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November 21, 2008

Artwork Needed for Punta Mita Y&S Club

Heather ‘I’ll try really, really hard to be good’ Corsaro, the new Commodore of the Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club. Wahoo! This is one she landed on David Addleman’s Cal 36 Eupsychia during this year’s Baja Ha-Ha.

© 2008 David Addleman

Are you a budding graphic artist who wants to show the world how talented you are? Terrific, because the Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club needs someone to come up with a cool design for their T-shirts — and in time for the Banderas Bay Blast on December 3-5. Your compensation? The love and respect of all who will wear your artwork . . . and who will probably ultimately use the shirt for a grease rag in the engine room. So fire up your imagination and those art tools now, and send your results to Richard.

Speaking of the Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club — "surf in the morning, sail in the afternoon, and if you’re lucky, maybe sex at night, too" — memberships in the prestigious club will be available again this year at the club on the late afternoon of December 2. The ‘club’, in this case, will be the catamaran Profligate, which will be on the hook at Punta Mita.

Membership requirements, however, have been stiffened. They are:

1) Must have sailed to the club — a requirement subject to the loosest possible interpretation.

2) Lifetime membership fee of $1, the meager proceeds of which will be used for something good.

3) Must drink the Kool-Aid. Literally. But it will just be a small cup, and there won’t be anything nasty in it.

4) Must accept hazing in the form of one paddle on the butt, more or less lovingly applied by new Commodore Heather ‘I promise I’ll try to behave myself’ Corsaro, or former Commodore Eugenie ‘all the stories you’ve heard about me are true’ Russell.

5) Must be willing, and this applies to the women too, to have a mustache painted on your face for the evening. The Y&S doesn’t want any members who take themselves too seriously.

And finally, 6) Must be willing to shake your booty along with everyone else, for at least one loud song, on Profligate‘s Admiral’s Walk. Did we mention the Y&S doesn’t want any members who take themselves too seriously and/or who don’t feel the need to move with the music from time to time?

Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club members playing together with their boats at the start of the second race off La Cruz in last year’s Blast.

latitude/Nick
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC

So yes, the Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club is looking for light-hearted, fun-loving, active sailors and surfers — but, mind you, only those who use alcohol responsibly. No foolish drunks for us, thank you very much. And wait until you see the membership cards!

We’re expecting a full house at the ‘club’ on the 2nd, so if you intend to be there, and if you intend to sail in the Blast, email Richard as soon as possible. As for those T-shirts, they’ll be given out free, for as long as they last, to members who demonstrate a working knowledge of the concept of potlucking. We hope to see you all there and at the Blast!

Stanford Keeps ‘The Big Sail’ Trophy

Stanford held on to The Big Sail trophy with wins in the first and last of the annual best-of-three match racing event against Cal.

© 2008 Peter Lyons

With wins in the first and last races in fog and 8- to 12-knots of breeze, Stanford beat Cal in the Varsity division at Tuesday’s Big Sail. The annual match-racing regatta settles — at least for the ensuing year — the cross-Bay rivalry between the two schools, the week before their respective football teams meet on the turf for one of the oldest college football rivalries in the country. Sophomore Cole Hatton led the young Stanford team of freshman Oliver Riihiluoma calling tactics, sophomore Benjamin Pedrick trimming, freshman Nick Dugdale and sophomore Hannah Burroughs in the pit, and sophomore Hayley Tobin on the bow. While Stanford took the Varsity win, Cal’s two alumni teams won their respective races in the young alumni and master’s alumni divisions.

A Honeymoon on Honeymoon

Seth and Elizabeth earlier in their honeymoon at Martha’s Vineyard on the Fourth of July. A good sense of humor is an important asset these days, both on land and at sea.

Honeymoon
©2008 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

"We’re from Chestnut Street on Russian Hill in San Francisco, and we just did the Caribbean 1500 aboard our Lagoon 380 Honeymoon," write Seth and Elizabeth Hynes. "Our boat got her name because we quit our day jobs — Elizabeth as a merchandiser for Banana Republic, and Seth as a wine exporter for Robert Mondavi — to take a year long honeymoon.

"Despite our experience sailing on San Francisco Bay, the Caribbean 1500 from Virginia to the British Virgins was our first open ocean voyage, and we’re happy we did it as part of the 1500 group. We joined the Cruising Division, and were very encouraged by the moral support, weather briefings and safety inspections that came with the event. Steve Black and his crew did an incredible job, so we would recommend the 1500 to everyone from rookies such as ourselves to the very experienced.

A jammed headboard car at the top of the mast – something you hope never happens far out in the ocean.

Honeymoon
©2008 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

"We didn’t race for insurance reasons, but we felt we did well considering the challenges we faced. On Day Two, our port winch failed. Even worse, our mainsail headboard cars jammed at the top of the mast when we tried to reef for a squall. Eventually, the car itself was ripped from the mast, so on Day Three we had to make an eight-hour repair at sea, but it allowed us to continue south rather than divert to Bermuda. The repair involved swapping cars with the lower part of the sail, then continuing on with a permanent reef in the main. Other things broke along the way, but we and our two crew overcame them as a team."

We at ‘Lectronic apologize for leaving the Hynes out of our previous 1500 coverage, as problems with the event’s site made it difficult to confirm that they’d actually done the event.

Weekend Fun for the Family

The San Francisco Maritime Museum may be closed until next year, but the Park Service still has many free and low-cost activities for the public to enjoy. Tomorrow, for example, your family could enjoy any one of the following:

  • Join a Park Ranger on a free Historic Waterfront Walking Tour starting at the Argonaut Hotel lobby, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
  • Check out the restoration progress on the Aquatic Park Bathouse Building (aka, the Maritime Museum) as well as its history in a free guided tour, 11-11:45 a.m.
  • Enjoy a daysail on the scow schooner Alma, 12:30-4 p.m. $35 for adults, $30 for seniors; $20 for kids 6 and up; kids under 6 free. Tickets available tomorrow at the Hyde Street Pier ticket booth which opens at 9:30 a.m.
  • Take a free tour of the the Park’s small craft collection at Hyde Street Pier, 3-3:45 p.m.
  • Stop by the Eureka on Hyde Street Pier for the weekly Modelers’ Workshop for anyone interested in building ship models, 9:30 a.m. into the afternoon. $5 vessel admission.

And this is just Saturday’s schedule! The Park offers tours, events and programs throughout the year, many of which are completely free and kid-friendly. Go to their website at www.maritime.org for all the park has to offer, or check out their calendar for what’s happening on any given day.

Best of the Northwest

Sailing beneath the towering peaks of the Cascade Range, charter trips in the Northwest are a visual feast.

latitude/Andy
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC

As savvy travelers know, it’s smart to plan vacations far in advance these days in order to get the best air fares and — in the case of bareboat cruises — the best boats in the charter fleets.

With that in mind, we’ll be writing about chartering in the Gulf and San Juan Islands in the December issue of Latitude 38, and we’d love to receive tips, advice and photos from readers who’ve sailed there recently.

So please drop us a line and tell us about your three favorite spots in the Greater Puget Sound area, and if possible, shoot us a few photos. As an enticement we’ll select several respondents randomly and reward them with an ‘official’ Latitude 38 T-shirt. After all, topical reader input is one of the things that continues to make Latitude the West Coast’s favorite sailing rag.

Loick Peyron is first to the doldrums in the 2008 Vendee Globe. © Jean-Marie Liot DPPI/Vendee Globe Ten days into the singlehanded 2008 Vendée Globe Race, the leaders are running into the doldrums with Loïck Peyron and his Farr-designed Gitana 80 leading the charge.