Large Fleets at the St. Francis Yacht Club Fall Dinghy Regatta
The St. Francis Yacht Club put on another of their endless parade of top-notch regattas this past weekend when they hosted 180 small boats on two courses in their Fall Dinghy Regatta. The classes included the 29er, 5O5, ILCA 6, ILCA 7, Opti Championship, Opti Green, RS Feva, RS Tera and C420.
It was a warm, light-air weekend, but for these dinghy classes, there was enough breeze to require weight on the windward rail. StFYC photographer Chris Ray sent us these photos of some of the weekend’s action.
We’re always amazed at the quantity of planning, volunteers and work it can take to pull off a 20- or 30-boat regatta, so we’re always impressed by and thankful for the huge contingent of people it takes to launch, race, and retrieve this number of sailors. Take a look at the map of the evening storage area for racing dinghies below. That’s a lot of boats to put into the water and pull out each evening.
Dinghy racing on the Bay appears to be alive and well. Who knows if someone in one of these fleets will be an Olympic contender in Long Beach in 2028 or beyond?
Winners in each fleet are:
• 29er: Kevin Cason and Holland Vierling
• 5O5: Howard Hamlin and Rob Woelfel
• ILCA 6:Toshinari Takayanagi
• ILCA 7: Elliot Drake
• Opti Championship: Joshua Wenokur
• Opti Green: Jake Mulberg
• RS Feva: Cameron Collman and Avery Mazurkiewicz
• RS Tera: Will Robbins
• C420: Merritt Sellers and Marina Priskich
Peace, Love and the Great Pumpkin
This year’s Great Pumpkin Regatta was held over the past weekend, October 26-27, with light air on Saturday and just about perfect wind on Sunday. In between, host Richmond Yacht Club threw a Halloween party. This year’s theme was Peace, Love and Pumpkins. We lurked around the party, keeping a camera handy to expose some of the fun.
Because this was, after all, a yacht-racing regatta, RYC called their costume categories “fleets.” Scariest was the first fleet off the line. No doubt because of the peace and love theme, only one entry started in this fleet, but we’re pretty sure they would have won anyway.
The doublehanded fleet — couples — was up next. As in actual sailing competition, this was a very popular division.
The next fleet was Superheroes. This was another sparse division.
The big fleet to hit the starting line next was Grooviest.
There was some actual yacht racing going on all weekend, but we’ll save our report and photos from that for the December issue of Latitude 38.
Good Clean Fun Starts With the Pumpout Nav App
It all starts with you. Protect our waters from avoidable pollutants and harmful bacteria. Next time nature calls, or your holding tanks is full, use the Pumpout Nav app to find the nearest floating restroom, pumpout or dump station. Download it today.
US Sea Level Change Website Launched; Chumash Marine Sanctuary Designated
We often talk about developments in the realm of environmental management and change. While we’re not scientists, we do our best to deliver accurate and unbiased information. This task has now been made easier with the launch of the US Sea Level Change website, a new resource delivering accessible climate information to the public. This first whole-of-government resource for coastal residents and decision-makers on sea level rise projections, associated impacts, and adaptation measures has been launched by the US Global Change Research Program and on behalf of the US Interagency Task Force on Sea Level Change. The information presented on the site pairs the latest research on sea level change with foundational educational content on how and why sea level rise is happening, its impacts, and actions that can be taken to address the challenges coastal communities face from rising seas.
“By boosting access to sea level rise data, the Interagency Task Force on Sea Level Change is helping local communities across the nation access essential information that strengthens our resilience to the changing climate,” NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. said. “NOAA is proud to be a partner in delivering this valuable whole-of-government approach to a website that bridges between scientific data and real-time decision making.”
New resources, including interactive tools, educational materials, and the latest research findings, facilitate easy access to information and support engagement with the science of rising seas. By providing a central hub for federal sea level rise science, the initiative aims to enhance public understanding and support resilience for coastal communities across the nation.
Data on past, present, and future sea level change, along with information on impacts like erosion, property damage and habitat loss, as well as strategies to address risks, can be viewed on the new site in an interactive National Sea Level Explorer.
You can view the new website at US Sea Level Change.
For the full USGCRP release and more information on the sea level rise portal, visit US Global Change Research Program.
