Latitude 38 February 2011

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LATITUDE / RICHARD

LETTERS

We're not quite as hard-assed as Patsy is about towing, but speaking as the Grand Poobah, if somebody can't sail their boat downwind to the next port in mild conditions, they should consider themselves to be not qualified for the Ha-Ha.

We have some very good friends who own powerboats, and appreciate that both powerboaters and sailors love being on the water. We're not trying to start a squabble, but we nonetheless think there are some differences between the two groups. One is ecological. Even in the case of sailors who do a lot of motoring in light-air areas, such as parts of Mexico, sailboats tend to be more

Patsy 'no, we won't tow you, but we will show you how to sail your boat' Verhoeven in party mode.

fuel-efficient than motoryachts. Second, it seems to us that sailors tend to be younger, more lively, and more physical than those who cruise on powerboats. In addition, a lifelong delivery skipper who has done both the Ha-Ha and the FUBAR — the latter being a biennialvariation of the Ha-Ha — told us he found two big differences between the two events. The first was that the FUBAR apparently has 'rescue' boats in case a member of their 'sail-less' fleet loses power and needs a tow. Compare that, he said, with the TransPac, Pacific Cup, Singlehanded TransPac, Vic-Maui, the transAtlantic races, the races to Mexico, the Ha-Ha, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, and the Caribbean 1500, none of which has ever had a rescue boat, and all of which expect participants to be both self-sufficient and prepared for problems. The second difference the delivery skipper noticed is that there wasn't as much socializing in the FUBAR. "At the end of each leg, people would mingle a little, but mostly stick to themselves. There was none of the tremendous socializing that occurs in the Ha-Ha."

Mind you, we've never done a FUBAR, have absolutely nothing against the event or any of the participants, and wish them and the event the very best. These are just the observations that a participant wanted to share with us.

It makes no difference to us if you have a 90-ft motorsailer, a 14-ft West Wight Potter, or a 50-ft trawler, just as long as you enjoy yourself, share your joy with others, and be as nice to the ocean as you can be.

⇑⇓WHICH STEVE BROWN?

On page 54 of the December issue, Bob Lorenzi wrote about a singlehander named Steve Brown who was lost off the coast of California in '03 following his second circumnavigation. I hadn’t read about it at the time, but was this the Steve Brown who is/was the son of Jim Brown, designer of the Searunner trimarans? I'm curious, as that Steve Brown caught a passage with us from Key West to the Cayman Islands on our Brown Searunner 37 Samuel S. Lewis in the mid-'80s. Bob Lanham Planet Earth

Bob — We doubt that it was the same Steve Brown for two reasons: 1) It seems unlikely that the son of multihull designer would do a circumnavigation in a vessel as slow as a Bingham 32, and 2) The Steve Brown in question circumnavigated the first time from '85 to '89.

The then-54-year-old Brown went missing in July of '03 on a passage from San Diego to Morro Bay. His last log entry was made on July 8, and 20 days later his Nor'West 33 was found drifting 800 miles off the coast with nobody aboard.

Page 60 • Latitude 38 • February, 2011

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February, 2011 • Latitude 38 • Page 61