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Photo of the DayMarch 13 - Mazatlan, Mexico  Photo Courtesy Daydreams and Calafia Today's Photo of the Day is of, among others, Joseph of Daydreams and Glen of Calafia, who are taking the bus with some other surfers from Marina Mazatlan to the Playa Brujas break to the north of Mazatlan. It's a good surf spot, and even Jackie of Daydreams "got up on the first day." A lot of geezers take the bus to Brujas with their longboards, and a few months ago, a couple of guys managed to squeeze their big boards onto the bus - but couldn't get the darn things out when they got to Brujas. Visualize 15 Mexicans all trying to help get the longboards off a bus while the driver stands around grumbling that it's cutting into his lunch break. Viva surfing. Viva buffoonery. Viva Mexico! |
Rick Wesslund's Tiburon-Based J/120 El Ocaso Is PHRF Boat of the Week in Florida - Again!March 13 - Miami, FL Think you're having a case of deja vu all over again? Relax, because in January Wesslund and crew were PHRF Boat of the Week with El Ocaso at Acura Key West Race Week also. They must love that winter weather in Florida. Usually when a lifeline breaks and two crew fall overboard - which is what happened with El Ocaso in Race 10 - one's chances of winning a competitive regatta are toast. But Wesslund and crew clawed their way from last to fourth place in that race. And thanks to having won five of the first six races, they managed to hold on to win their division by just one point, and be named PHRF Boat of the Week at Acura Miami Race Week, held March 9-12. Wesslund, who had been disappointed by the running of the regatta when he participated four years ago, claims that it has experienced a renaissance under Premiere Racing management. "We'll definitely be back next year," he said. In the most glamorous division of the event,
Philippe Kahn and his Santa Cruz / Tiburon / Honolulu-based Pegasus
52 went into the last race of the inaugural Rolex TP-52 Global
Championship with a .75 point advantage, but was nipped in the
final two races by Eamon Conneely and his Ireland-based Patches.
That gave Patches honors and dropped Pegasus to
second.  Start of the very competitive TP-52 class Photo Doug Berman As you can see from the photos, the racing conditions for the 140 boats from 10 countries and 22 states were about as good as one could hope for.  Pegasus 52 (foreground) crosses tacks with Stay Calm. The latter, a pre-race favorite, ended up sixth.
Photos Daniel Forster Northern Californians were also acquitting themselves proudly a bit farther down island. Roger Sturgeon's TransPac 52 Rosebud sailed to second in the March 3-5 Heineken Regatta in St. Maarten behind defending and once-again champion, Tom Hill's R/P 75 Titan XII. |
Hasn't the City of Berkeley Gone too Far?March 13 - Berkeley "I was surprised to read the blurb in the last 'Lectronic regarding the Berkeley Sea Scouts," writes Matt McDonell. "The blurb incorrectly stated that the Berkeley Scouts would not assure that homosexuals would be allowed to participate. In fact, the Boy Scouts of America, the parent organization of the Sea Scouts, are the ones who have the policy, and it's where the money for the lawyers came from. The young kids of the Berkeley Sea Scouts had amended their charter to ensure that they would not discriminate based on religion, race, or sexuality. The City of Berkeley wanted the parent organization - the Boy Scouts of America - to change their by-laws, and the city would not allow the local chapter the leeway to change their own by-laws to meet with the standards that Berkeley has set. "Working across the point from the Sea Scouts in the Berkeley Marina for six years, I witnessed many kids involved in boating and teamwork, kids that aren't often represented in boating in the U.S. - such as blacks and Latinos. Also, having volunteered for The Berkeley Boosters Police Activities League for a few years, I witnessed the need for alternate programming to show inner city kids that there were other things out there for them besides gangs and drugs - one of those things being the Berkeley Sea Scouts. "Having been born and raised in the Bay Area, I am thankful for the progressive attitudes about people's choices I have had ingrained in my values, but when does the need to be politically correct become a detriment? I myself would not elect to be part of an organization that discriminates, but hasn't the City of Berkeley gone too far? I'm not a lawyer, and I'm sure that there are many facts about the case that I haven't been privy to, but it just seems plain wrong that Berkeley wouldn't let the kids change their organization from the inside out - like true revolutionaries." Gracias for the correction and clarification. |
Volvo Finally Has a Great LegMarch 13 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil For once a leg of the Volvo Race will be remembered more for the tremendously close racing rather than for the lives of the crews being in danger - although movistar did come about as close as possible to sinking without actually going under.  ABN AMRO One arrives in Rio Photo David Branigan After taking nearly three weeks of sailing some 6,700 miles, most of it in the Southern Ocean, the finishes at Rio couldn't have been much closer. ABM AMRO One, with Northern California's Stan Honey navigating, finished first, as she's made a habit of doing. Northern California's Paul Cayard brought Pirates of the Caribbean across the line just a few hours later. Indeed, all but the nearly sunk movistar finished within 16 hours of each other, making this leg the closest to date.  Paul Cayard chats with the media onboard The Black Pearl while the cold beer rests in a cooler awaiting consumption. Photo Martin Stockbridge If you're into this kind of racing, check out www.volvooceanrace.org for all the details. |
