...ON THE BAY THAN A LEISURELY TRIP DOWN THE ESTUARY, WITH THE WIND AT YOUR BACK.
Sails flaked and bound, and all the canvas already securely in place when you dock, you’ll be ready to kick back with a drink and watch the sunset. No fuss, no muss.
Grand Marina — there is no better place.
Ask about our 43' slip promos. If you are a current tenant, find out how referring a friend can get you a month free!
F Prime deep water double-fingered concrete slips from 30’ to 100’.
F Guest berthing available for a weekend or any day getaway.
F Complete bathroom and shower facility, heated and tiled.
F Free pump-out station open 24/7.
F Full-service Marine Center and haul-out facility.
F Free parking.
F Free on-site WiFi.
And much more...
Directory of Grand Marina Tenants
Alameda Canvas and Coverings
Alameda Marine Metal Fabrication
Atomic Tuna Yachts
BAE Boats
Boat Yard at Grand Marina, The Blue Pelican Marine
MarineLube
510.865.1200
Leasing Office Open Monday thru Saturday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 2099 Grand Street, Alameda, CA 94501
www.grandmarina.com
Mike Elias Boatworks
Mosely’s Café
New Era Yachts
Pacifi c Crest Canvas
UK Sailmakers
67’
(3) 42' AquaLodge Houseboats 2020 - $115,000 ea. Mark Miner (415) 290-1347
64’
Emery
55’
45’
40’
Thoughtfully designed and beautifully finished inside and out, the Aqua Lodge features fiberglass pontoons, a wood-beamed lofted ceiling, a fully appointed galley, and a full bath with residential-sized fixtures. The main salon is open and bright, while the master stateroom features a panoramic water view and a private deck. With the cost of building on the waterfront ever increasing, the Aqua Lodge is an affordable alternative. We currently have three (3) identical Floating Cottages available at $115,000. each. These are new houseboats that have never been used. With the acquisition of all three one could start a unique Air B&B type business in a nice location.
NOTE: There is no propulsion included. An outboard engine could be installed on the bracket but, these boats are not equipped with any propulsion. They would need to be towed or trucked to their destination.
48’ C&C LANDfALL, 1982 $110,000
Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
42’
38’
Thoughtfully
40’ SALAR 40, 1975 $115,000
Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
37’ RAfIkI CUTTER, 1978
Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
wood-beamed lofted ceiling, a fully appointed galley, and a full bath with residential-sized fixtures. The main salon is open and bright, while the master stateroom features a panoramic water view and a private deck. With the cost of building on the waterfront ever increasing, the Aqua Lodge is an affordable alternative. We currently have three (3) identical Floating Cottages available at $115,000. each. These are new houseboats that have never been used. With the acquisition of all three one could start a unique Air B&B type business in a nice location.
NOTE: There is no propulsion included. An outboard engine could be installed on the bracket but, these boats are not equipped with any propulsion. They would need to be towed or trucked to their destination.
Apr. 1-3 — Small Boat Instructor Level 1 course, San Diego YC. Info, www.ussailing.org.
Apr. 3-24 — StFYC Wednesday Yachting Luncheon, via YouTube, noon. Archived at https://tinyurl.com/3kbp3vdh
Apr. 6 — Safety at Sea Hands-On Seminar, Encinal YC, Alameda, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. $300. PCYC, https://pacificcup.org
Apr. 6 — NorCal Dockwalker Refresher Training, online, 10-11:30 a.m. Info, http://tinyurl.com/5edu6tta.
Apr. 6-27 — Small Boat Sailing, South Beach Harbor, San Francisco, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, weather permitting. Free, but sign up in advance. BAADS, www.baads.org/sailing
Apr. 7-28 — Keelboat Sailing, South Beach Harbor, San Francisco, noon-5 p.m. Sundays, weather permitting. Free, but sign up in advance. BAADS, www.baads.org/sailing
Apr. 11 — NorCal Dockwalker Training, online, 9-11:45 a.m. Info, http://tinyurl.com/5edu6tta.
Apr. 12 — Oil Spill Response Workshop for Marinas & Yacht Clubs, Coronado YC or online, 9:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Free. Register, Vivian.Matuk@coastal.ca.gov
Apr. 12-13 — Spring Fling, Svendsen's Marine, Alameda. Info, www.springflingboatshow.com.
Apr. 12-14 — Ocean Film Festival, Cowell Theater, San Francisco. Info, https://intloceanfilmfest.org
Apr. 13 — Southbound Cruising Seminar, Spring Fling, Svendsen's Marine, Alameda, 1 p.m. With Pat and Carole McIntosh. Info, www.springflingboatshow.com.
Apr. 13 — Folk Cabaret, Spaulding Marine Center, Sausalito, 6-9 p.m. Live music featuring the Hot Clams and more. $15-$25. Info, www.spauldingcenter.org.
Apr. 13 — SoCal Dockwalker Training, Silver Gate YC, San Diego, 10 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Info, http://tinyurl.com/5edu6tta.
Apr. 13-14 — Whalefest, Old Fisherman's Wharf & Custom House Plaza, Monterey. Interactive exhibits, symposium, live music, art demos, research & rescue vessels, wharf walks, Abalone Races. Info, www.montereywharf.com
Apr. 13-15— Small Boat Instructor Level 1 course, ABYC, Long Beach. Info, www.ussailing.org.
Apr. 14 — Second Sunday Work Party, Sausalito Community Boating Center, 9 a.m.-noon. Nick, (415) 992-1234 or www.sausalitoboatingcommunity.org
Apr. 14, 28 — Sunday Sailing on Santa Monica Bay, Burton Chace Park Clubhouse, Marina del Rey, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $15. Info, www.marinasundaysailors.org
Apr. 15-22 — Ocean Film Festival, online. Info, https:// intloceanfilmfest.org.
Apr. 18-21 — Newport Beach International Boat Show, Lido Marina Village. Info, www.nbibs.com.
Apr. 20 — Swap Meet, Berkeley YC, 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Info & booth reservations, swapmeet@berkeleyyc.org
Apr. 20 — Opening Day, Treasure Island Sailing Center, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sailing, kayaking, paddleboarding. Free. Info, www.tisailing.org
Apr. 20 — Tall Ship Celebration, Call of the Sea, Sausalito, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Ship tours, demos, exhibits, live music, food & drinks for sale. Free. Info, www.callofthesea.org.
Apr. 20 — NorCal Dockwalker Training, Oakland YC, Alameda, 10 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Info, http://tinyurl.com/5edu6tta
Apr. 23 — Earth Day.
Apr. 23 — Full Pink Moon on a Tuesday.
Apr. 25 — SoCal Dockwalker Refresher Training, online, 2-3:30 p.m. Info, http://tinyurl.com/5edu6tta.
Apr. 27 — Swap Meet, Stockton Sailing Club, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Info, (209) 603-4920.
Apr. 27 — Berkeley Bay Festival, Berkeley Marina, 11
• Proper PropSpeed Application
• How much coverage do you need
We have a chance to name the n ew park at Alameda Marina "Svendsen Maritime Park" in honor of Svend Svendsen and the legacy of Svendsen's Boat Works. If you have stories or memories of how Svend or the boat works made a di fference in the community, in innovation, or in your l i fe, we'd love to hear them. Your stories can help ensure the park carr ies a name that reflects the true spirit of Alameda's maritime heritage.
• How the boat works fostered a love for sailing and the sea in many of us.
• Stories of innovation, like the development of eco-friendly boatyard practices.
• The impact Svend had on individuals' careers and lives, inspiring entrepreneu rship and apassion for craftsmanship.
Every story helps, no matter how big or small. Let's make sure the park celebrates a legacy that has touched so many lives. Please email your stories to Justin Long at jlong@alamedaca.gov and please also copy Svend's daughter, Sabrina at svendere11a510@gmail.com.
Thank you so much for your help in honoring Svend!
• Memories of community events or initiatives Svend supported. Bring
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Guest
*Shorter wait time for some sizes
Temporary
After Hours Security
Temporary Subleases Available
After Hours Security
South Guest Dock for Charters
South Guest Dock for Charters Convenient Access to Public Transportation
a.m.-4 p.m. Live music & entertainment, food vendors. Free. Info, www.berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events
Apr. 27 — Open House/Introductory Sail, Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, www.cal-sailing.org
Apr. 28 — Opening Day on the Bay. Info, www.picya.org.
May 4 — Island-Wide Open House, eight Alameda YCs, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Free. Info, https://tinyurl.com/yc657wcj
May 4 — Swap Meet, Point San Pablo YC, Richmond, 8 a.m.-noon. Marine gear, etc. Free. Info, www.pspyc.org
May 4 — SoCal Dockwalker Training, Shoreline YC, Long Beach, 10 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Info, http://tinyurl.com/5edu6tta.
May 4-5 — US Sailing Girls' Skiff Clinic in 29ers, Belvedere. SFYC, https://theclubspot.com/regatta/HDRGXF56Hc.
May 12 — Mother's Day.
May 16-19 — Pacific Sail & Power Boat Show, Westpoint Harbor in Redwood City. Info, https://pacificboatshow.com.
Racing
Mar. 30 — Anne McCormack Invitational Cup for all-women crews. SFYC, www.sfyc.org
Mar. 30 — Rites of Spring for Singlehanded, Doublehanded, and fully crewed boats. OYC, www.oaklandyachtclub.net
Apr. 3, 10 — J/22 Spring Series. StFYC, www.stfyc.com
Apr. 5-7 — Etchells Midwinters West. SDYC, www.sdyc.org.
Apr. 6 — America's Schooner Cup Charity Race, San Diego. Benefits the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. Silver Gate YC, www.americasschoonercup.org.
Apr. 6 — 70th El Toro Bullship Race, Sausalito to San Francisco. RYC, www.richmondyc.org.
Apr. 6 — Don Wan Regatta. TYC, www.tyc.org
Apr. 6 — Spring Regatta. SeqYC, www.sequoiayc.org
Apr. 6 — North Bay Series #1. VYC, www.vyc.org.
Apr. 6 — Trans-Folsom Regatta. FLYC, www.flyc.org
Apr. 6 — Andy Byrd Race. CPYC, www.cpyc.com.
Apr. 6, 20, May 4 — Spring Series. SSC, www.stocktonsc.org.
Apr. 6, 20, May 11 — Spring Series. CYC, www.cyc.org
Apr. 6, May 4 — Mercury & Snipe NorCal Series on the Estuary. EYC, www.encinal.org
Apr. 6-7 — Spring Fest/Stone Cup. StFYC, www.stfyc.com
Apr. 6-7 — Wheeler Regatta. BYC, www.berkeleyyc.org.
Apr. 6-7 — Opti Harken #2 (youth). SFYC, www.sfyc.org
Apr. 6-7 — California Dreamin' Match Racing Series. LBYC, www.lbyc.org
Apr. 6-7 — NorCal High School Champs. PYSF, www.pysf.us
Apr. 7 — Final Sunday Brunch Race on the Estuary. OYC, www.oaklandyachtclub.net
Apr. 7 — Ron Byrne Estuary Cup. EYC, www.encinal.org
Apr. 12-14 — Ocean-Great Lakes Challenge for Shields in Monterey. MPYC, www.mpyc.org
Apr. 13 — Doublehanded Farallones Race. BAMA, www. sfbama.org
Apr. 13 — South Bay Bridge Series. Info, www.jibeset.net
Apr. 13 — Spring Series, Browns Marina, Folsom Lake. FLYC, www.flyc.org
Apr. 13 — Singlehanded/Doublehanded #1. BenYC, www. beniciayachtclub.org.
Apr. 13, May 11 — In the Bay Series. YRA, www.yra.org
Apr. 13, May 11 — Summer Series #1 & 2. SeqYC, www. sequoiayc.org
Apr. 13-14 — Big Dinghy Regatta for non-foiling centerboarders and Wylie Wabbits. RYC, www.richmondyc.org.
Apr. 13-14 — RS21 2v2 Team Race Invitational. EYC, www.encinal.org
Apr. 14 — Single/Doublehanded Series. SeqYC, www. sequoiayc.org
Micah Rose is a robust, proven 46-foot aluminum passagemaker from the design board of Graham Radford. Relatively narrow beam and stability ensure excellent seakindliness and comfortable passagemaking. An extended pilothouse provides exceptional visibility, perfect for cruising the Alaskan waters she currently calls home. Micah Rose has cruised the Paci c to New Zealand and back, and has served as a comfortable Alaska home for a family of four for two years. Micah Rose has been diligently cared for by her hands-on owner and features upgraded electronics and a newer Yanmar diesel with only 1300 hours. This is a rare opportunity to step into a well designed and built, go-anywhere aluminum cruiser. The pilothouse setup is perfect for cruising the beautiful areas of the world that may not always have the driest and warmest weather!
– KURT HOENHE
6/14, 6/28, 7/19, 8/2, 8/16, 9/6. Paul, (415) 867-9022, www.ggyc.org or www.jibeset.net
ISLAND YC — Fridays, Spring Island Nights: 4/12, 4/26, 5/10, 5/24, 6/7, 6/21. Ed, (775) 336-7398, www.iyc.org or www.jibeset.net.
KONOCTI BAY SC — OSIRs (Old Salts in Retirement) every Wednesday at noon, year round. Info, www.kbsail.org
LAKE WASHINGTON SC — Every Thursday night: 4/210/3. Mark, owing78@yahoo.com or www.lwsailing.org
LAKE YOSEMITE SA — Every Thursday Night: May-Sept. Dennis, (209) 722-1947 or www.lakeyosemitesailing.org.
MONTEREY PENINSULA YC — Sunset Series, every Wednesday through 9/25. Mark, (831) 236-5191 or www. mpyc.org
OAKLAND YC — Sweet 16 Series, every Wednesday: 5/18/28. Debby, (510) 390-1620, www.oaklandyachtclub.net or www.jibeset.net
RICHMOND YC — Every Wednesday: 4/3-9/25. Fred, (510) 612-2426 or www.richmondyc.org
ST. FRANCIS YC — Wednesday Evening Series for Knarrs, Folkboats & J/22s: 5/8-6/26 & 7/31-8/14. J/22 Summer Series, Wednesdays: 7/10, 7/17, 7/24. Thursday Night Foiling Kite, Windsurf, Wing: 4/18-6/27 & 7/18-8/22. Friday Night Foiling Windsurf, Wing: 4/26, 5/17, 6/7, 7/19, 8/16. Info, (415) 563-6363 or www.stfyc.com
SANTA CRUZ YC — Every Tuesday night through 11/5. Every Wednesday night through 10/30. Info, www.scyc.org
SAUSALITO YC — Thursday night Spring Sunset Series: 5/2, 5/16, 5/30, 6/13. Info, www.sausalitoyachtclub.org.
SEQUOIA YC — Sunset Series, every Wednesday 4/310/2. Andrew, (408) 858-8385, www.sequoiayc.org or www.jibeset.net.
SOUTH BEACH YC — Spring Friday Night Series: 4/196/21. Mike, (650) 823-1131 or www.southbeachyachtclub.org.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE WINDJAMMERS YC — Every Wednesday night: 6/12-9/18. Sam, (530) 318-3068 or www. sltwyc.com.
STOCKTON SC — Every Wednesday night: 6/5-8/28. Andy, (209) 483-3677 or www.stocktonsc.org
TAHOE YC — Monday night Lasers: 5/27-8/26. Dick Ferris Summer Beer Can Series, every Wednesday: 5/29-8/28. Dan, (530) 583-9111 or www.tahoeyc.com.
TIBURON YC — Friday Night Spring Series: 5/10-6/14. Rob, (415) 577-7199 or www.tyc.org.
TREASURE ISLAND SC — Thursday night Vanguard 15 races: 4/25 (tune-up), 5/2-9/5. Info, https://vanguard15.org.
VALLEJO YC — Every Wednesday night: 4/3-9/25. Mark, (916) 835-2613, www.vyc.org or www.jibeset.net
Apr. 26-28 — Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race, with alternative destination of San Diego. NOSA, www.nosa.org
June 16 — Grandes Navegantes, clockwise race around Todos Santos Islands, Ensenada. Trophy donated by Ramón Carlín, Mexican winner of the first Whitbread Race. Club Náutico Baja, https://clubnauticobaja.mx
June 21-24 — Tahiti Moorea Sailing Rendez-Vous. Latitude 38 sponsors. Info, www.tahiti-moorea-sailing-rdv.com.
July 15 — First Pacific Cup starts, San Francisco-Kaneohe, Oahu. PCYC, https://pacificcup.org
Oct. 6 — Todos Santos Regatta, Ensenada. Counterclockwise race around Todos Santos Islands. Club Náutico Baja, https://clubnauticobaja.mx or clubnauticobaja@gmail.com.
Nov. 4-16 — Baja Ha-Ha XXX (but still PG-rated), San Diego to Cabo San Lucas with stops in Turtle Bay and Bahia
Is Ba ck In The B ay Are a !
MAY 16-19, 2024
Westpoint Harbor
Redwood City, CA
Show Venue at Westpoint Harbor, Redwood City, CA
Booth Exhibitors
In-Water Displays of the Newest Sail and Power Cruising Boats
Quality Brokerage Boats (Sail & Power)
Expert Seminars to Expand Your Knowledge
Spec ial Events to Include Classic Yachts on Display During the Show
The Club at Westpoint and the Hurrica Restaurant and Bar
Santa Maria. Info, www.baja-haha.com
Please send your calendar items by the 10th of the month to calendar@latitude38.com. Please, no phone-ins! Calendar listings are for marine-related events that are free or don't cost much to attend. The Calendar is not meant to support commercial enterprises.
April Weekend Tides
Weekend Currents
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⇑⇓ aCSC awarded "OutStanding COmmunity Sailing PrOgram" by uS Sailing
It is great to be recognized by US Sailing for an award.
Alameda Community Sailing Center has come a long way in 10 short years! From four sail cubes to nearly 60 sailboats and eight powerboats that support teaching upward of 70 kids a day in our summer sailing camps. They have a blast.
It has taken a lot of work from some very dedicated people who keep the center going, and we're grateful to our very generous individual supporters who believe it can be done. A big thank you to West Coast businesses that support us, such as Berkeley Marine Center, KKMI, West Coast Sailing and VELA LA, who support us with boat maintenance and regatta sponsorship. There are also local and state foundations, the St. Francis Sailing Foundation, Olympic Club Foundation, Master Mariners Benevolent Foundation, TK Foundation, The Seibel Sailing Program, and state funds from Department of Boating and Waterways, as well as Whale's Tail Grants [from the California Costal Commission]. These organizations have given us scholarship funds, or helped us purchase boats.
But most importantly, thanks to all the folks that participated and put the "community" in our sailing center. Onward to the next 10 years and beyond. We have some great plans, and we are always looking for volunteers to help develop this wonderful sailing center, from day to day operations to long-range planning. Reach out to us at www. sailalameda.org/volunteer.html if you want to get involved. If you would like to donate, please go to www.sailalameda. org/donatesupport.html
ACSC is about introducing non-boating people to sailing and giving them access to the Bay. There is no membership — it's open to everyone. If you know how to sail and don't have a boat, come on down on a Saturday and rent a boat. If you would like to learn to sail, dinghies are the best way; sign up for our Learn to Sail course.
It's all on our website www.sailalameda.org
Mike Bishop
Alameda Community Sailing Center
Mike was commenting on the February 5 'Lectronic Latitude: West Coast Sailing Youth Programs Win US Sailing
“A
Synthia Petroka
510.205.9412
spetroka@ullmansails.com
Awards. US Sailing also recognized Paul Lang of the Mission Bay Aquatic Center, in San Diego, for Outstanding Organizational Leader. "Lang has led a staff of almost 50 sailing instructors and over 90 more wakeboarding, surfing, and paddling instructors to teach watersports activities to over 40,000 participants at Mission Bay Aquatic Center," US Sailing said.
⇑⇓ KudOS, KudOS
Very happy that ACSC has received this recognition after its first decade. Kudos to the ACSC board, staff, and all the families and children who are now sailing alumni. Cheers!
Ariane Pauldhodges@ullmansails.com
Ullman
Robin
465
UllmanSailsSausalito@gmail.com
⇑⇓ three CheerS fOr marie rOgerS
Marie Rogers is just great! That coming from a San Franciscan to a Southern Californian. Marie never stops or even stalls in how she stimulates our interest in sailing. I started my fanaticism on San Francisco Bay when we only counted four other "Bloods" [People of Color] out under sail. So, that aspect of sailing has come a long way.
I left to go to the Caribbean to document our heritage and contributions to sailing, which produced one published book and a lot of local articles, as well as three maritime heritage sailing organizations. We have a long history under sail that still remains basically invisible.
⇑⇓ KudOS, KudOS
H.e. Ross
Calstock, United Kingdom
I am a BIG FAN of Marie Rogers and what she is doing for all of us in sailing.
Jim Thweatt
⇑⇓ SuPer Sail Sunday at Cal Sailing Club
Cal Sailing deserves a lot of credit for carrying on a great tradition of inclusive sailing for everyone who has a curiosity that may lead to a lifelong love affair. It's apparent many young people are taking up small-boat sailing as larger boats may be too expensive — or maybe not wanted at all!
Just go sailing!
Linda Newland East Bay
Linda was commenting on the February 12 'LL with the same name as this letter.
⇑⇓ a Seminal Sailing Center
Joining Cal Sailing was one of the most productive events of my time in Berkeley. I met many terrific people from all walks of life and shared many local sailing adventures over the years. Cal Sailing led me to Bay racing, ocean racing, long-distance bluewater trips and directed the (non-sailing) path for the rest of my life. I'll admit my heart was in my throat the first time I approached "the shed" but that quickly disappeared thanks to great folks.
Releasing sewage into waterways while boating or fishing spreads disease, harms aquatic life and, bo om line, it is just plain gross. Learn more about how sewage a ects the environment and download the free Pumpout Nav app today.
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⇑⇓ anOther Small SteP tO SOmething bigger
When I came to San Francisco in 1982 from Seattle I wanted to take up sailing. A roommate directed me to Cal Sailing Club. (It was also warmer in Berkeley.)
I went there most weekends and developed an active, fun group of friends and tackled essential sailing skills. This was my start to a lifetime of Bay racing, ocean racing and international cruising. I'm glad others are still enjoying this welcoming club.
Mary Lovely⇑⇓ tO bOldly gO where many yOung SailOrS have gOne befOre
My late husband sailed a small 13-ft boat, the Enterprise class, out of Alamitos Bay YC in Long Beach Harbor in the late 1950s amd '60s. His friend's father built these boats for his teenage sons so friends could learn to sail and race. My parents also had a small 20-ft sloop called the Viking class that they raced in Newport Beach in the late '50s. My little sister and I crewed on this sailboat and won many races.
I also raced Sabots and Snowbirds in Newport with my teenage friends. What fun! Thanks for the chance to share some great times!
Nancy PetersonNancy was commenting on the February 7 'Lectronic Latitude: Latitude Nation Loves Their Dinghies and the Childhood Memories They Stir.
"Instantly recognizable with its distinctive light blue sails, the Enterprise class now has over 23,000 registered boats around the world, from Australia to Canada, Sri Lanka to South Africa, and Thailand to Ireland," said www.yachtsandyachting.com of the now 68-year-old Enterprise dinghy class.
⇑⇓ dinghieS, legendS and mOney
Regarding When Small Boats Ruled the Bay and the World in the January 19 'Lectronic Latitude:
My absolute favorite sailing was on beach catamarans in the Gulf of Mexico out of the Clearwater, Florida, area. Those boats sail really fast, and "flying a hull" was a blast, I was right on the water — so, for one thing, when I saw a dolphin, I was only a few feet away — and I gladly, constantly got splashed. (The air and water were a constant 90 degrees during the day.) Sailing keelboats is a great pleasure as well, but it's very different, and in some ways — at least for me — not as satisfying.
I totally agree with the Sterling Hayden quote in Jorge Lavorerio's letter in your March edition, with one big exception: Why does he link everything to money? When you're on the high seas and a squall hits, it doesn't make a bit of difference whether you're a billionaire or poor. I quit a $11.10/hour job to sail from Berkeley to Tahiti (and back via Hawaii) in 1995. So Hayden is right that you don't have to have a lot of money to sail. But you do generally have to have a lot of money to own, outfit, and maintain a boat for offshore sailing, and at $11.10/hour, you can easily guess that I didn't own the boat on which I sailed to Tahiti, nor the boat on which I sailed back. What it took for me to crew on these boats was dedication to and love of sailing.
But that said, Hayden claims that if you leave home with money in the bank, you won't have anything but a "routine traverse" of the ocean(s). I couldn't disagree more strongly. Some of the others on the boats to and from Tahiti had a lot of money — far more than I'll ever have — but our sailing experiences were not affected by those differences at all (that I know of). I think that Hayden fell into the all-too-common trap of making everything in life about money, albeit in an inverse way.
Instead of obsessing on having money, Hayden obsessed on not having it. While the latter is far better both for the Earth and spiritually, how about just forgetting about money and focusing instead on the sailing and the adventure?
