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May 6, 2022

Moroz and Slingsby Stay the Course for Sailing Greatness

California kite foiler Daniela Moroz has emerged victorious at the recent 53rd Semaine Olympique Française (French Olympic Week), winning a gold medal in the Women’s Formula Kite. The final day of competition was held last week in light winds, as the top ten individuals or teams in each of the ten Olympic events battled it out for the wins. Moroz needed to win only one race to win her event.

“It was super-light wind so there was a lot of pumping out of tacks and jibes. It was key to stay in the pressure and get to the right side of the course as quickly as possible, and I ended up coming away with the win on that first race of the day and securing the gold,” she said.

Also victorious were the women’s and men’s skiff teams. Steph Roble and Maggie Shea (49erFX) and Nevin Snow and Mac Agnese (49er) came second in their events to take the silver medals.

Moroz’s gold medal follows her win in the 51st Trofeo Princesa Sofía regatta, which wrapped in Palma de Mallorca on April 9. The three-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year secured gold and described the final day’s racing as “totally intense.” She needed to win two races to take the title, and in the final race was able to maneuver her way through the last jibe to secure the win.

Moroz
Daniela doing what she loves at the 51st Trofeo Princesa Sofía in Mallorca.
© 2022 51 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca

You can read more about this and other recent race events in the May issue’s Racing Sheet.

Olympic medalist, champion sailor and Australian SailGP skipper Tom Slingsby will join the New York Yacht Club American Magic in its pursuit of the 37th America’s Cup. The 37-year-old sailor is expected to join the team in Pensacola, FL, later this summer as they prepare for the 2024 America’s Cup challenge, which will be sailed off Barcelona, Spain.

Tom Slingsby
Slinsgby admits to not being a “strong junior sailor.” Things clearly changed!
© 2022 Latitude 38 Media LLC / Monica

After being inspired by the sailing regattas held during the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the then 16-year-old Slingsby shifted his focus from tennis to sailing and proceeded to build a significant sailing résumé. His first medal wins were aboard Lasers, with three consecutive world championships and a 2012 Olympic gold medal. In 2013 Slingsby was strategist aboard the AC-winning boat Team Oracle. His most recent win was with SailGP’s Team Australia as he skippered the crew through their second successive SailGP campaign.

Although he is taking time to train and compete in the 2024 America’s Cup, Slingsby will again helm Team Australia in its next SailGP campaign.

Learn more about Slingsby and the San Francisco SailGP here, and his sailing career here.

Bluewater Bash Bashes Out the Gate Today

The Bluewater Bash started this morning from the San Francisco Cityfront. One sailor’s opinion is that, “This race looks almost like ‘No winners: only losers and survivors.'” Our anonymous prognosticator points out that “If Windy is halfway accurate, it just might be a steroidal sleigh ride coming home. Y’know, the kind where the boat gets going so fast the knotmeter comes out of the water. Getting out looks manageable. Possibly the slower boats might get some bashing when the wind picks up.”

Friday night wind forecast map
The wind forecast for this evening at 10 p.m. The wind speed indicator is about 75 miles out, which is the turnaround point.
© 2022 Windy

The Bluewater Bash is literally a race to nowhere. Competitors will sail out the Gate to longitude 124, turn around, and sail back to the start/finish line off the St. Francis Yacht Club. The theoretical course distance is 150 miles.

The leaders’ sleigh ride will begin on Saturday at 7 a.m.
© 2022 Windy
Lightship Windy map
Around 2 p.m. Saturday near the Lightship.
© 2022 Windy
Windy map near Point Bonita
At 6 p.m. Saturday off Bonita — still honking.
© 2022 Windy
Then there’s the South Tower Demon to get past. This illustration dates back to the mid-’90s MORA days. Among the arrows the Demon is hurling at the Express 27 fleet: Rudder Cavitation, 50K Puffs, Leeward Broaches.
© 2022 Jonathan Livingston

Waves are expected to reach 8 feet around midnight, building to 14 feet at about noon on Saturday.

A forecast for waves of 8 to 9 feet, with a northwest swell of 6 to 7 feet and southwest swell around 2 feet.
© 2022 National Weather Service

The 27 entries (with 119 sailors aboard) are all carrying YellowBrick transponders. Many of them are doing their qualifier and/or crew training for the Pacific Cup, which will start the week of the Fourth of July. But the race committee has postponed the Doublehanded 2 and PHRF 4 divisions (the slower boats) until further notice, bringing the number of boats (potentially) starting today to 20. Each crewmember who completes the race will receive a certificate and a medal.

This inaugural edition honors the late Jocelyn Nash. Among Jocelyn’s other accomplishments, she and her partner Joe Guthrie survived the deadly Doublehanded Farallones Race of 1982 aboard her Hawkfarm El Gavilan by staying offshore all night in the storm, rather than trying to make it back through the Gate. To read reports from that ill-fated event, see the May 1982 issue of Latitude 38:

The Crew List: Oh, the Places You’ll Go

SoCal sailor, Baja Ha-Ha vet and racer Jimmy Peter really wanted to cross one more thing off his bucket list. He wanted to go from pollywog to shellback by sailing across the equator. To do so, he added his name to the Latitude 38 Crew List and soon found a berth as crew aboard a Roberts 56 from San Diego to the Marquesas. His voyage is chronicled in the current, May issue.

