'Lectronic Index

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Photos of the Day

June 2 - Gulf of the Farallones

Photo Erik Simonson/www.h2oshots.com

Today's Photo of the Day is of Tom Sanborn's Santa Cruz 52 City Lights heading out the sloppy Golden Gate a week ago on the start of the San Francisco YC to Monterey Peninsula YC Spinnaker Cup.

This was an all-time great year for the Spinnaker Cup for a bunch of reasons: 1) The conditions were near perfect, with winds gusting to over 25 knots going out the Gate, easing off a bit, and then blowing as hard around the always windy Davenport area. 2) It was an all-time record fleet, with 53 entries! And, 3) Lani Spund and his crew aboard the Santa Cruz 53 Kokopelli 2 made great use out of the conditions to set a new race course record of 7 hours and 24 minutes, beating the '04 record set by Mark Jones' TP-52 Flash.

Nonetheless, the outstanding performance went to Carmel Valley's Tim Cordrey and his Monterey Bay/Santa Cruz crew aboard the Henderson 30 Sea Saw. They not only kept up with the 50-footers all the way to the finish, but completed the 90-mile course having averaged 10.4 knots. Well done!

PHRO 1A: City Lights, Tom Sanborn, SC 52 (5 boats)
PHRO 1: Pegasus XIV, Dan Newland, Newland 37 (28 boats)
PHRO 2: Shaman, Steve Waterloo, Cal 40 (7 boats)
MORA: Sea Saw, Tim Cordrey, Henderson 30 (7 boats)
Doublehanded: Sleeping Dragon, Mark Halman and Mr. Fricke, Hobie 33 (5 boats)
Singlehanded: Eyrie, Synthia Petroka, Hawkfarm 28 (1 boat)

Onboard the Andrews 56 Delicate Balance
Photo Larry Fogelquist

Chandlery Owners Busted for Drug Smuggling

June 2 - Panama

Our sources in Panama tell us that the owners of Nautipesca, one of Panama's largest marine retailers, with stores downtown and at Flamenco Marina, has been shut down, and that the Panamanian and Colombian owners have been jailed on charges of drug smuggling. According to reports, the owners used both their yachts and a submarine to smuggle the contraband.

Yachting Karma

June 2 - San Francisco Bay

Fred Minning making a deposit in the Bank of Yachting Karma.
Photo Fred Minning

The boating community has a long history of helping one another and, thankfully, we have yet to succumb to the apathy that Mt. Everest climbers have shown in recent days. This spirit of selflessness was perfectly illustrated by Fred Minning aboard his Peterson 34 Svenska during last weekend's Master Mariners Regatta when he came to the aid of the lovely Lydia - nearly on the rocks at Alcatraz - after a dismasting. "We feel very fortunate and grateful to have been there to save the boat and crew," said Minning.

New Sailor in Town Looking for Rides in Races

June 2 - Mill Valley

"Let's see, the spinnaker halyard must go to one of these two."
Photo Latitude/Richard

He's Herb McCormick, former sailing writer for the New York Times, former editor of Cruising World, and as of yesterday the new Editor and Racing Editor at Latitude 38. Having spent his entire life living and sailing in Newport, Rhode Island, Herb wants to jump into the Northern California racing scene headfirst. As such, he's doing the Friday Night Beer Can tonight out of South Beach Harbor, the Wet Wednesday next week at the St. Francis, and is looking for a ride in the Ditch Run to Stockton next weekend. Anybody need an experienced hand?

John Arndt's Complete Memorial Day Sailing Weekend - and Visit with the Mayor of San Francisco

June 2 - San Francisco Bay

We're proud that here at Latitude, our staff are really into sailing. For example, check out what Advertising Manager John Arndt did with his Ranger 33 over the Memorial Day Weekend:

"With a great weekend weather forecast, we started with our regular Friday night race at the Corinthian YC. The northerly breeze whisked us on a reach around Yellow Bluff and back so fast that after finishing we decided to go around again. Little did we know we'd get a DNF because the race committee didn't see our first finish, and thought our second finish was our first.

"Saturday was planned as an afternoon sail with our friends the Krebs, but our trusty Atomic 4 bailed on us. Fortunately, our friend Scott Jackson with the Hylas 54 Aleta had called asking us to join him. So we were able to upgrade our friends' afternoon sail from our 1974 Ranger 33 to this sparkling Hylas - which took us on a leisurely loop around Angel Island for Saturday afternoon.

Aboard Aleta

"Sunday, after miraculously managing to fix the Atomic 4, we were back to join our friends the Tulls with their Beneteau 321 Bella Luna and the Neukranzs with their Catalina 400 Madcat for a cruise to the Cityfront and an overnight at the St. Francis YC guest berths.

Bay Area Youth sailors

Our sail took us to Sausalito, where we checked out the BAYS regatta (see photo above) being run by the San Francisco YC, and then our daughter Sarah took us up to the Sausalito waterfront where we found our advertising customers, Bill and Vicki Burkart, of The Outboard Motor Shop, comfortably settled in at anchor for a few days aboard their Vagabond 47 Blue Heron.

Blue Heron

"After tying up at the St. Francis guest docks, we took a stroll up Crissy Field to watch some more sailing action - kiteboards and windsurfers. Then, it being Memorial Day Weekend, we took a longer walk to the Presidio cemetery, where we got another great view of sailing the Bay.

The Presidio cemetery the day before Memorial Day

"We settled in on the boats for a drink before walking up to Lombard Street for Mexican food at La Barca (keeping with the boating theme). We ran into San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who came over to our table to greet all of us. The six kids in our group - all girls! - were mighty impressed to meet the Mayor of San Francisco in person.

The girls, all vets from last summer's Delta cruise, gathered on the cabin top.
Photos Latitude/John Arndt

"We awoke to perhaps a not-so-rare perfect morning in San Francisco, tucked in at the St. Francis. After a stroll along one of the world's most beautiful waterfronts, we took the early sail back across the Bay to our berth in a very pleasant 12 knots of wind and a flat-water flood to end a perfect Memorial Day weekend under sail. It doesn't get much better."

Seventy-Two Entries for the Singlehanded Sailing Society's In-The-Bay Race Mañana

June 2 - San Francisco Bay

The fleet heads out of Belvedere Cove in last year's ITB Race.
Photo Latitude/Richard

We don't know if our recommending the SSS's In-The-Bay Race in 'Lectronic had anything to do with it, but according to the folks at the Singlehanded Sailing Society, entries for tomorrow's singlehanded/doublehanded event are up nearly 40% to 72 - and there may have been more late entries at the pre-race meeting the other night. That's great, because the In-The-Bay Race is a wonderful event, and the more the merrier.

As it stands now, 15 boats will be singlehanded and 57 will be doublehanded. The boat with the highest handicap is Scott Cyphers' Cal 20 Cheeky Monkey, which rates 267, while Doña de Mallorca's 63-ft cat Profligate has the lowest handicap at 21. But the big question will be, can anybody beat the venerable Hank Easom and his equally venerable 8-Meter Yucca?

The ITB Race course is a fun one, taking the fleet from the Corinthian YC to Yellow Bluff to Blossom Rock, to Blackaller, to Southampton Shoal, and back to the Corinthian.