
Sailing Voyeurs Delight

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC
Just to make sure everyone understands, when we write about the Caribbean, or St. Barth in particular, it’s not to shout ‘we’re so cool and you’re not’, but rather to let you know about a spectacular place and some spectacular sailing events — events that we think every sailor should experience as many times as possible.

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC
For us, St. Barth is not only a proxy for all of the Caribbean, which just happens to offer the greatest natural sailing conditions in the world, it’s also — despite its diminutive size — ground zero for much of what’s going on in many important aspects of sailing. Since it’s where almost all the great sailing yachts and sailors stop, it’s where we get much of our knowledge and information — and stories. It’s no different than golf writers needing to go Augusta for the Masters or tennis writers needing to go to the U.S. Open or Wimbledon. If that makes some people jealous, we’re not going to lose sleep over it.

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC
It’s absolutely true that you can have great Caribbean sailing experiences all over the Antilles, from the British Virgins to St. Martin to Antigua to Down Island. But we make St. Barth our base because it’s the one place that virtually all the great yachts and sailors stop, and because they are concentrated in such a small area. The yachts, for example, can all be found in about a single square-mile area, and all of the great sailors, designers, and builders can be found in the 200 or so feet between Le Select and the Bar of the Forgotten. You don’t find that kind of concentration anywhere else in the world.
It doesn’t hurt that St. Barth is about the safest place in the world, there are stylish and lovely women everywhere, and that it’s still got a magical joie de vivre. For those who don’t have enough time to really get to know the island, it also has events such as last week’s St. Barth Bucket that give you — yeah, we’re talking about you! — the opportunity to be smack dab in the middle of the greatest sailing spectacle ever. All you have to do is cash in your frequent flyer miles for a trip to St. Martin, charter whatever boat fits your group’s budget, and sail her 15 miles to St. Barth’s Gustavia anchorage.

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC
Not only will it give you an opportunity to see the largest collection of great large yachts ever, you’ll get to see them raced by world class sailors in ideal sailing conditions. Furthermore, if you look like you’re a decent sailor, there’s a good chance that you — yeah, we’re still talking about you! — can crew on one of the great yachts, particularly in the second and third races, when crew are often in short supply. Not only that, if you don’t come across as an ogre, there’s a more than decent chance that you — yup, still you! — will be allowed to tour $40 to $50 million sailing yachts, where the crews will hand you flutes of champagne and lovely little canapes. And no, it doesn’t cost you anything. If that doesn’t sound like something that would appeal to the sailor in you, fair enough. But some sailors are actually interested in experiences such as that.

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC
We’ll have a more detailed report on the Bucket in the May edition of Latitude, but to summarize, it was "congenial racing" among 40 of the world’s great large yachts, from 100 footers to the 289-ft Maltese Falcon. It’s noteworthy that 10% of these yachts have Silicon Valley roots. Falcon, of course, was built by venture capitalist Tom Perkins of Belvedere. The 156-ft Hyperion was built for the Valley’s Jim Clark who, nonetheless, showed up for the second year in a row with his J Class 135-ft Hanuman. Then there was the 190-ft Holland/Huisman Ethereal, built for Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. For those who are disgusted by very rich people who got that way by screwing people over, take note that Perkins, Clark, and Joy weren’t born with silver spoons in their mouths — they made their money by saving money for countless millions of people and businesses.
It was a Bucket of sailing fun the likes of which we’ve never experienced before. Plan ahead, and you too can be part of it next spring. You won’t regret it.

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

©2011 Latitude 38 Media, LLC
PHOTO
San Diego Accident Update
The deaths of Jun Chen, 44, and his father, Chao Chen, 73, in a tragic sailing accident Sunday afternoon in San Diego Harbor has raised questions about the wisdom of taking 10 people — eight adults and two children, one of whom was autistic — out on a MacGregor 26. George Saidah, founder of the nonprofit Heart of Sailing Foundation that offers sailboat rides to people with disabilities, says that he’s taken that many people out before without issue. He also claims he properly filled Nessie‘s water ballast tanks and lowered the retractable keel, but that a gust of wind — it was blowing about 13 — laid the boat over.
PHOTO
Roger MacGregor, founder of MacGregor Yachts, responded that the boat was definitely overloaded for its size. Ten people, including at least one disabled child, on a water-ballasted MacGregor 26? We’ll let the Harbor Patrol conduct an investigation to determine the facts about this tragic accident, but we suspect the cause was a combination of ignorance and a lack of common sense.
Amazing Vid of the Day
This is a bit off our normal beat, but the video below (from Australia’s Channel 7 News) is so eye-popping we had to share it with you. As they say at the circus, "Please don’t try this at home."
The Inflatable Alternative
Lots of sailors like to surf. One of the big problems they have is that surfboards are pretty large and most cruising sailboats are relatively small. In addition, it can be difficult getting boards off and on boats without banging them, resulting in dings in the fiberglass boards. The problems may not be so big for younger sailor/surfers who ride small boards and are more nimble and have higher body strength-to-weight ratios. But they are a problem for geezers sailor/surfers such as ourselves, who still enjoy the waves.
One alternative is inflatable surfboards. We can hear you laughing, and to a certain extent, you are justified in doing so. If you’re a hot surfer, there is no way that an inflatable board is going to be the proper tool for you. On the other hand, there are inflatable surfboards and there are inflatable surfboards. We’d include the Uli — of which we have an 11-foot model on ‘ti Profligate — in the latter category. Not only is it of rugged construction, but you can pump the thing up so firm you can bounce a dime off of it. The problem with less expensive inflatables is that they can’t take a similar PSI, and therefore sag in the middle when you stand on them.
The best things about the inflatables are the convenience. We’ve had no problem rolling ours up and checking it as airline baggage. And when lauching or retrieving the board from the boat, you can just drag the admittedly clumsy thing across the deck with no damage at all.
The boards are also a huge hit with kids. We happily loan ours to Scotty and Lila, who run the 65-ft Gannon & Benjamin schooner Juno that is on the cover of the latest Latitude. Their family has a blast with it. Scotty takes his two sons — and whatever other kids are around — for paddles around Columbie. Or they tie the board behind Juno and the kids play on it for hours.
While inflatable surfboards aren’t a perfect product, they might prove to be a suitable compromise for your needs.