Orange Coast College. The S&S-designed 79-footer was built by Palmer-Johnson, and was his favorite of the four - or was it five? - Kialoas that he owned. Kialoa III did all the major races in the world, including several St. Francis Big Boat Series, and survived the deadly Fastnet Race of '79.

Even as he built and raced other maxis, Kilroy hung onto III for cruising. For example, we often crossed paths with her in the Eastern Med when we were there with Big O about 10 years ago.

Kilroy, whose airport centers are visible next to L.A. and Long Beach airports, has most recently been sailing the boat in Uruguay, where he has a home. Although 82 years old, he's reported to still be very spry, managing to climb up and down a long ladder from his boat to the bulkhead.

Brad Avery, head of the Orange Coast College sailing program, says that they will take possession of Kialoa in Panama in May, then bring her up to Newport. Rather than sell her, she'll be put in the sailing program. They are even toying with the idea of sailing this worldwide legend in this fall's Baja Ha-Ha. We'll have photos of Kialoa III in the May issue of Latitude 38.