Jeff Hoffman OaklandIn the March letter Jeff is referring to, Sterling Hayden was quoted as saying: "To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about." It's a wonderful sentiment about how money can't buy happiness or adventure.
We appreciate eschewing money to chase the romance of adventure, but it's an incredibly privileged position. Imagine saying to the billions of desperately impoverished people in the world, "Just don't worry about money, then you'll understand what the good life is all about."
⇑⇓ Still hailing Sterling hayden
Sterling's book Wanderer just might be my favorite book of all time.
It's essentially an autobiography that he compiled while sailing to the South Pacific and breaking contracts with the movie studios — and taking his children with him in the middle of a custody battle. The book reflects on his early life during the Depression, then working his way to the East Coast to work on ships. He wore many hats in his life, including being involved with the OSS during WWII. It's a real
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page-turner.
Sailor first, then a reluctant actor. Fantastic writer.
Jeffersön Asbury
When he enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942, Sterling Hayden "wanted to be seen as just another leatherneck" and not recognized as an actor, according to the Warfare History Network. Hayden eventually "served with distinction as a clandestine operative for the Office of Strategic Services," or OSS. First stationed in Cairo, Hayden went on to serve in eastern Italy, where he "took command of a fleet of 14 schooners, two brigantines, and six ketches manned by 400 male and female Yugoslav partisans. Their task was to ferry needed weapons, equipment, and other supplies across the Adriatic Sea to Marshal Josip Broz Tito's guerrillas," who were battling German forces in the former Yugoslavia.
Jeffersön Asbury — There aren't many books out there with such profound influences on people like you and me. I read Wanderer during those years I spent building Sun Flower and, to be honest, that book kept me going. I can't describe the ache and the longing for the sea that I experienced during that time of my life — and a good part of that was sustained by Sterling's book.
Thanks for reminding me of those special years.
Lew Decker Sun FlowerI am just finishing Sterling Hayden's Voyage, and its one of those books that, as I get closer to the end, I read slower as I don't want it to end!
Chris Tucker Planet Ocean
I read Hayden's book, as well as Slocum and several survival-at-sea stories, when I arrived on the West Coast from Michigan in 1976. I was working at Mitchell Sails at the time. Those were some days.
Anne Schreiber Thomas Latitude Nation
I'm not sure of the exact quotes or charges, but I recall reading that Hayden had to show up in court after he got back, charged by his ex-wife for — as I remember — "kidnapping" his kids for that voyage.
The judge called it a "regrettable incident." Sterling called it "the best year of my life."
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⇑⇓ we COntinue the diSCuSSiOn abOut deStinatiOn: lOS angeleS/lOng beaCh
Regarding Long Beach and L.A. Harbor being welcoming to cruisers: My experience has been positive visiting Shoreline Harbor. However, the overall combined ports are way too busy 24/7 for a comfortable anchorage.
It's really nice to be close to the shops and bars at Rainbow Harbor, which is walking distance from Shoreline. Also, the Long Beach Grand Prix a real treat — a fun event right on Ocean Street, in front of the docks.
However, when applying for berthing 10 years ago, I was shocked that my registration wasn't sufficient for boat-size info. Two people from the office came out and measured,with a tape measure, every inch of the Island Cove, including the LOA and beam, precisely. I made out well cause my dimensions were under the stated proportions on the registration. I'm sure [the rules were] intended for sailboats with non folding bowsprits.
I took my good luck happily, leery of future overcharges.
Captain Joe Carter Osaka, Japan⇑⇓ regarding red rOCK
Red Rock? Last time I was there was probably 40 years ago. A friend had asked me to go along with him on his Cal 27. It was a blustery, miserable day.
We tucked into the cove between the rock and the bridge and inflated the little dink. I think we had to make three or four trips. Seems there were four of us and we could only move two at a time. It was all pretty miserable and damp and pretty typical S.F. weather on a foggy, gusty day.
None of us had ever been to the top before — we had heard there were one or two old mines to explore. As we lumbered up, we disturbed lots of gulls. They were nesting and obviously thought we were an intrusion. At some point nearing the top, we started warming up. It warmed up and up and up.
We looked out at the miserable, choppy seas and everything being blown by the stiff breeze, but we adventurers, nearing the top of this miserable rock, were sweating and warm. Birds were flying everywhere and squawking. They were over our heads and soaring up and coming back to scare us away as we finally reached the top and discovered we had found a heavenly spot of warmth at the very top of Red Rock.
It was lovely.
We worried about disturbing all the birds. Might have
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Red Rock is currently for sale for $25 million, and our readers have wondered what the best use for the tiny island might be. Perhaps it's already realizing its highest-best use as a bird sanctuary and bizarre and endlessly charming feature of San Francisco Bay.
been a few terns, but predominantly it was upset gulls protecting nesting areas. And it was warm and quiet. The updraft, right up at the top, made for a warm picnic spot.
We dried out, had a lovely view — even if part of it was a monster bridge — and smiled at each other because this awful San Franciso day had become a pleasant surprise. None of us were anxious to climb back aboard our little sloop and slog it back to Berkeley, but that's what we did.
I personally hope Red Rock becomes a wonderful bird sanctuary, which is what it was when we clambered up there and disturbed all the birds. Forty-plus years later we still remember what a comfortable, warm place it was on a foggy, windy, miserable, typical summer day in San Francisco.
C. Jeff Breen, V-32 108, Hanuman
⇑⇓ OaKland'S famOuS Sailing watering hOle Quinn'S lighthOuSe ClOSeS
This is sad news — Quinn's Lighthouse will be missed!
My husband and I used to go to Quinn's many years ago. Sometimes we'd take our dinghy over rather than drive from Alameda. One evening, we were sitting by the Estuary-side windows when the old fireboat Hoga steamed by en route to a nearby call. We were thinking, "Please don't stop here and ruin our dinner!" Another time, when our boat was hauled out for work and we were staying at a nearby hotel, our waiter slipped us some small shrimp for a treat for our elderly cat. It was a wonderful place.
Candy S/V Infidel Alameda
Candy was commenting on the February 9 'Lectronic with the same name as this letter.
⇑⇓ a SailOr'S bar
I have fond memories of sitting on the deck throwing peanut shells onto boats tied up below — ours included — and that was circa 1974, but maybe it wasn't named Quinn's. It was a sailor's bar, not an upscale Estuary drinking hole found in Jack London Square.
Linda Newland Oakland
⇑⇓ riChardSOn bay'S iCOniC wOOden yaCht Vadura demOliShed
It's always a sad day when a beautiful classic is not cared for and is neglected to the point where she is a risk to other
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vessels and the environment — and then the only recourse is demolition. I personally have been approached by friends in Europe who were interested in purchasing Vadura not that long ago. Unfortunately, the owner was not interested in selling her! I am certain that if these friends knew of Vadura's demise she would have been saved!
Fortunately, Pursuit escaped the same fate thanks to those in Europe who appreciate the grand yachts of a bygone era!! Thanks to Jeffrey Rutherford too for his dedication to yacht restoration.
The magnificent 'Vadura', as seen in 1934, just eight years after she was launched. The Alfred Mylne-designed 'Vadura' was 91-ft LOD, built of solid teak; her original sail plan was a gaff-rigged yawl. We've heard from a number of sailors whose best days were spent aboard the classic, and whose hearts broke when 'Vadura' was demolished in mid-February.
The same fate is also closing in on the worldfamous four-masted fullrigged ship Falls of Clyde, even though a group from Scotland have been fighting the Hawaiian DOT to have her transported to Scotland for a complete restoration on par with our own beloved Balcutha and C.A Thayer. This is not to mention other significant sailing vessels around the world, whether sailing or as a maritime museum exhibit.
We all need to speak up to save our maritime heritage. Reach out to Friends of the Falls of Clyde and show your support so that she may be saved to the likes of Wavertree, Elissa, Moshulu, Star of India and Glenlee — just to mention a few. (And don't forget Wander Bird which was restored here in our own backyard.) These vessels have been restored under the watchful eye of the Bay Area's unrecognized talents of master riggers Steve Hyman and Jamie White, for example. Help save maritime history!
Captain James T. Linderman Classic Yacht SpecialistCaptain Linderman was commenting on the February 14 'Lectronic with the same name as this letter. You can hear Jeff Rutherford on our Good Jibes podcast: www.latitude38.com/ lectronic/podcast/episode-133
⇑⇓ the many memOrieS Of Sailing abOard Vadura
Sailed on her in 1989 from Port Royal, Jamaica, to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, with a fantastic crew! I'm still in touch with most of them. The best times, the best memories!
Darryll Henderson
⇑⇓ the beSt time Of my life
I was lucky enough to have spent a year on board her, also with Dave Wright as skipper, from 1986/87. To this day, it was the best time of my life.
I joined her for what was to be a charter in Fiji that never happened. I crewed voluntarily to Vanuatu and on to Darwin, Australia, where I then became officially paid crew. We carried on to Fremantle for the America's Cup, and then 'round the bottom to Tasmania and up the east coast. I had to go home, and it was one of my saddest days to leave her.
Many years later, I randomly saw her through the fog, sitting forlornly on a mooring in Sausalito. Just last week, I was there looking for her when friends told me that just a few days prior, she had been hauled out for demolition. My tears flowed and my heart sank, so to speak, as the dream of finding her returned to her glory was crushed.
Vadura, you were a huge piece of my life. Thank you, Grand Lady.
Gillian Tiffin⇑⇓ and many PlaCeS in between I sailed on her for three years from New Zealand all the way to Europe, via Australia — and many places in between — from 1987 to 1990. Such a special boat and time in my life. Thank you to the Callagy family and captain Dave Wright for so many amazing memories. Farewell, Vadura. You did not deserve this end to your story.
Paul Olsen
⇑⇓ the POSt-minnie yearS
Ernie Minnie sold Vadura to Dennis and Lyne Callagy, who sailed her down to Fremantle for the America's Cup in 1986/7. They loved Vadura, and were great owners with a correct sense of stewardship for such a fine classic. I met them in Fremantle and joined them ostensibly to help with a delivery to Sydney via Hobart. I stayed for four years as crew under Dave Wright.
I could go for hours with the stories …
Suffice it to say Vadura returned to San Diego and was put up for sale. She was still fully functional, but irked and worn and in need of a refit. The hope was to find new owners to take on this task for this beautiful old girl. Suffice to say that didn't happen.
The new owners asked me to stay on as skipper, but it was an easy position to decline when, among other things, they discussed removing the mizzenmast to make room for a speedboat, and took a Sawzall into the galley to cut out room for a microwave in the galley forward bulkhead. Yeah, I declined! Shortly after — this is 1991-ish — she made her way up to San Francisco/Sausalito to sit and rot.
She was one of the highlights of my sailing career. Her destruction is so incredibly sad.
Jo Birch On board 'Vadura', somewhere in the South Pacific in the 1980s, as photographed by then owner/captain Ernie Minnie. ernie minnie
⇑⇓ the lOSS Of a lOved One
Vadura was a grand old lady! I was privileged to share 1986/87 aboard with love and passion for her care, sailing in [Freemantle] with special charter guests watching the races, living the dream. I am truly saddened to hear this on Valentine's Day. The loss of a loved one.
Lorraine Willgress⇑⇓ On bOard in her final yearS
Here's my account of Vadura from 2016:
Fortified by provisions from Salito's, I rowed over to this big girl, 105-ft overall. Sailors will open up willingly about their boats if you can manage a compliment or two, and throw in a knowing detail. Almost without exception, their boats are their pride and joy and they would much sooner tell yarns about them than work on the engine.
So the captain of about 40, his mate, and a woman invited me aboard and regaled me with tales of this fancy lady, Vadura, who was built on the Clyde River in Scotland in 1926 with teak-on-iron frames. She had been neglected of late and was gutted inside. The crew were living in a completely open space with thrift-shop furniture, a woodburning stove, and I'm guessing no power. The captain was a painter who liked to dribble paint onto a horizontal canvas as the boat rocked, and let the motion of the sea create the image. They offered me a glass of wine or two — minus the actual glass — and I spent a very pleasant hour hearing stories of the sea.
Tony C. Johnson
Whisper, Catalina 22 San Francisco
⇑⇓ tO her Credit …
I remember Vadura well after having owned Alita, a couple of boats to the north on Richardson Bay. I knew one worker/liveaboard named Tim who helped keep her alive for awhile. I went aboard once and was taken aback at the lack of anything resembling original accoutrements, such as bulkheads or charm. Those days were over.
The owner lived in Bolinas and paid a stipend for any help. At one point, someone went aloft and stripped, sanded and varnished the mast. On rare occasions, she even got a fresh coat of hull paint.
To her credit, Vadura never broke loose, despite decades of neglect. She held up to the elements remarkably well. Sad the French yacht connoisseur never brought 'er home.
Captain Kennedy United States Navy
⇑⇓ an inglOriOuS end tO a glOriOuS veSSel
What a sad story of a great yacht that, as recently as
1984 (or more recent), was still in its glory. I've sailed and motored by this neglected beauty for over 20 years wondering what she may have been like when loved. May she rest in peace now.
Dennis⇑⇓ a true diSgraCe
I had the sad assignment to perform the condemnation survey on the vessel. Going below was a true nightmare. The bulkheads had been torn out of the hull. There was so much debris and detritus below one could barely maneuver. I have never, in over 20 years of doing this work, seen anything like it. A true disgrace.
Captain Rick Whiting⇑⇓ new anChOr Or new attitude?
I just got into a debate about whether it's worth replacing an anchor that's in fine condition for a next-gen design (spoiler: I'm not spending my scant money on something I don't need for safety's sake), but this article answers the best question. I'm definitely going to the good anchorage over the popular one and putting lots of space between me and anyone with a generator on deck.
I love life at anchor. It's home, just like being underway is home.
Dena
Dena was commenting on the January issue's feature story: The Why of Anchoring — Enjoying Life on the Hook.
⇑⇓ billiOnaire lifeStyle: ChamPagne and Caviar with yOur yaChting?
Sailing is not without its hidden costs, but while I affectionately call my new-to-me 1983 30-ft Islander "my yacht," I paid $8,000 for it, and I'm slowly sinking another roughly equivalent amount into keeping her capable of exploring our beautiful Pacific Northwest waters. But the biggest expense for me isn't the boat or the fixing, but the moorage. To keep her near where I live and work is more cash than my first apartment (which, granted, was a drafty attic), which leads me to an expression by a friend of mine, "I work so my boat can have a better life."
The moorage I will pay this year is more than the value of my 20-year-old Honda, so I'm learning to work on the car as well to extend its life as long as possible and thus extend the boat fund. This is worth it to me, of course — I'm eager to forego much to have the boat instead, even the hours I
been
since 1969.
have spent and will spend upside down and contorted in the engine compartment, grunting and sweating and cursing at some rusty bolt or leak or corrosion that I will spend even more hours learning how to properly fix. But I worry that for many, even this simple, sufficient, and yes, amazing "luxury" of sailing an aging, affordable "yacht" is slipping away.
I desperately don't want to see sailing left only as a playground for the very wealthy. As is often the case, the media, aren't very helpful by showing mostly just billionaire yachts; they're helping to bury what isn't dead: The world of sailing that is so much more interesting than perfectly waxed, fast, floating condos with electric winches, red carpet, rolling crews and expensive beverages on board.
Come have a beer with a bunch of sailors of all ages and walks of life after a beer can race. Hear the stories of lifelong liveaboard sailors who have done so much with relatively little. This, more than megayachts, to me, is rich.
Thank you for highlighting this in the article.
Remy Joy
1983 Islander 30 Pacific Northwest
Remy was commenting on the February 21 'LL with the same name as this letter.
⇑⇓ unfOrtunately, Sailing iS beCOming mOre exPenSive and reStriCtive
Unfortunately, with the near elimination of long-term legal anchoring in the "Land of the Free," increased restrictions and expense of living aboard at a slip, our lifestyle is rapidly becoming increasingly the realm of the Rich and Trust Fund babies.
Kevin PorterUnfortunately, many state legislatures think we're all a bunch of rich folks, too!
The Boat Geeks
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The Resourceful Sailor is picking up what you're laying down, Latitude. Having the smallest boat in every anchorage isn't because it's comfortable and high-style. Here in Mexico, the pangas are bigger than a Flicka 20. I can only laugh at people's misconception, invite them to try it, and take bets on how quickly they want off.
Joshua Wheeler, The Resourceful Sailor Sampaguita, 1985 Pacific Seacraft Flicka 20 Pacific Northwest/Mexico
Not even close [to champagne and caviar yachting]. More like Wonder Bread smeared with liverwurst.
Steve Hajnal
To me, sailing is (mostly) relaxing time spent with family and friends. It doesn't matter where (or how far) we go — it's simply time on the water.
Bill CrowleyErewhon, Newport 30-2 Vallejo
⇑⇓ with exPanSiOn Of San franCiSCO marina nOw SCraPPed, the finanCial futureS Of eaSt and weSt harbOr are unCertain
[In the February 16 'Lectronic Latitude with the same name as this letter…] You said that "Rec and Park had
proposed moving boats from East Harbor to an expanded West Harbor so that the former could be cleaned of toxic soil remaining from an old Pacific Gas & Electric plant."
This isn't really accurate.
The point of moving the harbor was not to clean up toxic soils, but to avoid just that. Renovation and continued use of the East Harbor would require dredging, exposing highly toxic soils that are presently "capped" by siltation.
The long background to this proposal is that PG&E is legally responsible for cleaning up its toxic legacy, but strongarmed the city into accepting a much cheaper, faster, and dirtier alternative in the form of financing these new amenities. The savings for PG&E would be in the hundreds of millions if the city takes the bait.
For my own part, I'd rather see it cleaned up and the existing Marina Green views maintained. I'm grateful to the supervisors for intervening—though it remains to be seen how the situation will play out.
Eric S
Eric — Well said. We bought into the city and PG&E's talking point without unravelling what they were really trying to do, or obfuscate. One source told us that Rec and Park had planned to only use 15% of the $190 million settlement for remediation of East Harbor, with the rest going into the expansion of West Harbor. In early February, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to effectively prohibit any enlargement of West Harbor. However, challenging economics, demographics and bureaucracy surround the nearly 700-slip San Francisco Marina, which has the most expensive slips in the Bay, but is currently operating at a loss. (The city is considering raising rates by as much as 30%. West Harbor is also prone to silting — the city spends half a million dollars each year dredging the entrance, but many individual slips have become too shallow for deeper-draft vessels.
East Harbor, also known as Gashouse Cove, is in a horrible state of disrepair. Rather than dredge century-old toxic soil and repair docks, the City of San Francisco's Rec and Park Department proposed removing docks from East Harbor permanently and expanding West Harbor, an idea that both sailors and the marina neighborhood opposed. In response, the S.F. Board of Supervisor passed a bill prohibiting that expansion.
To your point, Eric, we spoke with several people who believe that the city should revisit the settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric. "Rec and Park and the city attorney need to reopen the negotiations with PG&E," said Bruce Stone, the president of the S.F. Harbor Marina Association, a nonprofit that represents berth holders and users of San Francisco Marina. Part of the $190 million settlement included a $60 million no-interest loan. "The settlement should be revised to replace the loan with a further grant from PG&E, and the construction budget must be inflation-adjusted," Stone wrote in a letter to the Board of Supervisors.
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⇑⇓ rOnnie SimPSOn'S SHIPYard BrEWING lOSeS maSt in the SOuth atlantiC, ending hiS glObal SOlO Challenge
If I'm not mistaken, Shipyard Brewing began life as Newcastle Australia, competing in the BOC race in 1994/95. In that race, with our friend Alan Nebauer as skipper, she was dismasted some 600 miles west of the Cape. Alan, with some superhuman effort, set a jury rig and rounded the Horn, reaching the Falklands, where a replacement mast was shipped from England. Amazingly, he was able to complete the race and the boat went on to compete again as Balance IIRC. So, she had a hard but interesting life. Not many vessels have been dismasted twice in the Southern Ocean!
I'm so sorry that Ronnie has had to abandon her, and his race. Glad that the rescue has been successful and that he will doubtless race again.
James CateI first met Ronnie in Maui after he was dismasted off Kahului. We became good friends while he was getting a new rig together — Boboe Stanford had an old mast behind his shop; we had a salvaged boom, and helped him get his mainsail he found on Craigslist cut to fit.
Ronnie worked in the loft and was a lot of fun. I would have hired him, but he was on his way in his engineless Cal 2-27 to Australia. He made it just fine. Ronnie has stayed in touch over the years, and it was so very sad to hear of his disaster, but he is safe and will have more adventures and do more great sailing. Go Ronnie!
Barry Spanier Rosie G, Antrim Junk En Route⇑⇓ aS OaKland eStuary SeeS imPrOvement, CitieS arOund the COuntry deal with dereliCt veSSelS
It's just more of the Plastic Problem. What do you do with old fiberglass? There should be a disposal fee built into the cost of any new boat. Or anything plastic. I am starting a war against plastic, I hope.
When my fiberglass boat is at the end of its life, it will be a burden to dispose of to me and the environment — it was a stolen and recovered boat that I saved and rebuilt, and was a few weeks away from getting cut up when I got it. Damnnice boat, now — a 1976 Pearson 30 — after countless hours of my labor and three times what it's worth in cash fixing it up. Would I do it again? Hell no.
My 44-ft aluminum boat is worth something at the end of its life, with an all-wooden interior and aluminum hull. There is not much to it that cannot be recycled. Why are there so few aluminum boats in the US? In French Polynesia they're everywhere. Even a factory-built OVNI has a wood interior, not a plastic liner — they are at the lower end of aluminum boats in cost.
Next up, homelessness: realistic, affordable housing for those who can take care of themselves. And supervised living for those who can't, group homes, mental-health facilities, drug rehab, or send them to Texas. (Just had to get that in.) Get them off the water, street and public lands. That way, people can use public lands/waterways as they were intended: for recreation.
Joe Maciorowski
1976 Pearson 30 / 44-ft Aluminim Boat
Joe was commenting on the February 9 'Lectronic with the same name as this letter.
⇑⇓ the abSenCe Of reSPOnSibility
At least two problems: anchor-outs, and then just plain walking away from the boat. This is a huge problem in the Delta and the Bay — last summer saw two sailboats drift into Treasure Island, where one sank and is still there, and the other is against the rocks by the toll plaza.
They are not strictly navigational hazards, so the Army COE won't remove them. There should be a Bay authority with responsibility and funding to deal with such junk.
⇑⇓ a hefty PriCe tag
In reading the [February 9 there was $7 million to clean up 50 boats. If I'm not mistaken, that's $140,000 per boat. That's sad
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The analysis of $140,000 per vessel is inaccurate. Briefly, the US Coast Guard spent over a million dollars to bring the DB General, the largest crane on the West Coast, down from Seattle. This crane, and the largest local Dutra crane, were used to raise two tugboats that were sunk along the Alameda shoreline. The reason these two tugs sank, the Respect and the Captain Al, was that tweakers stole thru-hull fittings for metal scrap.
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Additionally [in the $7 million 2013 cleanup], a tug and barge with hazardous materials were removed from San Leandro Bay, and an old wharf was removed off Union Point Park. These were all substantial undertakings — far more expensive than the simple removal of anchor-out vessels.
The City of Oakland has recently applied for a new grant from the NOAA Marine Debris Removal program that will allow the removal of beached and sunken vessels in the Oakland Estuary. What is most important moving forward is for the City of Oakland to provide the necessary police personnel to Port Security Officer Kaleo Albino to allow ongoing marine patrols on the Estuary.
Brock de Lappe
Former Oakland Harbormaster
⇑⇓ KudOS, KudOS
A huge shout out to the Oakland and Alameda Marine Patrol units — especially Officer Albino and his team, and also to Brock for his constant effort to keep this "top of mind."
There is still a lot to be done to clean up the Estuary — and that will take concerted efforts to reduce the number of encampments, to reduce the impact of shoreline erosion, and to hold the line on crime. That said, bringing the illegal anchor-outs down to a manageable couple vessels is a big step in the right direction. Thank you!
Tracy Reigelman
Evergreen-studded islands, abundant wildlife and peaceful anchorages. Experienced or new to sailing, we can help you discover the joys of cruising the beautiful San Juan Islands! Beginner to advanced liveaboard courses. Monohull and catamaran bareboat charters. Guided otillas too!
This cruiser avoids the Bay Area sadly because the officials would rather destroy boats than encourage boaters to be responsible and have annual checklists for safety and seamanship, plus required rules for proper anchoring apparatus. Seems like Officer Albino is a rare find who understands the importance of having a regular employee on the water to assist in the problem. Bottom line is a few bad apples spoil the water for everyone, on both sides of the issues.
Malama
Hawaii
Malama — It's not fair to call many of the anchor-outs in question "boaters" who have simply fallen behind on maintenance and checklists. In the past decade, the majority of anchor-outs have been homeless people, many of whom suffer from mental illness and addiction, and who understandably prefer to shelter in an old boat rather than a tent on the street.
