Latitude 38 October Issue Out Today
Welcome to October, the month of Richmond YC’s Great Pumpkin Regatta, StFYC’s Fall Dinghy Regatta, Club Náutico Baja’s Regata Todos Santos, San Diego YC’s International Masters Regatta and the Lipton Cup, the El Toro Stampede, the Jessica Cup … there’s lots of racing coming up and you can find it all in the October issue’s Calendar. We also bring you a boatload of great stories. Here’s a preview.
Rolex Big Boat Series Recap
While the wind steadily built throughout last year’s RBBS, culminating with a Sunday Bay tour that saw gusts in the high 30s, this year’s Big Boat Series was much more of a light-wind affair. Thursday’s racing saw breeze around 10 knots for most of the day, building into the low teens during the Bay-tour race. Friday was even weirder, with the buoy race sailed in well under 10 knots of breeze that once again only built into the mid-teens. Both Thursday and Friday’s racing was almost exclusively in flood. With the light wind and adverse current, upwinds were long wars of attrition, where patience and focus were paramount.
Singlehanded Sailor Rescues Crew
The urgency in the distress caller’s voice had me reaching to turn up the volume on my VHF as a reflex — “Mayday, mayday, mayday … we are taking on water fast!” There was an unmistakable note of panic in the caller’s tone that was more than compelling. “This one sounds legit,” I thought. I studied the screen on my VHF as if it could offer more details of the mayday.
Pacific Puddle Jump: Planning Versus the View From the Trip
The good news is the bolts to the Hydrovane are tight on the inside of the hull. The other side of the coin is that I am hauling along through swells in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and I am not sure how I will extract my body from the lazarette! Maybe more interesting is how I got into this situation ….
Also in this month’s issue:
Letters: I’m Dropping Everything and Doing the Ha-Ha Take Two (Eight Years Later); Local Youth Sailors Shine in Benicia Thursday Night Race; Want To Live on the Water? Prove That You Know How To Sail; and many more readers’ letters and comments.
Sightings: A Wylie West Coast Build; Dock Neighbors and Pier Profanity; The Commodore’s Last Sail?; Notice to Mariners; and more stories.
Max Ebb: “Lee’s Time Turner”
Racing Sheet: Late August and early September are a fast and furious time for racing along the West Coast. While StFYC’s Rolex Big Boat Series (see the features section) is the main attraction, there was plenty of other exciting racing, including the Phyllis Kleinman Swiftsure Regatta, the YRA Drake’s Bay Offshore Regatta, the 55th International Knarr Championship, the Snipe Hemisphere and Asia Championships, and much more. Read all about it in the Racing Sheet, and see regatta results in the Box Scores.
Changes in Latitudes: With reports this month on the start of Iwa’s trip from Alaska to Mexico; Alegria’s departure from Mexico after six seasons there; how the owners of John Muir finance their cruising as they go; and a bucketful of Cruise Notes.
All the latest in sailboats and sailboat gear for sale, Classy Classifieds.
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