April 23, 2003

Photos of the Day:
Banderas Bay Regatta

April 23 – Banderas Bay, Mexico

All Photos Latitude/Richard

It’s been so darn cool in California this
spring, we decided we needed something to warm up today’s ‘Lectronic
Latitude. So we selected these three shots of Bob & Bonnie
Fraike’s SC 52 Impulse as seen during this year’s Banderas
Bay Regatta out of Paradise Marina. Hell will have to freeze
over before you ever have a cool sailing day on Banderas Bay,
where sunburns and dehydration are the big dangers.

Pacific SAIL EXPO Opens Today in Oakland!

April 23 – Oakland

That’s right, and it stays open in Jack
London Square through Sunday. There will be scores of boats in
the water for inspection, and hundreds of exhibitors on land,
and seminars about every sailing topic you can imagine. This
is the one and only really big boat show on the West Coast, so
you don’t want to miss it. In fact, many serious sailors stop
by twice. The show runs from noon until 7 p.m. today, 10 a.m.
until 7 p.m. through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Don’t miss the Latitude 38 booth,
where Doña de Mallorca would like to meet you. In addition
to Latitude T-shirts and jackets, she’ll be selling Latitude
caps plus hot-off-the-press Profligate T-shirts that feature
a painting of Latitude’s catamaran by the great nautical
artist Jim DeWitt (see photo lower right). By the way, DeWitt
will do shirts with original artwork of your boat also.

If you’re interested in the Baja Ha-Ha,
on Friday from 4:45 to 5:30 the Wanderer will be giving a Ha-Ha
seminar with lots of photos. The seminar will be followed by
a Ha-Ha get-together with beverages provided by Latitude,
plus ‘Baja Ha-Ha Vet’ badges (see artwork below) for the first
1,000 Ha-Ha vets who show up.

Graphic Latitude/Chris

What if They Gave a Week-Long Party and
Hardly Anybody Came?

April 23 – La Paz, BCS

Over the last year or so there has been
considerable animosity between the Club Cruceros de La Paz and
the Paradise Found (for profit) Yacht Club, Restaurant and Bar
in La Paz. The former wanted to continue running the 20-year-old
Sea of Cortez Sailing Week out at the nearby islands, but seemed
to have trouble achieving critical mass in organizing. Meanwhile,
the more energetic folks at Paradise Found YC wanted to ramp
up a much more wild and active event – sort of like Sea of Cortez
Sailing Week had been in the early years. As is often the case
when two people or organizations can’t get along, everyone loses.

Club Cruceros finally backed off by canceling
their traditional Sea of Cortez Sailing Week for a minor event
out of La Paz. As for Paradise Found YC, they went ahead with
their event April 7 to 14. On paper it looked like it would be
nonstop activity, but in reality they may have badly misread
cruising community support, for apparently hardly anybody showed
up.

To date we haven’t been able to get a report
from Paradise Found, but David Crowe of the Morrelli-Choy 70
catamaran Humu Humu had this to say: “After we left
P.V., we took Humu Humu to the Sea of Cortez for a few
weeks. While there on April 7, we happened to anchor at Isla
Partida, and noticed there were 17 boats anchored for the first
night of Island Madness. We dove the Fang Ming wreck the
next day, and liked it so much we decided to do it again later
in the week. So we anchored in Partida again on Thursday night,
April 10, counting just 16 other boats. Further, I estimate that
maybe six dinks went ashore each evening for Island Madness.
On the first two race days there were no more than four boats
participating. The weather was not as conducive to sun ‘n fun
as one would prefer, but it was all right. We dove Fang Ming
again on Friday, and split for overnight anchorage at Ballandra,
where we had a good view of anyone transiting to Espiritu Santo.
We noticed maybe another half dozen boats heading over to the
island late Friday afternoon through noon Saturday, as well as
few coming back to La Paz. My view of Island Madness? It wasn’t
happening. Part of the reason is that Loreto Fest has really
taken hold, and the Puddle Jump crowd was absent because of the
much more appealing doings at Paradise Marina.”

For what it’s worth, in the early days
of the Sea of Cortez Sailing Week it was not unusual for more
than 200 boats to participate. If everyone worked together, maybe
something like that could happen again, but it’s going to take
time.

The Tommy Bahama Newport to Ensenada Race
Is This Friday

April 23 – Newport Beach

It’s a shame too, as many industry members
– such as ourselves – won’t be able to make it because of commitments
at Sail Expo in Oakland. Nonetheless, over 450 boats have already
signed up for the 56th running of the 125-mile race – including
Dennis Conner on his Cal 40. We hope everybody has a great time,
and that the winds are as good as last year.

Sailor’s Ball at Treasure Island Is Saturday

April 23 – Treasure Island

As if there’s not already enough going
on this weekend, the first annual Sailor’s Ball benefiting the
Treasure Island Sailing Center takes place Saturday night. For
details, visit www.sailorsball.org.

Hasso Is not Doing the Transatlantic Race

April 23 – NorCal and Europe

The Around Alone Fleet on Its Last Leg

April 23 – Atlantic Ocean

With the leaders less than 1,500 miles
from the finish in the Northeast, the usual suspects are in the
lead again. Swiss Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group Armor Lux,
who has been sailing at a pace around the world almost equal
to the Volvo 60s, leads Class 1, while Southern Californian Brad
van Liew on Tommy Hilfiger continues to rule over Class
2. In fact, van Liew is only a few miles behind the only Northern
California entry, Bruce Schwab of the Wylie 60 Ocean Planet.
It’s been a very tough event for the greatly underfunded Schwab,
but we salute him for his perseverance, as most folks would have
given up long ago.

Grant Dalton Is the Man

April 23 – Auckland, NZ

Grant Dalton – known for his great successes
in the Whitbreads, Volvo, and The Race – has accepted the position
of Managing Director of Team New Zealand. His goal is to bring
the America’s Cup back to his native country, where it has enormous
economic impact.

YOTREPS

April 23 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace

Who is out making passages in the Pacific
and what kind of weather are they having? The YOTREPS daily yacht
tracking page has moved to www.bitwrangler.com/psn.

Weather Updates

April 23 – Pacific
Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

To see what the winds are like on the Bay
and just outside the Gate right now, check out http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind.

The National Weather Service site for San
Francisco Bay is at www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey.

California Coast Weather

Looking for current as well as recent wind
and sea readings from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena
and the Mexican border? Here’s the place – which has further
links to weather buoys and stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Southwest.shtml.

Pacific Winds and Pressure

The University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology
page posts a daily map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric
pressure and winds.

Pacific Sea State

Check out the Pacific Ocean sea states
at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.

For views of sea states anywhere in the world,
see http://www.oceanweather.com/data.