Our friend Alice Watts passed peacefully on February 16, Alice was a wife, mother, and grandmother to a loving family.
When she was on the water, Alice was an amazing instructor, sailor and crewmate. Those who have sailed with her or have been taught by her were quickly caught up in her enthusiasm and passion for boating, knots and helping us perfect our skills.
Alice was first mate on the tall ship Alma for over 20 years, and was the senior instructor and education coordinator for the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association Age of Sail programs. Alice was proud to say she worked with almost 90,000 children in elementary and middle school teaching them many aspects of "the life of a sailor."
When Alice came to teach knots at the Women's Sailing Seminar, perhaps 10 years ago, we knew we had a keeper! She loved the seminar and taught hundreds of women knot skills, patiently and with humor. She became active on the Island Yacht Club's board, serving as secretary. She always showed up with a deep desire to do the job right.
At the last WSS in September, Alice was ailing. We awarded her the First Woman of Valor certificate — handing it to her was a special moment for us. She was happy to receive the recognition and the certificate. In the past month, we raised almost $8,000 for expenses allowing her family to be able to travel home. Thank you to everyone who was able to help and even if it is just keeping her in your thoughts.
Eric Korbas Commodore, Island Yacht ClubThere's no point hanging around, waiting for the boat to drop. We received a duffel bag full of fun captions for last month's photo. Jeff Collier surprised us with this one from The McCoys' 1965 hit, "Hang on Sloopy, hang on!" And in keeping with the musical theme, Charles Edmonds brought us Pink Floyd: "All in all it's just another boat on the wall …" (1979). Of course there were many other comments ranging from "Hang 'Em High," — Andreas Kral, to "Suspended disbelief?" — Bill Willcox, to art, to yoga, and, bondage??
The top ten and winning captions are below.
Winner: "Okay, who pulled the plug on the ocean?" — Roger Briggs.
"We were going to hang it over the fireplace, but it was just too big." — D Baker.
"Now that is a well-hung boat." — Beni Bacon.
"Stove gimbal works great!" — Stephen Golden.
"The boat's name is 'Harvey Wallbanger.'" — Klaus Kutz.
"Hurry, get the bottom paint before the tide comes back in" — Steve Hajnal.
"Spider boat, spider boat … Friendly neighborhood spider boat." — @honeybee_hipster.
"… trying to find parking downtown …" — @sailing.key.lime. pie.
"I'm not a sailboat. I identify as a rock climber." — @stacey_ newcomer.
"I hate daylight saving time" — Geoff Ferrell.
"Now we just swing it back and forth and presto! Clean bottom!" — Bob Martin.
"The greatest reward of sailing alone (that I have discovered so far) is that no one comes between you and the indescribably beautiful world around you." — Peter Nichols, Sea Change.
If you have or find any fun Caption Contest(!)-worthy photos, send them to us at editorial@latitude38.com — we're always on the lookout for fresh entertainment.
How do you bring more sailors to the sport of sailing? Start early and start small.
Hans List is the commodore of the Master Mariners Benevolent Association (MMBA). He and wife Sophie share that their three children became involved through association. "We had our 1940 Tahiti ketch well before our daughters were born. We took Maggie, 13, on her first trip to Drake's Bay at age 6 weeks. She slept in a fruit hammock suspended in the fo'c'sle." As for racing, List notes Maggie's first competition was the MMBA regatta in 2011 at 9 months old. Penny, 12, sailed her first race around the 2014 MMBA regatta at age 1.5. Greta, 10, sailed her first race at age 2 in 2016. Until recently, participation had been solely MMBA events; last year, each List child tried El Toro and Opti racing at Point San Pablo Yacht Club. Each is learning sportsmanship, seamanship and skills. "The keys are the importance of doing your best, the feeling of winning, and how to learn from your mistakes — all while having fun. Whether sailing sticks with them in the future or not, I know they will have skills and experiences to help them make the right decisions. We're trying to leave the door open to a world we each love so much."
Meanwhile, on a different breed of boat is Micah, who turns 5 in April. Son of Ryan and Kristin Simmons, he's been spied topside on the J/105 Blackhawk, one of the most competitive vessels on San Francisco Bay. Last fall, Micah tried his first Friday night race. In 2022 and '23, he completed the Great Vallejo Race and, said father, "Tells me weekly how excited he is for GVR — that's his favorite race. He had so much fun, even landed mention in Latitude 38." Most recently, this youngster crewed in Big Daddy, helping earn a ninth. Queried about the sport, his replies are honest and simple. Asked if sailing is an easy or a hard sport: "Hard." To the question on what his friends think about sailing, he says they think "It's good." When asked, "What do you like about racing a sailboat?" he replies: "Putting up the sails and getting trophies." Speaking of trophies, Micah has made an appearance at most Rolex Big Boat podiums when Blackhawk earns a place. "We bring him up to collect the trophy — he is so proud to be there with us." The crew has a tradition to decide who was the most deserving during race action; that individual keeps the trophy. "It was really difficult for Micah to hand over the prize at first, but is now fully committed and delivers it to the elected crew member."
Another local is Harrison Turner, co-owner of the J/105 Beast of Burden. He and wife Cindy started dating while on the J/105 Risk! Both grew up around the water, and each participated in junior sailing, plus college programs. "Sailing is how we met. Our boys, Jameson, 7, and Pierce, 9, have been involved even before they could walk, taking lessons at Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation (PYSF), sailing with us whenever the opportunity was presented. For example, I bring one aboard winter series, such as RegattaPro One Design." Both boys joined the 2023 Rolex Big Boat Series on schooner Mayan. "We're big believers in giving exposure to as many types of fleets and boats as possible." The boys enjoy being on Beast of Burden. (Both have sailed on their parents' prior boat, the J/70 1FA). "The team does a good job putting them to work. We let each drive during part of the race, including across the finish so he can feel the sense of accomplishment." The Turners hope to instill a love of sailing and the water. "Pierce is transitioning from Opti Green to Champ fleet, and Jameson will likely sail his first Green fleet event this year."
John Rivlin's son is 32. Over the years, Rivlin has owned various boats and has competed on S.F. Bay since 1982. Son Michael grew up sailing — spending time at PYSF in Redwood City, racing in the high school circuit up and down the West Coast, advancing to compete while at Cornell University, and time permitting, racing with his father on their Express 27 and at Big Boats. Said Rivlin senior, "In recent seasons, we have campaigned the J/105 Peaches. Michael does most of the skippering." Michael also races V15s and does match and team racing at the St. Francis Yacht Club.
Look around the course and you will see many youths in training. Simmons offered, "There's Seth Spiegel, who has been on board Jam Session at
Or so it would appear. While there were other competitors in the Global Solo Challenge, and Philippe Delamare, sailing his Actual 46 Mowgli, was the actual winner, it was Cole Brauer who stole the show, becoming the first American woman to complete a nonstop, unassisted solo circumnavigation around the world, and gaining half a million followers on Instagram in the process. Brauer's Class 40 First Light took second place, and her story will be forever linked to the immense success of the inaugural Global Solo Challenge.
Originally from Long Island, Brauer started sailing at the University of Hawaii, which was quickly followed by becoming a professional sailor and chalking up miles as
a crew, delivery skipper and rigger, and all aspects of managing sailboats. She eventually moved to Boothbay, Maine, where she currently lives. (One headline called Brauer "Maine-trained.")
Her grit, determination, skill and dreams attracted the owners of the Class 40 who backed her bid to enter the Global Solo Challenge. Cole's upbeat ease on Instagram, the dramatic sailing and personal style showcasing her sailing competence, shining personality and feminine energy, created a family of followers that has inspired women of all ages to rethink what's possible. Her Instagram posts gave the world a refreshing new look at the world of
multiple regattas over the years. Larkspur sailors Scott and Merritt Sellers doublehanded their J/111 No Surprise to a win in Michigan at the Bayview Mackinac Race last summer. Shawn and Connor Bennett have been doing really well in match racing. There's Doug Bailey of the J/105 Akula; he does events with his kids. These are just a few examples that come to mind. I am sure the list goes on and on." All parents agree: Sailing offers the chance to learn self-reliance, care for equipment, critical thinking, performance under pressure and other important life skills. Concurring, the Turners offer, "When sailing a singlehanded dinghy, such as an Opti or Sabot, you are in charge. You make it go fast or slow, you control where the boat goes. If you capsize, you learn how to right the boat and bail it out."
— martha blanchfield
Clockwise from top left: Young Michael Rivlin has become a competitive dinghy sailor; 7-year-old Jameson Turner at the helm of the J/105 'Beast of Burden'; the List kids, Penny, Maggie and Greta, on the family's 1940 Tahiti ketch 'Seaquester'; Pierce Turner on 'Beast of Burden'; Michael Rivlin; Micah Simmons on the J/105 'Blackhawk'.
Since I started sailing in 2018, I have sailed almost 15,000 miles, mostly by crewing for others. In 2016, I was a guest on a kitesurfing catamaran in Micronesia when I first learned about "hitchhiking by boat." At the time, I was not a sailor, but was fascinated by the concept of hitching rides. A year later, I messaged the catamaran's captain and asked if there might be an opportunity to join them as crew. As luck would have it, they were preparing to cross from Papua New Guinea to Palau. I booked a one-way ticket to Kavieng. On that equator crossing, I threw a gold ring into the ocean for my shellback ceremony and promised myself to Poseidon, God of the Sea. From that moment forward, my life changed forever.
I was hooked!
In the spring of 2018, I took a sailing course in Baja California. Afterward, I made a crew profile on Latitude 38, Find a Crew, and GoSailing. I got an email in October 2019 from Myron and Marina Eisenzimmer of the Swan 44 Mykonos — they had seen my profile on the Latitude 38 Crew List. They had a couple from a previous trip crewing, but one of them had to bail at the last minute, so there was an open spot. Did I want to join them? Heck yeah!
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cole brauer — concluded
ocean racing and a solo circumnavigation, and put on display a unique voyage by a talented, funny, motivated person.
Like Ellen MacArthur before her, Cole's achievements have launched her into the limelight as both a remarkable sailor and a standard-bearer for women who want to make their way in a traditionally male club.
There are still a few competitors in the Global Solo Challenge making their way around the world, including the Pacific Northwest's David Linger, who is nearing the equator on his Class 40 Koloa Maoli (Latitude's own Ronnie Simpson was forced to abandon ship and race in mid-February.)
Where to for Cole from here? She has her sights on more sailing, and hopes for entry in the Vendée Globe in 2028.
— latitude
The first few boats in the 2024 Pacific Puddle Jump started departing the West Coast in February and March, bound for the Pacific Isles. From the PPJ tracker, it is Sarayha Ferris and Jordan Whyte's Tayana 52 Current Toy that was first to depart. In total, 50 boats are signed up to depart the West Coast from as far north as San Diego and as far south as Panama.
It feels normal to have cruisers heading to the South Pacific in the spring in a continuing return to normalcy after the pandemic, the effects of which had wideranging impacts on cruising the South Pacific. With more restrictions lifted, the tropical islands await eager cruisers. As James Frederick wrote in our February issue, "The time is right to sail south."
— latitude
On almost every boat I've been on, the boat becomes smaller even if you all like each other. Some people pitch in for boat chores and others act like a guest, even if they've signed on as crew. While I didn't become besties with my crew mates on that trip, I learned that some boats had it much worse.
In 2021, Myron invited me to go on the Baja Ha-Ha again. In June, he asked me to help with crew selection. We developed a set of questions for interviewees. Their answers, especially "how do you handle confrontation?" helped me assess each person's temperament.
Here are some sample questions:
"Do you have a valid passport? Can you cover your transportation costs? Are you OK if we are delayed a few days?
"Are you willing to sleep in the main salon? Are you OK with showering only at anchor? Will you help clean up the galley after meals? Are you OK with three-hour shifts starting after dinner? Will you participate in events like the baseball game?
"Have you set an asymmetrical spinnaker or doused with a sock? Can you lift a 70-pund life raft if required? Can you set a whisker pole?
"How do you handle confrontation? At what critical point would you wake the owner from sleeping?"
One by one, I made appointments to speak with five candidates. The first person I spoke to was Karen Miller, who responded immediately. We had a great conversation. The second person was energetic, but only had 10 days of vacation time. You always need a weather window on either side — it might take 11 or 12 days, so she was out. One interviewee seemed introverted and wasn't sure if she'd want to attend the beach parties or baseball game, even though those are what make the Baja HaHa so unique! The next person was a delight, but had concerns about privacy. Seeing as how she'd be sleeping in the salon, sorry, no privacy at all!
I was feeling a little nervous about the candidates. The last person on my list was challenging because she was in Mexico, didn't have a SIMcard or Wi-Fi access, and demanded to know why we were conducting interviews in June for an October trip. She made it seem like an inconvenience, and a privilege for us to sail with her.
I realized the second time I spoke with Karen that she was the only person who made me laugh. I had a good feeling that she would get along with us, and I gave Myron my recommendation. We invited Karen to sail with us.
Our trip down was fantastic. Not only was Karen a perfect crewmate, she's become sailing family. Karen and her partner Jim did the bash back at the end of the season and joined Myron and Marina for the Ha-Ha in 2023. Aboard Mykonos, I have bashed from San Diego to San Francisco, Cabo San Lucas to Puerto Vallarta and separately, Cabo to Barra Navidad. We will travel from Barra for Mazatlán at the end of February.
Pro Tip: Ask questions. The interview goes both ways. When I first learned to sail, I was creeped out if a captain asked if I wanted to "see his engine." (I wasn't sure if it was code for wanting some hanky panky.) Knowing what I know now, if someone doesn't want to show me the engine, I get nervous. An owner with integrity takes pride in boat maintenance. You really do get a sense of things by seeing the engine.
— yosh han
Yosh Han is a USCG 25T captain and member of Fairwind Yacht Club and Women's Sailing Association. She's doublehanded to Hawaii, raced in the Transpac, and sailed from Tahiti to Tonga and Grenada to South Carolina. This April, she'll be sailing to the Marquesas aboard Joia, an X-Yacht Xc 47.
Last month, we introduced Mike and Sue Proudfoot, who had embarked on a 10-year restoration of the 38-ft Norwegian ketch Farida. After lots of labor and lots of love, and taking on all manner of projects, from regluing laminate interior, to fabricating replacement copper rivets, steam-shaping wooden panels and mocking up molding for a new fiberglass cockpit, Farida has become a radiant vessel. What followed next was almost a decade of living aboard and cruising sea to shining sea.
First things first: Upon completing the renovations in 1998, the Proudfoots raced Farida in the San Francisco Bay in the Colin Archer Memorial Race sponsored by Encinal Yacht Club, beating out all the fiberglass boats by a wide margin.
Upon leaving the Bay, they headed to Southern California and the Channel Islands, and later, in 2000 to '01, sailed north to Alaska. Along the way, engine trouble struck. "We got as far as Crescent City and got water in the engine," recounts Sue. "A friend said, 'Well, I'll go up there and visit my kids — let's pick up that engine of yours and fix it.' He was the chief engineer on one of the biggest SeaLand ships on the North Atlantic run, and he had just retired and came up in his big-old Ford truck to pick up and play with our toy engine."
Then came their European tour.
From 2003 to '04, the Proudfoots sailed from San Francisco to Maine via the Panama Canal. After cruising Maine, they headed south to make an Atlantic crossing, from Baltimore, Maryland, to the Azores, and then on to Ireland in 2006. In 2007, they sailed from Dublin up the coast of Northern Scotland to Norway. "We went up around and left the boat in for winter. It's not just the cold, it's the dark — it gets dark at 3 p.m. in January," explained Sue. "That year, we made a trip up to Risor, Norway, then Oslo. By that time, we were way overdue for our allotted time with the EU, Schengen, which only allows tourists to stay in EU countries for 90 out of 180 days. We started to sail across to Scotland and the conditions were just awful. We called a friend we had just made who worked on oil rigs; he called a meteorologist on one of the rigs and said, 'You're not going to Scotland this year!' So, he arranged for us to leave the boat in Norway for the winter." They left Farida in a hundvåg, or "hound cove," which is a Norwegian dog hole.
We're looking forward to seeing Latitude 38 readers and Good Jibes podcast listeners at Svendsen's Spring Fling on Friday and Saturday, April 12/13. (This is a change from last year's Saturday/Sunday event!)
Svendsen's has expanded the show with more exhibitors, great food and an informative schedule of sailing/boating seminars. If you're looking to do the Baja Ha-Ha or are planning to go cruising in Mexico in the fall, cruisers Pat and Carole McIntosh are putting on their popular "Know Before You Go" seminar to help you prepare. They have insights into many aspects of the Mexican cruising life to help you plan ahead.
In 2008, they sailed farther east, visiting southern Sweden, Finland and Estonia before heading back west again. In 2009, they sailed south down the west coast of France, the coast of northern Spain and the coast of Portugal, stopping in all the small marinas along the way to Gibraltar.
In 2011, they sailed into the Mediterranean Sea and discovered the full force of the mistrals, fierce storms that rise fast and hit hard with winds of 60 mph whistling down from the Alps and whipping the Med into a frenzy. One option was to turn south and hunt for refuge in Tunisia and northern Africa — but they had read about the Arab Spring, and decided to go back to Spain.
They visited the islands of Mallorca and Menorca and departed from Barcelona to head back out of the Mediterranean for Madeira, Portugal. From there, it was homeward bound — with just a passage to the Canary Islands, an Atlantic crossing, the Panama Canal and the Pacific between them and their San Francisco Bay home port. "Our landfall was on Santa Lucia at the Rodney Bay Marina. We island hopped to Panama with stops in Bonaire, Curaçao, and Aruba," they recall.
Farida returned to the Bay on June 7, 2013, having traveled nearly 40,000 miles and visited more than 25 countries during her 10 years away from home.
Pretty good for a then 53-year-old wooden boat.
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For many Mexico-bound cruisers, the spring boat shows and seminars are the ideal time to make upgrades, and do paperwork and final preparations for taking off in the fall. There will be raffle prizes, product specials and technical experts from many companies to help you gear up and sail, race or cruise! To learn more, visit: www. springflingboatshow.com
And a 'heads-up' for May: The Pacific Sail & Power Boat Show will return to Westpoint Marina in Redwood City from May 16-19. Get tickets and keep in touch at www.pacificboatshow.com.
— latitude
Today, the Proudfoots drive from their home in Contra Costa County to the Point Saint Pablo Yacht Club to sail Farida and enjoy the community they have gotten to know over the years. Mike and Sue also own a house, built on 20 acres, in the Bay Area. No strangers to doing hard things, Mike and Sue were certainly busy: designing and constructing their family home at the same time as the restoration of Farida, raising their two sons, and for Mike, balancing his full-time career as a firefighter. It all starts to make sense, sort of — visionary people like this don't come along often, nor do boats like Farida.
What's in Farida's future? Hopefully, she'll one day go home to Norway, again, where she was called "the boat who came home." There, she could enjoy yet another lifetime as a 60-plus-year-old Colin Archer boat, many of which are protected historical vessels at a maritime museum in Risor, Norway — Farida's birthplace.
— heather breaux
The journey of the Colin Archer-designed 'Farida', a 38-ft Norwegian-built ketch, has seen her go through a decade-long restoration, then straight into racing on San Francisco Bay, as seen in the spread. In the early 2000s, 'Farida' would go down the Pacific and through the Panama Canal up to Maine, then across the Atlantic and eventually to her country of origin. Inset: 'Farida' in Rosendal, Norway.
A failed Bahamian lobster dive and subsequent encounter with a baker from Italy was the tipping point for Ashley and Dan Murphy's decision to buy the right boat and fulfill a lifetime dream to cruise. "We dove all over and never saw a lobster," Dan reminisced. "On our way back to our boat, a man on an old, well-lived-in ketch invited us on board, telling us he had too many." The man was Luciano; he and his wife Gigi were in their late 70s and had been cruising for 20 years. Over the next few hours, they fed the Murphys, who were in their 20s at the time, and told them about their cruising. At some point in the conversation, Dan had to ask about money. "How much does it cost?" Dan enquired tentatively. Luciano replied, "Whatever you think, then cut it in half, then in half again."
The more they talked about the things that they don't spend money on, Ashley and Dan kept looking at each other saying, "I don't need that, I don't need this, I would love to not have that …"
From that lobster feed spawned the Murphy Family Adventure. Everything revolved around buying the right boat and setting off. Having grown up in the Seattle area, the couple had done plenty of cruising in the Pacific continued on outside column of next sightings page
In welcome news for sailors and marine businesses, boat shows that shut down during the pandemic have returned to connect the boating community around boats, gear and good times — 2024 is the second year of the new Newport Beach Boat Show, which enjoyed tremendous success in year one. The show primarily featured power boats, but this year, many of our advertisers will have new sailboats on display, including Cruising Yachts, Marine Servicenter, Denison Yachts, Seattle Yachts and Naos Yachts, meaning you can view a nice selection of monohulls and catamarans.
For more information visit www.nbibs. com. We hope you enjoy strolling the docks and dreaming about your next boat.
— latitude
Sign-ups for the 30th annual Baja Ha-Ha — which *may* be the final iteration of one of the largest cruisers' rallies in the world — open on May 9. Arrangements have already been made for the same fun and easy check-in process in Bahia Santa Maria, so one aspect of the bureaucratic hurdles boaters must contend with in order to cruise in Mexico has already been handled.
Another possible challenge, however, is the TIP, or Mexico's Temporary Import Permit. Every boat must have a TIP, and it's relatively simple and inexpensive to get one. There have been cautionary tales, though, and a WARNING for new-to-them boat owners. A handful of people who have purchased used boats older than 2006 have sometimes
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Northwest on their C&C 40, which they had bought new. Pre-kids, the Murphys were ready to go, but their C&C wasn't the right boat. They sold it just prior to the 2008 economic collapse and purchased an older C&C 40 that was set up for cruising. "We immediately took it on a three-week cruise. We didn't have to tow our dinghy, and we didn't care about electricity because of our solar panels; it was nice sailing behind the dodger, and who cared if we went slower?" Dan said. "It completely changed our idea of what a boat should do."
The kids came along a few years later, so a bigger boat was necessary for the Murphy Family Adventure to truly launch. They bought Samadhi, a Tayana 55, in Alameda. But it was still five years before they left, selling their home in 2018 and moving aboard. The Murphy kids — Victoria, 13, and Alex, 11, — were just 6 and 8 when they left, but they had been raised knowing that one day they would be leaving home on a boat. "We were excited to be going — we had always known that it was the plan," Victoria chimed in. Dan and Ashley made the plan a "thing" so it could be regularly referenced, calling it the Murphy Family Adventure; everything revolved around the Murphy Family Adventure.
"From the beginning, prior to Samadhi, we would talk about saving for the Murphy Family Adventure; we're selling the house for the Murphy Family Adventure, we're going to sail in those big waves because it will make us better sailors for the Murphy Family Adventure. It was a lot of mental prep," Dan laughed. With no limits on their time, they spent the first summer aboard cruising in Canada, then sailed down the coast to start the 2019 Baja Ha-Ha. Just before San Diego, their transmission failed, so they were in for a new engine and transmission and replaced the generator at the same time. The work was finished the night before the Ha-Ha began; the Murphys left the dock the next morning, but their brand-new generator wouldn't start. They caught the fleet at Magdelena Bay, but unfortunately Hurricane Raymond was pounding the region and the Ha-Ha was canceled. The Murphys headed for La Paz, found a hurricane hole, and the real start to the Murphy Family Adventure began.
"La Paz was the first place that we went grocery shopping at an open market in a new place, and we just loved it," Ashley commented. The Murphys spent two years in Mexico cruising the Sea of Cortez and the mainland. When COVID hit they put Samadhi on the hard in Puerto Peñasco, bought an RV, and spent 15 months driving the States waiting for things to open up before returning to Mexico. Their original goal had been Chile — they're avid trail hikers/runners and mountain bikers and were drawn to Patagonia, but Chile took too long to open up. They sailed through the Panama Canal, on to Colombia, then back to spend hurricane season in Guatemala. The next cruising season, they sailed Belize, more Mexico, the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean, spending summer 2023 in Grenada. By November, they had arrived in Sint Maarten.
Cruising highlights from the Murphy Family Adventure included family activities that involved being outdoors and in nature — they hiked and joined running groups, taught swimming in Grenada, and played pickleball in Sint Maarten. Immersing themselves in local communities and cultures was always the goal. "We did a trip down the Amazon, which was a mind-blowing experience," Ashley said. "We swam in the Amazon River, we saw the pink Amazon dolphins, the kids held baby caimans that the guide would pick up out of the water, and they fished for piranhas. You can only get to these places and see these indigenous cultures in dugout boats.
"Diversifying our kids' experience was important, but it's hard to do, as anywhere you go on a boat tends to be where privileged people are," Dan noted. "So, we loved it when the Grenadian rugby team adopted Alex as part of their group; Alex would disappear with these huge, super-fit 25-year-old men who loved running with him. We got into the culture and that's what we were looking for." For now, the Murphy Family Adventure with Kids is almost done. The family plans to retrace their steps and head home to the Pacific Northwest. Alex is ready for a real bedroom and Victoria misses her mountain bike. But the Murphy Family Adventure will live on.
