A Pictorial Survey of the Santana 22 Foredeck Position(s)
At the Santana 22 Nationals, hosted by Santa Cruz Yacht Club on July 23-25, there was no shortage of the stylized downwind foredeck technique on display, as these photos demonstrate.
We’ll have a report on the Tuna Nationals in Racing Sheet in the September issue of Latitude 38.
Foiling Tri Flips Near South Beach
On Tuesday afternoon the Coast Guard Sector San Francisco watchstanders received a request for assistance near South Beach Marina — a man had capsized his 15-ft sailboat. The unnamed sailor was located at 4:45 p.m. and was rescued and transported back to South Beach Marina with “no reported injuries or medical concerns.”
Now that we’ve established no one was hurt, we can get to the fun part — the boat.
The photos taken by the USCG show us that the flipped boat is a foiling tri. And on closer examination, a TriFoiler by Hobie Cat.
This is what a TriFoiler looks like in its preferred position.
Hobie built its first model in 1981 — a small hydrofoil trimaran sailboat. This then evolved to become the TriFoiler, manufactured in 1995. Following their desire to break the world speed record, Dan and Greg Ketterman built five prototypes (TF20, TF2, TF3 Longshot I and II) and four production prototypes (Avocet 1, 2 & 3, TFP). Longshot, owned and sailed by Russell Long, broke the Class A world speed record, setting the record at “43.55 knots on a 500-meter course in Tarifa, Spain, in 1993.”
According to Hobie’s TriFoiler History, the company built a total of 11 variations of the original hydrofoil trimaran. As you can see from the record above, it is a very fast little boat.
The TriFoiler is no longer in production, and this brings us to our next point of interest. How did this particular TriFoiler end up sailing on the Bay? Who is the sailor, and how did he come to own the boat?
If you know anything about this person and his boat, or if it’s you (we’re very happy that you’re safe, by the way), drop us a line at [email protected].
Club Nautique Office Staff Job Openings
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Cal 40 #1 ‘Discovered’ in Richmond
Can something that is not lost be found? Though its location was known to some and nobody was really looking, it recently came to the attention of several folks including Fred Cook, owner of Schaefer Marine and the Cal 40 Sequoia, that Cal 40 hull #1 was languishing on an empty lot in Richmond. Cook, who worked at Jensen Marine years ago, did a complete restoration of Sequoia before doing the 2017 Transpac and taking third place. Though Cook says one Cal 40 restoration is enough, he now owns Hull #1 Persephone and wants to find the right person to get her sailing again.
Cook says Persephone originally belonged to George Griffith. “As legend has it, George Griffith, Bill Lapworth and Jack Jensen were having lunch at the Los Angeles Yacht Club and they sketched out the parameters for a new design on a placemat or napkin. Jack Jensen told George Griffith, ‘If you can get me 10 firm orders for this boat, I will build a mold and start production.’ The rest is history.”
Beyond being hull #1, the boat has also been owned by none other than Dennis Connor, who raced her and won the Cal 40 class in the Ensenada Race in 2003. We wrote about it in ‘Lectronic Latitude, saying, “Dennis Conner sailed his new Cal 40 Persephone to third overall and first in class. And what a class, as no less than 20 of the 40-year-old Cal 40s competed.”
According to Cook, Persephone was sailed north from San Diego by her former owner in 2016, and while needing work, she has some good sails, mast and other attributes that will help her get sailing sooner. All she needs is someone ready to jump in. Cook contacted Cree Partridge at Berkeley Marine Center, where he’d restored Sequoia, and Cree now has the boat on the hard in Berkeley, ready for a look.
In Greek mythology the goddess Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was abducted by Hades to the underworld, and her annual return to the surface is the sign of spring. If all goes well, it will be springtime again for this Persephone.
By the way, the storied history of the Cal 40 class is only getting longer and better. Tom Burden, owner of the Cal 40 Shaman, wrote a terrific story in ‘Lectronic Latitude on the Cult of the Cal 40.
If you’re interested in Persephone, contact Fred Cook at Schaefer Marine on (508) 995-9511 or Cree Partridge at 510-843-8195.
Sellout Fleet Finishes British Fastnet Race in France
The Rolex Fastnet Race — the world’s largest offshore yacht race — is currently drawing to a close in Cherbourg, France. Beginning in Cowes, England, last Sunday, the race around Fastnet Rock is finishing in France for the first time in its nearly 100-year history, which dates back to 1925. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic, the race still managed to sell out its maximum number of entries in record time. Some 400 boats from around Europe signed up in about an hour back in January, showing that the demand to go yacht racing is as high as ever, if not higher. However, ‘only’ about 337 boats managed to make it to the start line to take on the blustery conditions of the first 24 hours.
Departing Cowes in a stiff westerly breeze that hovered in the high 20s and gusted over 30 knots directly against current coming into the English Channel, the fleet was tested early with the type of challenging wind-against-current conditions famous for creating lumpy seas and broken boats.
