Archive for April 2014
This reporter enjoyed her maiden Bullship in a boat generously loaned by John Amen, but unfortunately took too long (almost an hour) to clear the Marin shore and so was told to turn back by the race committee.
Peter Vargas, center in blue hat, stands below Moonshadow with his Sea Tek team.
The 83-ft Fife schooner Adventuress, now 90 years young, shows her stuff in this year’s windy Antigua Classic Regatta.
While perusing the UK Guardian last month we came across a fascinating item about a German fisherman who pulled a brown beer bottle out of the Baltic Sea near Kiel, only to discover that it had a message in it scrawled on a very old post card.
Weather forecasts are one of the most talked-about topics in any cruiser gathering, often because they’re so often wrong or misunderstood, and so much depends on accurate forecasting when you’re in a small boat in a large ocean.
For decades, Steve and Linda Dashew have been the leading authorities on active heavy weather tactics, with their books Mariner’s Weather Handbook and Surviving the Storm taking up valuable — and well-earned — space on nearly every sailor’s bookshelf.
Matt and Nicole broke away from their last-minute preparations this morning to strike a pose aboard their custom Harbor 29 Sakura.
Francis Joyon, the tireless solo record breaker, established a new passage-making benchmark with his arrival at Rio this week.
For everyone who raced the 35th annual Doublehanded Farallones Race this past March 22, be sure not to miss tonight’s trophy presentation at Oakland YC, at 7 p.m.
When you are forced to use your hands to defend against a machete attack, you can come away with some nasty souvenirs.
“Look ma, surfing at 22 knots without a spinnaker!”
latitude/Richard
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC The photo above, of a Santa Cruz 70 surfing a wave in 25 knots of wind, looks like a typical finish of a Transpac — except for a couple of things.
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC The photo above, of a Santa Cruz 70 surfing a wave in 25 knots of wind, looks like a typical finish of a Transpac — except for a couple of things.
When we meet soon-to-be South Pacific voyagers here on the West Coast, one of their big concerns is always heavy weather.
The well-kept Catalina 42 Bella sits mastless after the tragic accident, cordoned off by police tape.
How much do professional yacht racers get paid? It’s a question weekend sailors often ask, but is rarely answered.
A bevy of Bird boats flocked together for spring maintenance recently at Pt.
Vallejo YC’s Martha Blanchfield reminds us that there are only 10 days until the 115th running of the annual Great Vallejo Race.
A sample of a new Temporary Import Receipt. Note the bar code which should make tracing such transactions much faster.
If a ‘picture is worth a thousand words,’ what’s a video worth? No matter how many times mariners are warned about the dangers of not wearing an outboard kill-switch cord around their wrists when operating their outboard-powered inflatables, the message doesn’t seem to get through.
Although it’s off the radar of almost all sailing fans in America, theTransat AG2R is, in this writer’s opinion, the single most competitive trans-Atlantic race of them all.
Lest anyone think that Mexico’s recent self-destructive ‘auditing’ of foreign-owned boats was a unique governmental brain fart, consider the oppressive situation for foreign mariners wanting to cruise — and spread money — in ‘Schengen Area’ countries.
Carrying their only remaining possessions, the Kaufman family disembarks the USS Vandegrift at Coronado Island.
Making a ‘run for it’ on a sailboat is rarely the best of ideas, but it has worked for John Hards, a former long-time resident of the Bay Area who has spent the last 11 years loving retirement aboard in Mexico.
The legendary 1990 ORMA 60 trimaran that set countless records as both Florence Arthaud’s Pierre 1er and Steve Fossett’s Lakota is now for sale in Grenada for $375,000.
Seen here during a Hawaii daysail, Russian immigrant Rimas Meleshyus is determined to sail solo around the world in a 40-year-old trailer-sailer.
Having spent about 25 days crossing the North Pacific from Qingdao, China in Race 10 of the Clipper Round the World Race, the 12-boat fleet will begin crossing the finish line at the Golden Gate Bridge sometime after 6 p.m.
With its status as the largest all-sail boat show on the West Coast, the annual Strictly Sail Pacific boat show (April 10-13 at Oakland’s Jack London Square) is a must-see for most Northern California sailors.
The Second SoCal Ta-Ta — aka Reggae ‘Pon da Ocean — a Ha-Ha style cruiser rally from Santa Barbara to Catalina, is on.
As sailboat owners we are required to carry flares on board as a safety precaution.
With their Hans Christian 36 slowly sinking behind them, the Kaufman family was transferred to the USS Vandegrift early yesterday morning.
Sometimes just looking at a big boat doesn’t give you a realistic idea of just how big she is.
A few of our friends stopped by to say hi at a recent boat show…
latitude/Andy
©2013 Latitude 38 Media, LLC Visit us later this week at Strictly Sail Pacific, Thursday, April 10, through Sunday, April 13, at Jack London Square in Oakland.
©2013 Latitude 38 Media, LLC Visit us later this week at Strictly Sail Pacific, Thursday, April 10, through Sunday, April 13, at Jack London Square in Oakland.
Although Marina has done many Baja Ha-Ha rallies with her husband Myron aboard their Swan 44 Mykonos, her worst injury in Mexico occurred in a bathroom.
A well-known cruising family from San Diego were awaiting evacuation from their boat about 900 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas this morning after their one-year-old daughter Lyra fell ill.
Bay Area sailor Larry Jacobson made headlines in 2007 when he and partner Ken Smith became the first openly gay couple to circumnavigate the globe.
Just about every sailor we know thinks that a reality television show based on cruising would be a great idea.
Andrew Taylor (left) was rescued with the help of a fellow crewman (on halyard).
As many ocean voyagers will confirm, it’s not the wide open spaces you have to fear, it’s the land.
The fiasco of 338 foreign-owned boats being impounded — for up to four months — mostly for no good reason — appears to be nearing an end.