Several Northern California sailors attended
the 30-boat Melges 24 Nationals this weekend, hosted by Southwestern
Yacht Club. Top finisher was Argyle Campbell with Rock n’
Roll out of Newport Beach. Top NorCal finisher was Michael
Stone of San Rafael with Not the Family Buick, who, with
Charlie Ogletree, took fourth. (Buick finished first in
the previous weekend’s San Diego NOOD Regatta. See Thursday’s
‘Lectronic.) Don Jesberg and Zarko Draganic finished ninth
with Trailblazer, out of Menlo Park.
Olympic Classes Regatta
March 26 – Long Beach
On March 23-25, Stars, 49ers, Solings,
Europes, Finns, Lasers, Lightnings, Mistrals and Snipes battled
it out in 10 races hosted by the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. Some
NorCal sailors who placed included San Francisco’s Krysia Pohl,
who dominated the Europe dinghies to win 1st place; Russ Sylvestri,
1st, Finns; and Doug Smith and Mike Moore, 3rd, Star Class.
For more on these regattas, see the Racing
Sheet in April’s Latitude
38.
The Berkeley Yacht Club hosted buoy racing
on Saturday for three PHRF divisions and the Merit 25 class,
and a pursuit race on Sunday for 25 boats. Winners on Saturday
included Mirador, Antrim 27, Charles Griffith; Zilla,
B-25, Brent Draney; Latin Lass, Catalina 27, Bill Chapman;
and Twilight Zone, Merit 25, Paul Kamen. Sunday’s pursuit
race was won by Shenanigans, C&C 36, Mike Maloney.
Rites of Spring
March 26 – San Francisco Bay
This Saturday, Oakland Yacht Club hosted
the Rites of Spring. Coming out on top in five doublehanded divisions
were Donnybrook, F-28R, John Brady; Lelo Too, Tartan
30, Emile Carles; Sylkie, WylieCat 30, Steve Seal;
Shazam!, Santana 22, Bud Sandkulla; and Annie, Cal
29, Steve Zevanove. Only one boat raced in the singlehanded division, Polar Bear, Antrim 27, Richard Ray.
For more complete box scores on these regattas
and much more Bay Area racing results and news, see the Racing
Sheet in April’s Latitude
38.
Merit 25 winner Paul Kamen, with crew Gabi
Zurek of Germany and Esther de Frutos of Madrid, displays the
City of Berkeley Trophy
Photo Courtesy Paul Kamen
The Race
March 26 – Marseille, France
Team Adventure
crossed the
finish line at 10:21 local time on Saturday March 24. As Team
Adventure approached Marseille it was doing 28 knots and
flying a hull.
The remaining two boats, Warta Polpharma
and Team Legato, will finish after the time deadline of
April 2, however the line will be left open and the last two
boats will be declared finished fourth and fifth out of the time
limits.
Warta Polpharma had
put into Portalez, Brazil, for repairs, but left on Saturday
at 1530. They left behind two crew members who required medical
attention.
Team Adventure’s
crew celebrating their finish, with flares and major sponsor
monster.com’s mascot
On Friday,
we began a series of profiles on the Pacific Puddle Jump class
of 2001 – cruisers making the jump from Mexico to the Marquesas.
We’ll have more in tomorrow’s ‘Lectronic, and you’ll find all
of them in the pages of the April issue of Latitude
38.
Aurora
– Cal 40
Rob Wyess and Youngla Nam, San Francisco
Both
in their early 40s, Bob and Youngla are relatively young to be
bailing out of the mainstream to go cruising. But they share
the sentiments of many of their cruising counterparts: “Don’t
wait too long to get going. And don’t get caught up thinking
you need all the latest gear. If you have a seaworthy boat and
basic equipment, just do it!”
Rob’s had the cruising bug for ages, and
after meeting Youngla four years ago he slowly turned her toward
his ambitions. Last spring they sold Rob’s Mariner 32 – which
had carried him up and down the West Coast for 15 years – and
bought Aurora. Six months later they headed down the California
coast towards the sunny latitudes of Mexico. “We’ve been
‘projecting’ ever since – fixing and installing things as we
go along.”
They eventually hope to complete a circumnavigation,
with Australia, the Indian Ocean and the Med high on their ‘must
see’ list.
Photo Latitude/Andy
YOTREPS
March 26 – 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.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.
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