Hot Shots from Brisk Aldo Alessio and Phyllis Kleinman Swiftsure Regattas
Chris Ray sent in photos of another spectacular, breezy three-day weekend for those who raced St. Francis Yacht Club’s annual Aldo Alessio Regatta and Phyllis Kleinman Swiftsure Regatta. Friday’s Aldo Alessio featured a 22-mile Bay tour with an ocean mark out by Point Bonita and a mix of breeze, sun, and fog.
After Friday’s Aldo Alessio Regatta, the Phyllis Kleinman Swiftsure Regatta kicked off on Saturday with Chris Ray capturing photos from the picture-perfect day of buoy racing on the Bay. StFYC ran three races for three classes — ORC, J/88 and J/105 — with 43 boats racing in all. The regatta concluded on Sunday.
As seen through the lens of Chris Ray, it looked as if everyone was having fun. If you are looking for more weight on the rail or want to be on the rail for next year’s regatta, add your information to Latitude 38’s Crew List. The breeze on the Cityfront requires a full complement of crew to get to the top of the fleet.
StFYC has the full race results available here. See more of Chris’s photos from the event here: https://stfyc.pixieset.com/2022aldoalessioandphylliskleinmanswiftsureregatta.
Volunteer Divers Wanted for Marine Study in Mexico
If you love sailing in Mexico and you’re an experienced diver, Adventure Scientists would like to hear from you. The organization is currently partnering with the Universidad de Guadalajara’s Dr. Paola RodrÃguez Troncoso and Dr. AmÃlcar Cupul Magaña to understand how climate change and human pressure are impacting corals. Teams of volunteer divers will survey up to 40 coral reef sites multiple times a year for several years, and the information collected will be used to help local authorities and NGOs improve current management practices, consider establishing new protected areas, and help make the reefs more resilient to climate change.
Divers would need to be experienced and conservation-minded, have access to boats, and be willing to commit to at least three dives on designated sites within a year, along the Mexican Pacific coast in the Puerto Vallarta region.
The surveys to be conducted include identifying fish, marking size categories, and estimating the ratio of adults to juveniles; determining echinoderm density and abundance by species across different categories (sea urchins, sea stars, and sea cucumbers); assessing habitat (recording a video transect for the researchers to analyze); and measuring the contour of seafloor.
While this all sounds very technical, there’s no requirement to be a scientist, though a good memory will help (you’ll need to memorize up to 55 species of fish and 21 species of echinoderms). Training is conducted online, and in person in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with the next in-person training being held on November 5-7, 2022.
Volunteers must have a minimum of 25 logged dives if a PADI-certified open-water diver, 15 if a PADI advanced open-water diver, and 10 dives if they are a NAUI-certified advanced open-water diver.
Get the full details, and a link to sign up, at Adventurescientists.org/mexico-reefs.
Did you know?
Mexico’s Pacific coast is home to some of the world’s most biodiverse coral reefs, underwater communities that support sharks, turtles, and other marine life. They also support human lives by buffering the coastline from intense storms and providing livelihoods from fishing and tourism. Yet these reefs are imperiled by ocean acidification, more frequent and powerful storms due to climate change, and damage from human overuse.
Even if you can’t participate, we invite you to share this page so others might have the opportunity.
Join the Crew at KKMI
Remembering Gordon Nash Sr.
Gordon Chamberlain Nash, a great San Francisco Bay sailor, died a day after celebrating his 95th birthday, on May 15. Gordon Sr. was noted for innovations to sailboat racing way ahead of his time, including titanium fittings, the Nash-o-matic headsail tightener, and ultra-lightweight bendy masts that made him and his wife, Jocelyn, very competitive in the 1960s. The couple won the International 110 National Championship in 1963. He built El Toros for himself and Jocelyn to race in the 1955 Sausalito to San Francisco Cityfront Bullship Race.
Gordo was part of many legendary ocean racing crews, such as Serena (an 83-ft schooner), Blackfin, Orient, and many others. In 1955, he was Transpac navigator on Pari Too, a 40-ft sloop from Richmond Yacht Club; crewed in 1957; and sailed the San Francisco-based 64-ft cutter Orient in 1963 and Serena in the 1967 Transpac. He competed in many Mexico races and San Francisco Bay/ocean races. He was president of the El Toro Association, the I-110 Association, the OK Dinghy Association, and SBRA (the now-defunct Small Boat Racing Association). He raced against Bob Klein, Don Trask, Tom Blackaller and Bruce Easom, and told stories of a young Commodore Tompkins.
