February 1, 2002

Photos of the Day

February 1 – Key West, FL

Today’s Photos of the Day come from Key
West, where many NorCal racers found themselves last week for
Key West Race Week. To see coverage of the racing, see Tuesday’s
‘Lectronic, Premiere Racing’s Web site at www.premiere-racing.com/keywest/2002%20KW/kw_2002_index.htm
or, best of all, check out the story in the February issue of
Latitude 38
being distributed today.

Santa Cruzers Chris ‘Biff’ Watts (left) and Dennis Bassano and
their wives at KWRW. They sailed on Peter Dalton’s Minor Threat,
a Melges 24. KWRW serves as the Melges 24 Worlds. Minor Threat
finished around mid-fleet.
Photo Courtesy Dennis Bassano

Melges 24 action from Day 3
Photo Tom Wilkes
Courtesy Premiere Racing

Olympic Classes Regatta

February 1 – Miami, FL

Florida’s the place to be in late January.
Following close on the heels of the big boat event in Key West
comes the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, with racing held
January 30 through February 2. 290 sailors from 26 countries
have descended on Biscayne Bay this year, an impressive crowd
of talent, though down from a high of 744 from 53 countries in
1996.

Star Boats approach a windward mark.
Photo Courtesy US Sailing

Among the competitors are some of Northern
California’s best and brightest, some well-established pros and
some up-and-coming young people. 470 Men Mikey Murison and Rusty
Canada, both from College of Marin’s sailing team (started by
Murison) and Richmond YC’s junior program, fall into the latter
category, as does Mallory McCollum of Concord, another RYC graduate,
who is crewing for Floridian Lee Icyda in 470 Women.

A handful of NorCal guys pepper the 49er
fleet: Sean Couvreux of Petaluma, Chad Freitas of Albany and
Skip McCormack of Novato sailing together, Adam Lowry of San
Francisco, and Patrick Whitmarsh of Carmel.

Other local heroes are Molly Carapiet of
Belvedere, Susannah Carr of San Francisco, Casey Pelletier of
Martinez and Krysia Pohl of Alameda in Europes (Pohl took second
place last year); Mo Hart and Patrick Weaver of Santa Cruz and
Andras Nady of SF in Finns; Matt McQueen of Walnut Creek, Peter
Phelan of Santa Cruz and Tracy Usher of Monterey in Lasers. The
Star Class includes Doug Smith of Piedmont (sailing with Michael
Moore of Oregon) and Peter Vessella of Burlingame (sailing with
Brian Fatih of Redondo Beach).

Perhaps the most famous of participating
Bay Area residents is sailing in the Yngling: San Francisco’s
America’s Cup contender Dawn Riley is crewing with Marinite Melissa
Purdy for skipper Hannah Swett of Rhode Island. Also crewing
on an Yngling is Amy Gross of Palo Alto. No Californians are
entered in Tornado catamarans. The event also features two Paralympic
classes: the 2.4 Metre and the Sonar.

In the 470 Men’s event, Steve Hunt (Hampton,
VA) and Michael Miller (Charleston, SC) couldn’t have performed
better: they lead their class standings with a perfect score
built on three first-place finishes Wednesday and three yesterday
(Thursday).

In Ynglings, Wednesday’s headliner Carol
Cronin (Jamestown, RI) fell to second overall yesterday with
Jody Swanson (Buffalo, NY) taking the lead. In the 49er class,
which completed four races yesterday, Andy Mack of Seattle and
Adam Lowry of SF overtook early leaders David Fagen and Bora
Gulari.

The star of the Star Class is Miami’s Magnus
Liljedahl, a 2000 Star Class Gold Medalist in Sydney, who has
an idea why this event is so popular, “In Olympic classes,
it’s getting harder to be competitive because every country is
getting better and better. You have to come here to compete against
the best.”

The Miami OCR serves as the U.S. selection
event for the 2002 Pre-Olympic Regatta. Racing continues through
Saturday. Nightly updates, results and competitor’s rosters are
posted at www.ussailing.org/Olympics/MiamiOCR/

YOTREPS

February 1 – 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

February 1 – 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 www.nws.mbay.net/home.html.

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.