November 2, 2001

Photo of the Day

November 2 – Monroe, Michigan

Mark McCrindle sent us this photo of a
Hobie 33 in Monroe, which is 40 minutes south of Detroit. Best
photo caption wins a Latitude 38 T-shirt, or a Baja Ha-Ha
T-shirt if there are any left when the ralliers return. Email
your caption to the
Webmistress.

Photo Courtesy Mark McCrindle

While Mark and his fellow Great Lakes sailors
are “getting ready to hibernate for the winter,” here
on San Francisco Bay our midwinter season starts this weekend
with races hosted by Golden Gate YC on Saturday and Sausalito
YC on Sunday.

Great Pumpkin Day 2 Photos

November 2 – Pt. Richmond

Wrapping up our coverage of last weekend’s
Great Pumpkin Regatta, here are photos from Sunday’s pursuit
race. For Saturday’s photos, see yesterday’s
‘Lectronic. Check out the December issue of Latitude 38
for more pictures and the whole story.

For top finishers, see Wednesday’s
‘Lectronic Latitude. We still don’t see results up on the
Richmond Yacht Club Web site, but you can check it at www.richmondyc.org.

Photos above Latitude/Rob, who went clockwise with the majority
of the fleet aboard Elan

illbruck
Protests Won’t Affect Standings

November 2 – Cape Town, South Africa

illbruck Challenge
has been fined for boat modification. The penalty will have no
impact on the results of the Volvo Ocean Race’s Leg 1.

An International Jury found that illbruck
Challenge had improperly modified its race boat by adding
a weed cutting device to the S-Drive engine prior to the start
of the race. The jury assessed a penalty of 1,000 British pounds
for the infringement.

The race committee, which filed the protest,
told the jury that they did not believe a points penalty would
be the proper punishment for this modification. The RC believed
the addition of the weed cutting device had no impact on the
outcome of the race and possibly may have had a negative speed
impact by increasing the drag on the boat through the water.
The weed knife will now be removed from the boat for the balance
of the race.

The first protest filed against illbruck
Challenge, by fellow Volvo Ocean Race competitor Assa
Abloy, was withdrawn after a three-and-a-half hour hearing
when it became obvious that illbruck Challenge was in
compliance with race rules. The protest concerned the use of
Web sites on board the race boat during
the team’s victorious Leg 1.

Paul Cayard Demoted by Larry Ellison

November 2 – Auckland, NZ

Billionaire Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle
software and backer of the Oracle
Racing Team challenge for the America’s Cup, has demoted Paul
Cayard from
his position as Sailing Manager of the team. While still on the
Oracle payroll, Cayard will not be joining the team in Auckland
for the winter trials. It’s not clear what his new function,
if any, will be in the organization.

Bob Fisher reports for Grand Prix Sailor:
“Earlier this year, Ellison saw fit to depose his skipper,
Chris Dickson, but that was seen as a popular move among the
rest of the crew. Dickson was accused of being an irritating
skipper by other members of the crew, and Cayard, whose experience
in the America’s Cup is second only to that of Dennis Conner,
while not being appointed to the post, was in the skipper’s position
by default, as a result of his being the Sailing Manager.

“The latest move, revealed exclusively
to this writer from an inside source in Auckland, may be seen
as one of identity crisis. Ellison likes to sail on his boats
. . . he is subsequently believed to have found the position
of spending money to promote the fame of another totally intolerable.”

There were reports two weeks ago in Bermuda
that Cayard knew of his ouster but did not tell others until
the end of the Gold Cup (which fellow Oracle teammate Peter Holmberg
won with Cayard as tactician/bowman). There was reportedly an
outcry from teammates, and a reinstatement. If that’s true, Cayard’s
return to the boat was short-lived. It looks like Holmberg will
likely be the Oracle helmsman.

Fisher’s complete article is available
at:
http://sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=350

For an interview with Ellison, check out
Ultimate Sailing’s “Best in the West” hosted by Gary
Jobson on Sunday, November 4, at 3:00pm PDT on ESPN2. This 30-minute
program highlights the best West Coast sailors and events over
the past year. Special features also include the TransPac, Congressional
Cup, and Ensenada Race.

New Pacific Ocean Yacht Races

November 2 – San Francisco and San Diego

CrossPac Ventures, based in San Francisco,
today announced the first running
of a new shorthanded ocean race in summer 2003, with singlehanded
and doublehanded divisions.

Participating in the organization of CrossPac
are the Golden Gate Yacht Club, Waikiki Yacht Club, Hawaii Yacht
Club, Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (Sydney), Singlehanded Sailing
Society of SF Bay and the Shorthanded Sailing Association of
Australia.

The first CrossPac will start on June 7,
2003, at the Golden Gate YC. The first leg will take racers 2,100
miles to Diamond Head on Oahu. Leg 2 begins on July 1 and takes
the fleet across the equator, past Fiji, and just south of New
Caledonia. The fleet will sail through the Tasman Sea to finish
in Pittwater, on Broken Bay just north of Sydney, Australia.
This will be the longest shorthanded race that is not a circumnavigation.

Race Director Alan Hebert adds, “We
designed the race to provide an event that sailors from all around
the Pacific Rim could take part in. From the very beginning the
race was conceived as an event that would attract both serious
corinthian sailors as well as professionals. I can’t think of
a better way to cap an offshore sailing career, or to qualify
for the Vendée Globe or Around Alone.”

Hebert can be reached by
email. You can see their Web site at www.CrossPac.org.

Another new TransPacific Race, this one
for crewed yachts, Silver Gate Yacht Club’s Gateway to Hawaii,
will go from San Diego to Nawiliwili Bay on the island of Kauai,
a distance of 2,323 nautical miles. This newest of the biennial
Pacific races will start on June 25, 2002, and will run on even
years at roughly the same time as the Pacific Cup, alternating
years with Southern California’s TransPac. Projected classes
range from ULDB and PHRF to Double-Handed and Cruising. Information
on this event is available at www.gatewaytohawaii.org,
or you can call them at (619) 222-1214. Deadline to enter is
February 1, 2002.

Transat Jacques Vabre Starts Tomorrow

November 2 – Le Havre, France

Twelve Open 60s and seven Open 50s will
depart Le Havre for Bahia, Brazil, tomorrow, followed by 14 multihulls
on Sunday, in the 4,340-mile doublehanded Transat Jacques Vabre.
Although this is a popular race with Europeans, no American teams
are entered. For details, see www.jacques-vabre.com.

Among the European sailing stars setting off this weekend are
Alain Gautier (FRA) and Ellen MacArthur (GBR) aboard Kingfisher-Foncia,
seen here practicing off Brittany.
Photo Thierry Martinez

YOTREPS

November 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

November 2 – Caribbean Sea

Michelle is now a hurricane, and hurricane
watches are in effect for the following provinces in Western
Cuba: Pinar del Rio, La Habana, Havana City, Matanzas and the
Isle of Youth. South Florida and the Keys are advised to closely
monitor Michelle’s progress. At 1500 GMT, the center was located
near 17.9N 83.9W, with movement to the north at 3 knots. Maximum
sustained winds have been 65 with gusts to 80. To track Michelle,
see http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/
atlantic/2001/index.html.

Graphic Courtesy Unisys
Weather

November 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 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.