Latitude 38 - June 2016-2017

from Latitude 38 - June 2016-2017

ON A ROLL Best Running Rigging

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LETTERS

in the first three weeks since the first sign-ups were allowed, more than 90 paid entries were received. Based on the early sign-ups, it could be a big fleet.

⇑⇓ TIPS FOR FIRST-TIMERS

Other than what doesn't need to be said — watch the wind, the sea state, the tides and so forth — do you have any advice for someone exiting the Bay for the first time? My plan is to leave July 1 for a night at Drake's Bay and a night at Bodega Bay, then turn south past the Farallones to Half Moon Bay on my way at a leisurely pace to San Diego.

Rick Huff Fourplay, Cal 2-25

San Diego

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LATITUDE / RICHARD

Rick — Assuming that you're a relatively new sailor, the first bit of advice is that you make sure you know what you're getting into. A lot of folks who have sailed from San Francisco to New Zealand report that the 225 miles from San Francisco to Pt. Conception have been the roughest part of their entire trip. The Tzortzis family on the Lagoon 470 Family Circus, currently headed back to the South Pacific from New Zealand, is the most recent. And a few months ago Ken and Katie Stuber of the Sausalito-based Bristol 32 Sand Dollar told us their passage from San Francisco to Pt. Conception was about the roughest they've had — and they've been out for eight years and have sailed most of the way around the world.

So our first bit of advice is for you to make at least a couple of short trips outside the Gate — maybe just five miles — so that you at least have some idea of what you might be getting into and how much different the ocean is from the Bay.

The second bit of advice is to make sure your boat is ready. About 30 years ago on a whim we bought one of the original Cal 25s — not a Cal 2-25 like yours — which was about 30 years old at the time. We put her on a trailer, drove her to Mexico, and threw her into the water at Puerto Escondido. We hardly paid anything for the boat, so we didn't bother getting a survey or checking her out very thoroughly. As a result, we

If the South Bar and the Potato Patch are breaking, as they are in this photo, don't even dream of taking off.

were hardly surprised when one of the swages on the split backstay failed about a week into the cruise. It was a miracle that we didn't losethe mast. Given the fact that your boat is more than 30 years old, make sure your rigging is up to date and up to snuff.

Fog is another issue you have to be concerned about. If you can't see 100 feet in front of you, what's your strategy for not getting run down? For most sailors without radar, it's staying close to shore. But you need some kind of plan.

What do you do in case of an emergency? Do you have a liferaft or a dinghy you could survive in for a few hours if you had to take to it in rough seas? If not, you have to realize that you're running a considerable risk. We're not saying that we wouldn't necessarily not run the risk of making such a trip without a raft or good dinghy, but we'd understand that we were taking that risk.

We're going to assume that you're going to have a least some kind of device — be it an EPIRB, a Spot Messenger or a DeLorme Messenger — in case you find yourself in an emergency situation. Again, you don't have to have one, but you have to

Page 28 • Latitude 38 • June, 2015

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