Ha-Ha and Puddle Jump Reunion Tonight

After opening its doors yesterday, Strictly Sail Pacific is now in full swing. The whole of Oakland’s Jack London Square is currently bustling with all aspects of boating business, and will remain so through Sunday afternoon. Yesterday’s main event was a visit by the America’s Cup and members of the BMW Oracle Racing Team.

Drawing a standing room-only crowd, the 1.5 hour presentation by Tom Ehman, design coordinator Ian Burns, tactician John Kostecki and bowman Brad Webb touched on some interesting topics for those who’d like to see the match for the 34th Cup come to the Bay. One of those is that Burns is now a resident of the Dogpatch, while Webb and wife Karen — a Bay Area native and executive producer for the team’s victory tour presentations — are now San Jose residents. Another was that this is the only boat show the team will do. Another was that Ehman reiterated that the Bay is team owner Larry Ellison’s first choice. We hope all of these are signs that the event will be coming here. As for a timeframe on when that’ll be decided, Ehman said that the team hopes to have everything — venue, boat, format and date — figured out before the end of the year.

While that little gathering is a hard act to follow, we like to think that today’s big event is Latitude 38‘s annual post-show booth party at 6 p.m. Although it’s open to all, we especially hope to catch up with veterans of past Baja Ha-Ha’s, Pacific Puddle Jumps, and Delta Doo Dahs. There’s no particular agenda, other than swapping tales and toasting past and future adventures in a shoulder-to-shoulder, greet-your-neighbor atmosphere.

If who’ve yet to participate in the Ha-Ha, consider attending out seminar today at 2 p.m., "Baja Ha-Ha How-To," in the Windward seminar room. The Grand Poobah himself will be on hand to entertain you and answer questions. The seminar repeats tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., followed by our seminar on "Tahiti and the Pacific Puddle Jump," presented by Assistant Poobah Andy Turpin, at 4:45 in the Regatta 1 room. Thanks to our Tahitian partners, some lucky attendee will take home an eye-popping door prize: an authenic black pearl bracelet! See you there.