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"Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second," is supposedly the response given to Queen Victoria on August 22, 1851, when the schooner America beat 15 other yachts around the Isle of Wight to claim the first America’s Cup.
Hayden Brown designed and built Aldebaran, starting her in 1971. Aldebaran
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC Local sailors will be familiar with the sight of the beautiful 70-ft ‘pirate ship’ Aldebaran plying the waters of San Francisco Bay — she won last year’s Great San Francisco Schooner Race and is the official pirate boat of the Vallejo Pirate Festival — but the merry 4th of July fireworks cruise aboard the schooner came to a tragic end when she ran up on the Richmond Jetty.
And then there was one. Five Mini 6.50s were set to race to Hawaii from Marina del Rey in the inaugural Mini 650 Pacific Challenge on Saturday but shortly before the start, two — Charlie Calkins on C’s Folly and Luiz Eduardo on ARG 842 — failed to qualify while Przemyslaw Karwasiecki on Libra bowed out just after the start.
The schooner Niña in New Zealand prior to setting sail for Australia. © Steve Darden "My wife Dorothy and I are optimists," Steve Darden told Latitude in a telephone interview.
While most sailors are getting ready for casual Fourth of July fun on their boats, five Mini 6.50 sailors are amping up for the July 6 start of the Mini 650 Pacific Challenge.
There was some interesting information disclosed about the Artemis America’s Cup campagin in a June 27 New York Times article by Christopher Clarey: The May 9 incident in which Artemis capsized and broke apart was, in the words of Loïck Peyron, a "classic capsize situation."
Hold on tight, you’re in for a wild ride this month! latitude/Annie
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC As a special weekend treat for our readers, we’re distributing the July issue of Latitude 38 today rather than wait until Monday, July 1.
Hiro Iwamoto (left) tries to hold it together at a news conference. He and sighted crewmember Jiro Shinbou were rescued from a liferaft after their Bristol Channel Cutter hit a large piece of flotsam 800 miles off Japan and sank.
Sailor David Hammer has a predicament.  He’s set to do a week’s yacht charter in Croatia soon aboard a Leopard 40 cat.
Friends and authorities are beginning to fear the worst for the seven sailors aboard the classic 70-ft American staysail schooner Nina, as the vessel hasn’t been heard from since June 3.
Yann Elies sailed his Beneteau Figaro II Groupe Queguiner to his second consecutive victory in the Solitaire du Figaro.
Marin County’s Paul Cayard, CEO of Artemis Racing, shared some interesting opinions on the 34th America’s Cup with Tom FitzGerald in last Friday’s SF Chronicle.
The MOD70 Spindrift capsized in the La Route du Princes. © 2013 Chris Schmid / Spindrift Racing In the upcoming July issue of Latitude 38, we give two reasons for preferring MOD70 trimarans over AC72s for the America’s Cup.
Sadly, in the modern era of America’s Cup racing, contentiousness between competitors off the water has sometimes been more explosive than on the race course.
A tragedy unfolded Friday afternoon when a woman’s minivan careened across Marina Green and into the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay.
At Sunday’s Wooden Boat Show, owners give visitors a rare opportunity to inspect their beloved sailing crafts from stem to stern.
For about the last four days or so, Passage Weather has predicted that the weather off the Pacific Coast of mainland Mexico will feature a couple of pretty strong tropical storms, one of which they forecast will sweep by not far from Puerto Vallarta and up toward Cabo San Lucas.
This isn’t exactly about sailing, but we think it’s important enough to mention anyway for a couple of reasons.
Summer Sailstice organizers ordered perfect weather  sunny & in the 70s  for this weekend celebration of sailing in Alameda (or wherever you are).
In the wee hours of March 4, three people eased the $2.8-million Oyster 82 Darling out of her slip at Sausalito Yacht Harbor and sailed her as far as Pacifica before grounding her on Linda Mar Beach.
Heads up for those in SoCal that reservations made on the SDHPD mooring online reservation system for the A-1/La Playa Anchorage for July 4-8 are no longer valid and that space will be on a first-come, first-served basis, according to a special notice from the Port of San Diego.
The Nicaraguan government has just approved a contract for HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co.
Teams for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup — sailed in AC45s — are training hard for the September 1-4 regatta.
Release of the revised Louis Vuitton racing schedule July 7, forced many would-be spectators to re-examine their viewing plans.
Known as the heaviest wave in the world, when Teahupoo gets revved up to full power, it’s an awesome sight.
 Just a reminder to pop on over to www.summersailstice.com/sf to enter for a chance to win a pair of VIP box tickets to see the Steve Miller Band and the Doobie Brothers on June 21 — of course!
Sailing