Who Are the First To Sign Up for Baja Ha-Ha XXXII?
Registration for the 32nd annual Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally to Mexico opened last Friday, January 30. Five paid entries are already on the list — sailors who know what they want and aren’t afraid to commit. Under the captaincy of longtime Ha-Ha vet Chuck Skewes and longtime Ha-Ha Assistant Poobah Patsy Verhoeven, the Ha-Ha is opening its doors early, and adding more informative seminars and other bonuses. If you want a general guide on what to expect from the rally, follow this link to the 2026 Rally Notice. In the meantime, here’s a little rundown on the the first five boats signed up for this year’s Baja Ha-Ha; the excerpts were taken from former Ha-Ha Poobah Richard Spindler’s “Meet the Fleet” bios, which he will continue to write because, he says, “I like doing it.”
Shadowfax, Jeanneau 43 SD — Steve George and Susan Brooks, Long Beach/Huntington Beach.
Steve, 66, from the software world and spouse Susan, retired from the dental world, expect to sail with two crew. Steve has been sailing all his life, primarily on racing boats from Cal 20s to 70-footers, and has owned Shadowfax since 2014. While he’s attempted the Transpac and completed the Pacific Cup with Shadowfax in 2024, he’s also sailed her around the islands and back to the mainland. This will be the couple’s first Ha-Ha, though not their first cruise to Mexico.
Irish Goodbye, Jeanneau 44DS* — Christian McLaughlin, Seattle, WA
Christian, 58, is an active pilot. He anticipates having two crew: Kevin Doggett, 59, and Haken Soderborn, 61, who is retired from the tech world. “I’ve crewed with 59 North from Bermuda to the Azores,” Christian says, “and from Cartagena, Colombia, to Panama and through the Panama Canal.” This same captain and crew brought Irish Goodbye to San Diego on the Coho Ho-Ho rally in 2025. “Everything will kill you,” Christian cheerfully notes, “so choose something fun.”
Lagertha, Sweden 45 — Barry and Maureen Crist, Lopez Island, WA
Barry, 60, is retired from the software world, while Maureen is retired from the tech world. The couple plans to doublehand. Despite calling themselves “sailng newbs,” the couple has cruised the Pacific Northwest, done some racing (Olson 30, J/105, J/70), the 2019 Race to Alaska, Team Dazed and Confused (Barry), and deliveries from Anacortes to San Francisco (Mo). They later spent eight months and roughly 3,000 miles sailing from Virginia to Antigua, with many stops through the Caribbean and Bahamas, returning to the US via Florida. This will be their first Ha-Ha. After that, who knows?
Sassafras, Jeanneau 410 — Matt Carey and Jessica England, San Diego.
Matt, 39, is a major in the United States Air Force Reserves JAG Corps, which means he’s an attorney in the military. Spouse Jessica is a commercial litigator. The couple moved aboard Sassafras full-time in June 2025, just in time to turn their Ha-Ha into the “world’s longest, saltiest honeymoon.” The couple generally enjoy doing their own boat maintenance, although Matt admits that his background as a former space program engineer leads to some overplanning. “That engineering obsession paid off, though,” Matt says. “It’s how we successfully retrofitted a dishwasher onto a 41-ft monohull. While we are ready for adventure, we draw the line at hand-washing dishes.” After the Ha-Ha, the couple plan to spend a few years in Mexico before heading to Panama to “backward” through the Canal to the Caribbean.
Zephyr, Catalina 36 — Tylor Miller, Sausalito/Sacramento (2015)
Taylor, a mere 83, is a retired attorney who did the Ha-Ha in 2015. His crew will be Jeff Bullock, 61, a retired fireman, and Patience Warnick, a retired software engineer. “I’ve been sailing since growing up in another galaxy far, far away,” Taylor says. “Specifically Geist Reservoir near Indianapolis. I started on a Lightning and also raced a Snipe. After moving to Sacramento, I bought a 16-ft Chrysler, which was a slick little boat. Then came a Catalina 22 for 12 years, and my current Catalina 36 that I’ve owned since 2019. I crewed on Greg Himes’ Scout in the 2015 Ha-Ha. It was such a great experience that I can’t resist the opportunity to do it one more time in my own boat — with some of the same crew who were on that year’s Ha-Ha.”
The full bios will appear in this year’s Baja Ha-Ha “Meet the Fleet” booklet that will be published closer to the Ha-Ha launch date. So if you want to know more, get onto the list, add your own sailing bio, and start planning for what will be one of your most fun sailing adventures ever!
For more info and to sign up, go to www.baja-haha.com.
Good Jibes #229: Barry and Samantha Spanier on Fulfilling a Lifelong Sailing Passion, With Host Monica Grant, Part 2
Welcome to Part Two of our chat with Barry and Samantha Spanier. After impressive careers in sailmaking and advertising, they’re now living their dream on their custom-built scow-bow junk-rig boat Rosie G.