Gordon’s passion for sailing extended well into his 80s, as he cruised with his partner Christine aboard their 37-ft cutter-rigged sailboat Fuzzy Logic on Mexico’s Pacific coast and in British Columbia, Canada.
The patriarch of three generations of Nash family sailors, Gordon is survived by four children: Gordie Nash Jr., Chris Nash, Leslie Nash Barrows and Tim Nash; six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and his loving partner for more than 30 years, Christine Hunter. All of them sail, and his kids honored his teaching when they won Transpacs and Bullship races.
A celebration of Gordon’s life will be held at Richmond YC on Saturday, September 24, 2022, from noon to 3 p.m. (He and Jocelyn joined RYC in 1953; in their divorce, Jocelyn kept the membership). “Please attend and tell stories of the past with the family,” says his son, Chris Nash. RSVP to Chris at [email protected]. “In lieu of flowers, please consider honoring the Nash family by contributing to the RYC STEMsail Program or the RYC Junior Program.”
Browsing the Boat Porn in Classy Classifieds
Here’s an editorial frustration for you — we put countless hours into creating great content for our readers. However, through the magic of the internet, we get a more accurate picture of what people are reading, and it turns out some of the most popular pages on the Latitude 38 website are our Classy Classifieds. Truthfully, we knew that in the “olden days” too, when people would generously fill out reader survey forms to help give us insight into what they liked in the magazine. Our editorial content was greatly appreciated too.
Readers would often tell us the Classifieds were their “boat porn.” No matter how much they professed to love their current sailboat, they couldn’t help looking over its shoulder to see what else might be out there. That appears to be true to this day. We fall prey to the same allure. Browsing the Classifieds turns up all kinds of intriguing boats and sparks all kinds of ideas. A recent browse reminded us there’s lots more than boats.
One ad that caught our eye was a 42-acre parcel off Highway 12 for $1.25 million, which looks as if it already has some boats on it.
If you’ve got your boat, your dreams and your plans in place, the only thing you may need is a liferaft. This six-man raft is now in the Gear section of our Classy Classifieds. We hope it never gets used, but it helps sailors sleep better when they’re off watch.
Then we found this handy opportunity for someone heading out cruising. The 34-ft ketch Golden Rule, which has a long history protesting nuclear war and testing, is shedding some weight to move on to new cruising grounds. To lighten up, they’re selling the Monitor windvane, available immediately for anyone heading out to sea. With the cruising season ahead, the timing feels right.
We love finding simple, clean boats ready to sail. Especially Rhodes 19s. We grew up sailing them on the East Coast, but know there were lots of them out here in the West, starting in the ’60s. They’re a great daysailer for family and friends. (And one of them won the Delta Ditch Run overall a few years ago.) You can still buy a new one from Stuart Marine in Maine, and we think they’re about $30,000. But the one pictured below looks nice and is available (at the time of writing) in Eureka for $6,900.
There are always a few big, beautiful dream boats too. This 2001 49-ft Ocean Catamaran is one of seven multihulls currently available in our Classy Classifieds. The Mexico cruising season is opening up soon, and many of the boats in the Classifieds have already been there and are often ready to go again. Or can be ready in pretty short order. How about you?
We should remind readers: If you have gear you want to sell for less than $1,000 you can post it online only for free here.
There are worse things to be caught reading than the Classified pages of Latitude 38; however, if you’re caught, it can be just as life-altering as some other activities. Our friends Michael Rossi and Lisa Hotchkiss have been enjoying their Cheoy Lee 40 Lunasea in Mexico for years. It’s currently on the hard in La Paz. They were just browsing the Classys together and now find themselves owners of a 1980 Sabre 30 with an electric repower. Now they have a boat at home and a boat in Mexico. C’est la vie.
Let us know what catches your eye in the Classy Classifieds, and we’ll continue working hard to make sure you enjoy the rest of the magazine as well.
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