January 2023

For January's Part II of this three-part series, we launch with the YRA's 2023 season winners, and then pick up where we left off, visiting with local one-design fleets.

In the summer of 2022, we set sail on our voyage of more than 5,000 nautical miles across the North Pacific on our Hallberg-Rassy 38 named Rägeboge. Our journey took us to Hawaii, Kodiak, the Gulf of Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula.

In the early 1970s, Moore Sailboats was busy building 5O5s for the run-up to the 1971 Santa Cruz Worlds. There was no paved dry storage at Santa Cruz Yacht Club, and the weight limit on the club hoist was 2,000 pounds. 

In June and July last year, 69-year-old Ben Lindner became the latest singlehander to sail the Pacific Puddle Jump, aboard one of its smallest boats, his Oregon-based Pacific Seacraft 27 Orion, Dawn.

I was almost asleep in the starboard pilot berth when I felt the boat tack, putting me on the high side of the cabin. This was not good. I had been comfortably wedged between the outboard edge of the berth and the side of the hull, but now I rolled over to port as the sails filled on the new tack and the boat heeled over to port.

Yacht racing slowed down a bit in late November and in December. No shocker there. But here we visit the scenic and silly Half Pint-o-Rum Regatta, midwinter series at Golden Gate YC, Sausalito YC and Berkeley YC, RegattaPRO Winter One Design, and Alamitos Bay YC's Turkey Day Regatta.

With reports this month from Dogfish’s return to cruising after a long stay in the yard; the ‘can-do’ Rigney family getting Kandu back to sailing condition; a visit to Costa Rica in the fifth installment of Taliesin Rose’s guide to off-the-beaten-track post-HaHa destinations; a visit with the crew of Silver Linings on their just-completed Ha-Ha; a catch-up with 2022 contributors in the first part of our annual ‘Where are They Now?’ Feature—and a seabag full of Cruise Notes.