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January 17, 2025

Fire Breaks Out at Moss Landing Battery Storage Facility

A fire broke out at the Vistra Power Plant in Moss Landing on Thursday afternoon, triggering immediate evacuation of staff from the premises and later, road closures and wider evacuations “due to concerns over hazardous materials and potential chemical releases,” CNN reported. According to Mercury News, residents who were not evacuated were later advised to “to stay indoors, keep their windows and doors closed, turn off their ventilation systems and limit outdoor exposure.”

While fire crews were monitoring the situation, they did not attempt to put out the fire, which “raged out of control Thursday night,” Mercury News reported this morning. ABC 7 News reported the lithium ion batteries housed in the power plant are hard to put out when on fire. “That’s why officials decided to let the fire burn. No injuries have been reported, a Monterey County sheriff’s official said.”

This screenshot shows the location of the fire and the intensity of the flames.
© 2025 Ademar Rosario/Media: @FelixKSBW

KSBW 8 shared this video on their social pages.

Officials have not said how Thursday night’s fire started at the Moss Landing power plant.
© 2025 KBW8

At 10:00 a.m. Friday, North Monterey County Fire Department chief Joel Mendoza told Mercury News, “I’m happy to announce at this point that most of the fire is out. We have very little active fire, very little products of combustion being released into the atmosphere.” According to county officials, 75% of the battery plant has been burned.

“At this time, no imminent significant threat exists and people may resume normal activities,” Cal Fire CZU San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit advised in a social media post at 7:44 this morning.

The Moss Landing energy storage facility houses lithium ion batteries, and according to owners Vistra Corp., its 750 MW/3,000 MWh capacity makes it the “largest of its kind in the world.”

We reached out to the Elkhorn Yacht Club to check on the situation at their marina this morning. At the time of this writing we had no reply.

Max Ebb — Marks and Obstructions

“Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die….” And everybody wants to talk about what happened out on the race course, but nobody wants to file a protest. It’s understandable. Why give up an evening with your friends at the dinner table, or your place at the club bar, for interminable rehashing in the protest room? They usually get it wrong anyway, and this is just a beer can race.

“That’s exactly why we should file!” insisted one of my crew. “This is bottom-tier, low-stakes who-cares racing, so let’s work the system, just for practice. It’s an opportunity to learn.”

Match racing is a good place to put your 2025–2028 rules knowledge to the test.
© 2025 Chris Ray

I looked at my watch. We still had five minutes before time ran out for filing a protest.

“We can file online,” suggested the crew. “I’ll bring the protest form up on my phone.” That stopped me from complaining that I barely had enough time to find a protest form, look up the numbers of the rules infringed, and get it all to the race desk.

It went fast. All the online form asked for was the identity of the boats involved, and the approximate time and location of the incident. A minute later, it was filed.

“OK,” I sighed. “What time is the hearing?”

“Any minute,” the crew answered.

This was not good, I had just started in on my grilled salmon fillet. I was about to bring up the Sailing Instructions on my own phone, to see where the protest hearing would be held, but was interrupted by a strangely familiar female voice overtaking from astern.

“Like, what happened at the mark?”

It was Lee Helm, naval architecture grad student and occasional crew on my boat, although she usually opts for a newer and faster ride. I didn’t think she was racing that night; I would have asked her to call tactics for me if she’d been available.

“Take it from the top. The hearing is on.”

Then I remembered the addendum to our Sailing Instructions, something they call a “Rolling Mediation Hearing.” Experimental, and definitely “not to be used for navigation.” Instead of asking all the parties to the protest, and their witnesses, asking them all to kill their evening in “the room” or waiting to testify, the Protest Committee comes to us. Tonight the Committee was just Lee. She would work the dining room and the bar, assembling accounts from everyone who wanted to weigh in.

Continue reading.

The Three Bridge Fiasco and Communications on the Water

The Singlehanded Sailing Society’s crazy-fun Three Bridge Fiasco is coming up on Saturday, January 25. (Register at https://jibeset.net/JACKY000.php?RG=T006291399 by Wednesday, January 22). Now is the time to get all sorts of advice for the biggest race on the West Coast.

We have advice, too. We’ll start with some safety stuff around lookouts and retirement.

Boats in the fog
The chaotic, foggy starting area of the 2023 Three Bridge Fiasco.
© 2025 Latitude 38 Media LLC / Chris

The Three Bridge Fiasco is exclusively for doublehanded and singlehanded boats. Around 300 entries make for congestion in the starting area. (As of this morning, 295 boats had signed up.) It’s crowded at the start. And it’s close-quarters maneuvering at some of the mark roundings. 

Be extra-vigilant for other boats. 

Even if you have right of way. 

It is much better to file a protest than an insurance claim.

Retiring from the Race

Knowing how to retire is important — the race committee will need all skippers who check in to retire promptly if and when they decide they will not finish. 

The race committee requests that you send a text to the number in the sailing instructions, even though your first instinct might be to pick up your VHF radio.

VHF is the world’s most limited, primitive cell network. It is the equivalent of having just a single cell antenna  close to sea level. Only one person can talk at a time, and if multiple people talk at once there’s no feedback that they have blocked one another.

Text messages have the following advantages over VHF, many of which are also advantages over voice calls:

  • Text works when the boat does not have good line of sight to the race committee (RC).

  • Text works when the boat is far away from the RC.

  • Text is low bandwidth, so it works where a voice call would cut out or drop.

  • Text does not suffer from wind noise.