— michelle sladeIf you own a boat and find yourself saying, "I've got to use the boat more," we have a solution for you: Sign up for Beer Can Racing.
The word 'racing' seems to terrify many sailors, and we understand why. There are lots of rules, close-quarters sailing, and you have to find crew. Yes, it is true that some people yell and take beer cans very seriously. (Oddly, they're usually the same folks who wonder why more people don't race.) And once you've organized everything, you might lose! How will your ego handle the bruising? What will your friends think?
Our late, great race editor Rob Moore always recommended taking a chill pill (aka a cold beer). Beer can racing is easier than you think. Just sign up for an evening beer can series near you. (See the calendar in this very issue.) A whole season usually costs less than your monthly slip fee (aka the fee you pay every month for not sailing). Then find some crew. Beer cans are a great way for people who have never sailed to get their feet wet. Keep things easy by racing in the non-spinnaker class. Read the instructions, start close to the starting time, sail around some buoys, finish, and have a beer. Easy. Fun.
It really helps if you bring friends and make sailing more important than winning. If you don't have enough crew, sail anyway. You'll be impressed by your shorthanded skills. If you have too much crew, you'll have too much fun. You can find crew (and make new friends) with our Crew List at: www.latitude38.com/crew-list. If other aspects seem complicated, ask the yacht club folks — they live to help people sail more. Really, they just want you to join the fun. The reward? You'll use your boat more, you'll probably become a better sailor, you'll have more friends, and your cost per sail will go down for the year. Plus, you'll find some really beautiful evenings on the Bay. See you out there.
— latitude / john
After years of neglect and apparent inaction, a group of boaters have circulated a petition on change.org requesting that the dilapidated docks on Angel Island be replaced. "This petition is in regards to the current state of the docks at Ayala Cove, Angel Island. As a popular recreational area for boaters and visitors, the docks are in considerable disrepair and hazardous. It is also a popular spot for sea lions which may potentially be leading to increased damage. Deterrent measures should be investigated.
"Ayala Cove is a beautiful geographic location with frequent use, we request plans and action to repair and upgrade the facilities for functionality and boating safety. Sincerely, friends of Ayala Cove."
In 2022, the district superintendent for Angel Island told Latitude that State Parks had a billion-dollar backlog on deferred maintenance. There does, however, seem to be a budget for dock repair at Ayala Cove, though the timeline is unclear.
latitude / monica
From working on a boat delivering grapefruit in the Caribbean to getting his start in boat work in Maine, Jeff Rutherford became one of the premier wooden-boat restoration specialists on the West Coast and has had a storied career working with some of the most exquisite and renowned wooden vessels afloat today. Latitude 38 has covered many of Jeff's restorations over the years, where what looked like a doomed pile of rotted wood was transformed into an immaculate, elegant yacht.
Jeff is truly a miracle worker. It was a pleasure to hear about his life on episode 133 of our Good Jibes podcast.
After a long sailing season in the Caribbean, Jeff returned to his native San Francisco to look for work in boatyards. He got into the union at the no-longer-in-existence Pacific Drydock and Repair Company on the Oakland Estuary. He went on to work on commercial fishing boats, at Hunters continued on outside column of next sightings page
found the previous owners had a TIP for the vessel that they did not cancel. Currently, it appears that it's impossible to get these old and unrelated-to-the-new-owner TIPS canceled, and the Mexican government won't reissue a new TIP until the old uncancellable one has been canceled.
It's a classic (and infuriating) Catch-22.
There are still several boats stuck in San Diego from 2023 because they were not able to get their TIPs canceled. If you are purchasing an old boat and hope to cruise in Mexico, make sure the former owner or broker investigates previous TIPs.
The 30th Baja Ha-Ha will depart San Diego on November 4. Visit www.baja-HaHa. com for more information.
— latitude / john
"We have a chance to name the new park at Alameda Marina 'Svendsen Maritime Park,' in honor of Svend Svendsen and the legacy of Svendsen's Boat Works," said Svendsen's Marine & Industrial Supply. "If you have stories or memories of how Svend or the boat works made a difference in the community, innovation, or in your life, we'd love to hear. Your stories can help ensure the park carries a name that reflects the true spirit of Alameda's maritime heritage. Every story helps, no matter how big or small. Let's make sure the park celebrates a legacy that has touched so many lives. Please email your stories to Justin Long at jlong@alamedaca.gov, and please also copy Svend's daughter Sabrina at svenderella510@gmail.com."
— latitude
Point, and on lots of small, odd repair jobs where he slowly began working with wood. "It started as deck work, deck joinery, joinery down below or structural work on the hull — whatever," Jeff told us.
He went to Cape Cod to rescue, ship to the West Coast, and restore the Herreshoff-designed 59-ft P-Class Joyant, which led to hiring help and starting his shop. "And that project rolled into another project."
After nearly 40 years in Richmond, Rutherford is ending his esteemed career. "I said, OK, I'm gonna take all my machines because I'm retiring. I'm closing the shop." Rutherford plans to mentor future workers, and to carve out a space for himself and set his own terms. "Maybe build myself a little boat," he told us. "I'll get access to a shop that has my old stuff in it. And I will give advice. I will not hire employees. I will not manage employees. I will just give advice."
What's Jeff advice on, and skill level with, varnish? "We use an awful lot of Epifanes. I've done it myself, [but] I'm not very good at it: a lot of sags." Go to www.latitude38.com/lectronic/podcast/episode-133 to hear our full interview with Jeff Rutherford.
— latitude / john
Clockwise from top left: Beer can racing equals smiles; "Shocking! A disgrace!
The State of California has allowed one of its crown-jewel state parks to deteriorate to this," said reader Jon Price; just a random shot from Sailagram; the Jeff Rutherford-restored 'Viveka'; Mr. Rutherford himself.
San Diego Yacht Club served up a 1,000-mile Puerto Vallarta Race on February 22-March 1. Since 1953, this San Diego to PV biennial has made miles of memories. In this 37th edition, Roy P. Disney and crew on the Andrews 68 Pyewacket earned first overall. This vessel realized an average wind speed of 9+ knots and sailed the fewest number of miles to complete the course (1,092; 25 miles fewer than the race average).
Having won this in 1992, 1998, 2018 and now 2024, the Disney team has set a record for most overall wins. Second overall was earned by the R/P 52 Vitesse,
followed by the R/P 51 Zero Gravity 51, D/K 68 Peligroso, and Bakewell White 100 Rio 100.
Things measured light on the breeze scale. The largest and fastest boat, Manouch Moshayedi's Rio 100, scored a corrected time approximately two minutes slower than the corrected time for the slowest boat (Nat Criou's Figaro 2) in 2022. In 2024, Rio was first to finish on Wednesday — a day ahead of the others. Rio's elapsed time to the finish was 14 more hours than 2022's time. Of 21 starters, 19 finished on Thursday, with one just an hour and a half into Friday.
At the start, the bigger boats received wind that rarely topped more than 3
knots, generally from the west-southwest close to the line; by the time ORR 1 crossed the start line, winds had faded to a whisper. Said Moshayedi, "The first three days were challenging with little to no wind. In fact, for the first four hours we sat in zero-zero-zero. Fortunately, in the last 24 hours of the race we saw 22-24 knots of wind, and our top boat speed reached more than 27 knots."
All three classes made slow progress seaward in a 1.5-knot ebb. SDYC's waterfront director, Jeff Johnson, said, "Watching the YB trackers, their speed and direction plots indicate that a westsouthwest breeze filled in, and before dinner they were sailing again, albeit still modestly, toward Puerto Vallarta. The Saturday fleet ended up sailing four hours hugging the coastline to pass the Coronado Islands just across the Mexican border, about twice as long as the Thursday and Friday starters spent on the same portion."
With wind and speed rising on the course, the race committee speculated that BadPak and GoodEnergy could potentially place above Rio (due to ratings-owed time), but the clock ran out for contenders; BadPak crossed more than one full day after Rio. Roughly one hour later, George Hershman and Mark Comings' R/P 63 GoodEnergy arrived.
Explained Johnson, "There were several weather systems that rolled across different parts of the course over the six days. The times and durations and boats affected is a multifaceted account that I would not
attempt to represent: 4 knots of wind for some boats results in drifting (0 knots of boatspeed), while others are able to effect 4 knots of boatspeed — effectively sailing at the same speed as the wind. Boats that went 60 miles south of Cabo San Lucas came together more or less equal with boats that were only 30 miles south. There were gains and losses all across the course for all competitors."
A new offshore finish line was set near Roca Corbeteña, 15 miles farther out to sea versus the traditional finish at Punta Mita. Well received, it will be used again for the 2026 edition. The biggest surprise was the close finishing. The light air compressed all fleets, and racers tried to shave every minute from the time clock.
"For the first four hours we sat in zero-zero-zero."
Competitors starting on Thursday and Friday had better breeze and took advantage of a fresh westerly. In ORR 6, Barry Clark of Blackwing stuck the start. Having been delivered just two weeks prior, his Grand Soleil 44 became the pacesetter until Tuesday, when the wind shut off in his zone. They lost their Starlink connection on Sunday. Minus access to weather information, Clark gambled on where to move the boat, feeling that a more educated decision could have helped him preserve the lead. Winds eventually filled, and crew saw speeds ticking higher. In fact, "There was a span
of time when we actually reefed the main — winds clocked more than 20 knots." The crew of seven finished on Leap Day during brunch hours, logging a bit less than seven days. En route, Blackwing mates counted spinner dolphins plus a fin whale. For fowl, they reported plenty of birds; for foul, they spied a floating baled item in the water. Said Clark, "The PV Race is great fun. It's wonderful to participate in these two events and experience the Mexican culture plus interact with such a friendly set of people." Regarding the tempo at MEXORC, he cited the pink Capri 37 Dreadnought as being incredibly fun and lively. This mostly female crew attracted plenty of attention with infectious laughter and kind spirit.
In 2022, Velos won its class at both the PV Race and MEXORC — but sans owner Kjeld Hestehave, who was unable to make the trip. As this year's edition approached, Chuck Skewes made sure the crew was ready and focused to repeat the 2022 wins. Said Skewes, "We knew it would be a tough one, with light breezes predicted. Velos is the heaviest boat." He summarized that the fleet was very close on corrected time the entire race down the coast, constantly changing leaders and positions.
"When we hit Cabo San Lucas, the models were inconsistent, so we gambled on getting through the shadow, trying to reach the Sea of Cortez by sailing less distance. This paid for a short time, but left us in light air for nine hours; boats that headed south gained. Nearing the finish, we were in position to achieve a second, but another light-air disturbance took the more northerly boats, and both Good Call and Amazing Grace found better routes." Velos placed third.
The unfortunate spotlight at the PV Race landed on Aaron Wangenheim's City Lights. The Santa Cruz 52 hit the start in fair breeze Friday and was making decent progress before reaching the doldrums. Of their time stalled out, Ken Royal said, "It felt like we spent 12 years
SAN DIEGO YACHT CLUB
The crew of 'Pyewacket' gathers in anticipation of the race from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta.
'Pyewacket' — the Andrews 68, not the Volvo 70 — starts in San Diego in very light air.
MARK ALBERTAZZI
in irons." He quickly corrected that statement to "12 hours." Beset with a broken watermaker, inconsistent Starlink connection, and a span of stillness, the crew debated whether to risk continuing or to turn back. At approximately the onethird mark, Cedros Island, and even with backup water supply, the group decided to swing north. Despite the time taken to journey home, Royal was seen circling the Friday buffet (having flown down ASAP).
This year's dinner was held on the beach at the Vamar Vallarta with a welcome by an all-female mariachi band, a buffet, and a brilliant orange-crimson sunset.
MEXORC commenced the next day, March 2, on Banderas Bay. Marina Vallarta YC hosted, with support from Acapulco YC, SDYC and the PV Race. Ratings were ORR and included windward/leeward courses, plus two long coastal runs. This event almost did not happen due to last October's Category 5 Hurricane Otis. Said race chairman Ricardo Brockmann O'Hea, "In November we held a special meeting to decide whether or not to run the event, quickly voting to proceed and honor Acapulco. Sailing is a big part of our yacht club, and MEXORC became our motivation to get the racers racing again and let the Acapulco people know we are back." Boats to participate in both regattas included BadPak, Blackwing, Ground Hog Day, It's OK!, Saga, Such Fast, Westerly and Velos.
Breezing in for an ORR 3 win was Linda Sweet on Olas Lindas. The Varianta 44 cleaned the clock by a wide margin in
Day 3's Las Marietas course, courtesy of strong winds and a team where "Many of us have local knowledge regarding when to take advantage of the shifts up and down the coastline." This day has boats start together. "It's a challenge when all of these experienced racers across the three divisions converge at the same time. Our start was clean, and we focused on clear air, which became easier to find as the larger boats quickly moved up the course."
On Day 2, Seattle racer David Garman of the 1D35 Such Fast got smacked mere seconds after the starting horn. Competitor Belat, a Capri 37, made an immediate right on the course, and Garman asserts it was fewer than 8 seconds until contact was made. "I had no options." He added, "Luckily there were no injuries, but it took several moments to clear apart." Such Fast retired; the other boat continued on but dropped out later. While Day 3 racers hit the course, the 1D35 crew made fixes to stanchions, replaced a turnbuckle, patched a port-side gouge, and taped over several areas on the port side. Fired up and ready for final competition days, Garman gave the cockpit a vigorous scrub early Wednesday, commenting, "We've been doing lousy, absolutely awful," citing a few reasons why their record stood at 8 and 8 in a field of eight. Things took a turn for the better, and the crew ended on a higher note, earning a second and a fourth in the final races. Such Fast also competed in the PV Race, landing a 21 in a fleet of 21. Garman missed the party, "But that's boat racing."
Velos remained for MEXORC. Arriving in PV, a revised crew immediately headed out for practice. "We sailed SD to PV with 11 people, but on windier buoy races we sail with 24. We were the only true displacement boat in our class: If conditions did not allow the other boats to plane, we felt we had a chance," stated Skewes. The Tanton 73 fared excellently, with the
clan repeating their 2022 win, plus earning overall for the Las Marietas course. "It was very close racing with a few runs separated by less than 3 seconds against a very competitive Westerly."
That 30-mile course was also tops for Vincitore. "Definitely a day to remember," said skipper Ricardo Brockmann O'Hea, "where we executed a perfect race from start to finish, working the boat to be always fast. This helped us to stay in front of the fleet." The Swan 42 is crewed by a family who has done MEXORC since the '90s (17 editions) and counts Ricardo (father), helm; Rosita (mother), pit; Ricky, tactics; Erik, pit; sister Aileen; plus friend and 20-year MEXORC racer Steve Malowney. Of note, Erik was skipper for the VO65 Viva México in the 2022-23 Ocean Race. "This was a week with most days seeing typical conditions and winds above 15 knots. There were, however, two races where the wind faded and made our class compress and move results around. It was great competing with Nimbus and Ruahatu — both very similar boats to Vincitore — the podium was not decided until the last race."
Canadian ex-pat Linda Sweet offers sentiments
about action along this coastline: "It's a great competition with a five-day series just long enough to entice previous crew members to fly down and join. MEXORC generally brings in 10- to 20-knot winds, a variety of courses, and sightings of whales frolicking. We race alongside some amazing 60- to 70-ft professionally crewed boats that come down from California."
In two years this regatta will hit a milestone, says chairman Brockmann O'Hea. "We are sure to have ready the best MEXORC of all time to celebrate its 50th anniversary."
— martha blanchfield
PUERTO VALLARTA RACE, 2/22-3/1
ORR 1 — 1) Rio 100, Bakewell White 100, Manouch Moshayedi; 2) BadPak, Botin 56, Tom Holthus; 3) GoodEnergy, R/P 63, George Hershman/Mark Comings. (3 boats)
ORR 2 — 1) Pyewacket, Andrews 68, Roy Disney; 2) Peligroso, Dencho/Kernan 68, Cecil
CHARITY PALMETIER
Left: David Garman's Seattle-based 1D35 suffered a collision moments after the start on Sunday. Right: Patching the damage to the port rail so that 'Such Fast' could return to action on Tuesday.
& Alyson Rossi; 3) Mirage, SC70, Marchetta Furey. (3 boats)
ORR 3 — 1) Vitesse, R/P 52, Thomas Furlong 2) Zero Gravity, R/P 51, Ivan Batanov; 3) Fast Exit II, Ker 52, John Raymont. (4 boats)
ORR 4 — 1) Trouble, SC50, Tom Camp; 2) Westerly, SC52, Dave Moore; 3) Lucky Duck, Rogers 46, Dave MacEwen. (6 boats)
ORR 5 — 1) Amazing Grace, Farr 57, James Puckett; 2) Good Call, Swan 60, Tom Barker; 3) Velos, Tanton 73, Kjeld Hestehave. (4 boats)
ORR 6 — 1) Blackwing, Grand Soleil 44, Barry Clark; 2) Such Fast, 1D35, David Garman. (2 boats)
Full results at www.pvrace.com
MEXORC, 3/2-6, (7r, 0t)
YELLOW ORR 1 — 1) Velos, 17 points; 2) Westerly, 20; 3) BadPak, 23. (6 boats)
GREEN ORR 2 — 1) Vincitore, Swan 42, Ricardo Brockmann, 13 points; 2) Nimbus, Farr 40, Eduardo Saenz, 16; 3) Ruahatu, Swan 42, Brian
Are you taking notes? Here's a textbook letterbox drop on Tom Purcell's Andrews 49 'It's OK!'
O'Hea, 18. (6 boats)
RED ORR 3 — 1) Olas Lindas, Varianta 44, Linda Sweet, 13 points; 2) crew2, Capri 37,
Ernesto Amtmann, 19; 3) Por La Vida, J/111, Jeffrey Davies, 30. (8 boats)
Full results at
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Routbort and Thomas Poloniato, two late 20-somethings from the US and France, met in Berkeley and now are traveling the world, but only on forms of transportation that have a climatepositive effect. What does that mean? Airplanes and private cars are out; trains, bikes, hitchhiking, and literal hiking are in. They choose human- or nature-powered modes of transportation only.
Sailing included, of course!
But why? It's all to create a codex of 10 climate hotspots — places where innovative and impactful solutions to the climate crisis are being developed — on each continent, and to collect human experiences instead of flags or numbers of countries visited. Reduce, respect, restore are their guiding principles as they visit each climate hotspot and write with optimism about collaborative human efforts successfully making positive climate change.
Their undertaking is called The Green Journey.
Routbort cites some numbers for context: Transport emissions account for one-fifth of global carbon emissions, "with everything included," Routbort clarifies. "In our minds, it's a challenging thing, because on one hand, transport is what makes our world what it is. We couldn't be a couple without transportation; he's French and I'm American. Oftentimes, we don't remember how magical it is, and sailing puts us back in touch with magic and the effort of transportation. It doesn't come for free, it comes at a cost. We know it touches everyone differently."
After meeting in Berkeley three years ago, Routbort and Poloniato quickly discovered the Cal Sailing Club (CSC) together. "Thomas has always had this dream to sail; his sister did an Atlantic crossing and it's a super-compelling mode of transportation," Routbort says. "One of my first birthday presents to him was a membership to CSC. He was excited but
ALL IMAGES GREEN JOURNEYjust looked at me. 'Where's your membership? We have to do this together!'"
So they did.
On one of those cold, sunny September days in Berkeley, they leaped into the pursuit of dinghy sailing in the South Sailing Basin. But it was not love at first sight. "I'd say we really fell in 'like' with it, not love at first sight," Routbort explains, noting how intense learning to sail there can be. "But just something about being in a wetsuit and foulie jacket out on the Bay was so exciting and it won us over."
"What I love about travel is that it teaches you to be flexible, adaptable, and resilient."
They started off on dinghies, progressing through a Fast Track clinic in 2022, and moving on to more advanced techniques like learning to trapeze. They also got really good at capsize recovery, as anyone who has ever trapped out in the Berkeley Marina would understand.
Dinghy sailing on the RS Quests was a catalytic local, affordable experience at CSC that crystallized their vision of the project.
"Dinghy sailing is more of a sport than big boats — you have to be more aware of your environment, to read the wind. You have to use your body to know where you are," Poloniato explains. "To really be a sailor, and understand sailing mechanics, is essential on the ocean. So the dinghies were a good place to start, as you learn the basics, and basic survival without a computer."
In our modern lives, we lose our connection to nature. Poloniato likens our
Sailing past the windmills at sunset as we approached Crotone in Calabria, Italy, in October 2023.
modern lifestyle to riding in an SUV versus taking a bike. Ultimately, The Green Journey is a way to prove that just changing your mindset, like choosing to bike instead of drive, can make a difference — and expand your comfort zone. The idea is that travel makes you better at living: asking better questions, living with more creativity, and developing radical vulnerability. "We have the privilege to go on a world adventure but our thesis here is that you do not need to do that to become good at living."
After leaving Berkeley, the co-founder couple moved back to France. They launched The Green Journey while traveling across Europe, but since airplane travel was out, this necessitated another, greener mode of crossing the Atlantic. Being very "green" sailors (pun intended!) they weren't sure if they would be able to find their way onto a boat. But in the end, they found passage on two boats. A flotilla took them on — Thomas on the guys' 39-ft Dufour monohull MatMax and Megan on the girls' 40-ft Bali Catspace catamaran SY Virgo Maris, departing from Montenegro.
"The Mediterranean Sea is really tricky at that time of year, end of October and beginning of November," Poloniato says. "I got advice to always eat something to avoid feeling sick. So when one guy went to cook a pizza, I went down to demolish it, and 15 minutes later, I threw up in the crazy seas."
With bad weather, it was the best and worst of sailing. The best parts included stopping at little European ports, whale sightings, and stunning sunsets. The worst part was just … the seasick-inducing, enormous waves and big winds. One night in Sardinia, they clocked 40 knots of wind in port. For green dinghy sailors, it was way out of their comfort zone and a trial by fire that would test anyone's resolve to love sailing.
In many ways, it's an interesting experiment to make good on big talk: Not everyone can physically or financially take the time required to cross the Atlantic by boat. It's not that Routbort and Poloniato are against plane travel when no alternatives exist. They're just asking regular people to consider alternative forms of transit whenever possible, and in so doing practice radical humility and vulnerability to become a non-expert in a new, challenging environment.
Ultimately, they finished the crossing and arrived at Barbados, saying, "We just go where the wind goes…" (which should sound familiar to Latitude 38 readers!) since the original destination of Sint Maarten was not possible with given winds.
They're aiming to sail all the way to Miami in time for the Aspen Ideas Climate Summit in mid-March. Due to 13 days of rain, those 13 days in Saint Lucia mean they're facing a much tighter window to make it to Miami in time.
In the meantime, The Green Journey makes discoveries by keeping their budget low. They eat a lot of ramen and
locally grown food from local marketplaces, and save money by taking public transit. They write in Travel Dispatch #2 that "in exchange for a place to stay and our passage, we've been doing cooking, cleaning and sailing for Captain Ron in Saint Lucia."
But road transport alone accounts for about 15% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and public transit is one of the most cost-effective ways to cut carbon emissions — replacing every internal combustion engine (ICE) car on the road with an EV isn't going to cut it, they note.
"Saint Lucia's bus system proves that you don't need expensive infrastructure or bureaucratic timetables to get where you want to go with public transport," continues The Green Journey blog. The island's public transit almost functions like a carpool system, with high-frequency mini buses costing as little as $0.50 USD for a ride.
Arriving at each new island and harbor, the couple continues to mix work and play, doing interviews with local climate solutionists while also making time for runs, hikes and swims. They find captains to take them aboard and make themselves useful onboard.
After a brief stay in Monchy, an interior Saint Lucia town about 8 kilometers (3.5 miles) from Gros Islet, The Green Journey joined Captain Ron on SV Nite Out, a Nautitech 44 Open catamaran, to sail northward to Martinique. There, Polo could finally restock their provisions with all the salted butter his French heart could desire — and where they visited SV Energy Observer (which appeared in our June 2021 issue) — a "floating laboratory" to test renewable technologies under development by the likes of Toyota, Air Liquide, and more. Captain Jean Baptiste shared about its round-the-world adventure from France to the Caribbean to Singapore and back again. After six nights in Martinique, with an ever-narrowing weather window to Florida, it was time to push on toward the next destination, Saint Martin. (This Caribbean island is part of two countries at once; It's halfFrench, half-Dutch, and just 34 square miles.)
For their passage to Saint Martin, Routbort and Polo were welcomed aboard SV Anushka, a spacious 50-ft "monomaran" Dufour Atoll 6, homeported in Le Marin, with Captains Marc and Annie Bernard. "We knew we were in good hands when on the day of boarding, Annie unloaded about a dozen grocery bags full of French
treats and snacks for a three-day sail," they recall.
