If you’re a sailing fanatic, this week would be an ideal time to take a vacation from your workaday grind — or call in sick, starting tomorrow morning. That’s when the second round of the America’s Cup World Series will crank up on San Francisco Bay, accompanied by the region’s annual Fleet Week celebrations beginning on Thursday.  

If you missed the heart-pounding action of ACWS Season Two’s round one in August, you owe it to yourself to spend as much time as possible soaking in the excitement of both fleet and match racing between the world’s best sailors. And as promoters often point out, America’s Cup racing has never before been staged at a more viewer-accessible venue than along the San Francisco Cityfront.

Via land, sea or TV? Having witnessed the August races from both the water and the shoreline — and watched live on the tube and Internet — we can tell you there are arguments for each option: Due to the constraints of the racing ‘box’ you’ll be a lot closer to the action when watching from the specially erected bleachers on shore (midweek tickets still available), out on the spit adjacent to the sponsoring Golden Gate YC, or along the shoreline just west of the St. Francis YC (windward marks). But there is definitely something magical about watching from the deck of a spectator boat, semi-chaotic as that scene may be. As with watching an NFL game, the very best view of the action is probably watching at home on your TV (and, in this case also streaming live on the Internet). But there’s no substitute for being there in person, where the excitement and exhilaration are palpable.

The AC45 action runs tomorrow (Tuesday) through Sunday. Needless to say, mid-week crowds will be much smaller in the must-see AC Village, where loudspeakers explain the subtle nuances of this lightning-fast, adrenalin-fueled sport, and huge video monitors show live action, augmented by state-of-the-art graphics of course boundaries, lay lines, wind angles and more. The video crews do a phenomenal job, not to mention the footage that’s constantly streaming in from onboard pod cams.

Practice racing begins tomorrow, 4:00-6:00 p.m., with a specatator-accessible skipper debriefing afterward. Match-racing qualifiers occupy the same time slot Wednesday. On Thursday, the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels will hold an afternoon practice session, bracketed by AC45 Match Race Quarterfinal beforehand (12:20-1:00 p.m.), and Fleet racing afterward, beginning at 5:10.

Air and sky activities will follow roughly the same schedule Friday and Saturday (along with many additional shoreside activities), but Sunday’s schedule will vary, highlighted by the Super Sunday Fleet Race at 1:30 p.m. immediately followed by yet another Fleet Week Air Show. Yeah, it’s complicated choreography, so be sure to study the online event schedule, and don’t miss the TV broadcast schedule here. Be aware also, that all races — with the exception of the finals, which can be viewed live on NBC — will be viewable in real time via an Internet streaming broadband site.

Fleet Week runs Wednesday, October 3 through Tuesday, October 9, when the ships depart. In addition to the Blue Angels’ shows, activities include the arrival of the 847-ft USS Makin Island carrier, ship tours (age 8 minimum), and the Parade of Ships (eastward from the Golden Gate Bridge) at 11:00 a.m. Saturday.

As we said, it’s going to be a very busy week. And if all this water-focused action wasn’t enough excitement, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass event (which draws 3/4 of a million spectators) will take place Friday to Sunday, the S.F. Giants will be in playoff games at AT&T Park both Saturday and Sunday, plus there’ll be a Niners game Sunday, too. So if there was ever a time to take advantage of the Bay Area’s public transportation network, this is it. See 511.org for a complete overview.

We’d wager there aren’t too many cruising boat rendezvous that would attract not just one but four Singlehanded TransPac vets — plus two hopefuls — but then again, the venerable Westsail 32 is in a class of its own. The Northern California Westsail Rendezvous was held this weekend at San Leandro YC where about a dozen boats and more than 50 guests converged to discuss all things Westsail. 

Among the crowd were a pack of Singlehanded Traspac racers: Dave King from Saraband (’10), Joshua Siegel from Sunquest (’08), Rob Tryon who did the race in a Valiant 32 (’08) and was Race Chair for this summer’s edition, and Randy Leasure from Tortuga (’12). The quartet did their best to convince Stockton’s Duke MacGill of Amable and Gary Burton of Elizabeth Ann — who sailed down from Brookings, Oregon, with crew John Boye, just for the rondy — to enter the 2014 running of the race. Only time will tell if they were successful.

‘Mr. Westsail’ himself, Bud Taplan, was also in attendance, offering advice and ‘two-beer surveys’ to the gathered boats. At dinner, he did his best to tell what promised to be very entertaining stories about his times traveling with pal Bob Knobloch of Soltero but was convinced to hold off until kids — or maybe just journalists — weren’t in the room.

If you’ve never attended one, rendezvous are rife with ‘teachable moments’. For example, we learned more about DSC-enabled VHF radios than we ever thought we cared about from a very thorough presentation by SLYC Commodore Norm Pennington. In fact, having been lazy about setting up our own radios to take full advantage of DSC, we’re going write about the process — and benefits — in a future issue of Latitude 38. 

If you happen to spot a roving pack of Westsails on the Bay this week, that will be the remnants of the rondy on a weeklong cruise of the Bay. Good timing, as the AC45s will be out in full force, as will the Blue Angels for Fleet Week (see top story).