Seven Moore 24s Happen to Sail to Stockton on the Same Day
In a less-windy do-over of June 6’s ‘daysail’ from Richmond to Stockton, seven Moore 24s just happened to sail up the San Joaquin River at the same time. The sailors took advantage of a powerful flood current to propel them to Stockton before sunset. The breeze followed a typical Delta pattern, gentle until late afternoon, building just in time for the reachy parts of the course, and softening again as the boats neared their destination and the sun dipped low in the sky. The Moores hauled out at Stockton Sailing Club.
The very popular Delta Ditch Run had been scheduled for June 6. It’s part of the Moore 24 Roadmaster Series. The race was canceled due to the pandemic. But on that big-breeze day, with gusts into the 30s, 10 Moore 24s and one Melges 24 sailed to Stockton anyway. Read Captain Midnight’s report about that and check out the photos in Racing Sheet in the July issue of Latitude 38.
Moore 24s are sporty racers, and not just around the cans. ¡Mas! won the 2016 Pacific Cup overall. But people also daysail and even cruise them. Two of them signed up for this year’s Delta Doo Dah. And let us not forget Webb Chiles’ solo circumnavigation with Gannet. For more Moore info, see www.moore24.org.
The Club at Westpoint Live-Streams Groundbreaking Ceremony
The Club at Westpoint Harbor hosted a ‘pandemic-adjusted’ groundbreaking ceremony for its new ecologically sensitive, multi-purpose building last Saturday. Members from across the US joined the board of directors via live streaming from the new building site.
The newest facility at Westpoint Harbor will be a two-story building with a restaurant on the ground floor, a clubhouse and patio on the first floor with views of the Bay and the marina, and a large outdoor patio overlooking the harbor, as well as an outdoor pool and pool house. Construction will commence in the next several weeks.
“This is a great milestone for The Club,” said Peter Blackmore, president of the board at The Club at Westpoint. “We are looking forward to a new building to provide our members, current and future, with a vibrant, modern and friendly gathering place to enjoy the water, the views, an award-winning junior sailing program, and the very best in arts and entertainment. The vision of Westpoint Harbor always included a club and a restaurant, and it is wonderful to see this vision come to life — adding even more energy and excitement to an already buzzing harbor with over two miles of Bay access trails for all to enjoy.”
“The Club at Westpoint is a social club for boaters and non-boaters alike. The Club was formed at the beginning of 2018 to offer a place where people come together, in sophisticated surroundings, to enjoy the arts and entertainment, appreciate and promote all forms of watercraft and waterborne activities, and to relax, dine and socialize with other members.”
If you’d like to know more about The Club at Westpoint you can visit their website here.
Unidentified Boat Pieces Uncovered on Local Beach
A little while ago we received photos of a piece of hull uncovered on a local beach. The timbered section still wore much of its paintwork, but no other identifiable markings were visible. Local sailor and part-time treasure hunter Chris Herrmann found the partially exposed remnant along with other pieces of timber on Muir Beach.
“I wasn’t thinking this piece of what appears to be a Monterey fishing boat was uncovered on the beach after being there for a long time previously,” Chris said, “because there are other planks and pieces strewn elsewhere on the beach.”
Chris discovered the boat on a Tuesday, and on Wednesday came back with a shovel.
“It also does not have signs that it has been floating at sea for a long period of time — no marine growth, barnacles or even slime. The varnished gunwale is also in decent shape like the boat recently met her demise, but poking around the internet, I cannot locate any recent news of such an event.”
When not engaged in treasure hunting, Chris sails and races his Folkboat, Thea, on the Bay.
Do you have any clues as to the origins of Chris’s beach find?
Offshore Cruising with Our Island in the Sun
Planning and preparing for offshore cruising with Garry Domnisse. Watch the full video at Our Island in the Sun.
Getting to Know the Boss (and Publisher) at Latitude 38
How does an engineering graduate move from selling opera tickets to running a famous sailing magazine?
When earlier this week we discovered that John Arndt, our boss (and publisher) at Latitude 38 had done just that, we realized how little we sometimes know about the people we interact with in our daily lives. It’s easy to assume that because John is a sailor, we already know all there is to know about him — he’s a sailor, and therefore he’s OK. But on the odd occasion a piece of information comes to light that doesn’t exactly fit our picture of who this person is. Thus we decided it was high time that we all get to know the boss. But how?
Fortunately for us, local sailor and podcaster Benjamin Shaw recently invited John Arndt to join him on his podcast, Out The Gate Sailing, and was smart enough to capture the answer to our questions, and many more. The result is a rollicking tale of adventures and opportunities that carried this intrepid sailor across the country and to various oceans around the globe.
For example, one of the first questions we ask about all sailors is how and when they embarked upon the journey that would carry them throughout their lives. John’s first sailing experience was with his mother: “I was born in December and sailed the summer before.”
John comes from what he calls a “very casual, recreational summer sailing family.” His grandparents owned a cottage in Maine where the family would spend their summers sailing small boats.
“My family’s first boat was a Sea Snark, which was one of those $120 styrofoam tubs.”
He even has (apparently) “a picture of myself sailing it on Lake Winnipesaukee.”
As John and his siblings grew older, and bigger, so too did their sailboats. Moving from the Sea Snark, to a Turnabout, to a 420 and his grandfather’s Rhodes 19, he soon found himself crewing on his friend’s father’s 38-foot boat while in high school. High school led to college, and the next logical step was the college sailing team — though at the time it was more of a club. And of course, already the energetic enthusiast we recognize, John became president of the University of Vermont Sailing Club.
“It really meant I organized buying the beer, and then, since UVM didn’t have any boats, we’d jump in a van and drive down to Yale or Coast Guard Academy, or University of Maine or M.I.T. and race other colleges in their boats on weekends.”
Coastal sailing eventually evolved into offshore voyages to faraway, exotic places such as Venezuela, the Caribbean and Mediterranean islands, and many more. But it was the combination of the sometimes perfect and at other times frightening situations that sailors encounter that finally caused the anchor to take hold and turn this weekend-racing sailor into a lifelong fanatic.
So far this doesn’t answer the question we set out to explore. ‘How does an engineering graduate move from selling opera tickets to running a famous sailing magazine?’
Rather than sit here and read about it, tune in to Out The Gate Sailing and learn more about the man, the myth, our boss, (and publisher) at Latitude 38 magazine.