Captains Marc and Annie hail from Martinique and are important members of the local sailing community. They've spent the past 15+ years running Parasailor, a small business creating top-of-the line spinnakers and gennakers.
They used the power of Facebook (premium websites not recommended) to arrange their last passage to Florida from the British Virgin Islands with Captain Mark, a semi-retired University of California, Berkeley, alumnus aboard SY Marine Kai, a 2011 Leopard 46 catamaran, sailing from Grenada to Tampa, Florida. "After an introductory phone call, he agreed not only to take us aboard as he sailed
back to the States, but also to pick us up directly in our anchorage in Saint Martin."
What's the first thing these travelers noted upon arrival in the British Virgin Islands? Fees! They paid a $10 Environmental and Tourism Levy to the immigration
officer. This tax took effect in 2017, and is set up for tourists entering the BVI to make a contribution to the protection of national park areas and help build islandwide resilience to climate change. Except, nothing is perfect. Cruise ship passengers are exempt from paying this tax, which seems disingenuous when you consider the carbon footprint of the industry and the fact that tourists flock to the BVI in part because of the stunning natural beauty. It would make sense that paying to protect it could also protect the interests of the tourism industry, long term. The Green Journey would rate this "a good start, but not sufficient" to protect the BVI's natural, sunny beauty for future generations.
BrisbaneMrna-Hh
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BrisbaneMrna-Hh03-22-nb 01-22-mp
BrisbaneMrna-Hh 08-21-mp FRIENDLY
When you arrive, you'll know it's right
Convenient
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Stop by to see what we can do for you & your boat
Next stop: Miami! There's not much to report for now, as they are currently underway on a long passage back into the Atlantic Ocean, expecting to make landfall in Florida in about a week. Crossing back into the Atlantic Ocean was a big milestone for the couple. "There was just one major downside to the Atlantic route: Rougher waters brought the return of Polo's seasickness," says Megan. "I'm pretty amazed that he's been able to persevere through it over the last four months, and I'm excited for him to get a break."
Hitch-sailing has been anything but predictable, and being adaptable is just the reality for humans as climate change progresses and the landscapes we know today will not be there in the future. "What I love about travel is that it teaches you to be flexible, adaptable, and resilient," says Megan. "Humans are gonna have to be flexible and adaptable to encounter what is coming. The end of the road is a more sustainable, democratic, egalitarian way of life, but… the world our grandparents grew up in, the world our grandkids will grow up in, is not the world we know."
latitude/heather
ALL IMAGES DAVID HAIGHT EXCEPT WHERE NOTED
Isolated in a remote corner of the Sea of Cortez. Hard aground. Exhausted. After more than 24 hours alone, David Haight needed help.
"Welcome to the San Carlos Cruisers Net. We will begin with any emergency, medical, or priority traffic, or relays of same. Please come now..."
Generally, 10 seconds of silence follow this phrase on the VHF before the usual checking-in of boats, sharing of information, updates on weather, and so forth. But as I paused, Chris Davies from SV 'Redemption' broke in with a relay of emergency traffic. This was the beginning of a cruiser and local community effort to reach David and help him get his boat safely afloat again.
Onthe morning of January 24, 2023, Windswept II, a 1999 40-ft Beneteau, left Bahia Concepcion for a crossing of the Sea of Cortez to San Carlos. Her skipper, David Haight, a 68-year-old liveaboard cruiser, was singlehanding.
The passage began well, but the bane of a solo sailor is the need for sleep and the errors that come with exhaustion. David says, "First of all, I was alone and all the errors were mine."
David wrote in his logbook on January 23 that "weather turned nasty so I'll wait for a decent weather window. Bored…"
Two fronts were rolling down from the north. David saw a gap between them and decided to set out. About halfway across the Sea of Cortez, 40- to 45-knot winds hit. As the winds later abated, an exhausted David set his autopilot for a course offshore near Guaymas and went to sleep about 8 p.m. He did not set any alarm to awaken himself.
At about 1 a.m. on January 25, David "woke to a funny feeling, but it wasn't very funny." Hearing breakers, he instinctively put Windswept II in reverse. Boom! A wayward stern line wrapped the prop. Boom! The engine stopped. He "still had sails set and attempted to sail off, but … could make no way and was driven hard aground…"
David discovered that one of Windswept's three prop blades was gone. But she was not holed, and not taking on water.
He immediately got busy, donning a wetsuit and launching his dinghy, and set to free the line from the prop. Once in the water, he discovered there was barely room for his head between the hull and the sand. He did not want to die in a vain attempt to free a prop that at this point was useless. Every move he made needed to be calculated and careful if he was going to survive this ordeal.
David began kedging, carrying an anchor on a long line out to deeper water, setting the anchor, then using a winch on board the boat to ever-so-slowly drag the boat to deeper water.
"I was fortunate. Windswept was positioned bow-out and stern to the beach. I had three anchors: a 65-lb. CQR on 150 feet of 3⁄8-inch chain, a Fortress on 15 feet of chain and 150 feet of three-strand 5⁄8-inch nylon rode; and a 15-pound Danforth on about 50 feet of light chain with a short bit of rode.
"The CQR with chain was a beast to handle. The Fortress was lightweight, easy to handle, and set well, but the three-strand 5⁄8-inch rode would chafe and break under load. It set so well that I had to abandon it because it buried so deep I could not break it out, and digging it out proved too much for me. The Danforth was light, easy to handle, and set very well in the sand. Even buried to the shackle, I was able to trip it."
David worked day and night to kedge his boat off the shoal. The highest tides were at night — time for kedging. Lower tides during the day — time for digging and repositioning kedge anchors and lines.
'Windswept II' was saved by David and friends from what looked like an almost impossible situation.
Although the days warmed up, at night the temperatures dropped. David was living in his wetsuit, exhausted and cold from working in the surf up to his neck. The cold north wind was chilling. One night he became hypothermic. But David never lost hope of saving his boat.
"At first I tried different methods of heeling the boat over to get the keel a little bit out of the sand, but the boat always seemed to rotate upright."
On January 26 at 7:40 a.m., David sent a WhatsApp message to fellow sailor Chris on SV Redemption, looking for help. But Redemption had an engine problem and Chris could not go to Windswept II's location.
The next morning, SV Redemption and SV Solitude relayed emergency traffic to the San Carlos Cruisers Net regarding Windswept II. I was the Net controller that morning, and continued to provide communications and logistics support through the coming days. Thankfully, Mariano Schaller, crew from SV Juguete, is bilingual and provided translation.
After a quick strategy session, San
Carlos boaters jumped into action. A Pan Pan was broadcast on VHF in both English and Spanish. Ramon, a San Carlos commercial boater, contacted the port captain in Guaymas, requesting assistance from the Mexican navy. Chris contacted assist-vessel skippers. A tugboat was out of service. Others had engine issues, or were unavailable for other reasons.
On Saturday, January 28, the Mexican navy sent a small boat to check on David, offering to bring him to Guaymas, but they would not pull Windswept II (This is Mexican navy policy.) David chose to stay and continue working to save his boat.
Chris remained in contact with David, offering encouragement and updates on attempts to get assistance to him. He provided weather and tide information, and made arrangements for a commercial vessel to tow Windswept II to Guaymas or San Carlos. The commercial vessel arrived on the 29th, then had equipment issues, so their efforts were unsuccessful.
Each day and each night, David kept
resetting anchors and winching. One night he moved Windswept II 150 feet, another night 120 feet. With a 6.5-ft draft, Windswept II was a long way from water deep enough to float her. With each wave that raised the boat a bit, David winched with all his might.
"The last few days were the most productive, using only the small Danforth as a kedge, straight off the bow. Also, by then I had made it across three of the shallowest sand bars."
On February 1, a support team formed in San Carlos. Peter Hiltner, skipper of SV Juguete, and a former firefighter and commercial fisherman, was asked to serve as incident coordinator. Dale Snearly of Double Dharma was asked to provide weather information.
Weather prevented an immediate response to the scene, but preparations began for a departure as soon as possible. MV Magic Carpet Grande put out a call to boaters in the San Carlos marina and gathered food to send to David. Juguete's skipper gathered crew and lines, shovels, and equipment. Juguete asked if any
other boat could accompany them. MV Maitairoa, a power boat with twin engines and 300 horsepower, offered to assist.
On hearing the plans, and knowing that help would soon be there, David messaged Chris. "Glad you guys are doing this. I'm running out of gas. I'm tired — got hypothermia trying to dig out the Fortress anchor. Things started going wrong and I just wanted to crawl back into my bunk and wake up from a bad dream."
On Saturday, February 4, at 2 a.m., Juguete left San Carlos, with skipper Peter and four crew on board: Chris, Mariano, Myron, and me. Together, we had a wide range of skills and experience in emergency coordination and communications, first aid, diving, and seamanship. Mariano was the only bilingual person on board. MV Maitairoa reported an engine issue just out of San Carlos, and returned to port.
Motoring southeast under a full moon, with light wind and mild swells, and accompanied by dolphins playing alongside Juguete's hull, the trip would have seemed idyllic under different circumstances. But everyone aboard Juguete was intensely focused on getting to Windswept II, and anxious about any glitches that might arise. Without another vessel to help, the burden fell on Juguete to accomplish the mission.
Juguete approached Windswept II's location just before first light and high tide. As we drew near, we were all straining to see any sign of Windswept II and David. Finally, in the distance, we could see a faint light moving on shore. As dawn began to break, Mariano cried out in joy, "There! I see the mast!"
Chris, Mariano, and Myron went in Juguete's small dinghy to assist David and take depth soundings to find a path out for Windswept II. Only the dinghy could get anywhere near her, as the shallow area and breaking surf stretched out for about half a mile, keeping deeperkeeled boats at a distance. Peter and I remained aboard Juguete to handle logistics and communications.
After 10 days alone, David was overjoyed and relieved to have his friend Chris and fellow sailors appear. As would be expected, he was exhausted and not thinking clearly after so many sleepless days and nights of battling the elements to save his boat.
Peter spied a fisherman's panga in the distance, and he and I waved oars in the air to flag them down. The pangueros –Goyo and Armando — quickly came to help. They tried to pull Windswept II over the sand. Progress was made, but still not enough.
Chris really stepped up to the plate
and knocked it out of the park. He carried the anchor, pulling 500 feet of rode all into chest-high breakers. The tide was now going out. More time, high tide, and more powerful engines were needed to cross the final distance.
An agreement was made that the panga — and a second panga — would return at high tide at daybreak on Sunday. It looked hopeful that the pangas could pull Windswept II off and possibly tow her to Guaymas — about half the distance of a trip to San Carlos. Chris remained on board Windswept II with David for a full night of winching. Juguete went back to a protected anchorage near Guaymas for the night.
Back in San Carlos, Vanessa and Joe Munday on SV Mundays Off were providing updates on the Cruisers Net. The request for an additional boat — a backup or safety boat — was broadcast again. Dale and Dena Snearly of SV Double Dharma, a Hunter 466 with a 75-horsepower Yanmar, was the sole boat to volunteer. When skipper Peter and the crew on Juguete heard that Double Dharma was coming, they were exhilarated and relieved to know that experienced sailors were coming as backup. The timing was absolutely critical. This high tide would be the last possible time to get Windswept II out; near-gale winds and 7-foot seas were forecast for Monday. Rising wind and waves would pound Windswept II against the shoals, and the assist boats could not remain in the unprotected area in the coming conditions.
Early on Sunday, February 5, Double Dharma set out from San Carlos. Juguete
determine the best path to freedom for Windswept II
left Guaymas at 3 a.m. The two boats rendezvoused and traveled south under a full moon. The wind was light and the waves were mild. They arrived just before dawn.
During the night, David and Chris had — astoundingly — moved Windswept II another 100 feet on the first high tide, and another 200 feet on the second high tide. Together, using anchors, line and winches, they dragged Windswept II across 300 feet of wet sand!
At daylight, the pangas arrived and everyone set to work. Some kedging and pulling, others taking soundings in dinghies. They all worked together to
After 11 days, Windswept II was afloat! The pangas couldn't tow her since, without a rudder, Windswept II veered wildly, sliding sideways from one side to the other under tow.
Again, Double Dharma stepped up and made the offer to tow Windswept II the 27 miles to San Carlos. A small, 24-inchdiameter drogue was pulled from the bottom of Juguete's lazarette. Bridles were made, a 100-foot tow line was set, and the drogue was deployed off Windswept II's stern to stop the veering.
Then the wind and seas picked up. Double Dharma was forging her way into headwinds of 15 to 20 knots, with 3-foot waves, while towing a boat equal to her in size. All of this — plus the drag of the drogue — slowed the towing speed to 2.5 knots. It was a long, slow journey back to San Carlos.
After 10 hours of vigilant towing, at about 8:30 p.m. the boats reached the narrow, rock-walled entrance to Bahia San Carlos. Darkness fell as they arrived. A reef added to the need for a careful approach.
Double Dharma passed Windswept II's tow line to Diver Dan of San Carlos. SV Feel Free and others also came out to assist. Chris got his own dinghy off Redemption, and after two hours of maneuvering a rudderless boat, Windswept II was finally safely at anchor by 10:30 that night.
Soon, Windswept II was in the work yard at San Carlos, where David repaired structural damage at her bow and stern, and replaced her rudder, prop, and cutlass bearing.
"Ineed to give a huge thank you to the kind, generous, and caring cruising community who graciously came to my aid and were instrumental from the beginning with organizing aid. I especially want
to thank my good friend Chris, who spent the last 24 hours aboard Windswept II and courageously set the last kedge anchor in neck-high breakers with over 500 feet of line and manned the winch till we were in deep water."
Windswept II's untimely grounding could very well have been a tragic end to both her and her skipper. Although David's accomplishment of kedging 900 feet, inch-by-inch, all alone was a phenomenal feat, the assistance of so many others was essential to the final outcome of bringing David and Windswept II to safe harbor.
In July 2023, with repairs completed, David and Windswept II left Mexico on a singlehanded passage, safely arriving in Hawaii in August.
— noreen may light
About the author: Noreen May Light is slowly exploring the world by sailboat, by bicycle, and on foot. In the summer, Noreen and her husband, Myron, cruise the Salish Sea aboard their 1990 Island Packet 32, Soundhaven. In winter, they cruise the Sea of Cortez on their 1983 Pacific Seacraft Flicka 20, Sweethaven.
If you want to sail and are looking for a captain, or are a captain looking for crew, enter your information in the NEW Latitude 38 crew page to get connected. www.latitude38.com/crew-list
as well as our readers. Send
"College students sure look young these days," I thought as I made my way through the common room of the housing co-op just off campus where Lee Helm lives. I was there to drop off her cellphone, which she had carelessly left in my chart table after a Wednesday night race. It was long after dark, and much easier for me to drop it off at her place than for her to bike to the marina.
The inside of the housing co-op was surprisingly nostalgic in its décor: psychedelic-themed wall paintings, peace signs everywhere, and posters promoting music acts dating back to my own college years. I thought I recognized an old James Taylor album playing at a low volume from one of the rooms.
When I asked one of the kids where I could find Lee, I was directed to a narrow flight of stairs. At the top, one poster caught my eye just across the hall from the door to Lee's room. It was a promotion for the 1990 Singlehanded Transpac, showing a small ultralight racer under spinnaker in a squall, in a very dynamic pose that evoked speed and danger, with spray flying from the bow.
"Like my digs?" Lee asked as she invited me into her room.
"Takes me right back to my own college years," I said. "And that's a great poster you found, the one right out in the hall."
The room was small, but she said she was lucky to have a single. There was sailing, windsurfing and paddling gear everywhere, and she had to move a stack of books from a chair to make a space for me to sit down. I was surprised to see that someone with such a structured intellectual mind would allow their living space to look like the inside of a dock box.
"I love that painting too, Max. It was there when I moved in. There's nothing like DeWitt's artistry for technical accuracy combined with awesome use of colors. And like, it tells a story: There's only one person on deck 'cause it's the Singlehanded T-Pac. The boat is flying along, but the driver can't let go of the helm to take down the big chute — the waves are too big for the autopilot. If he goes forward, the boat will crash. He's
like, stuck there all night, exhausted but going really, really fast, till the wind speed drops a little at sunrise."
"I've been there," I said, looking back out at the poster through the open doorway. "Only DeWitt can use those hot colors to evoke a wild ride in the moonlight. But if I were sailing like that, I could wake up the off-watch when it was their turn, so we got the chute down without a crash. How fast do you think the boat in that painting would be going?"
"Seventeen knots," Lee stated with authority.
"Looks faster to me," I said. "How do you know it's 17?"
"The spray sheet gives it away," she explained. "You can tell how long the
drops of spray are in the air by how high they go. It's just high school physics: Distance is speed times time, speed is time times acceleration. So to get the distance traveled by an object in constant acceleration — in this case, just gravity — integrate distance with respect to time and get the familiar formula, distance equals one half acceleration times time squared."
She took a blank IBM card from a large stack of cards in one corner of her very crowded desk, and wrote out the distance formula: S = 1/2 A T*2.
"Let's use H instead of S for the height of the spray sheet. In the painting, I estimate the height of the spray sheet at three feet. If you drop something from three feet up, the formula is 3 = 1/2 32.2 T^2.
Solve for T, and we get…"
I handed her the forgotten phone, and Lee used her favorite calculator app to get 0.4317 seconds as the time for an object to fall from a height of three feet.
"Now double that, because the drop of water starts by being shot up from the bow. Then it stops, then it falls down. Multiply by two, and the drops in the spray sheet are, like, in the air for 0.8633 seconds."
"That doesn't tell us how fast the boat is going," I said.
"Totally. We also need the length of the spray sheet. Estimate 25 feet, assuming the boat is, like, an Olson 30 or something similar. If the drops are in the air for 0.8633 seconds, and they land 25 feet back along the side of the boat, and speed is just distance divided by time, the boat is moving at 25 feet during 0.8633 or 28.96 feet per second or about… divide feet per second by 1.6878 to get… 17 knots."
"That's a good trick," I admitted, no longer skeptical. "Does it always work?"
"Whenever you have a good picture of the bow spray sheet, and a known length for scale, like the length of the boat, you can estimate the spray sheet height and length. And like, do some arithmetic to combine the constants, and the formula becomes V = 1.189 L /sqrt(H), where V is speed in knots,
L is the length of the spray sheet and H is height of the spray sheet."
Every square inch of the walls of Lee's small room was covered with photos, charts, or graphs. One photo was a naval ship, probably a destroyer of some sort, cruising along at speed with a very nice spray sheet at the forward waterline.
"Let's try it for that ship," I suggested.
Lee found a tape measure under some clutter on her desk, took some measurements, and concluded that
she punched a couple of numbers into her phone, "we get 23.5 knots."
"Looks reasonable," I agreed. "Now what about that one?"
"He's like, stuck there all night, exhausted but going really, really fast, till the wind speed drops a little at sunrise."
"Sure. The ship is a guided missile frigate, 567-ft LOA."
the spray sheet was 11.7 feet high and 67.5 feet long.
"Applying the formula," she said as
I pointed to a photo of an America's Cup foiling catamaran, producing a huge cloud of spray.
"Not as clean an image," Lee complained, "But let's see what we get. It's going to take a little more work because we don't have an orthographic side view."
Lee used two measurements for
Even in stained glass, the spray sheet indicates the speed. Estimating H=1.8 feet and L=8 feet, V=7 knots.
scale: The 75-ft length of the hull was parallel to the length of the spray sheet. And the 87-foot rig, deck to masthead, was parallel to the height of the spray.
"I get 6.06 feet for H and 74.58 feet for L. So we have… 1.189 times 74.58 divided by square root of 6.06… 36.0 knots."
"Believable," I agreed. "But is this actually useful?"
"Like, I wouldn't calibrate my knotmeter this way," she said. "Its main use is to analyze photos."
Not wanting to take up any more of Lee's study time, I made my way back down the narrow stairway, past
the concert posters from the '60s, the swirling painted spirals on the walls, and a hint of the sweet smell of something that was not legal in my day.
It was nice to know that nothing had really changed in the housing coop.
— max ebb
With spring having sprung, we wrap up the Golden Gate and Berkeley Midwinters, welcome that spring classic the Big Daddy, review two Shorthanded Races, brave the wind for Marina del Rey's South Bay Tour, gaze at what's On the Horizon, and hope for rescue of the Santa Cruz Mile Buoy Box Scores is loaded up with Midwinter Series results.
Seaweed Soup at Golden Gate March did indeed come in like a lion. Friday, March 1, proved stormy, chilly and rainy, throughout the day and night. However, on Saturday, March 2, Golden Gate Yacht Club was able to get in a short race to wrap up their Seaweed Soup midwinter series.
The breeze ranged from a lively 17-25 knots at the start, to a rowdy 19-30 by the finish. The air temperature failed to rise above 50. With big waves and the southwesterly blow in their way, some boats were unable to make it all the way from the East Bay to compete. Jon Stewart, mainsail trimmer on the Sabre Spirit 36 Serenade, commented that it was better than advertised — no rain.
The two fastest divisions went on a double-sausage course up and down the San Francisco Cityfront, rounding the Blackaller and Fort Mason buoys twice. The slowest PHRF division plus the Knarrs and Folkboats only had to go around once, for a quick 3.4-mile race. With a lot of south to the westerly, the course was pretty reachy, adding to the speed with which it was completed.
Once this fifth race was completed, the throwout kicked in, leaving boats in two divisions tied for points.
Scott Easom's Sabre Spirit Serenade threw out a fifth place, and Peter Jeal's Folkboat Polperro, last year's overall winner, threw out a second place, leaving both boats with four first places and a net score of 4 points. What's a race committee to do? Consult the Deed of Gift, of course! Because Serenade vanquished 13 competitors, and Polperro only five, Serenade won the big silver bowl. Scott Easom had previously won in the 20132014 series skippering his Farr 30 Eight Ball
The Serenade crew, most of whom had sailed with the Sabre's previous owner, Scott's uncle, the late Hank Easom, were overjoyed after the announcement following the final race. "This was what we needed to do for Hank," commented Scott. He had finished (and won overall) the Puerto Vallarta Race aboard Roy Disney's Pyewacket on Thursday, then flew home on Friday just in time to race in San Francisco on Saturday.
— latitude / chrisPHRF 1 — 1) Skeleton Key, J/111, James Wagner, 6 points; 2) Gentoo, Soto 30, Paul Dorsey, 6; 3) Zamazaan, Farr 52, Greg Mullins, 18. (13 boats)
PHRF 2 — 1) Serenade, Sabre Spirit 36, Scott Easom, 4 points; 2) Jeannette, Frers 40, Bob Novy, 12; 3) Humble Vandal, J/92, Rhett Smith, 14. (14 boats)
PHRF 3 — 1) Uno, Wyliecat 30, Brendan Meyer, 7 points; 2) Salty Cat, Wyliecat 30, David Rasmussen, 9; 3) Arcadia, Mod. Santana 27, Gordie Nash. (11 boats)
KNARR — 1) The Sinking Dutchman, Ty Ingram,11 points; 2) Thor, Jeff Spoering, 12; 3) Eos, Dick Swanson, 13. (10 boats)
FOLKBOAT — 1) Polperro, Peter Jeal, 4 points; 2) Thea, Chris Herrmann, 8; 3) Shanty, Allen Slichter, 13. (5 boats)
Full results at www.jibeset.net
For most of the contenders, Berkeley YC's Midwinter series wrapped up on February 10-11. But the most skillful of them got a bonus race to see who would be the Champion of Champions on Sunday, February 25. It would be hard to ask for a better day of sailing on the Bay, with wind in the low teens from the NNW and plenty of winter sunshine.
Boats that had won their division in the regular series competed in the Red fleet; secondplace finishers sailed against one another in the Blue fleet; and third-place boats duked it out in the White fleet. Only the winner of the Red fleet would have their name enshrined on the coveted (though homely) Kirt Brooks trophy.
Following the fun race, BYC's commodore, Mary Garfein, explained the provenance of the series and its perpetual trophy. Kirt Brooks started the midwinter series for the Metropolitan Yacht Club of Oakland in 1957. In 1984, the MYCO series merged with BYC. (Betty Gray, a longtime race committee volunteer and past commodore, said that it's the oldest continuous midwinter series on San Francisco Bay.)
Kirt couldn't get people to go to the club to pick up the trophies, so he created the Cham-
pion of Champions race.
Winning the trophy this year was the crew of Sketch, and, yes, they pulled their Olson 25 up to the guest dock at BYC to accept their accolades, even though it would mean a bash back to SFYC in the teeth of the late-afternoon breeze, which had built considerably since the completion of the race.
— latitude / chris
BYC MIDWINTERSCHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS, 2/25
'Serenade' (SP1) stretches out on her competitors at the start of the final Seaweed Soup race on March 2.
WHITE FLEET
Full results at www.jibeset.net
RYC ran their three around-the-cans Big Daddy buoy races on Saturday, March 9, in strong but not ballistic
breeze. Rain squalls popped up here and there (especially there — looking at you, Marin), but failed to dampen any of the three race courses.
