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Archive for September 2015

Youth Program Receives Grant

In August, West Marine announced the 29 youth boating nonprofit organizations that received $1,500 checks from its BlueFuture Fund™. Hundreds of youth boating organizations throughout the country had been nominated for the first allocation of the BlueFuture Fund™ grants. More »
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More on Philippine Kidnappings

In our special report yesterday on a kidnapping incident at a Philippine marina, we presented all the details that were available to us at the time. One quoted source, Sherry McCampbell of the Florida-based CSY 44 Soggy Paws, wrote yesterday to correct several errors in our story: "Steve and Kaz [of Outstripp] didn’t jump in the water… They didn’t get away. More »
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Not Your Typical Boat Rental

Renaud Laplanche and Ryan Breymaier brought new meaning to the rent-a-boat concept. During their six-month rental of the 105-ft VPLP maxi-tri Lending Club 2, they challenged and shattered three prestigious sailing records — most notably here on the West Coast, the outright Los Angeles-to-Honolulu record, with the jaw-dropping time of 3 days and 19 hours.  More »

Faces in the Crowd at RBBS

Study in red: James Clappier on the bow of Peter Krueger’s HPR-winning J/125 Double Trouble. © Although the San Francisco wind machine cranked up to a good 20 knots in the afternoon on Thursday and Friday for Rolex Big Boat Series, the usual chilly breeze was replaced by a sudden heat wave on the weekend. More »

Momentum Building for Super 12s

Tennis has Wimbledon. Golf has the Masters. Horse racing has the Kentucky Derby. Most sports have a premier event that comes to personify, for better or worse, all of its participants. But More »

Not Your Ordinary Ta-Ta

Among possible candidates for the ‘face’ of this year’s Ta-Ta are Kurt and Katie Braun of the Deerfoot 74 Interlude. The circumnavigators not only sailed down from their home in Alameda for the event and dressed to the hilt for each of the social events, but Katie brought warm, moist, freshly baked bagels to the sundowner party on Profligate. More »

Hear Sally-Christine’s Voyaging Tales

Many newly released books cross our desks here at Latitude 38 ‘world headquarters’. One recent standout was Convergence – A Voyage Through French Polynesia (Paradise Cay Publications), by Sally-Christine Rodgers. It details a voyage taken by the author, husband Randy Repass (founder of West Marine) and their teenage son aboard Convergence, their custom-built Wylie 65 cat. More »

Chuan’s NE Passage Triumph Is Bittersweet

Guo Chuan (second from right) and his international crew were thrilled to cross the 3,200-mile Northeast Passage nonstop and unscathed, thus setting a new benchmark time. GuoChuanSailing
©Latitude 38 Media, LLC Although there was no brass band to greet them when they arrived at the Bering Strait, renowned Chinese sailor Guo Chuan and his five-man international crew set a new sailing benchmark yesterday, having completed the first nonstop crossing of the Northeast Passage in a sailboat, the 97-ft trimaran Qingdao China. More »