Once again, the Photos of the Day are from
yesterday’s start of the Pacific Cup. Today’s starts – just before
and after 4:00 p.m. – feature nine SC 50s and seven others. Tomorrow’s
4:40 start off the St. Francis will have only seven boats, but
they’ll include the two that are likely to be first to finish
– the 86-ft Zephyrus and the 147-ft Mari-Cha III. Don’t
miss it. There will be great viewing from the St. Francis YC
parking lot and from the Golden Gate Bridge.
From what we understand, it’s been weird
out there for the early starters: ideal sailing conditions and
starry nights. What happened to the rough stuff and the overcast?
Yesterday’s fleet might not have been so lucky, as after 9 p.m.,
the wind, at the Lightbucket at least, turned off. Check out
the noon www.pacificcup.org
report to see what happened.
Photos Latitude/Andy
Wiring for the Pacific Cup at 55 MPH
July 11 – Sausalito
As Latitude 38 and ‘Lectronic Latitude
readers know, the SC 27 Giant Slayer almost didn’t make
the start of the Pacific Cup – because she had been stolen and
sailed to Alaska. Even though she was recovered, it was still
nip and tuck making it to the start.
Giant Slayer in Monday’s start Photo Latitude/Rob
“I just returned from San Francisco
helping Dave and his brother Dan get the boat
ready for the Pacific Cup,” writes their friend Mark Wiltz.
“What a job. First Dave rode in the boat from Portland to
San Francisco working on the wiring! We left on the 4th. We arrived
the morning of the 5th at 10:00, and worked every night until
11:00 p.m. It was a mad rush, but they are going to have a great
time.”
Burnap and Gaffney – And an Amel Maramu
53
July 11 – Santa Cruz
“My best friend Nancy Gaffney and
Ken Burnap – they met when he owned the SC 50 Roller Coaster
– recently got married in Santa Cruz,” reports Marlaina
Pipal. “They then went to Paris, and will make a side trip
to La Rochelle to inspect the progress on their new Amel Super
Maramu 53. Come January, they’ll start a new phase of their honeymoon
on that boat. ‘I used to have to throw stuff off Roller Coaster
to keep her light,’ said Burnap.”
Crazy with a Small Cat?
July 11 – Berkeley
“I met a guy in the Berkeley Marina
self-storage yard who has a 22-ft homebuilt catamaran, who told
me that he was going to leave for Hawaii last Saturday,”
reports Steve Cooper. “The 26-year-old guy thinks he can
make it more than 2,000 miles to Hawaii on a small cat that does
have hiking racks and doesn’t have a cabin. The guy told me he
was going to pitch a tent on his boat and cook inside. He says
he’s going to be wearing a dry suit with specially designed openings
so he can piss and shit. I keep thinking that I have seen most
everything, but I keep getting surprised.”
Does anybody know who this guy is, and
whether or not he left? While it seems as though just about every
hot French sailor has gone across the Atlantic on a sailboard
or Hobie Cat, ocean crossings on such small cats are very risky
propositions. We remember a guy who left Monterey for Hawaii
many years ago on a Hobie 16. They found one of the hulls a couple
hundred miles north of a Hawaii a few months later. Mother Nature
is not to be underestimated.
Marina Village, not the Encinal
July 11 – Alameda
A few days ago we reported that Encinal
YC hosted a Pre-Kickoff Party for the West Marina Pacific Cup.
We goofed. While the event was held at the Encinal YC, it was
the idea of Alan Weaver, and paid for by Marina Village, where
Weaver is the harbormaster.
The Triton Coho in Trouble in the
South Pacific?
July 11 – French Polynesia
Ross Fleming of the Gulfstar 39 Renoun
in Seattle reports that Mimi Allin, a crewmember aboard the San
Diego-based Saga 43 Windshear, says there seems to have
been trouble with the Triton 29 Coho on the way from the
Marquesas to the Tuamotus:
“The late breaking news from the net
is that an EPIRB was set off last night between the Marquesas
and the Tuamotus. We noticed a helicopter departing Rangiroa
this morning asked Poonooah what he knew. He said two Americans
were taken from a small vessel last night, although he didn’t
know their condition or that of their boat. Jennifer had heard
on the Coconut Breakfast Net that the boat name was Coho,
which leads me to believe it was Marco and Patrick, the owners.”
Anybody have any other details?
Allin also reported that officials in French
Polynesia are not only not giving American yachts visa extensions,
but are now giving some boats just 30 days rather than the normal
90 days at the outset. Most cruisers will comply, of course,
but not the hard cases. “Bullshit!” was reportedly
the reaction of Leo, a Swiss guy who sailed around the Horn in
the middle of winter. “I’m going to do whatever I want.”
And Leo is probably going to get away with it.
Photo Courtesy Joseph Ditler
Honey . . . I’m Home!
July 11 – San Diego
“When Steve Weigelt returned home
late the other night,” reports Joseph Ditler, “he had
quite a surprise in store for his wife. On his upper right arm
he had permanently tattooed a likeness of the ‘other’ lady in
his life – the San Diego-based tall ship Star of India. The
colorful tattoo measures 7 x 4 inches, and is inscribed, ‘Euterpe
1863’, for Star of India’s maiden name and launching date.
Weigelt is an active member of the volunteer sailing crew aboard Star of India. In his real life he is a logistics management
specialist at the North Island Naval Air Depot in Coronado. ‘I
felt the tattoo was the ultimate tribute for a ship that has
given me so much pleasure,’ said Weigelt. His wife was unavailable
for comment.”
Crazy in Cabo, Too
July 11 – Cabo San Lucas, BCS
We’ve received confirmation that the Port
Captain in Cabo has brushed off an ancient law, and has been
saying any boats that check out of Cabo for San Diego have to
– get this – have the whole crew go to San Jose del Cabo to get
health certificates. The solution to this is to simply clear
Cabo for Ensenada – if you’re traveling in country, you don’t
need health certificates – and then not stop at Ensenada.
Want to Be the 17th Man in a Race on an
America’s Cup Boat?
July 11 – Sausalito
San Francisco
magazine’s Best of the Bay Area Party is going to auction off
the 17th man position on an America’s Cup yacht in the July 27th Il Moro Trophy Race on San Francisco Bay. All proceeds
will go to Glide Memorial Church. It’s a full day starting with
breakfast at the Sausalito YC and ending up with a night at the
lovely Casa Madrona Hotel – which, by the way, is really looking
sharp. For details, visit www.sanfran.com.
YOTREPS
July 11 – 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/
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. (please
note, this URL has been updated): 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.