Following the racing on Saturday, the crews polished off a couple of kegs of free beer, scarfed a buffet dinner, and boogied to the dance tunes of Shark Sandwich.
Colin Moore and crew on the Wylie Wabbit Kwazy busted their boom at the vang in the third race on Saturday. Fortunately, Colin had a spare boom at home so was able to race on Sunday.
Jasper Van Vliet normally sails Evil Octopus, but that J/24 was hauled out at KKMI, so he borrowed Brandon Mercer's Tenacious Cuttlefish, the former Evil Octopus (love the boat names) that Brandon
bought from the Van Vliets. On Sunday, Jasper borrowed his wife Robin's Little Wing, as she was busy volunteering on the race committee. He used his own sails (and thus sail number), and fared very well both days, winning the J/24 division on Saturday and making it around Alcatraz to Angel Island well ahead of other clockwise boats on Sunday.
Also sailing a clockwise course, the last starter, William Erkelens' D-class cat Adrenaline, passed all of her competition to complete the loop first. The crew (with three octogenarians on board) included Skip Elliott, Malcolm Gefter, Chris Steinfeld, Aiden Mobley and Anthony Abate.
Sunday's WSW breeze was mellower than Saturday's, mostly in the teens but dipping to single digits east of Angel Island before freshening again.
Peter Wagner's J/111 Skeleton Key was the first monohull to finish and the first counterclockwise boat. The third finisher, Andy Schwenk's Express 37 Spindrift V, took a clockwise course off the Southampton Shoal area start line. The fourth boat to finish, Scott Easom's Sabre Spirit Serenade, went counterclockwise. So which was the "right" way to go? With starts stretching over an hour and 10 minutes, good breeze, and
4 points; 2) Sweet De, Christian & Denise Kramer, 5; 3) Dream, Ernest Galvan, 9. (3 boats)
early-afternoon slack current, it seemed to be a toss-up.
— latitude / chris
RYC BIG DADDY FLEET RACES, 3/9 (3r, 0t)
EXPRESS 27 — 1) Motorcycle Irene, Julia Paxton, 6 points; 2) Wile E Coyote, Dan Pruzan, 6; 3) Salty Hotel, John Kearney, 10. (14 boats)
SANTANA 22 — 1) Alegre, Chris Klein, 3 points; 2) Albacore, Jan Grygier, 9; 3) Zingaro, Jennifer McKenna, 10. (5 boats)
J/24 — 1) Tenacious Cuttlefish, Jasper Van Vliet, 5 points; 2) Downtown Uproar, Darren Cumming, 6; 3) Little Wing, Robin Van Vliet, 9. (4 boats)
WYLIE WABBIT — 1) FAFO, Marcos McGee/ Daniel Roberts, 4 points; 2) Mr. McGregor, Kim Desenberg/John Groen, 8; 3) Hare Today Gone Tomowwo, Erik Menzel/Michelle Sumpton, 9. (5 boats)
MOORE 24 — 1) Firefly, Joel Turmel, 4; 2) Mooregasm, Stephen Bourdow, 5; 3) The Flying Tiger, Vaughn Seifers, 10. (11 boats)
ULTIMATE 20 — 1) U Decide, Phil Kanegsberg/Denise Hammond, 4 points; 2) Hard Drive, Marty Smihula, 6; 3) Toon Town, Michael Eisenberg, 10. (5 boats)
J/88 — 1) Ravenette, Brice Dunwoodie, 3 points; 2) Speedwell, Thomas Thayer/Robert Milligan, 6; 3) Butcher, Dave Corbin, 10. (5 boats)
ALERION 28 — 1) Resilience, Michael Quinn,
J/105 — 1) Ne*Ne, Tim Russell, 6 points; 2) Akula, Doug Bailey, 10; 3) Alchemy, Walter Sanford, 13; 4) Mojo, Jeff Littfin, 15. (19 boats)
PHRF A — 1) Swift Ness, J/111, Nesrin Basoz, 4 points; 2) Wildcard, SC37, Nicholas Grebe, 9; 3) Nuckelavee, Melges 32, Mark Kennedy/Pearl Prisco, 10. (6 boats)
PHRF B — 1) Reverie, J/109, John Arens, 6 points; 2) Invictus, Jeanneau SunFast 3600, Nico Popp, 6; 3) Jeannette, Frers 40, Bob Novy, 7. (10 boats)
RYC BIG DADDY PURSUIT RACE 3/10
MONOHULL — 1) Skeleton Key, J/111, Peter Wagner; 2) Spindrift V, Express 37, Andy Schwenk; 3) Serenade, Sabre Spirit 36, Scott Easom; 4) Bombora, Express 27, Rebecca Hinden; 5) Akula, J/105, Doug Bailey; 6) Little Wing, J/24, Jasper Van Vliet; 7) Zuni Bear, J/105, Mike Donohue; 8) Lulu, J/105, Steven Hill; 9) Blackhawk, J/105, Kristin Simmons; 10) Kuda Wuda, SR33, Craig Page. (110 boats)
MULTIHULL — 1) Adrenaline, D-Class cat, William Erkelens Sr.; 2) Caliente, Explorer 44 tri, Truls Myklebust; 3) Hullabaloo, F-31R tri, Jonathan Kaplan. (5 boats)
Full results at www.richmondyc.org
The SSS Corinthian race is named after Corinthian YC, where the race used to start and finish. This year the start and finish was at Point Knox, on the west side of Angel Island. SFYC provided
their race committee boat, Victory, and a driver, on balmy February 24.
Of the 114 boats entered, 106 started. Singlehanders raced the near-classic course from the start to Little Harding, Blossom Rock, the Blackaller buoy, the Bob Klein buoy and Little Harding to the finish. Doublehanders went on a similar but separate course for their first two marks, as a way to put some space between the two fleets: Harding Rock, YRA-7 (a red R2 buoy northwest of Treasure Island), Blackaller, Bob Klein, Little Harding and then to finish.
The wind predictions called for a light northeasterly, raising concerns that the start would be in a hole behind Angel Island, dissuading some boats from entering. But there was sufficient wind from the north in a moderate current from the south for all boats to start and make it to their first mark.
Many SSS races are hard: Simply finishing is an accomplishment.
Most boats were successful getting around the first three marks, but struggled on the leg from Blackaller to Bob Klein in the building ebb. In a northerly wind, passing close to the Point Blunt buoy puts boats in the wind shadow of Angel as well as in strong current. On the other hand, boats trying to go through Raccoon Strait had to fight even more current and limited wind between Tiburon and Angel Island.
Of the 106 starters, 55 finished.
The Seacart 30GP Bottle Rocket, PHRF -78, lived up to her name, finishing 16 minutes ahead of her nearest competitor with an elapsed time of exactly 1 hour, 50 minutes. That’s a big accomplishment. While the race has changed a bit over the years, the best time over the last 10 years was slightly over 2 hours, 29 minutes, set by the PHRF -126 Extreme 40 Shadow X in 2017.
In the singlehanded monohulls, only Tim Roche's J/92 Zaff finished, with an elapsed time of 06:07:21. "As usual, the keys to finishing were persistence and understanding the currents across the whole Bay," noted Tim.
"With the late start for the singlehanders, it wasn't possible to round Point Blunt with the wind and the current both from the north. I had to head way south to try to find less adverse conditions. That worked out, and I was able to cross over to the Berkeley flats and make good progress north. Another tide gate at the entrance to Raccoon Strait forced a second deviation from the plan, and led me south around Angel Island. It was a pretty straightforward finish after that.
"Thanks to the race committee for sitting on the boat for hours waiting for
the last few stragglers!"
The Bay Area Multihull Association (BAMA), the Express 27s and the Moore 24s use the SSS Corinthian as part of their own doublehanded seasons. The overall doublehanded monohull winners were Joel Turmel and Bart Hackworth on the Moore 24 Firefly.
"We had a good game plan going into the race," recalls Joel. "Rounding Angel Island was the crux of the challenge for the day. Avoiding the screaming ebb making its way out of Raccoon Strait made the most sense to us, keeping in mind that we may have to flip the script at any second. We favored pressure over current and connected the dots around the course. It didn’t hurt that Bart Hackworth has been driving ferry boats on the Bay for many, many years, and understood the water well. It took a little bit of everything to get this one done. Beautiful day out!"
The race committee thanks all the boats that retired via text. They only had to call two boats post-race, a huge improvement over the Three Bridge Fiasco.
The next day, Sunday, February 25, marked the fourth and last race of the YRA's Doublehanded Midwinter Series. Several hardy souls raced in both. Of
SSS CORINTHIAN RACE, 2/24
the 24 boats entered, 18 started; all of them finished.
It was another warm, beautiful day for sailing, with stronger wind than on the day before, coming from the west. The
EYC JACK FROST SERIES (6r, 1t)
PHRF — 1) Sea Star, Cal 39, Bob Walden, 8 points; 2) Keaka, Olson 34, John Maher, 10; 3) Ahi, Santana 35, Andy Newell, 14. (8 boats)
SPORTBOAT — 1) Latency, J/99, Camille Moussette, 8 points; 2) Smokin', Melges 24, Kevin Clark, 11; 3) Can't Touch This, Viper 640, Dan Primus, 11. (3 boats)
SANTANA 22 — 1) Anemone, Hank Lindemann, 9 points; 2) Albacore, Jan Grygier, 11; 3) Meliki, Deb Fehr, 13. (5 boats)
Full results at www.jibeset.net
IYC ISLAND DAYS SERIES (5r, 1t)
PHRF 167≤ — 1) Good and Plenty, Soverel 33, Justis Fennell, 6.5 points; 2) Wile E Coyote, Express 27, Dan Pruzan, 9.5; 3) Cassiopeia, Islander 36, Kit Wiegman, 13. (5 boats)
PHRF 168-197 — 1) Loose Cannon, J/22, Jens Jensen, 8 points; 2) Bewitched, Merit 25, Dawn Chesney, 13; 3) Faster Faster!, Merit 25, David Ross, 16. (8 boats)
PHRF ≥198 OR JIB & MAIN — 1) Puff Mommy, Harbor 20, Lisa & Theo Rohr, 8 points; 2) Boogie Woogie, Ranger 33, John Ratto, 10; 3)
ideal conditions allowed all boats to get around the course with elapsed times between 1 hour, 15 minutes to 1 hour, 58 minutes.
—latitude / chris
Loco2, Mercury, Paul Mueller, 15. (8 boats)
COLUMBIA 5.5 — 1) Maverick, Ken Bodiley, 4 points; 2) Roja, John Davis, 10. (2 boats)
SANTANA 22 — 1) Anemone, Hank Lindemann, 5 points; 2) Brandy, Billy Cook, 8; 3) Fun, Chris Nicholas, 10. (5 boats)
Full results at www.jibeset.net
RYC SMALL BOAT MIDWINTER SERIES
WYLIE WABBIT — 1) Tim Russell, 13 points; 2) Colin Moore, 18; 3) Erik Menzel, 29. (10 boats)
MERCURY — 1) David Bacci, 12 points; 2) Scott Jenson, 27; 3) Chris Lanzafame, 35. (6 boats)
INTERNATIONAL 14 — 1) Patrick Wilkinson/ Michael Pacholski, 6 points; 2) James Clarkson, 11; 3) John Clark, 15. (5 boats)
SNIPE — 1) Packy Davis, 28 points; 2) Andy Meyerpeter, 28; 3) Vince Casalaina, 34. (9 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED MULTIHULL — 1) Bottle Rocket, Seacart 30 GP+, David Schumann/ Trevor Baylis; 2) Flux, Seacart 30 GP, Jeremy Boyette/Andy McCormick; 3) Pegasus 3, F-22R, Andrew & Alexandra Pitcairn. (11 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED EXPRESS 27 — 1) Peaches, John & Michael Rivlin; 2) Hot Sheet,
RS AERO — 1) Stephen Smith, 9 points; 2) Randall Rasicot, 14; 3) Lisa Smith, 25. (10 boats)
RS TERA — 1) Tesse Rose Lahr, 4 points; 2) Kai Hislop, 8; 3) Will Robbins, 8. (7 boats)
ILCA 7 — 1) Chris Simenstad, 23 points; 2) Marcel Sloane, 32; 3) Emilio Castelli, 39. (13 boats)
ILCA 6 — 1) Courtney Clamp, 14 points; 2) Toshinari Takayanagi, 27; 3) Evan Sullivan, 31. (10 boats)
EL TORO SR. — 1) Michael Quinn, 16 points; 2) Gordie Nash, 25; 3) Chris Sullivan, 43. (12 boats)
EL TORO JR. — 1) Brendan Choi, 9 points; 2) Zach Peterson, 18; 3) Thomas Starkey, 22. (5 boats)
Full results at www.richmondyc.org
SEQYC REDWOOD CUP SERIES (4r, 1t)
PHRF — 1) Frequent Flyer, Farr 30, Stan Phillips, 4 points; 2) Allons-Y, J/70, Davis King, 5; 3) Hijinks, J/92, Ian McGee, 9. (10 boats)
MERIT 25 — 1) Brett Herr, 4 points; 2) Steve Klein, 10; 3) David Pregeant, 17. (7 boats)
OPEN 5.70 — 1) Roxy, Anja Bog, 4 points; 2)
David Wick/Nick Diel; 3) Abigail Morgan, Oliver Kell/Seth Cohen. (11 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED MOORE 24 — 1) Firefly, Joel Turmel/Bart Hackworth; 2) Moorigami, John Siegel/Mark Chandler; 3) Suerte, Nick Dugdale/ Elliot James. (13 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED SPORTBOAT — 1) Kwazy, Wylie Wabbit, Colin Moore/OJ Olson; 2) 'io, Antrim 27c, Buzz Blackett/Karl Robrock; 3) Shake & Bake, Farr X2, Jack Peurach/John Duncan. (8 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED SPINNAKER <82 — 1)
Basic Instinct, Elliott 1050, Memo Gidley/Maggie Royal; 2) Timber Wolf, Farr 38, David Hodges/ John Kernot; 3) Speedwell, J/88, Tom Thayer/ Robert Milligan. (12 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED SPINNAKER 86-157 — 1)
Freedom, Worth 40, Jib & Will Martens; 2) Arcadia, Mod. Santana 27, Gordie Nash/Ruth Suzuki; 3) Uno, Wyliecat 30, Brendan Meyer. (9 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED SPINNAKER ≥159 — 1)
Kaiulani, Jeff Bubin, 9; 3) Spirit, Marton Neher, 10. (7 boats)
Full results at www.jibeset.net
SEQYC WINTER SERIES (5r, 1t)
PHRF 1-111 — 1) Rascal, Wilderness 30, William Larsen, 4 points; 2) Hijinks, J/92, Ian McGee, 9; 3) Frequent Flyer, Farr 30, Stan Phillips, 9. (8 boats)
PHRF 112-300 — 1) Osprey, Sabre 36, Jeff Stine, 6 points; 2) Pelagic, Beneteau 310, Musto Gunan, 8; 3) Sweet Jane, J/90, Friedrich Graf Finckenstein, 9. (7 boats)
MERIT 25 — 1) Brett, Brett Herr, 10 points; 2) Juan, Juan Blanch, 11; 3) Hong C, Rich Ferrari, 13. (8 boats)
OPEN 5.70 — 1) Hummingbird, Andrew Lesslie, 9 points; 2) Altair, Samantha Chiu, 11; 3) Spirit, Marton Neher, 12. (8 boats)
Full results at www.jibeset.net
SBYC MIDWINTERS (4r, 0t)
SPINNAKER, PHRF <100 — 1) Nuckelavee, Melges 32, Pearl Prisco/Mark Kennedy, 6 points; 2) Inconceivable, J/88, Steven Gordon, 12; 3)
Sketch, Olson 25, David Gruver/John Collins; 2) Loki, Santana 525, Sergi Molins/Walter Shih. (13 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED NON-SPINNAKER — 1)
C Cubed, Wylie 60, Charles Ray/Zan Drejes; 2) National Biscuit, Schumacher 36, Dennis Webb/ Michael Simon. (7 boats)
SINGLEHANDED SPINNAKER — 1) Zaff, J/92, Tim Roche. (8 boats)
SINGLEHANDED SPORTBOAT — 1) No finishers. (5 boats)
SINGLEHANDED NON-SPINNAKER — 1) No finishers. (9 boats)
OVERALL DH MONOHULL — 1) Firefly; 2) Basic Instinct; 3) Moorigami; 4) Timber Wolf; 5) Suerte; 6) Freedom; 7) Kwazy; 8) Peaches; 9) Hot Sheet; 10) Abigail Morgan. (73 boats) Full results at www.jibeset.net
YRA DOUBLEHANDED MIDWINTERS (4r, 1t)
SPINNAKER 1 — 1) Invictus, Jeanneau Sun-
Butcher, J/88, Dave Corbin, 17. (9 boats)
SPINNAKER, PHRF 100-150 — 1) La Dolce Vita, J/32, John Riley, 8 points; 2) Stratocaster, J/32, Lewis Lanier, 9; 3) Luna Sea, Islander 36, Daniel Knox, 15. (5 boats)
SPINNAKER PHRF >150 — 1) Goose, Catalina 30, Michael Kastrop, 6 points; 2) Zeehond, Newport 30 MkII, Donn Guay, 7; 3) Tilly Whim, C&C 30, Paul Larose, 14. (6 boats)
NON-SPINNAKER — 1) Jabouf, Catalina 30, 4 points. (1 boat)
Full results at www.southbeachyachtclub.org
SYC CHILI MIDWINTERS (4r, 0t)
SPINNAKER A — 1) Q, Schumacher 40, Glenn Isaacson/Peter English, 10 points; 2) Kuda Wuda, SR33, Craig Page, 23; 3) H-Pod, J/100, Tom & Cam Hutton, 25. (10 boats)
Fast 3600, Nico Popp, 5 points; 2) Kestrel, J/105, Eric Patterson/Andrew Picel, 5; 3) Sun Dragon, Jeanneau SunFast 3300, Sergei Podshivalov/ Charlie Abraham, 7. (10 boats)
SPINNAKER 2 — 1) Chesapeake, Merit 25, Jim Fair/Bernard Price, 3 points; 2) Nancy, Wyliecat 30, Pat Broderick/Doug Ford, 5; 3) 53 Grandad, Catalina 34 MkII, Toby Marion, 9. (3 boats)
NON-SPINNAKER — 1) Free, S&S 30, Jim Carlsen/Jim Bilafer, 3 points; 2) Sapphire, Alerion 33, Michael Chammout, 5; 3) National Biscuit, Schumacher 36, Steve Hocking/Dietrich Dtrick, 13. (5 boats)
Full results at www.jibeset.net
Del Rey YC’s South Bay Tour Race
Who says it never blows on Santa Monica Bay? Certainly not the 46 crews who started Del Rey YC’s South Bay Tour race on March 2!
Facing forecasts of more than 20 knots, sloppy seas and rain, boats went on a 22-mile course from Marina del Rey to each of the three bell buoys in Santa Monica Bay, including El Segundo, Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes.
Most of the seven classes started during squalls with low visibility. Some of the 61 boats that had registered decided it was not safe or desirable to race that day, while others started and quickly tore sails or broke gear.
Along the course, racers experienced more squalls and gusts up to 30 knots before the sun eventually broke through later in the afternoon. Participants reported some fast boat speeds, with dramatic videos shared on social media of roundups and rooster tails.
Robert Dekker’s J/105 Cuchulainn
SPINNAKER C — 1) Nancy, Wyliecat 30, Pat Broderick, 5 points; 2) Sweet Pea, Islander 302, Jan Hirsch, 15; 3) Ouessant, Farallon Clipper, Jennifer Hinkel, 16. (5 boats)
NON-SPINNAKER D — 1) Sapphire, Alerion 33, Michael Chammout, 4 points; 2) Leilani, Alerion 33, Bob Lalanne, 8; 3) Amicizia, Hanse 415, Scott Lamson, 13. (11 boats)
Full results at www.sausalitoyachtclub.org
VYC TINY ROBBINS MIDWINTERS (4r, 1t)
SPINNAKER A — 1) Wayward Wind, Baltic 38, Fred Von Stieff, 7 points; 2) Pearl, J/80, Jack Vetter, 7; 3) Aerie, CS36, Mark Littlefield, 8. (5 boats)
NON-SPINNAKER B — 1) Adventure, Catalina 36, Steven Strunk, 8 points; 2) Triforce, Tartan 4100, Mike Kazek, 9; 3) Cali, Islander 36, Kerry Scott, 13. (3 boats)
NON-SPINNAKER C — 1) Wings, Albin Ballad 30, Jerry Halterman, 4 points; 2) Jeannette, Dufour Arpege 30, Michael Boese, 9; 3) Water Baby, Catalina 30, Mary Kraybill, 9. (5 boats) Full results at www.jibeset.net
won first overall in the Performance Division (and first in class D) while Kathy St. Amant’s Hunter 37 Rascal won first overall in the Cruiser Division (and first in Class B).
Other class winners included Sapphire Knight, a Farr 85, in Performance A class; Seawolf, a Diode 35, in Performance B; Triggerfish V, a Beneteau 40.7, in Performance C; Wombat, a Martin 242 in Performance E; and Spirit of Califor-
nia, a Brooklin 48, in Cruiser A class.
During the post-race party at DRYC, everyone agreed that the race committee volunteers went above and beyond to get this race off. While water came into the cabin of the signal boat as her bow was dunking through the waves, most oboard were seasick during the bouncy starting sequences. Nonetheless, all classes started as scheduled, and volunteers recovered once back inside the breakwater.
The South Bay Tour Race was the second race for DRYC’s William Berger Series for Performance classes and William Stein Series for Cruiser classes. Race 3 will be the Point Dume Race on May 11, followed by the annual Cat Harbor Layover races on June 8-9, featuring a fun party between races at DRYC’s lovely facility on Catalina Island. Find more info at www.dryc.org/racing
— brendan huffman, dryc
The folks who organize the Race to Alaska have announced that the adventure from Port Townsend, WA, to Ketchikan, AK, will run in alternating, even years, starting in 2024. During odd years, the same folks, based out of Port Townsend's Northwest Maritime Center, will put on the WA360
Conceived as a COVID alternative in 2021 when the US-Canada border was closed, the WA360, as described in the press release, is a "race from Port Townsend to Port Townsend, hitting Olympia, Skagit Bay, Point Roberts and the San Juans — a rollicking counterclockwise slide through the waterways of Washington. Racers will contend with squalls, doldrums, commercial traffic, raccoons, marauding recreational boaters, and their own embattled decision making — Deception Pass or Swinomish Slough? Bears are unlikely, but raccoons are near-guaranteed!"
This year's R2AK will start on June 9, but applications, like tax returns, are due on April 15.
You can't race in it, but you can buy tickets to watch SailGP's Season 4 finale in San Francisco on July 13-14. See https://sailgp.com
Registration is open for the 60th Rolex Big Boat Series. St. Francis YC staff commodore Beau Vrolyk's classic schooner Mayan was the first entry. Race dates will be September 12-15. Onedesign classes anticipated include J/88, J/105, Cape 31, Melges 24 and Express 37. Multihulls are invited back after a few years' hiatus. To learn more and sign up, go to www.rolexbigboatseries.com
And (back to the PNW), registration is open for the 2024 J/24 Worlds, to be hosted by Fleet 26 and Corinthian YC of Seattle on picturesque Puget Sound. Title sponsor Beecher's Handmade Cheese will present the regatta on September 28October 5. Sign up and find all the details at www.j24worldsseattle.org
— latitude / chris
The Santa Cruz Harbor alerted us to the endangered status of the Mile Buoy, beloved by yacht racers as a rounding mark, by mariners lost in the fog, and by sea lions needing a break from hungry great white sharks.
"The United States Coast Guard is proposing to remove the Mile Buoy and replace it with a mark on the chart. There would no longer be any buoy or other permanent marker in the waters along the Santa Cruz coastline," writes Holland MacLaurie, the SC port director.
"The Coast Guard distributed a Local Notice to Mariners describing the proposed removal. They're requesting comments from all interested parties by Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
"Comments may be directed to LTJG Samantha Hu at (510) 437-2983 or via email at Samantha.G.Koval@uscg.mil.
"The Coast Guard is particularly interested in any rationale relating to why the buoy is necessary for safe navigation in spite of the current availability
and affordability of electronic navigation equipment (e.g. GPS)."
Because GPS units and other electronic devices never fail or run out of battery power…
— latitude / chris
For more racing news, subscribe to 'Lectronic Latitude online at www.latitude38.com
March's racing stories included:
• Puerto Vallarta Race • SailGP
• Global Solo Challenge
• Northern League Championship of High School Sailing • Ocean Globe Race
• RORC Caribbean 600 • Pacific Cup
• MerConcept Women’s Ocean 50 Race
• Olympic Send-Off for Daniela Moroz
• US Sailing Controversy
• More on the Mile Buoy in Santa Cruz
• Previews of April Races, Grandes
Navegantes, Opti Team Trials, Beer Can Series, Rolex Big Boat Series, and more.
