'Lectronic Index

Previous 'Lectronic Edition

Photo of the Day

May 8 - Alameda

Photo Dennis Minnick

Today's Photo of the Day is of the Express 37 Golden Moon sailing down the Estuary on Sunday on the way home from this weekend's Vallejo Race. We can only assume that the owner, Pineapple sailmaker Kame Richards, felt they were a little underpowered on the way to Vallejo, and was thus experimenting with a new tri-chute sail plan.

We'll have photos from the Vallejo Race in the Wednesday 'Lectronic.

Volvo Boats Head to the Big Apple

May 8 - Annapolis, MD

Photo Oskar Kihlborg

The accompanying photo shows three of the seven boats in the Volvo Around The World Race - Brasil 1, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Brunel - sailing on a crowded Chesapeake Bay as they start the 400-mile Annapolis to New York leg. The Coast Guard reports that 3,500 boats showed up for the festivities.

Even though there are still three of the nine legs left, only a catastrophe would be able to prevent ABN Amro One, navigated by Northern California's Stan Honey, from winning the event. But not surprisingly, Amro One has already pulled ahead in this leg, too. Honey notes that their boat's transom is a meter wider than the others, making her much more powerful in heavy winds. Now why didn't the others think of that?

Think the World Has Run Out of Interesting Places to Cruise?

May 8 - Vietnam

Jack van Ommen of the Gig Harbor-based triple-chine Naja 30 Fleetwood doesn't. Having served in Vietnam in the early '60s, he was dying to get back. So a year ago in March, he set out singlehanded to Vietnam. As you can tell from the photos, he made it. According to him, less than 10 yachts have cruised to Vietnam in the last 25 years. The wildly corrupt country is not equipped to receive cruising boats, nor does it encourage them. Nonetheless . . .

A rainy afternoon in Saigon

Inhaling something strong on a busy street in downtown Hanoi

Van Ommen, wearing a 'V.C. pith helmet', with his boat tied up to a quay at Danang

A typical sunrise in steaming Vietnam
Photos Jack van Ommen

Rosebud Takes Overall Honors at Antigua Sailing Week

May 8 - Antigua

There were 191 boats from 30 countries at the recently completed Antigua Sailing Week, but the top dog turned out to be Roger Sturgeon's Santa Cruz-based TransPac 52 Rosebud. Sturgeon has a history of doing very well on the East Coast and in the Caribbean.

Screw Old Age, Two Coots Still Determined to Race Singlehanded Around the World

May 8 - UK

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who about a million years ago became the first person to sail around the world nonstop singlehanded, has announced that he'll be entering the Velux 5 Oceans Around the World Race with an Open 60 (ex-Sill). Knox-Johnston will be 68 when the grueling event begins.

But he's got nothing on fellow Brit Tony Bullimore, who at age 67 is preparing to singlehand his 102-ft Team Daedalus (ex-ENZA) catamaran around the world. The lifelong smoker will depart Tasmania at the end of the month in an attempt to break the 71-day record that Ellen MacArthur set with her 75-ft tri B&Q last February. Bullimore is one of the real characters in sailing. The former nightclub owner once spent five days in the Southern Ocean in an overturned monohull. Bullimore has sailed Daedalus around the world twice with crew, but is making modifications to be able to singlehand the boat.