A strange thing happened to the Santa Cruz 52 ‘Vitesse’ on
her delivery home from Hawaii: Her entire five-person crew, lead
by Robert Flowerman of Sausalito, decided they want to do some
celestial navigation. For those of you who’ve grown up in the
era of $99 GPS units, celestial was one of the main navigation
tools available to mariners, and required shooting celestial bodies
with a sextant and working out the math. So there they are, in
the photo at left: Howard, half of Harry (way down at the bottom),
Robert, Doug and Susan. Frankly, we suspect this was a staged
photograph, for the skies look overcast, and a sextant is about
as useful as a bicycle on a boat when it’s cloudy.
Photos Courtesy Susan Stromsland
Weather Updates
Tropical Weather
August 24 – Atlantic/Caribbean
When hurricanes pass over land, they lose the warm moist air
that helps fuel them. So when Hurricane Debby passed over Hispañola,
she came out of it a mere tropical storm. Nonetheless, she’s expected
to regain strength as she continues on toward Cuba and perhaps
the Florida Keys. Meanwhile, Alberto, which started way back on
August 4 is still kicking up 45-knot winds up near Greenland.
To see what the winds are like on the Bay right now, check
out http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind/.
It’s a great time of year to be sailing the Bay.
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/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml
When Bill and Sam Fleetwood of the Monterey-based Gulfstar
50 ‘Blue Banana’ did the Puddle Jump earlier this year, they
knew they were going in season and thus didn’t bother to consult
weather gurus or weatherfaxes before casting off. They had a
great trip. But now that they’re getting more weather information
in the South Pacific, they’re confused: “We don’t know if
it’s a weird weather year, we’ve turned chicken, or we’ve been
getting too much weather information, but ever since we started
downloading weather faxes and starting learning about highs,
lows, troughs and fronts, we can’t seem to find a favorable departure
date for the next destination!”
To read more about the Fleetwoods’ adventures – the couple met
several years ago through ‘Latitude’ – check out the September
Sightings.
Sam Fleetwood displays the Cook Islands flag
she sewed. Photo Courtesy the Fleetwoods
YOTREPS
August 24 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace
Who is out making passages in the Pacific and what kind of
weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS – ‘yacht reports’ –
at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/
Racing
Rudders Up to the Task
August 24 – Honolulu
In long downwind races – such as from the West Coast to Hawaii,
a tremendous strain is put on rudders. This is particularly true
when boats have inexperienced drivers who have trouble anticipating,
oversteer and round up or round down. Of course, sometimes the
rudders just fail because they weren’t strong enough or there
was a manufacturing error.
Here are a couple of boats that lost their rudders in races to
Hawaii this summer. Murray Tough’s Elite 37 ‘Prairie Voyager’
from the Glenmore Sailing Club lost hers in the Victoria to Maui
Race. Her crew was able to jury rig a steering system to get
her to Honolulu. She’s seen here getting a rudder built at Ala
Wai Marine – which, by the way – has been getting great reviews
from customers.
The second boat is Jack McGuire’s Hinckley 42 ‘Alcyone’ from
Aptos that lost her main rudder, reasons unknown, for less than
a day during the West Marine Pacific Cup. With the main steering
system knocked out, they set up their emergency rudder, which
appears almost comically small. It comes as no surprise that
such a small unit didn’t work very well. Nonetheless, ‘Alcyone’
and her crew also made it to Ala Wai Marine.
Learn from the experiences of others: Make sure your rudder and
steering system are up to the task of long downwind races.
Photos Latitude/Richard
Light the Afterburners
August 24 – San Francisco and Monterey Bays
With just four days until we go to printer, our editorial department
is in overdrive. So were Mike Martin and crew Steve Bourdow when
the accompanying picture was taken during the 505 North Americans,
an excellent regatta held in earlier this month out of Santa
Cruz YC. Read Dan Strellis’ account of the action in the September
1 issue. . . In other ‘coming distractions’, you can look
forward to Nick Adamson’s feature report on another cool dinghy-fest,
the recent Vanguard 15 North Americans at the Treasure Island
Sailing Center. Nick literally had a front-row seat to cover
the action – he dominated the regatta!