Dreaming about a cruising adventure or big race for this season? Quantum Sails is here to help. Scan the QR code to schedule service or to contact a representative for assistance with new sails.
QuantumSails.com
COURTESY SANTA CRUZ HARBOR
With stories this month on getting Flashgirl ready to head to the South Seas; a report on Zihuatanejo Sailfest; another report on Barra de Navidad's Fiesta de Veleros and Cruise-In Week; a hilarious accound of getting a new mainsail for Roxxy; and a veritable tsunami of Cruise Notes.
Back to Paradise
Mill Valley
Warwick "Commodore" Tompkins turned 92 at the end of February, and recently let it be known that he's going to
sea again. While age has confined many graying sailors to life ashore, its limitations and irritations are only of passing concern to this veteran sailor.
For the few who might not know, Commodore has literally spent his entire life sailing. Although he was born ashore in Boston in 1932, his home from the age of two weeks was the 85-ft schooner Wander Bird, a former German pilot vessel owned by his father, Warwick Sr. As the story goes, one day, at the end of a guided tour of the boat, a visitor noticed the baby sleeping in a bureau drawer in the master's cabin and said, "Well, I've met the skipper, the mate, and the cook, so this must be the Commodore." The name stuck.
Commodore has sailed extensively. On Wander Bird, he rounded Cape Horn at age 4. Later, as a young man, he hired out as crew or skipper on all manner of racing boats in all the major races of the day: transatlantics, Sydney Hobarts, NewportBermuda races, Admiral's Cups; and countless Mexican races and Transpacs. Back in the day, for owners who wanted to win races, Commodore was one of the top "draft picks" to try to get on the boat.
In the 1990s, by now in his 60s, Commodore turned his attention to cruising. But not on just any boat. In typical Tompkins fashion, he turned a Wylie 39 into a high-performance cruiser, the bright-red Flashgirl
"In 1990, I towed the hull and unfinished deck north from Westerly Marine in Santa Ana, using Jonathan Livingston's truck and a trailer loaned by Kim Desenberg: 16 hours on the road!" he remembers. "The hull and deck were laid up, engine and shaft installed, but there was no cockpit or transom, and nothing at all inside. Offloaded the materials at Remo Patri's place in Sonoma, where a slab and shed had been readied."
It took nine years to complete the boat, including installing a water-ballasting system and lifting keel. The launch was at KKMI in 2000, where Commodore took advantage of the assembled throng to announce that he and girlfriend Nancy Potter would also be married, right then and there. "No gifts, announcements, or invitations needed," he notes. Our having attended, believe us when we say it was a day to remember.
In 2004, he and Nancy took off for the South Seas, spending the next dozen years enjoying life south of the equator. When they headed back north in 2016, Commodore recalls the sail from the Marquesas to Hawaii was one of their best passages together. Once in Hawaii, they moored the boat "in David Nottage's front yard in Kaneohe Bay," and headed back to the mainland. The intention was to sail the final leg back to San Francisco when the time was right.
Mother Nature threw a major wrench into those gears. While on a cruise up the inland waterway to Alaska aboard a friend's motoryacht, Commodore got an urgent radio message that simply read, "Flashgirl has sunk."
"Nancy engineered a float plane, which collected me and deposited me at the nearest big airport. I was then collected in Oahu by Dave Nottage, and saw the boat the next morning in Kaneohe, a sad sight."
Flashgirl had been hit "by an observed lightning strike to her masthead," he remembers. "The strike depressed the mast and hull sufficiently to crack a thru-hull fitting, leading to the sinking. Lost virtually all systems due either to immersion or surging electrical energy. The vessel herself, I believe, was saved because of the lightning ground designed by Malcolm Morgan." Flashgirl partially sank in the shallow water — "six-inch freeboard at the stemhead, and the sugar scoop was at water level," Commodore says.
Raising, cleaning and making the boat seaworthy took six to eight weeks. Commodore and Robert Flowerman sailed Flashgirl home to the Bay Area — sans engine, instruments, radio, autopilot or refrigeration. "The house batteries survived, and I replaced the ballast pumps, so we did have stability!" he notes. The trip took 21 days.
There was much work to be done before Flashgirl was ready for the ocean again.
A Bay Area mechanic got the drowned Perkins engine running again. But last November, it seized and stopped for good. So part of the ongoing refit has been
replacing the Perkins with a Volvo unit of similar size and horsepower. Commodore removed the old engine and installed the new one on his own, using the boom and deck winches as a crane. At this writing, the Volvo was in place and aligned — "It's really a tight fit!" — and he was working on plumbing and electrics.
Here's a look at some of the other work — aside from normal maintenance — that's been going on aboard Flashgirl, currently at her slip at Richmond YC. • Reworking all 10 stanchions and
lifelines (the carbon underside of the deck and hull caused total destruction of the aluminium stanchions).
• Installation of lithium batteries, which will require special charging and regulating devices, but will weigh about half what the older batteries did.
• Installation of a new suite of B&G instruments and autopilot, augmented by a Commodore-built rudder-angle device serving the autopilot. The boat will also get an AIS system for the first time.
• Repair and/or replacement of the
SSB/backstay antenna and tuner, and making the stereo system work again.
• Two small ventilating hatches remounted on new PVC substructures: The old PVC mounts had given up and were leaking.
• Replacement of the old five-gallon water heater with a new Scandvik unit. "One must have hot showers!" Commodore notes.
• The Clark Pump from the Spectra watermaker is currently being overhauled by Bill Edinger.
• Swedish Marine, who initially installed the Glacier Bay refrigeration/ freezer, have been aboard to return that system to function.
• Mindful of his decreased strength, Commodore installed an electric anchor windlass, purchased from an outfit in Oz, which Malcolm Morgan wired together.
Always one to give credit where it is due, Commodore notes, "I have received help in all this from Eric Steinberg, Malcolm Morgan and a friend named Marco Misbach. The latter is a German with a wide variety of skills, energy and willingness to help."
For the most part, though, Commodore is working alone, engaging "specialist" help only when needed. He notes that, "my current energies and strength do not permit an eight-hour work day; and the work goes slowly."
We're sad to report that his home life these days is also largely solitary: Nancy passed away last August.
If all goes as planned, Flashgirl will haul out at KKMI on April 1 for a new bottom job. After that, it's back to the to-do list in preparation for a late-summer departure for points southwest.
As far as crew, "Not more than four souls aboard, nor less than three," he says. At the moment, no names are carved in stone except for his own. As the boat comes together, he figures those issues will resolve.
As far as the potential itinerary, "It will be a one-stop sail. Hawaii is approximately halfway, and features delicious mahimahi sandwiches!"
— commodore and jr 3/9/24
Stay tuned to Latitude for updates on Commodore's progress.
Twenty-five cruising sailboats (and one motorboat) participated in the 23rd Annual Zihuatanejo Sailfest, which took place February 11-24. This year's event raised in excess of 3 million pesos — about $234,000 — for local schools and students in the Zihua area.
Many of the attendees this year (and the biggest donation producers who took out the most guests) were Sailfest veterans, including Kirk and Charlene Wagner's Alberta-based Beneteau 393 Freedom Kirkland. This was their 12th Sailfest, and Kirk notes, "We placed second in our division with the Rally Round the Rock, and placed first in the amount of donations raised — for the second year in a row. So it was once again a very rewarding experience for us."
Another attendee was Steve and Tracy Dolling's Salish Dragon, a Vancouverbased Manta 40 cat. Now in the fifth year of cruising, Steve says, "I think we might have had the anchor down for a couple of minutes before we had a radio call welcoming us to the bay, and by the way, were we going to be participating in Sailfest?
"Of course we were! Sailfest is a great opportunity for sailors to make a real contribution to a community without having to do sweaty work like laying bricks — instead, we take tourists out sailing!"
Sailfest started in 2002, when Latitude 38 publisher Richard Spindler came up with the idea of "doing something a little different" with the help of boats that had sailed south that year. Along with his 63ft cat Profligate, Blair Grinols' 45-ft Capricorn Cat and maybe a dozen other boats, they put together a little regatta in Zihuatanejo, raising about $1,000 for a woman who taught Indigenous children Spanish under a tree in town.
Since then, the event has taken on a life of its own; hundreds of boats have participated; there are many concurrent fundraising activities ashore; and well north of $1 million has been raised over the years for charities in the Zihua area.
Here are the nuts and bolts of how the cruiser part of the event works these days, courtesy of event sailing chairman Tim Melville.
"Cruising yachts are invited to offer their yachts to take guests aboard throughout the two-week festival, providing a variety of sailing experiences. Boat owners are asked which afternoons they wish to commit to, plus how many guests they are comfortable accommodating. We provide any additional PFDs that may be needed, and arrange transport from the pier to the yacht using the local panga fishing boats. The guests arrive at the pier, where our volunteers greet them, and when everyone is accounted for, we load them onto the pangas and deliver them to the yachts, where skippers can give the guests whatever safety talk they feel is needed.
"For each sailing event, we ask each
yacht to save their anchor location by GPS, so they have a spot to return to, and so that the panga guys know where to find them.
"Sailfest opens with the annual Parade of Sail. This year's Parade started at 4 p.m. and featured 16 yachts hosting 180 guests for a tour around Zihua Bay, then a lineup over to Ixtapa, just six miles away, for a parade past the hotel zone. Each yacht could then decide on how to finish the afternoon. Many continued on to Ixtapa Island for some swimming and a lunch ashore. With good wind, some kept sailing. Some went whale-watching, and others just returned to Zihua with their guests. Boats are encouraged to return to the Bay around sunset and drop anchor in an area where a clear view of the horizon allows for glorious sunset photo ops. As soon as the sun sets, the boats return to their anchor spot and the guests are picked up by panga and returned to the pier, usually shortly after 7 p.m.
"This year's Parade was once again led by the 80-ft schooner Patricia Belle and by Pamela Bendall aboard the catamaran Rapscullion,
"The specialty cruises include adding local musicians to the yacht and featuring wonderful concerts on the foredeck as the sun sets in the background. One event is the ever-popular Valentine's Cruise — for a 1,500 peso ($88) donation, we had Ziva, a 50-ft Prout catamaran, rafted alongside Elan, a 50-ft custom cat, with 32 guests aboard for a fully catered and very elegant champagne evening with live music.
"Another raft-up featured our annual 'Blues Cruise' with the legendary Minnesota hall of fame artist Don Scott and his wife Rosanne Licciardi playing great blues on the deck of the Formosa 51 ketch Chez Nous, rafted alongside the Hylas 54 Voyager. These two yachts had 28 guests aboard, each of whom made a 700 peso ($40) donation to sail for an hour or so then enjoy great live music as the sun
disappears over the horizon.
"Sailfest ends with the 'Rally Round the Rock' event. A pursuit rally/race with 15 yachts hosting over 90 guests on a true sailing event. The boats are handicapped by our experts into three classes with a staggered start, allowing the slower boats to start early. Winds were light as the boats tacked around the bay waiting for the noon start. Local vista restaurants offer a special brunch, with the Pacifica Resort donating their brunch proceeds to Sailfest as they filled their restaurant with guests wanting a bird's eye view of the start and finish line. The return leg is a spinnaker run, which makes for a colorful finale. This year the Swan 55 Swan Fun was the last to start and the first to finish in less than two hours around our Roca Negra and back."
All this is augmented with shoreside events including walk-runs, live auctions, chili cook-offs, school tours, lots of food, and lots more music.
In addition to Freedom Kirkland, other top participant boats included the catamaran Ziva (107 donating guests), Hylas 54 Voyager (85), ketch Chez Nous (71), and cat Elan (68).
While this year's Sailfest was a resounding success with 635 guests, it was once again "quieter" than the 2018-2020 events, where more than 1,000 people participated. "Likely a bit of COVID hangover and maybe a changing cruiser demographic," notes Melville. (The 2021 Sailfest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Two decades after that "something a little different" regatta, there are many
yardsticks by which to measure Sailfest's influence. Funds have been used to build schools; expand schools; add classrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, playgrounds and computer labs; and to provide scholarships to more than 200 high school and university students each year. "Some 200 volunteers, mostly Mexican with help from visitors and foreign residents, run the various committees," notes overall event chairperson Carol Romain, "and the mayor will continue to match what we spend on construction again this year."
Another measure now coming into focus is the influence the event has had on individuals. "We have one more lawyer graduating college this year, two architects, and two nurses," says Carol. "With 80+ students in the program, we expect many more professionals to graduate next year." Also, "100% of our students graduating from Colegio de Bachilleres (the high school Por Los Niños built) will be applying to university this year. We
couldn't be prouder."
For more on this year's event, as well as Sailfest 2025, go to www.porlosninos. com.
— Kirk Wagner, Steve Dolling and latitude 38
Barra de Navidad Fiesta de Veleros and Cruise-In Week
Sailfest wasn't the only 'FUNdraising' sailing event in February. Just a short hop up the coast, earlier in the month (February 5-11), Barra de Navidad's 7th Annual Fiesta de Veleros and Cruise-In Week also offered a great time for participants ashore and afloat, and a great benefit for local schools and school kids.
Inspired by and modeled after the Sailfest event, the good folks at Barra put their own special spin on activities. Their efforts and enthusiasm have resulted in a great turnout year after year. (Over the years, some boats have made it a point to attend both Sailfest and Cruise-In Week.)
Like Sailfest, Barra has grown from just a few boats in its inaugural 2018. As organizer Pat McIntosh puts it, "CruiseIn Week has filled the marina again, and there are two to three dozen boats anchored in the lagoon."
"We try to add something new every year, and this year there were two new projects," says Fiesta de Veleros "jefe" Elinore Craig: "Collecting eyeglasses for residents who need them and can't afford them; and getting a printer for the little one-teacher elementary school and 22 students in Colimilla, the little village on the south shore of the Barra Lagoon. Both went well: Almost 200 pairs of glasses were donated and given out; and proceeds from the sale of hats for the Flamingo Regatta were used to purchase a new printer for the school."
Out on the water, visitors and locals donated to Barra's worthy causes by booking time on 27 participating boats in one or more events: the Sunset and Music Cruise (2/7), the Bay Cruise and Parade (2/8), and the FUNdraising Regatta (2/11). One-hundred-peso "bets" are taken for the latter event, with small prizes for winners. True to its name, the 20 boats, crews and supporters in the Flamingo FUNdraising Regatta were once again the largest single fundraising event of the week. Top boats in this year's Regatta were 1) Catatude, Lagoon 42; 2) Miss Kitty, Hobie 16; and 3) Rock Star — a Laser!
Special recognition at the awards ceremony was given to Andy Barrow of Vallarta YC, for his tireless support and participation, not only in Barra de Navidad's Cruise-In Week, but for all visiting sailors in the Banderas Bay area.
Also very special thanks to the Grand Hotel. "They've been very generous the last two years in not charging us for using their facilities for our welcoming and awards parties," says Pat McIntosh. "They provide the waiters, tables, chairs, and a great food buffet, at no cost. So in addition to anchoring out, we encourage boats to stay in the marina, at a special CruiseIn Week rate, and enjoy all the amenities, including swimming pools."
— Pat and Carol McIntosh and Elinore Craig 2/20/24Roxxy — Beneteau 52
Dennis Roquet and Kelly Carr
The Main Event
Friday Harbor
In mid-November, while putting the main back on after minor repair, I put my fist through the top panel. I don't know how old the sail was, but the boat has a lot of miles. It's been around the world, then up to Greenland, Iceland and
England. The rig and rigging were replaced after Hurricane Irma. Anyway, need a new sail. A good local sailmaker here in Mexico wanted $7,000; fair, but I went online to see if I could get a better price. Found a company in Hong Kong and talked to a great English guy who quoted $3,800 — duty in Mexico and shipping included! I told him I wanted it in four to five weeks, as I wanted to leave after Christmas. He said he could probably do it in three. Via PayPal, I sent him 50 percent.
We went back and forth a few times over dimensions and the color of draft stripes. I also wanted no battens. They wanted full battens, so we settled on two.
No sail by Christmas, so I flew home to Friday Harbor.
On January 1, I received a video of a sail on the floor of a loft. So I PayPal'ed the balance. Turns out the sail was in mainland China. The truck that would bring it to Hong Kong only runs once a week — and it missed the first week.
It eventually arrived in Hong Kong but by now I was sure I'd been scammed. There were two packages — one for the sail and one for the battens — which weighed over 100 pounds. But wait! I got a FedEx tracking number! Oh ye of little faith …
Via the tracking site, I watched the packages go from Hong Kong to Lantau Island, where the airport is — then on to Chicago, then Indianapolis, then Memphis, which is a FedEx hub. Getting closer! But wait! Then the battens go on to Guadalajara, and the sail is stuck in Memphis with some sort of Customs hold — for 30 days. So I paid the duty. For 10 days, I called FedEx Mexico and no person — when I got one — could tell
Action at the 2022 Flamingo FUNdraising Race. John Schultess and Monique Boucher's Lagoon 40 'Baja Fog' is in the foreground. 'Roxxy's spiffy new main is ready for the trip back to the Caribbean. Inset: Kelly and Dennis. CHRISTINE WEAVER ALL PHOTOS ROXXYme anything. Yesterday, I finally got a call from a person here in Mexico. He had a lot of questions. What is a mainsail? Have you seen it? Is there anything else in the box? Did you see it go into the box? Do you know who sent it?
I sent him photos of a mainsail, original invoice, and video of a sail sitting on the loft floor that may or may not have been mine. Also a photo of Kelly sitting on the dock crying. Always like to include the personal touch.
The sail and battens finally arrived — together — on January 15. It was worth the wait. Glued and triple-stitched seams. The grommets are pressed, which is fine for me. The only problem that took three days to resolve was the British engineer who thought it was a good idea to put stainless steel pins in the original aluminum cars (which were still on the mast track — the new sail would attach to them). Pounding, swearing and using every penetrating oil known to man, I pounded them out, one by one. Then with three cars left to go, this lady on the dock says, "Just squirt some white vinegar on them and let them sit for 24 hours." With no skin left on my knuckles because every time I swung and missed the punch I removed a couple of layers, I said, "Lower me slow." Yep, the next day I had to be careful they didn't slide out and bounce overboard. Who knew?
— Dennis 2/10/24
Editor's Note: In past issues, we noted that Kelly and 'Rocket' had bought the boat in Florida and were headed home for the Pacific Northwest, where they would sell the boat. They transited the Panama Canal in late 2022 and had been working their way slowly north. Until a few months ago, that is, when, Dennis says, "She woke up and said, 'Why are we selling the boat?'"
"Oh, gee, I don't know — you hated the trip up here in the rainy season. The water's not clear enough here and the beaches are the wrong color of sand. They have mosquitoes and the daiquiris are too fruitiful.
"Anyway, long story short, now we're going back to the West Indies, then up to Florida to sell the boat. Maybe."
Cruise Notes
• After 15 months on the hard at Cabrales Boat Yard in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Greg Carter's San Franciscobased Farrier 39 trimaran Ravenswing went back to sea in February. Greg and crewman Dave enjoyed easy sailing in light wind for a two-day, 250-mile run to San Carlos. "When the wind 'built' to five knots we could carry the spinnaker!" notes Greg. "All the work to keep her light
is paying off in being able to sail at five to seven kts instead of motoring." A third crew, Christian, met the boat in Guaymas, and the trio crossed over to Baja under a full moon, "including jumping dolphins streaming bright luminescence off our starboard beam, and hearing whale breaths close by all night."
Once they made landfall in Baja, they rendezvoused with a few other Peñasco boatyard DIY multihullers who had left at different times — along with a few other multis that heard the chatter on the radio — and ended up having an all-multihull meetup on Isla Carmen with the Corsair 28 Ptarmigan, Farrier 44 cat Mariana, Fountaine Pajot Belize cat Bigorno, and Wharram ocean cat Pakia.
"The Sea of Cortez is a great place for new crew to learn overnight sailing skills, and it certainly doesn't hurt to do it under a big, beautiful full moon," says Greg. • Emma Williams and Zelix Slocum (yes, he is a distant relative of Joshua) of the Oakland-based Hardin Seawolf 41 ketch Natasha didn't make the start of last year's Ha-Ha due to a TIP (Temporary Import Permit) snafu. They were hardly alone. During the three months it took to sort the problem out, "We met a handful of other boaters stuck in San Diego with the same problem," says Emma. They finally got underway in February, entering Mexico at Ensenada on February 12.
the anchorage at Bahia Tortuga. "The full moon and crisp February night give way to the creeping gray dawn. Anxieties melt away as the various shadows regain their identities, finally erupting into warm rays of pinks, yellows, oranges, peaches, mangoes, and papayas…"
Emma channels many of those poetic observances into her music. With occasional contributions from Zelix, Emma
writes and records the music for Three Reefs Deep on the boat, a practice she started in summer 2020, when they got their first boat, a 1971 Ericson 27.
Emma and Zelix plan to continue to La Paz before heading down the mainland to Oaxaca after hurricane season. You can follow their sailing and musical adventures under 'Three Reefs Deep" on Facebook.
"So far, my favorite thing about Mexico is the sunrise at sea," writes Emma from
• "I have been consumed with the testing of my patience in getting boat work done aboard Maserra," writes Lorraine
Wilgress of her Victoria–based Freedom 45. When the canvas and stainless steel work — "pushpit to side gates" — is done, it will be cause for celebration. "This lifestyle truly is wonderful, even if it includes a lot of work to my floating home to keep it that way."
Lorraine is taking advantage of all the many perks of Banderas Bay — sailing and racing surrounded by humpback whales; plentiful sunshine "while friends and family are freezing their toes in the PNW"; and the joys of the sailing community at Marina Riviera Nayarit. She's attended seminars ranging from "When Big Things Break" to "Surgical Suturing," "Let's hear a big shout-out to Kat, Mike, Totem, Dr. Shukan and so many
others for all you do for our community!"
As far as future plans, all Lorraine knows for sure is that she has no intention of sailing back north or living through another PNW winter. "I will continue living the dream around Middle Earth," she notes.
• "After finishing the HaHa, we sailed up to La Paz and were lucky enough to get a slip at the Marina Costa Baja," writes Scott Brigham of the Montana-based Valiant 40 Pendragon that he cruises with wife Jennifer. "A bit far out of La Paz, but they have great service and tremendous security. We cruised for a few weeks up to Isla Espiritu Santo, Isla San Francisco, San Evaristo — and then came back to La Paz to button up the boat for a month and a half while we flew back to spend the holidays with our new granddaughter Blake (her first Christmas!) in Minnesota, and then home to Whitefish."
(by rental car) to stay with some friends and learn how to kiteboard. "I had about seven hours of lessons with Mac Skaggs, the owner of Buena Vista Kite School," says Scott. "I got pretty good, but the conditions kept getting too windy to learn. So we're going back to try to graduate from the school next week." Mac says 61 is the new 40! I'm all in on that, as the V-berth is full of brand-new kites!
When Scott and "Jeno" returned to Mexico, they headed down to Los Barriles
We're planning on sailing Pendragon up to Agua Verde near Loreto and spending a few weeks cruising the area. We're then going to sail straight to Puerto Vallarta to participate in the Banderas Bay Cruising Regatta. We have a good friend, Tom Verburgt, flying in from San Diego to have some fun racing our 48-year-old Valiant 40. We're doing lots of boatwork and upgrades while having a ton of fun!! We swam with the whale sharks in La Paz, and dove into a huge bait ball below our boat in the anchorage at El Cardoncito. Unbelievable!"
added many to-do items to the list. Just a few of the projects they'll be tackling: Remove pulpit and get it straightened; replace stretched lifelines; resecure stanchions; fabricate four hatches and replace all gaskets; replace holding tank cabinet hardware that broke when the holding tanks shifted; replace broken stove, install new condenser and freezer plate in freezer; fix windlass solenoid; fix latches on cabinet doors that would swing open when stressed — and so on and so on.
Sea of Cortez," and "How it's possible to sail back to California, unintentionally, without using the engine." This will be a
• For some boats, the Baja Ha-Ha is a jumping-off point for long-term cruising. For others, it's a shakedown for future cruising. That's how Jay Dozier and Barbara Benson used last year's rally. Only a few days after the end of the Ha-Ha in Cabo, they bashed back north aboard Fio, their Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 54, and were back in their San Diego slip before Thanksgiving.
"As far as shakedowns go, we were definitely shooketh," says Jay. The trip down wasn't bad, but the bash back home
Jay is happy to report that the new rigging, sails and watermaker they'd installed before the Ha-Ha worked great with no problems.
It's not all work and no play. In between projects, Jay and Barbara have kept up their skills with short trips to Ensenada, Oceanside, and Los Angeles. They plan to join this year's Baja Ha-Ha and this time keep on going.
• Eric Taylor of the Oxnard-based Cal 9.2 Rampant II is another sailor who used last year's Ha-Ha as a shakedown — and to learn such lessons as "Why not to go sailing in a strong Norther in the
year of local racing and cruising to Southern California's islands while Eric fixes and upgrades everything that needs it. "There's nothing like a 2,500-mile shakedown cruise to make obvious what needs fixing," he says.