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Locally, the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (CHNMS) is close to becoming California’s first national marine sanctuary in 30 years, and the third-largest of its kind in the United States.
Designated in 2024, the sanctuary encompasses 4,543 square miles of Central California’s coastal and ocean waters, spanning 116 miles of coastline between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. The sanctuary will span a maximum distance of 60 miles from shore and reach a maximum depth of 11,580 feet below sea level.
The sanctuary was first proposed in 2015 by the Northern Chumash Tribal Council as a way to protect the region’s marine resources and ecosystems, stimulate research and economic growth, and protect the Indigenous communities’ cultural values. On October 11, almost 10 years later, NOAA has handed down its decision designating the establishment of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.
The Record of Decision states, “NOAA will promulgate regulations that, with a few exceptions, will prohibit the following: new offshore oil and gas development; wildlife harassment; alterations to the seabed; discharge of sewage and certain other substances; disturbance of historical resources; attracting a white shark; deserting a vessel; and introducing non-native species into the sanctuary.”
The sanctuary’s final area was decided after “thorough consideration of public and Indigenous community comments, NOAA’s responses to those comments, Administration and state of California priorities, and consultation among federal agencies and the federally recognized Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.”
The sanctuary area contains extensive kelp forests, vast sandy beaches and coastal dunes, and wetlands that serve as nurseries for numerous commercial fish species, and is an important habitat for many threatened and endangered species such as blue whales, southern sea otters, black abalone, snowy plovers, and leatherback sea turtles. It also holds many nationally significant shipwrecks such as the USCG Cutter McCulloch, which sank off Point Conception after colliding with the passenger steamship SS Governor on June 13, 1917.
All in all, it seems October has been a pretty good month for the ocean environment.
Tales From the Lanes’ First Extended Family-Adventure
When we left Oxnard last October 1 to join the 2023 Baja Ha-Ha, it was the first time our family would be adventuring for an extended period on Grace, our 1988 Catalina 36 — but not our first time cruising. Jen and I and our son, Kekoa, had been sailing around the Channel Islands and figuring this cruising thing out over the past four years while preparing Grace for extended cruising south.
I had also crewed for a guy who moved his boat from Port Townsend to his new winter home in La Paz. So I had at least a general idea of what was in store.
We initially planned on making the sail down Baja and onward on our own. But with all the preparations and work we were doing, it was easy to push each fall departure back another year “until we were 100% ready.” (I hear you laughing out there!) It was easy to see how it could drag out forever.
Jen finally came to the rescue when she declared she wanted to do the Ha-Ha rally. I was not keen on being in a large group like that. I like my space, I like my plan, and I like not being on anyone else’s schedule. Fortunately, my wife doesn’t suffer from my hang-ups. She’s always ready to drag me to the party, and I’ve never been disappointed in following her lead. We’ve had many fun family adventures when she’s pushed me beyond my comfort zone, and this time wasn’t any different.
So after getting over myself, we registered for the Ha-Ha and began the process of getting our TIP and Mexico boat insurance, securing a slip somewhere in Mexico, tidying up last-minute projects, and now definitely feeling pinched for time.
The plan was to make a few stops along the way to San Diego: Santa Cruz Island, Catalina, Dana Point and Oceanside, where I grew up. We visited friends, did some surfing, did some provisioning, and, of course, did more boat projects. In fact, the list of to-do projects didn’t shrink — it grew! We lost the autopilot on the way to Catalina. I replaced the belt with a spare and we were good to go again. It was in Dana Point that we discovered leaks in our dinghy — which had never once leaked before. We tackled the repair in Oceanside, only to find that every time we fixed one leak, a new one would appear somewhere else! After chasing our tails for a week, we came to the grim conclusion that we were going to have to throw down for a new dink if we were going to enjoy our cruising.
Onward to San Diego. We arrived three days before the start of the rally, and joined in with the rest of the fleet going to the various meetings and parties. We also found our new dink, and $5,000 later loaded her on board. Combined with the new genoa we had to get before leaving Oxnard — almost $10K and we hadn’t even really started cruising yet — we were beginning to doubt if we had the resources to support this adventure if it was going to continue like this.
Read more.
“Itchy Feet” — a Great Gift for the Sailors on Your List
