Happy Easter — April Issue Is Out Today!

We’re delivering an Easter treat to sailors across the Bay today — the April issue of our favorite sailing magazine, Latitude 38! This month we bring you a rabbit warren full of stories to get you inspired and geared up for the coming summer of sailing, including San Diego YC’s 1,000-mile Puerto Vallarta Race, Cole Brauer and the Global Solo Challenge, The Proudfoots’ Project Part 2, West Coast racing news, cruising stories, and much more. Here are a few previews.

Don’t Give Up the Ship

Isolated in a remote corner of the Sea of Cortez. Hard aground. Exhausted. After more than 24 hours alone, David Haight needed help. “Welcome to the San Carlos Cruisers Net. We will begin with any emergency, medical, or priority traffic, or relays of same. Please come now…” Generally, 10 seconds of silence follow this phrase on the VHF before the usual checking-in of boats, sharing of information, updates on weather, and so forth. But during the pause, Chris Davies from SV Redemption broke in with a relay of emergency traffic. This was the beginning of a cruiser and local community effort to reach David and help him get his boat safely afloat again.

Kids on Boats — Home-Grown Crew

How do you bring more sailors to the sport of sailing? Start early and start small.

Hans List is the commodore of the Master Mariners Benevolent Association (MMBA). He and wife Sophie share that their three children became involved through association. “We had our 1940 Tahiti Ketch well before our daughters were born. We took Maggie, 13, on her first trip to Drake’s Bay at age 6 weeks. She slept in a fruit hammock suspended in the fo’c’sle.” As for racing, List notes Maggie’s first competition was the MMBA regatta in 2011 at 9 months old. Penny, 12, sailed her first race around the 2014 MMBA regatta at age 1.5. Greta, 10, sailed her first race at age 2 in 2016. Until recently, participation had been solely MMBA events; last year, each List child tried El Toro and Opti racing at Point San Pablo Yacht Club. Each is learning sportsmanship, seamanship and skills. “The keys are the importance of doing your best, the feeling of winning, and how to learn from your mistakes — all while having fun. Whether sailing sticks with them in the future or not, I know they will have skills and experiences to help them make the right decisions. We’re trying to leave the door open to a world we each love so much.”

Green Sailors on a Green Journey

Megan Routbort and Thomas Poloniato, two late-20-somethings from the US and France, met in Berkeley and now are traveling the world, but only on forms of transportation that have a climate-positive effect. What does that mean? Airplanes and private cars are out; trains, bikes, hitchhiking, and literal hiking are in. They choose human- or nature-powered modes of transportation only.

Sailing included, of course!

Plus, take a peek at our regular monthly columns:

• Letters: ASC Awarded “Outstanding Community Sailing Program;” Three Cheers for Marie Rogers; To Boldly Go Where Many Young Sailors Have Gone Before; and stacks more readers’ letters.
• Sightings: The Murphy Family Adventure; The Art of Crew Life; Svendsen’s Spring Fling and Boat-Show Season; Good Tips About Bad TIPs; and more great stories.
• Max Ebb: Wind, Spray and Speed.
• Racing Sheet: With spring having sprung, we wrap up the Golden Gate and Berkeley midwinters, welcome that spring classic the Big Daddy, review two Shorthanded Races, brave the wind for Marina del Rey’s South Bay Tour, gaze at what’s On the Horizon, and hope for rescue of the Santa Cruz Mile Buoy. Box Scores is loaded up with midwinter series results.
• Changes in Latitudes: With stories this month on getting Flashgirl ready to head to the South Seas; a report on Zihuatanejo Sailfest; another report on Barra de Navidad’s Fiesta de Veleros and Cruise-In Week; a hilarious account of getting a new mainsail for Roxxy; and a veritable tsunami of Cruise Notes.
•  Loose Lips: We share March’s Caption Contest(!) winners.
• All the latest in sailboats for sale, Classy Classifieds.

To pick up your copy of the April issue, stop in and visit Roger Nunez at Reliable Marine Electronics in Alameda.

If you’re a subscriber, your magazine is on its way. If you like to collect your own and have a chat with the folks in the store or marina office, here’s a map of where you can find Latitude 38 magazine.