November 1, 2002

Photos of the Day

November 1 – Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy

Today’s Photos of the Day travel across
time and space, from Italy in September, to promote our coverage
of the Swan Cup, held Sept. 8-15 in Porto Cervo. For our reporter’s
essay on ten things about the Swan Cup, as well as more spectacular
photographs, see the November issue of Latitude
38. Pick yours up at a Bay Area marine location today!

The Swan Fleet at Biscie strait
Photo Guido Cantini/SEA&SEE

Constansea, a French Swan 44, wipes out.
Photo Simon Palfrader/SEA&SEE

Good Sailing Conditions Return to Auckland

November 1 – Auckland, NZ

For the last couple of days, the weather
has cooperated with the postponement-plagued Round Robin Two
of the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Trials, and the Race Committee
was able to get in two full days of two races each. Conditions
have mostly featured westerlies of 15-20 knots.

Dennis Conner, who first sailed in an America’s
Cup competition in 1974, made his return to competition when
he took the wheel of Stars & Stripes for its match
in Flight 8 against Mascalzone Latino. Conner, who hadn’t
sailed a Louis Vuitton Cup race in three years looked like he’d
never been away, steering his team to its second victory in Round
Robin Two.

On the same race course, Oracle BMW Racing
earned its second consecutive big win with its new afterguard
configuration, (Peter Holmberg steering and Chris Dickson skippering),
squeezing by series leader Alinghi in a tight win, their second
in a row.

Tight racing between the Swiss and Silicon Valley
Photos Bob Grieser/Louis Vuitton Cup

Le Défi Aréva celebrated
its first win of the competition against OneWorld, when the Seattle
team dropped their spinnaker in the water and sailed over it.
For full coverage, and to follow the racing this weekend, see
www.louisvuittoncup.yahoo.com.

In off-the-water news, the International
Jury last night agreed with GBR Challenge’s request for redress
in its Flight 5 match against Alinghi. The Jury directed the
match to be re-sailed. That rematch is coming up this afternoon.
For the complete story, see www.louisvuittoncup.yahoo.com/story831.html.

Stars & Stripes crosses the
line to win their
match against the ‘Latin Rascals’.

Dennis Conner, back at the helm of Stars
& Stripes

Another race of interest coming up today
(Saturday in New Zealand) is the match between Le Défi
and Mascalzone Latino. The winner of today’s match will go on
to the Quarter-Finals. The loser will be eliminated at the end
of Round Robin Two.

Awesome Sunset Close to Home

November 1 – Angel Island

Paul Kassatkin sent us this photo of a
‘red sky at night’ over the ketch Pegasus docked at Ayala
Cove in Raccoon Strait.

Photo Paul Kassatkin

Route du Rhum

November 1 – St. Malo, France

This transatlantic race from St. Malo to
Guadaloupe Island in the Caribbean will begin November 9 (monohulls)
and November 10 (multihulls). 60 skippers are entered in the
singlehanded event.

Among the competitors, Michel Desjoyeaux
has hauled out his trimaran Géant and is having
some repairs done. He hopes to arrive in St. Malo Sunday or Monday.

British sailing phenom Ellen MacArthur
will be competing on the 60-ft monohull Kingfisher, and
is hoping to get by with very little sleep on the event, as little
as four hours out of every 24, taken in small naps of 10-60 minutes.
Sleep expert Dr. Claudio Stampi, director of the Chronobiology
Research Institute in Boston, will be monitoring MacArthur and
providing her with sleep management for performance optimization.
MacArthur will wear a wireless bio-monitor on her arm, which
will feed Stampi data via satellite uplink. Stampi is a former
Whitbread skipper who has worked with MacArthur for the past
three years of her solo sailing career.

YOTREPS

November 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

November 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 at
www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey/.

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/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.

Pacific Sea State

Check out the Pacific Ocean sea states
at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.

For views of sea states anywhere in the world,
see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/.