August 6, 2001

Photo of the Day

August 6 – San Francisco Bay.

“When Doug Chew named his newly-acquired
Merit 25 Challenger, former boat partner Phil Mai of the
Merit 25 Loose Lips told him it was not a lucky name.
Doug’s an experienced racer, but it was only his third time out
with the new boat when fate overtook them. Approaching the windward
mark during a windy Berkeley Yacht Club Friday Night Race, a
J-40 on port was unable to fall off enough to duck Challenger
on starboard. Challenger tried a last-second crash tack,
but the J-40 skewered the Merit broadside and knocked two of
the crew off the starboard rail. The Merit flooded and sank while
the big J stood by to assist. But after several attempts with
the Lifesling, they were still having trouble making the recovery
in the 25-knot conditions. Along came Ned Walker from Olympic
Circle Sailing Club in the J-24 Casual Contact, who picked
up three of the Challenger crew in one pass under sail.
The fourth was pulled out by Brent Draney and the B-25 Zilla.
Challenger spent the night wedged between pilings of the
abandoned Berkeley Pier, and was re-floated and towed in the
next morning by Vessel Assist. The boat, formerly Ragin Cajun,
seems to have suffered remarkably little damage – except for
the big hole in the side and the bent rudder.”
So reports Paul Kamen.

Photos Courtesy Paul Kamen

Santa Barbara To King Harbor Race

August 6 – Santa Barbara

Is there a more fun race in Southern California than the 81-mile
Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race? Not that we know of. And for
the faster boats, this year’s conditions couldn’t have been much
better. It was a spinnaker reach to the west end of Anacapa Island,
followed by an easy spinnaker run to Redondo Beach. The best
conditions were between Anacapa Island and Point Dume, when the
fleet jibed downwind in 15 to 20 knots of wind with following
seas permitting fine surfing. Doug Baker’s Turbosled Magnitude
made the trip in under eight hours, less than a half hour behind
the fastest multihull, Afterburner. However, later in
the evening the wind died, leaving some of the 119 entries on
the race course for more than 24 hours. Class winners include
Locomotion, Cita, Lina, In the Fridge, Stark Raving
Mad, Sidekick, La Diana, Friction Loss, Dead Spider and Incredible.
For complete results, visit www.khyc.org/sbkhfinal.html

Maps and Charts

August 6 – Accurate Maps and Charts

Tired of cruising down the coast of Mexico and finding points
to be a half-mile or more away from where the charts say they
are supposed to be? Maybe there’s hope. Last year the Space Shuttle
spent 11 days taking a trillion measurements to create a stereo
photo of 80% of the surface of the earth. “It’s going to
be 100 times better than any global map that we have,” said
Tom Farr of NASA. Check it out at www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm.

Cat Test

August 6 – La Grande Mott, France

During our trip to Europe in June, we visited Noel Gaudinet,
an old sailing friend of ours from Sausalito. He’d bought and
cruised a Union 36 to Mexico, then had to store her on the hard
as he took a series of jobs in Europe for several years. While
in Europe, he became interested in multihulls. In fact, he recently
purchased the Outremer 45 – see accompanying photo – which had
kicked butt in last year’s Europe 1 New Man Start. So when we
visited him in La Grande Mott, France, he was happy not just
to show us his boat, but also the nearby Outremer factory. While
at the factory, who would walk in but Mark and David, a couple
of guys from San Francisco who’d been aboard Profligate
and are looking to buy either a large monohull or large multihull
for a circumnavigation. As it turned out, we – Mark and David,
Dona de Mallorca, Noel, and the factory sales rep and his assistant,
and the Wanderer – all went out sailing on the new Outremer 55.

See the second accompanying photograph of the delightful sail.

It turns out that Mark and David aren’t
the only ones in the Bay Area who are looking to purchase and/or
build a 55 to 65 foot cat. So this Saturday, from noon to about
5:00, we’re taking a group of them out aboard Profligate,
Latitude’s 63 foot cat, so they can get experience on a big cat
in big wind and pick the Wanderer’s small brain. If you’re also
interested in purchasing a large cat and would like to take part,
give the Wanderer a shout by
email. All we’re asking is that anyone who comes be willing
to donate $100 to $150 – sliding scale, you know – to Profligate’s
‘sister city’ in the mountains above San Blas, Mexico. With the
$400 the boat raised last year, they were able to purchase 1,500
items of clothing for the very poor and send a young blind boy
to school to learn braille.

Greatest Days Ever?

August 6 – San Francisco Bay

Here are a few examples:

YOTREPS

August 6- 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/

Weather Updates

August 6 – 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/.

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.

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 another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.