March 2, 2001

By Grzegorz | March 2, 2001

Photos of the Day

March 2 – St. Maarten

The 21st annual Heineken Regatta in St.
Maarten in the Eastern Caribbean has officially started, and
as you can tell from the accompanying artwork, they’ve once again
hired Richmond’s Jim DeWitt to do the artwork. Second only to
Antigua Sailing Week in Caribbean prestige, this year’s Heinie
has a record-breaking 265 entries, including everything from
257-ft tallships to beach cats. The majority, however, are typical
monohulls. The Heinie also kicks off the 2001 Caribbean ‘Big
Boat Series’, a three-regatta event – the others are the BVI
Spring Regatta and Antigua Sailing Week – that consists of 12
races for monohulls over 60 feet in length. The best known West
Coast boat vying for Heinie and Big Boat Series honors is Doug
Baker’s Long Beach-based Andrews 70 Magnitude, which will
be up against the likes of James Dolan’s 78 ft Sagamore,
Irvine Laidlaw’s CM 60 Highland Fling, several Santa Cruz
70 variations, and Sotto Voce, a new Swan 60. Also racing
will be White Wings and White Horses, two of the
W-60 class 76-footers. We’ll have a full report on Monday and
in the April edition of Latitude
38.

Painting Jim DeWitt

Wild Horses
Photo Latitude/Richard

Club Med to Finish This Weekend

March 2 – Mediterranean Sea

Having passed through the Straits of Gibraltar about midnight
last night, Grant Dalton and the maxi catamaran Club Med
are expected to cross the Marseilles finish line sometime between
Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The uncertain ETA is a result
of the boat currently being becalmed with a gale on the way.
While Club Med slatted 592 miles from the finish line,
the gallant team aboard the near-sistership Innovation Explorer
was 1,020 miles back and closing fast. Innovation Explorer
won’t catch Club Med, but they put up a great fight with
an untested boat and minimum of sails. So far Club Med
has covered more than 26,000 miles at an average speed in excess
of 18.2 knots. Skipper Dalton, however, cautioned that the debate
between big cats and big trimarans hasn’t even begun yet. “Everything
we thought is true a tri would struggle in the Southern
Ocean, but would destroy us all in the Atlantic. It will be interesting
to see what de Kersauzon’s tri ends up like when it is launched
later this year.”

Blue Club Med
Green Innovation Explorer
Orange Team Adventure
Yellow Warta Polpharma
Magenta Team Legato

Graphics Courtesy Club Med
www.catamaran.clubmed.fr/

Ranking of March 2, 2001, 15:00:00 GMT

1. Club Med / dtf 539.2 miles
2. Innovation Explorer / dtl 1,002.2 miles
3. Team Adventure / dtl 5,952.5 miles
4. Warta Polpharma / dtl 6,499.2 miles
5. Team Legato / dtl 9,207.2 miles

Hoof
and Mouth to Affect Jib and Main

March 2 – Great Britain

It may seem hard to believe, but the government in England has
had to shut down some yacht clubs to prevent the spread of hoof
and mouth disease. No joke. The yacht clubs are on London and
other reservoirs. While humans cannot contract hoof and mouth,
they can spread it. There is no word when the clubs will be able
to reopen.

On
Their Way

March 2 – Pacific Ocean

“We left Z-town on Sunday the 18th
of February after 15 months of great cruising in Mexico, sad to
say adios to our friends,” report Matthew Mason and
Debra Stearns of the Salt Lake City based Tayana 37 Aeventyr.
“We’re now about 410 miles from the Galapagos and having
nice sailing out here on the big blue. My friend Pat Mcgill will
be joining us in the Galapagos next week with his 10-year-old
son Christopher. Captain’s Orders will have the young swab send
a ‘Dear Mom’ letter each day via Sail Mail.”

YOTREPS

March 2 – 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

March 2 – 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 Sea State

Seas are normal in the Pacific. But you
might 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.

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