In this episode, hear Barry and Samantha’s ideas for recycling plastic and energy on the water, their “milk run” of smooth sailing, the fascinating people you become friends with around the world, what most cruisers get wrong about the sailing lifestyle, and why it’s not that hard to sail.
Here’s a sample of what you’ll hear in this episode:
- The Milk Run: San Francisco to French Polynesia
- The benefits of staying put vs. constant cruising
- Setting up Edward DeBair’s sail loft in Raiatea
- 15 months on a mooring in Apu Bay, Tahiti
- A service-focused sail loft in French Polynesia
Learn more at BarrySpanier.com.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots — follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re feeling the Good Jibes!
Check out the episode and show notes here for much more detail.
And if you missed Part One of this podcast, you can find it here.
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The Times They Are A-Changin’
It’s been about 60 years since fiberglass boats became popular, and about that long ago that Bob Dylan wrote the song “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Since then, sailing, the sailing industry, and publishing have all undergone major changes. You may have noticed that Latitude 38 is a little thinner than it used to be. There are numerous reasons for that, but either way, it means we have less advertising and less revenue to do all we want to do for the West Coast sailing community.
With that, Latitude 38 is reaching out to readers to ask for your financial support. We are dedicated to connecting the world of West Coast sailors, supporting the fun and adventure, and covering the stories that have always inspired us and so many of our readers. Your contributions will help. And we’ve got an easy way to make that possible:
You’ve probably heard many good reasons to support local journalism and to connect with and support a thriving regional sailing community. Among our great motivators are all the great comments we get from readers when they subscribe, comment or email us. Below are a couple of recent ones.
From the hand-written subscription renewal we received in the mail, pictured below, “Thank you, Latitude 38, for being a part of these many years. May your horizon be clear with a lively breeze abaft the beam — as I find myself far ashore, with no marina handy to pick up a copy of your rag. I enclose $36.00 for another year’s subscription.”
A text received a few days ago, “Number 1, Latitude must survive for sailing.”
From a writer who sent in a story about sailing with Bernard Moitessier aboard Joshua on San Francisco Bay, “Latitude 38 is now and has been for over half a century the coolest sailing mag on the planet, nothing even half as fun.” (Actually, we’ll hit the half-century mark in 2027.)
Here’s a comment we received with our New Year’s post: “We are so lucky to have Latitude 38 in our sailing community!”
We truly love all these comments, but they don’t pay the printer! We feel so lucky to serve such an amazing community of sailors and have such a great Bay and coast to sail. You could help someone else read about it all by sending them a gift subscription.
With the help of West Coast sailors, we can do our best to showcase all the ways people get onto the water under sail. We try to squeeze in the Three Bridge Fiasco, the Baja Ha-Ha, wing foiling, youth programs and tall ships. These get into the pages of Latitude 38, ‘Lectronic Latitude or our Good Jibes podcast. We want the magazine to keep you all connected and sailing together far into the future. You can help us do it. If you go to the contribution page, you’ll find, beyond cash, there are many other ways to support Latitude, and we hope, by extension, to support sailing.
If you want to try a win/win, perhaps you want to contribute enough for an ad for your favorite nonprofit. It would help support us and promote their cause. Contribute here and see how it feels. If you like it you can do it again sometime.
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Young Sailors’ RS Boats Race RYC Small Boat Midwinters #3
On Sunday, February 1, Richmond Yacht Club hosted the third day of racing for its Small Boat Midwinters Series. The series has four different race days with 15 different classes, including two classes specifically geared toward junior sailors: the RS Aero and RS Feva classes.
Eighteen boats have raced in the RS Tera class at various points so far, though not all of the boats have sailed every day of racing. Six boats have raced in the Feva class throughout the series. With one day of racing left in the series, RYC’s Tucker Cook is leading the Feva class, having finished in the top three in each of the eight races sailed so far. Cook has won four of the eight races, including the second race sailed this past Sunday.
Cook sits on a net total of 11 points for the series, eight ahead of second-place Grace Anderson (RYC), who has a net total of 19. After the first two days of racing, the third day saw a significant increase in participation in the Tera class, which jumped up from six boats on day one and five on day two to 17 on day three. RYC’s Skylar Dubuc, who hadn’t raced the first two days, won the first race of the day on Sunday, and recorded a second and a fourth in races two and three, respectively.
StFYC junior Trey Roost recorded back-to-back thirds to start the day on Sunday, and won the final race of the day. (Roost also hadn’t raced in day one or two of the regatta.) The aforementioned Cook won the middle race of the day.
In the Feva class, the RYC duo of Brooks Juger and Ronan Storesund have been dominant through three days of racing. The duo have won seven of the 10 races, including all of the races from this past weekend. They sit on a net total of 12 points after 10 races (dropping a fourth-place finish from the second day of racing).
In second place behind Juger and Storesund are Hailey Anderson and Niko Pratt, on a net total of 18 points. They have finished second in seven of 10 races, and have won one race.
The final day of the RYC Small Boat Midwinters will be sailed on March 1.
You can find the full, up-to-date scores from the series here.
Gift the Gift of True Love this Valentine’s Day
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