  • Text cannot be misheard.

  • Text is concurrent; many racers can text at once.

  • Text is asynchronous; it enables the RC to prioritize what they are doing, like taking finishes, and then contend with important-but-less-urgent retirements when they have a minute.

  • Text is logged automatically; the RC never has to wonder if you called in during a moment away from their clipboard and they did not get you written down.

  • Text can give you, the racer, evidence that the RC received your text.

Cell phone companies have spent billions of dollars putting cell antennas on towers on top of buildings on top of hills. And they’re ubiquitous. For example, even if you do not have line of sight from the east side of Yerba Buena back to the Golden Gate Yacht Club, where the race committee will be stationed, odds are very good you have line of sight to a cell tower in Emeryville that can talk to another cell tower near the GGYC parking lot.

Cell vs. VHF

Here’s the map of cell equipment, just in San Francisco:

Cell towers in San Francisco

Contrast that with a single VHF antenna in the Marina District that boats off Market Street or east of Treasure Island might want to reach:

graphic of San Francisco Bay

Boats off Market Street and east of Treasure Island both have direct line of sight to something off Richmond, and their VHF will likely be heard there if they use enough power. But they won’t be heard in the Marina District, because San Francisco has Telegraph Hill and Yerba Buena Island in the way, without even getting into all the buildings:

graphic of S.F. Bay with elevations

The shading here shows elevation. But it is even clearer when looking at the elevation profile, the graph of the hill height vs. distance, from the “Off Market” boat back to the Marina District. 

Graph of elevations as seen from off Market St.

And here’s the equivalent for east of Treasure Island:

Graph of elevation as seen from east of Yerba Buena Island

Those hillsides, and the buildings on them, will block VHF radio transmissions. While there’s some diffraction, this isn’t a recipe for radio success between off-the-shelf fiberglass or rubber ducky antennas at sea level.

Send a text to the number in the sailing instructions if you have to retire, as soon as it is safe to do so.

Skippers’ Meeting

The SSS will run a competitors’ meeting on Wednesday, January 22, at Oakland YC in Alameda from 7 to 9 p.m.

The race committee will talk about the race, and may give a little advice of their own. But even better, you’ll meet other competitors, who often have a lot of their advice to share. Plus you’ll have a chance to get some free swag: The RC says they plan some random drawings among registered skippers who attend.

So make a point of going to the competitors’ meeting.

Three Bridge Fiasco skippers' meeting
A pre-COVID Three Bridge Fiasco skippers’ meeting at OYC. Who knows what old friends you’ll run into?
© 2025 Latitude 38 Media LLC / Chris

It’ll Be Ebbing

Because this is the Three Bridge Fiasco, you have three marks to round. You can round them in any direction and order of your choice.

The predicted currents show a lot of ebb.

Which brings us to a last bit of advice, which we first heard from Bay Area sailmaker and racing guru Kame Richards at past skippers’ meetings: If you do not have a better plan, your first mark should probably be the mark closest to where you keep your boat.

Boats racing at Red Rock
Do you keep your boat in Richmond or in Tiburon’s Paradise Cay? In uncooperative conditions, Red Rock might be your choice of first mark. These boats were moving pretty well in 2023 — most boats finished that race, but many did not.
© 2025 Latitude 38 Media LLC / Chris

A Mid-Month ‘Classy’ Check-In

Recently, the weather has been sunny and warm, plus, spring is not far away. If you’re thinking about sailing a new boat this summer, it’s a good time to browse the Classy Classifieds. Or perhaps you need to list your boat for sale so you can move up? One of our readers will certainly be interested in the boat you have for sale. Below are a few of the recent additions to our Classy Classifieds.

This 1979 Mariner 36 is already in Mexico and available for 27,000. .
This 1979 Mariner 36 is already in Mexico and available for $27,000.
© 2025 Mariner 36

These first three recent additions are all qualified to take you cruising. The Mariner 36 is already in Mexico and says it’s been cruising off the grid for 16 years. A Valiant 50 (next photo) will take you anywhere in comfort and safety, while the steel Roberts Offshore 38 (below) is a rugged design and is also already in Mexico.

This gorgeous Valliant 50 was custom built for the owners 20 years ago.
This gorgeous Valliant 50 was custom-built for the owners 20 years ago.
© 2025 Valiant 50

We remind all sellers that the internet is full of scammers, many of whom offer to buy your boat “sight unseen” and offer to send an agent to pick it up with a cashier’s check — don’t do this. Buyers and sellers should meet in person at a safe time and place.

This boat’s a steal. Actually, it’s a 2004 steel Roberts Offshore 38.

Also, a reminder, we have some basic tips for buyers and sellers, with online articles for each. Read these tips for sellers and these tips for buyers.

Here's a nice looking two-cylinder Universal engine for $2k!
Here’s a nice-looking, rebuilt, two-cylinder Universal engine for $2k! It says “completely rebuilt.”
© 2025 Universal Engine

Items under $1,000 are free and are a great way to help you spring-clean your garage or dock box. There are many sailors who would appreciate putting your pre-loved items to good use. Add your under-$1,000 items for free here.

This sweet looking 1979 Cal 34 is listed for $17,500.
This sweet-looking 1979 Cal 34 is listed for $17,500.
© 2025 Cal 34

When you post your classified, it goes online immediately and will come out in the next available magazine. Spring is arriving soon, so it’s a great time to be sailing the boat of your dreams. The next print Classifieds ad deadline will be February 15 at 5 p.m. for the March issue.