As most Latitude readers know, Skip Allan of Capitola, one of the best racers and cruisers that has ever come out of Northern California, scuttled his Wylie 28 Wildflower in rough weather on September 1 on his way back to California after winning the Singlehanded TransPac. The whole story appeared in the October Latitude.

There are many people, ourselves included, who don’t think the world is quite right with Allan not having his Wildflower. After all, he’d been racing and sailing her since before Latitude started publishing, and that was nearly 32 years ago.

Fortunately, one of the people who also feels that way is Tim Redfern of Spokane, Washington, who owns a Hawkfarm, which is close to being a sistership to Wildflower. He sent us the following letter:

"Tim here from the Sail Loft up at Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho. I have my Hawkfarm 28 advertised in your current issue, which, lo and behold, also had the story of Skip Allan’s adventure and the loss of his boat. I have no idea if a replacement Wylie is something he might want right now, but if it is, I would make a heck of a deal — like maybe transport costs only. I would be proud to know that my boat had gone to a very fine home in the hands of a brave, wise and caring — and still alive — sailor such as Skip Allan. My Hawkfarm has a diesel, folding prop, 13 sails, and all sorts of other goodies. I can be reached by email."

A tip of the Latitude hat to you, Tim, for such a generous offer. As for the transportation costs, we know lots of folks — ourselves included — who would be happy to chip in for them. So it’s up to you Skip. If you’re moving in some other direction, that’s cool. But if you’re not, please don’t give us any of that ‘I couldn’t accept such an offer’ crap. As Tim said, he’d be proud for you to have the boat, and we — and everybody else who knows you — know exactly what he means.  

While it’s true that Hurricane Norbert should be making landfall near Bahia Santa Maria, Baja, tomorrow at about noon, and then continue across the Baja Peninsula to near Loreto, the good news is that it’s been downgraded from a Category 1 to a Category 3 hurricane. Having slowed down somewhat, however, there is a chance it might intensify back to a Category 2 before making landfall. But also on the good side, it will also have to cross over the towering Sierra Gigantica mountains before reaching evenly lightly populated areas of Baja, which should knock 10 to 20 knots off its windspeed. However, Norbert‘s dangers will not just be limited to the wind and seas, as it’s supposed to dump six to 10 inches of rain on the Baja Peninsula, causing extensive flash flooding.

As is the case with all hurricanes, Norbert’s path is subject to change, so everyone from La Paz to north of Concepción Bay, and over near Los Mochis on the mainland, needs to make careful preparations. Our thoughts are with all of you in the hurricane’s path.

While not yet a hurricane, Tropical Storm Odile is blowing at about 50 knots off the coast of Acapulco on the Mexican mainland. The good news is that it looks as though it will continue to stay offshore, and will only reach hurricane force for a brief time. It’s nonetheless early, and this storm will require monitoring for the next several days.

It’s time once again for Fleet Week, and while that means there’ll be some stunning aerobatics from the Blue Angels and a parade of Navy ships, it also means that the Coast Guard has set aside some space for this to take place.

Tomorrow from 11:59 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., vessel traffic will be restricted in a band from the Gate, extending out to Alcatraz and down to just south of the Bay Bridge. This is in addition to the 500-yard security zone that’ll be enforced around each Navy vessel at all times. There’s also an additional restricted area between the Cityfront and Alcatraz, reserved — but hopefully not needed — as a ditch zone for the Blue Angels from 12:30 to 5 p.m. today through Sunday.

So be alert, remember to have your registration and a sufficient number of PFD’s aboard, don’t overload your boat, save the beers for when you’ve returned to the dock, and enjoy the show. There’ll likely be plenty of boardings by the Coast Guard security patrols this weekend, so make sure to leave anything you don’t want confiscated — or that might result in the confiscation of your boat — at home. More info on the restricted zones and Fleet Week safety can be found here. 

For generations, San Francisco Bay has attracted all sorts of vessels. But the arrival yesterday of the 54-ft Chinese junk Princess Tai Ping was unique to the Bay’s maritime history.

Launched earlier this year at Jinjiang, this flat-bottomed, engineless junk is an historically accurate replica of the 15th century trading vessels which plied the maritime ‘Silk Road’. She was built with strict adherance to ancient Chinese shipbuilding techniques, using only "natural materials."

It took Captain Nelson Liu and his crew 65 days to sail across the North Pacific from Hong Kong to the West Coast, making landfall last week at Eureka where city officials greeted them with apple pie and ice cream — a much-appreciated American treat.

Ironically, they saw the roughest conditions of the entire voyage between Eureka and San Francisco — up to 40 knots, with 20- to 30-ft waves. Remarkably, the junk reached a top speed of 14 knots during this southbound run!

Partially funded by the National Geographic Society, one goal of this voyage was to test the theory that Chinese vessels may have traveled to North America before Columbus. This fascinating ship will be in port for the next two weeks, but a schedule of Bay sails and public tours has yet to be established. Stay tuned for updates.

When it comes to boat sales, the one area of the market that has continued to boom in recent years has been megayachts, particularly mega motoryachts. Indeed, in some cases speculators have bought 150+ footers and then sold them at double the price before even taking delivery. The only weakness in the megayacht market seems to have been the capacity to build them, as the demand has raged unchecked.

But things may have changed. Some of the biggest buyers have been Russian oligarch billionaires such as Roman Abramovich. If we’re not mistaken, he currently owns three or four mega motoryachts, and is having the 555-ft Eclipse built in Germany. But according to news reports, the 25 richest Russians have, between May and October 6, lost a collective $230 billion in the Russian stock market. Talk about near incomprehensible losses! And mind you, the Russian market — when it’s been allowed to open — has gone much further south since then.

And as everyone who has paid attention knows, the rest of the world markets have made a good impression of collapsing, too. Given the net losses of the megayacht owners of the world, we can only assume that this market, as well as the very high end charter market, will be much more ‘challenging’, as they say, in the future. While everyone will certainly miss the massive numbers of jobs and business opportunities generated by such megayachts, we doubt that too many tears will be shed for the owners.