Jimmy Peter Steelaway - Crew List success
It was an auspicious start when Jimmy Peter joined Steelaway in Chula Vista.
© 2022 Brent Miller

As Jimmy wrote, “Last October, I was contacted through the Latitude 38 Crew List by a skipper down in Chula Vista. He was looking for one more crew to sail from San Diego to Nuku Hiva. After a Zoom call, I met in person with Brent Miller at his boat. He was knowledgeable and professional, plus his boat was in immaculate condition. Steelaway is his personally rebuilt Bruce Roberts 56. Not speedy, but a perfect boat for cruising.

“A couple of weeks later, after we checked each other’s references, I gladly accepted the invitation to join his crew. We had a shakedown cruise over several days in early January, and I was even more pleased to join the boat. There was a total of three of us on the boat, the skipper and two crew. We departed San Diego on March 6 with easy winds, broad-reaching away. I was lucky enough to get the 3:30-8 p.m. and the 3:30-8 a.m. watches — sunsets, shooting stars and sunrises. Yes, that means 4.5 hours on and 7.5 hours off — that’s easy and relaxing!”

That was just the beginning of his almost 20-day, 3,000-mile voyage to the Marquesas. Of course, it included crossing the equator and going from pollywog to shellback. You can read the full story here.

Brent Miller Steelaway
Skipper Brent Miller welcomes crew Jimmy Peter to Nuku Hiva.
© 2022 Jimmy Peter

With so many people getting into sailing during the pandemic, we knew it was time to relaunch our Crew List page, which seeks to connect skippers and crew. We launched it just before last fall’s Crew Party in Sausalito (2022 Crew Party to be announced soon) and now have almost 700 skippers and crew signed up who want to race, cruise or daysail. There are boat owners looking for racing crew on the Bay; crew, like Jimmy Peters, hoping to help a cruiser sailing over the horizon; or folks just looking for more friends for local, afternoon sails.

There are categories for each and you can add your name or browse to find a captain or crew for your next sailing voyage. People often think it’s hard to get into sailing, but the Latitude 38 Crew List was designed to help. As always, it’s advisable to vet people and check references, as Jimmy Peter did, but with 40+ years of crew list introductions, we’ve heard of very few problems. Do you need experience? Not necessarily, but you do need to be honest. Tell people your sailing background, from zero to shellback, and you’ll have a much better chance of finding a compatible crew situation.

Brent Miller
Steelaway‘s skipper, Brent Miller, found fresh dinner on the way to Nuku Hiva.
© 2022 Jimmy Peter

Jimmy Peter managed to fulfill a lifelong dream by signing up on the crew list, and you can, too. Both owners and crew should sign up here. If you have your own Crew List story send it to [email protected].

 

Vote for Paralympians Nick Scandone and Maureen McKinnon

The gold medal-winning 2008 Paralympic sailing team of Nick Scandone and Maureen McKinnon has been named as 2022 finalist inductees to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame in the Paralympic Team category.

Sailing fans can cast their vote once a day through May 16 to help determine the Class of 2022, which will mark the first class inducted into the Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame since 2019. The Class of 2022 will be announced on Wednesday, June 1, and inducted on Friday, June 24, during a ceremony at the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Vote here. Paralympic Teams is the fourth category; it’s the only category that includes sailors. You can vote once a day from now through May 16.

Maureen McKinnon and Nick Scandone
Maureen McKinnon and Nick Scandone won Paralympic gold in Beijing.
© 2022 World Sailing

About Nick Scandone

Nick Scandone started sailing Sabots at Balboa Yacht Club in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach. He sailed in college for UC Irvine, where he was an All-American. After college, Nick campaigned in the 470, narrowly missing Olympic team selection in 1992. In 2002, Nick was diagnosed with ALS, and he quit his job to pursue a medal in the Paralympics. He began in the 2.4-meter keelboat, winning the 2005 Open World Championship. He was named US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtsman of the Year in 2005, making him the only male Paralympic sailor ever to achieve the honor.

By the end of 2006, his condition had advanced to the point where he was physically unable to compete in the 2.4-meter. Scandone moved to the SKUD 18 and went on to win a gold medal at the US Paralympic Trials in 2007. In 2008, he went to the Paralympic Games and was honored as the US flag bearer. There in Beijing, he won a gold medal with sailing partner Maureen McKinnon. Nick passed away shortly thereafter, in January 2009.

About Maureen McKinnon

Maureen McKinnon learned to sail when she was 20. In 1995, she fell 13 feet off a seawall while on vacation in Maine, becoming paralyzed. After her accident, she tried racing again, but the J/24s she once sailed were too challenging. The Freedom 20s designed for individuals with disabilities were too tame. She gave up sailing for a while, until a chance meeting with Paralympic skipper Rick Doerr, who invited her aboard his triplehanded Sonar as crew. McKinnon made the 2008 US Paralympic Team with Nick in the SKUD 18. She found success again in 2016 with a new skipper, Ryan Porteous. Maureen was the first woman to be a member of the US Paralympic Sailing Team and the first woman to represent the USA and win gold in Paralympic sailing. She also served on the US Sailing Board of Directors for five years.