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After 89 Years, Still Going Strong

Thaddeous was smitten by Cloudia’s classic lines. © Thaddeous Blanchard Some sailors have a soft spot for old wooden classics. Cap’n Thaddeous Blanchard of San Diego counts himself among them. While most boaters would be horrified at the prospect of replanking an 85-ft double-ender like Cloudia, Thaddeous has taken the challenge in stride. More »
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Windsurfer Found Dead Outside Bay

The Coast Guard recovered the body of windsurfer John ‘Bret’ Drasky, 65, on Saturday, about two hours after receiving a report of an unmanned windsurf board. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted Drasky’s wetsuit-clad body 2.5 miles west of the Golden Gate, and was recovered by a lifeboat. More »

Staggering Response to Autopilot Problem

If the responses to Wednesday’s ‘Lectronic don’t taper off soon, we might have to outsource our email correspondence to India. © Josh Rogan We’ve gotten two big surprises since Wednesday. First was the statistic that 40% of the population of India — and there are about a billion of them — don’t have any electricity. More »

Driving Taxpayers to Drink Cheap Rum

The following are first three paragraphs of a story by Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten that appeared in the August 2 Los Angeles Times. While the connection between sailing and rum is somewhat tenuous, we thought the story was so outrageous, but so typical, that we couldn‘t resist. More »

Name That Boat Wreckage

Beachcombers at Muir Beach found some substantial flotsam recently. “It certainly created quite a discussion point for all the beachgoers over the hot Marin weekend,” said Craig Allender. © 2009 Craig Allender "While walking along Muir Beach this recently, I stumbled across some substantial wreckage," writes Craig Allender. More »

John Guzzwell Day

Trekka wasn’t too roomy, but this Laurent Giles-designed sloop took the young singlehander safely around the world. © 2009 Guzzwell archives As keepers of the official West Coast Circumnavigator’s List, the staff of Latitude 38 invites you to raise a glass tomorrow, September 12, to one of the West Coast’s most revered — yet humble — sailors: John Guzzwell. More »

Drama in Teen Sailing

Australian Jessica Watson, 16, left Mooloolaba aboard her S&S 34 Ella’s Pink Lady yesterday morning bound for Sydney. The 10-day trip was to be her final shakedown cruise before leaving on her quest for the title of youngest solo circumnavigator. More »

Forget Driving, Go Sailing!

You’ll feel a lot better about life while harnessing the power of the wind, rather than the power of petro-chemicals! latitude/LaDonna
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC In case you’ve had your head in the sand, let us remind you that we are entering the three-day Labor Day weekend, which is, of course, normally characterized by annoying traffic conjestion all over the Bay Area and beyond. More »

Jimena Devastates South-Central Baja

If Jaime, Mera and Aeron thought their world was turned upside-down by sailing aboard Profligate in last spring’s Sea of Cortez Sailing Week, it was nothing compared to Jimena. latitude/Richard
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC Although detailed reports from all areas are not in, the news about cruisers caught in the wake of hurricane — and later, tropical storm — Jimena seems to be as good as anyone could have hoped. More »

Jimena Does Little Damage

While Hurricane Jimena is not dead yet, so far the news has been all good for mariners when it comes this former Category 4 hurricane that paralleled the coast of mainland Mexico a good distance offshore and then finally made landfall at Bahia Santa Maria, about 175 miles north of Cabo San Lucas. More »