Immediately out of the gate, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild established her dominance over the other multihulls and the rest of the fleet and jumped out to a commanding lead that she would never relinquish. Co-skippered by Frenchmen Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, the 105-ft trimaran sailed in a fully crewed configuration and established the new record for the recently lengthened course of 695 miles. Sailing hard upwind to Fastnet Rock before rounding in softening conditions and sailing downwind in marginal foiling conditions, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild’s new reference time stands at an impressive 1 day, 9 hours, 14 minutes. Incredibly quick, but nowhere near as quick as this boat could potentially go in ideal conditions.
While the big multihulls were the quickest around the course by a long shot, all eyes were on Dmitry Rybolovlev’s new Club Swan 125 Skorpios, which made its racing debut at the Fastnet Race. With none of the 100-ft supermaxis in attendance, the only direct competition for the massive new 125-footer appeared to be George David’s American entry Rambler 88. Once on course however, Skorpios was challenged by the pesky ‘little’ IMOCA 60 Apivia, which sailed an incredible race to dominate the 13-boat doublehanded IMOCA division and finish well ahead of Rambler 88 to be the second monohull home to Cherbourg.
Nearly passing Skorpios upwind, the much smaller Apivia eventually got waterlined by the 125-ft Skorpios when rounding Fastnet Rock in lighter breeze and then running downwind in lighter, non-foiling conditions. Leaving the competition in awe, the duo of Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat put on a master class by threading the needle and connecting several tidal gates, which gave them positive current at critical moments while their competition bucked a negative current. The duo would finish in 2 days, 16 hours, 51 minutes — more than six hours ahead of the second-place IMOCA, Jeremie Beyou’s famed Charal. The Club Swan 125 finished in 2 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes to claim monohull line honors and set a relatively soft monohull course record that should easily be bested with better conditions.
There’s way too much action for us to recap in just a handful of paragraphs, so make sure to check out www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en as well as the @rorcracing and other social media feeds to get the direct scoop. We’ll have a firsthand account of the race from San Francisco sailor Harmon Shragge in an upcoming issue of Latitude 38.
When You Could Be in Canada, but You’re Actually in the US
We received an email this week from Boating Industry Canada editor Andy Adams discussing the news that as of Monday, August 9, travelers from the US can enter Canada for discretionary travel, based on vaccination status. Of course there are certain guidelines to follow: Travelers must meet mandatory vaccination requirements, must complete documentation using the ArriveCAN app or web portal, will need to be asymptomatic on arrival, and will need to show valid vaccination documentation upon request. Plus, individual provinces and territories may have their own entry restrictions, so before traveling it’s advisable to check both the federal and local guidelines and the details for the specific location you’re planning to visit. While overall this is good news for sailors, be aware, the Canadian government is warning of fines up up to $750,000 and/or six months’ imprisonment for anyone submitting a false vaccination status.
While we were digesting this news, we were reminded of a border anomaly that affects cruisers. Point Roberts Marina, in Washington, USA, lies at the end of a peninsula in British Columbia, CA. The Whatcom County town of Point Roberts is below the 49th parallel. To get there by road, you would have to drive through Canada, in which case the news outlined above is very pertinent. But what if you were to travel there by boat?
We called the Point Roberts Marina and spoke with Zihao Ding, the marina owner’s representative, to get a sense of how the marina has been faring throughout these tumultuous times.
“We’ve lost 400 – 600 boats since COVID started,” Ding told us.
Although most of the marina’s guests are Canadian, “80 – 90%,” the marina is still what Ding described as “empty.”
“When people hear about the border opening, they put up deposits. But the people have yet to come.
“People can’t go anywhere,” he added. “There was a shuttle ferrying people to Bellingham, since September 2020, but that’s stopping this week.
“Our marina is lower [emptier] than most US marinas. We would love people to come here.”
Ding sent us a couple of photos that indicate just how ’empty’ the marina is right now.
The Pacific Northwest is ‘just up the road’ from those of us here in the Bay, and a popular cruising destination. If you’re looking for somewhere to go, in a northerly direction, maybe Point Roberts is an option.
In his email, Andy Adams wondered, “Will we see our American friends show up this week?
“I would certainly like to think so, but the summer is more than half over and it would not surprise me to hear that many of those who normally visit us in the summers made other plans and have taken their vacations south of the border.”
Well, Point Roberts is certainly south of the border.
“Time will tell though, and let’s hope that the next weekend sees a happy return of our American friends and customers,” Adams concluded.
September’s Classy Classifieds Deadline Is Sunday!
Are you looking at selling your boat? Don’t delay. The September-issue Classy Classifieds deadline is Sunday, August 15, at 5 p.m.
Submit your ad here:Â https://www.latitude38.com/adverts/add-classy-boat/
Or place a FREE AD – Online only, here: https://www.latitude38.com/adverts/add-classy-online-only/
Do it now and beat the deadline: Sunday, August 15, 5 p.m.