• Jess and Ben Eberle-Erwin of the Half Moon Bay-based Tayana 42 Noctiluca are happily caught in the "La Cruz Vortex" for a while. Jess has started volunteering with ECOBAC, a nonprofit
HAULOUT
• Marine Travelift 25 tons
• Marine railway 70 tons
• Storage in adjustable steel cradles
Professional boatyard in the heart of Paradise
B.P. 1111 Uturoa Raiatea 98 735 Polynésie Française
Tel: (689) 40 600-545 ~ Fax: (689) 40 600-546 ~ VHF 68
• Fenced Yard
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devoted to whale research, using her marine biology background to contribute to their initiatives. "They are doing incredible work, and even help entangled whales!" she says. To create awareness and become more involved with the sailing community, the folks from ECOBAC are giving presentations at marinas and organizing beautiful photo exhibitions.
If you'd seen the "before" photos (we'll spare you), you'd be as amazed as we are that Phil's thumb will return to almost full function.
• Speaking of whales, scientists have identified a new species of whale that is found only in the Gulf of Mexico. What they are now calling Rice's whale was formerly thought to be a subspecies of the Bryde's whale, but more recent morphology and DNA studies showed it to be different enough that it was reclassified. For the whale spotters in the cruising community, Rice's whales grow up to 40 feet and weigh 30 tons. But you'll have trouble telling a Bryde's whale from a Rice's, as external differences are subtle.
• Last month we reported that Phil MacFarlane had lost the end of his right thumb while trying to get his Ericson 35 Sail A Vie out of a dangerous lee shore situation during a Coromuel in Mexico. Doctors in La Paz managed to reattach the thumb, and we are happy to report that the prognosis for almost full-function recovery is good. At this writing, a steel pin holding everything in place had been removed, and the hand no longer needed the thick wrapping. Phil has started some physical therapy, and as we understand it, he has been cleared for hitchhiking if the need arises.
• In shocking news out of the Caribbean, it appears that a cruising couple was murdered aboard their stolen boat and dumped at sea in mid-February. Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, of the Virginia-based catamaran Simplicity, were anchored off Grand Anse Beach in Grenada on February 18, when three men escaped
from a holding cell, made their way to the harbor, climbed aboard, and took off. A few days later, a passing boater in St. Vincent noticed the anchored cat's torn and partially unrolled jib, and went aboard to find the boat had been ransacked and the deck was "covered with blood."
After a week-long search, authorities now believe that the couple were killed and thrown overboard while traveling between islands.
The three suspects were arrested in the following days. Two of the three have confessed to the murders.
According to Ralph's family, he and Kathy had lived aboard Simplicity for 13 years, sailing mainly out of Florida. This was their first trip to the Caribbean. The day the boat was found, February 21, was Kathy's 71st birthday.
22 FT CATALINA 1972. Hull #1512. 3 sails, VHF radio, mast raising parts. Needs some TLC. Tandem axle trailer included. Call Doug. $3,500. Grass Valley, CA. 530-273-3551
20 FT FLICkA 20 1981. “Live the dream, sail beyond” with this classic bluewater cruiser by Pacific Seacraft. She’s a unique eye-catcher that will hold you spellbound. Well equipped for offshore singlehanding, lines running aft, selftailing winches, autopilot. New radio with remote mic, recent bottom paint, Yanmar diesel, 3-bladed prop, two AGM batteries with 200+ amp hours. New tanbark sails and spinnaker. Beautiful open interior, excellent wood joinery and upholstery, and remarkably, 6-ft headroom! Possible slip availability in Alameda Marina. $24,700. Alameda Marina. RobertsInMiWuk@yahoo.com
18 FT LIoN 550 2023. Constructed by Carpinteria Boat Works kit produced by Chesapeake Light Craft from okoume marine plywood British Standard 1088 (BS1088). Additional materials: KD clear grain Douglas fir, West Systems epoxy and assorted West Systems fillers. All surfaces for the plywood are sealed with 3 coats of WSE prior to assembly. All fiberglass and carbon fiber cloths purchased from Composite Envisions LLC: This includes 8-oz. 6-inch-wide tapes for all seams internal and external,1708 biaxial 45×45 for exterior bottom and up to eight inches above waterline. 8-oz S cloth for all exterior surfaces. All seams are reinforced with West Systems epoxy, thickened with 75% filleting blend 25% silica. Glass tapes laminated internally and externally with WSE. External surfaces faired. $24,900 OBO. Ventura, CA. nrosenthal621@gmail.com
EXPERT MARINE SURVEYOR Capt. ALAN HUGENOT
15 FT Bo N go 2003. Single person (very fast) racing boat. Likely the bestconditioned Bongo 15 on the planet. Seriously. (Boats 34/35 on water are examples of same model). Only 43 Bongo 15 boats were made, as a fire destroyed the molds. Clean titles/pink slips for boat/ trailer. Registered through 2025. Mussel permit. Updated all lines and rigging. Reconditioned carbon fiber mast with UV-resistant epoxy. Carbon fiber sails (3, expensive) in excellent condition. Polished hull. Review at website. All equipment was over $14,000 new in 2003. This boat is like new. Email or leave message to make an appointment to see the boat in Alameda. $7,500 OBO. Alameda, CA. blueparis@gmail.com (415) 860-6206 www.tinyurl.com/3mahapje
24 FT J/24 1980. J/24s and Santana 25s with trailers $2500-$3500 all bare interiors, all with good working sails — sold as is. These are from sailing school closeout, Bay Area. Photos available $2,500. Valley Springs, CA. bonnielopezunr@gmail.com (209) 7729695
20 FT Me L ges 20 2010. Melges 20 and trailer in very good condition, lightly used. Inventory: 3 sets of sails, 2 gennakers, Tacktick, traveling and mast-up tarps, traveling boxes and Suzuki 2.5hp. $20,000. Los Angeles. jlang@ucla.edu
17 FT ReBeL 1980. 16.5-ft daysailer, refurbished 2023: new paint, new Pineapple mainsail, new electric outboard, includes trailer. Everything needed to sail her today. Lots of fun to sail by yourself or with family: large cockpit. $CASH ONLY. $3,250. Auburn,
FT
Completed the Mini Transatlantic Race four times. Carbon with foam core build. Canting keel with twin daggerboards and twin rudders. Carbon fiber mast, boom and bowsprit. Full restoration completed spring 2020. Dry-sailed. Three-year-old UK sails inventory. Raymarine electronics package. Torqeedo electric outboard with two batteries. Dyneema Dux standing rigging. All running rigging and deck hardware brand new in 2020. Brand new boom tent/deck cover. Double-axle trailer. This is a very unique boat that is very fast! $20,000. Berkeley Marina. roguerigger@gmail.com (510) 681-5815 www.tinyurl.com/ycyayuuy
water loaded with extras. No trailer. 4 stroke outboard motor, new Harken winches, and roller furler. New Lewmar hatch. $5,500. Brisbane. bonnielopezunr@gmail.com (209) 7729695
24 FT RANgeR 24 1975. Full fiberglass hull with encapsulated keel. 8 hp Nissan, 5 hp Nissan spare. 2 sets of sails. Spinnaker pole. Large, comfortable, roomy interior. A complete boat with many extras. Recent new charging cord, battery, charger and nonskid applied to deck. More pics available. Bottom is clean and could use paint as well as some areas of the interior. $4,250. Sausalito. (415) 757-7863
15 FT Wes T W I gh T Po TT e R 1980. Equipped with new Honda 2.3 hp motor, oars, new interior and exterior cushions, jib and mainsails and trailer. Needs a new centerboard, but otherwise in great condition. $2,200. Oroville, CA. songbird_44@hotmail.com (916) 3354440
20 FT RANgeR 1973. New electrical system, two deep-cell marine batteries with solar panel. Three sets of sails in excellent condition (mainsail, jib, storm sails, genoa, spinnaker and pole). New deck fittings, new mast top fitting. All new running and anchor lights. EZ Loader trailer: newly licensed, new bearings, new tires, new spare tire, new trailer lights. Shoal draft keel with centerboard. Various receipts available. Equipment: anchor, life jackets, seat cushions (will need to be recovered eventually), builtin manual bilge pump. Engine: Tohatsu 5hp propane long shaft outboard, approx 2017 unused, stored inside. From Marine Outboards Co. in Sausalito. Bought for $1750 and plan on keeping it unless you want to add. $4,500. Santa Rosa, CA. (707) 758-3359 www.tinyurl.com/ yz8s3wc8
27 FT sANTA C R uz 1978. Excellent SC27. SHTP 2018 vet. Five spinnakers, multiple headsails, new 6 hp outboard, carbon and aluminum spin poles, excellent singlehanded reefing system, X5 autopilot, single-axle trailer and much more. $12,000 OBO. Alameda. sciolistjd@gmail.com (510) 435-3189 www.tinyurl.com/9kj8n3uh
27 FT CATALINA 1980. Dinette Interior. Exceptional condition; Quantum sails, QT 10.0 electric motor, 48V Lifeline AGM battery bank, new topsides, new bottom paint, Raymarine Autohelm, depth, and knotmeters, VHF radio, roller furler. $8,500. Berkeley Marina. callen5052427@gmail.com (650) 2224570
26 FT Cus T o M sL oo P 1979. Meticulously maintained. Built of mahogany using West System epoxy resin. Roller furling, 3 headsails, lazy jacks, Torqeedo outboard engine, full cover to protect her lovely finish, ready to race or cruise in elegance and style! $29,000. Paradise Cay. sea-hi@pacbell.net
25 FT C AL 2-25 1978. Cruiser/racer, rebuilt Yanmar diesel, spinnaker, poles, Garmin chartplotter. Two anchors, VHF. Berthed Moss Landing. 1978 hand-laid-up hull is blister-free and bulletproof. Call or email. Brochure at URL. $7,995. Moss Landing Harbor. dickfolger@aol.com (510) 303-9533. www.tinyurl.com/ysjejnf4
25 FT MACgRegoR 2000. Great coastal and lake sailboat. After sailing in the San Juan Islands in Washington we crossed the strait and continued into Canada. The boat has been stored under cover. There is a 50 hp outboard motor. $13,000 OBO. Shasta County. 0195mellen@gmail.com (530) 547-4141
No ocean too big, no trip too small, no ship too large, no mast too tall. Sail or power, we move them all! When you are ready give us a call. Professional Service • cappytom@aol.com • (206) 390-1596
25 FT oLsoN 1986. Desirable Santa Cruz-built Hull #99. Excellent condition. Well-equipped with many upgrades and new running rigging and equipment. Pineapple main, class 95% and 75% jibs. North Kevlar Genoa. Two North symmetrical spinnakers and one North asymmetrical spinnaker with sleeve. 2019 Tohatsu 6hp outboard with $7,500. Point Richmond. wphansen@yahoo.com (510) 862-2581
27 FT C AL 2-27 1978. ‘Aniela’ was refit in 2021 and 2022, restored and upgraded for performance and safety. Reluctantly selling this wonderful boat to focus on offshore sailing. Visit website for details. $11,500. Sausalito. dmjacks@gmail.com (415) 407-0730 www.svaniela.info
25 FT oLsoN 25 1986. Hull #102, Santa Cruz-built. We have enjoyed Tahoe sailing but it is time to move on. The trailer is in good condition, fully roadworthy. The sail inventory is in good condition: two 100% Mylar jibs, two newer 3/4-oz chutes, brand-new Kevlar 155%. The boat is race ready. Will need a new bottom if going into saltwater. Can deliver to the S.F. Bay Area. $13,500. Lake Tahoe. ralphkirberg@gmail.com (415) 971-3527
26.6 FT CAL 2-27 1975. Includes: Sails, 180 jib, Inflatable with outboard, barbecue, inverter, VHF, GPS/Chart, speed, compass. Engine needs work, used as liveaboard. Email me for pics or questions. $5,000. Sausalito. promedsf@gmail.com (415) 846-3133
ASA Basics to Ocean • Crew Intro to Cruising Prep (510)
25 FT NIMBLe kodIAk 2003. ‘Amazing Grace’: Good-sailing Ted Brewerdesigned trailerable motorsailer. Factoryinstalled 6kW electric motor with 12 Group 31 Northstar batteries for great range. 6 ft 6 in headroom. Stall hot shower! Twin helms, autopilot, electric tabernacle mast raising. Reefer, A/C, TV, liveaboard comfort. Perfect Bay/Delta/ Great Loop ride. Sails and motors well in warm, dry cabin. Turnkey condition, fully cored hull, 4500lbs, 2’10”idraft. One of a kind. $32,000. Benicia, CA. greatgoose1951@gmail.com (707) 2975440
26 FT MACgRegoR 26M 2006. Great lake and coastal pocket cruiser with lots of factory features. Mast raising system, roller furling, easy access cooler, trailer with brakes 60 hp outboard, new head, Garmin map/depth, sail covers Call for details. $19,995. Penn Valley, CA. chrisfrank3@gmail.com (530) 902-4832
26 FT yAMAhA 1984. PHRF racer and comfortable cruiser. Interior and exterior maintained in excellent condition by meticulous owner. Yanmar 1gm10 diesel with very low hrs. Garmin chartplotter, Raymarine VHF radio, emergency beacon and many other items. $10,000. Alameda. Jnovie@aol.com (415) 271-3441
34 FT WyLIe 34 1980 . One of Tom Wylie’s best designs; fractional rig, new Quantum main and cover, other sails for all conditions, PHRF 120, Yanmar and 2GM diesel 1700 hrs. A great Bay boat! $21,500. Richmond. kurrewa59@gmail.com (808) 381-5884
30 FT CATALINA 1989 . Mk II Catalina with autopilot, radar and GPS. $18,600 OBO. Bay Area. dbward@hotmail.com (805) 889-9944
30 FT CATALINA 1980. Sailboat at South Beach Harbor, San Francisco. Completely rebuilt Universal 5411 diesel, new engine mounts. New exhaust manifold and mixing elbow and hoses. Stainless steel water lift muffler, new thru-hull fittings and plumbing. Interior in very good condition. Many wiring upgrades. Kenwood stereo with Blaupunkt speakers. Simrad Lowrance DST Triducer Multisensor, a multi-purpose instrument that has a thru-hull housing and supports 235 KHz transducer frequency. It can measure depth, speed, and temperature, and has NMEA 2000 connectivity. New stainless steel shaft and three-blade propeller. New cutlass bearing. Propspeed foul-release coating to prop and shaft. Recent bottom paint. Bottom cleaned regularly. $12,000. South Beach Harbor, San Francisco. catalina30sf@gmail.com
29.5 FT J/29 1985. Fresh off her 2023 ASMBYC High Point Series victory, ‘Zulu’ is now for sale! This ultra-competitive J/29 sailboat is fully equipped for crewed and shorthanded races. Meticulously maintained, she offers an impressive arsenal of sails and will provide her new owners a solid platform for competitive racing for years to come. $20,000. Marina del Rey, CA. welter.ryan@gmail.com (949) 554-9390
30 FT IsLANdeR BAhAMA sLooP 1981. Cruising/racing yacht, new rigging and Gori propeller. New cushion coverings, boom kicker, batteries and charger, marine transceiver and more. Replaced engine water pump impeller and seacock tailpiece in 2024. Bottom painted 2022. $15,000. Richmond Yacht Club, D-9. Carl.L.Werder@gmail.com (916) 479-6582
29.9 FT BRIsToL 29.9 1977 . Sloop, cruise-equipped. Two chartplotters, VHF with GPS and AIS. Radar, wheel pilot, 200W solar, three AGM batteries (one start, two bank). 2qm20 Yanmar diesel, tricolor mast light, asymmetrical spinnaker. Boat located puerto escondido baja $7,500 OBO. Puerto Escondido, BCS, MX. jeffreyallenberry@gmail.com (530) 3860361
30 FT oLsoN 30 1983. ‘HOOT’ located Brickyard Cove dry storage space P044 is for sale. Hull #PCX301830382 (hull 183 built by Pacific Boats 1983). Dry sailed since new, has never had bottom paint. She’s been very successfully campaigned for many years, many trophies in her wake. Perhaps the lightest Olson 30 out there, set up for buoy racing, very fast boat. Custom 2007 aluminum road-ready trailer, just refurbished. Custom boom tent cover. Deck and nonskid restored in 2016. 2002 Ballenger double-spreader rig, standing rigging replaced 2016. Both stock and elliptical rudder included, many bags of sails, recent racing sails in excellent condition. Email inquiries only please. $22,500. Richmond, CA. andymacfie@gmail.com www.tinyurl. com/bdxck2ks
30 FT LANCeR 30 1986. We had our second daughter so now it’s time to sell my baby. Very low hours on the motor, well taken care of and FAST! Please contact me for more images and a survey. $8,000. Oyster Point Marina. bpedersen@farm0.org (707) 934-0050
34 FT CoLuMBIA 1971 . Comfortable high-ceiling liveaboard cabin, fully equipped and family friendly. Safe and mechanically sound, fresh bottom paint/LP hull, Perkins 4-107 diesel and 4 bags of sails. Great cruising boat for your next adventure! $12,500 OBO. Redondo Beach, CA. magnificentronald@gmail.com (971) 352-0181
32 FT FReedoM 1984. Cat sloop with free-standing carbon fiber mast and self-tacking jib. Yanmar 3 cyl freshwatercooled diesel. Wheel, radar, chartplotter, depth sounder, VHF with AIS receiver, EPIRB, inflatable with outboard, offshore dodger with bimini, mainsail catcher, incredible interior with aft cabin and head. Same owner since 1999, retiring from sailing. Includes safety gear, galley stuff, bedding, tools and more. Call or email to set up appointment to visit. $16,000. Marina Village, Alameda, CA. Satoriboat@gmail.com (916) 955-4301 www.tinyurl.com/3cwtvrzk
34.5 FT CATALINA 1986/87 . Clean, comfortable, well maintained with spacious teak interior. New batteries, full engine/transmission service and more. Great for family fun or cruising. Must see to appreciate; owners will meet potential buyers at boat. Reduced from 34,500. $27,900. Benicia Marina. Juliette.catalina@icloud.com (916) 340-4734
34 FT VINdo 45 1984 . Rare boat to find in California, featured in World’s Best Sailboats as well as John Neal’s “Bluewater Boats to Consider.” Please see the website for details. Use URL link on this page. $34,950. Bodega Bay, CA. ed.witts@gmail.com (925) 665-9133 www.tinyurl.com/2bch72uw
34 FT BeNeTeAu FIRsT CLAss 10 1984. Full sail inventory. Rigged for both symmetrical spinnaker with carbon pole, asymmetrical with a retractable Selden sprit. PHRF 90. Rudder size increased to accommodate local conditions. Keelstepped mast controlled by running backstays, check stays and double spreaders. Deck equipment includes two self-tailing Andersen headsail/main winches, two self-tailing runner winches, two halyard winches. Upgraded Raymarine electronics. Tiller steering with Pelagic autopilot. Whether you love offshore, beer-can racing or fast cruising, the Beneteau First Class 10 has outstanding performance. $23,500. Redwood City, CA. dropbeer14@gmail.com www.bit. ly/3xjxJv5
38 FT ALBeRg 35 1963. ‘Querida’ is a unique A35 with a balanced helm, Monitor, Westerbeke diesel, and a custom dinghy/dodger! There are so many upgrades, but the space here is limited. She’s worth the trip to see if you are seriously in the market for a capable, old-school bluewater cruiser. $19,900. L.A. Harbor. bvbolton@gmail.com
32 FT WesTsAIL 32 1974. Aft cockpit cutter-rigged sailboat. Above-average condition. Have appraisal. Boat was not lived in. Very rare and wellkept sailboat. Serious buyers only. Email only. Will send more photos and appraisal to serious buyers through email. $55,000. Coyote Point, CA. marisamiah@gmail.com (707) 317-8073
32 FT heRReshoFF 1998 . Beautiful, strong cruising cutter. Herreshoffdesigned bowsprit and boomkin, coldmolded hull, full lead keel, spruce spars, sails in great condition (mainsail with 3 reefs; stays’l, jib; 120% Dacron; 120% 1.5 oz. nylon; storm sail; trys’l); Aries wind vane self-steering; 10-ft fiberglass dinghy; no engine; sail into and out of upwind Berkeley berth or use 16-ft oar; 4 anchors (45# 35# 25# CQR, fisherman); windlass. Sail this beauty around the world. Call Ken’s cell. $29,500. Berkeley, CA. (925) 786-7878
32 Mk V 1976. 24hp 3cyl Perkins. StackPack main, Profurl jib. Large bow anchor bracket, anchors. Solar, inverter, 12V reefer. Diesel heater, bulkhead-mounted wood stove, Force 10 three-burner gimbaled propane oven. Holding tank, new water heater not installed. Simrad chartplotter, GPS, AIS, integrated VHF. Autohelm, wheel steering, compass on pedestal. Recent new 4 main cabin windows. LED running lights and glow plugs. Bottom is clean and could use a repaint. Great coastal cruiser and liveaboard with 6-ft 2-in headroom and lots of fine teak woodwork. More pictures available upon request. $18,500. Sausalito. captaindougduane@gmail.com (415) 757-7863
34 FT IsLANdeR 34 1972. Solid glass hull/deck, Yanmar 3GM30F diesel, bronze seacocks, propane stove, fridge, inverter, solar, head and holding tank, windlass, Wheel steering/ Autohelm, many extras. Health forces sale. $6,500 OBO. Antioch Marina. svfriscorose@gmail.com (707) 766-4640
= 34 FT CAL 34 Mk III 1977. All new paint from waterline up! Many upgrades with all deck hardware remounted following the paint upgrade. Wheel steering and a Westerbeke 30 diesel. Good sail inventory. $19,500. San Rafael. vgcparadox365@gmail.com (415) 6866998
34 FT TICoN 1986. ‘Ghost’ is for sale. Huge interior. I’ve been told it has the interior of a 50-ft. Three-cylinder Volvo Penta. Folding prop. Good bones but needs a good amount of TLC. Can be seen at the Stockton Sailing Club, “D” dock, #26. $6,500 TRADE smaller motor boat, motorcycle, car, truck, or ? / OBO. Stockton, CA. C107r@comcast.net (209) 564-2958
35 FT sANTANA 35 1979. Fair condition, needs TLC, sails complete. As is. Role: Racer/Cruiser. Waterline length: 26.50 ft. Beam: 11.92 ft. Draft: 6.25 ft. Displacement: 8,500 lb. Ballast: 3,300 lb. Engine: Volvo Penta MD7A 13 hp diesel — good condition. Please text. $4,500. Richmond. Slighmj2@sbcglobal.net (415) 819-4515
33 FT PACIFIC seACRAFT MARIAh 31 1978. Stout boat of legendary strength and seaworthiness. Highly sought-after for bluewater sailing. She is in excellent condition, spartan appointments and in original condition with no modifications. Newer standing rig, crisp sails, fresh bottom job. $45,000. Alameda. sailingfearless@gmail.com
33 FT CAL 33 1971 . Classic olderstyle sloop with modified scoop stern. Strong Volvo diesel 487 hrs. Harken roller furling. Tiller, older sails. Relocating and priced to sell. $5,900 OBO. Emery Cove Yacht Harbor. ngolifeart@gmail.com (747) 286-8311
34 FT CAL 34 Mk III 1978. A wonderful bay and coastal cruiser in great condition. New bottom paint, seacocks, and packing gland June 2023. Westerbeke 30 diesel. Dinghy and outboard included. Moving soon – Open to best offer! $24,500 or make an offer! Alameda, CA. shofmeyer@gmail.com 510-332-1492 www.svlunaloca.com
33 FT RANgeR 1970. Actively sailed and raced boat. New Yanmar diesel (115 hrs), 2022 chainplates removed, inspected, and rebedded. Roller-furling jib, main with lazy jacks, spinnaker. Tiller steering with autopilot. Priced for quick sale due to partner’s health. Attalia16,000. Berkeley Marina. vroom704@gmail.com (510) 708-5581
36 FT ARCoNA 355 2002. From Sweden. Airex-cored hull. Full mahogany “furniture” interior. Healthy teak decks. Volvo diesel with 1560 hrs. Integrated B&G and Raymarine instruments. Hallberg-Rassy quality with J/Boat weight. Set up for singlehanding, island cruising and club racing. PHRF 120. Fully equipped. Call Blake. San Diego. (619) 655-7398
FT hAN s Ch RI s
Bluewater cruiser in paradise! New engine, new tanbark sails, new rigging completed in 2022. Extensive refit in 2017 on hull and decks. Positioned in the perfect place for a Pacific cruising season. $85,000. Hiva Oa, French Polynesia. sailing.vessel.sedna@gmail.com (907) 209-3327 www.sednastories.com
39 FT Wy LI e CAT 39 1992. ‘Lilith.’ Another Tom Wylie design gem. Unstayed carbon mast. Carbon wishbone boom. One sail. No “front sail” decisions. Get sailing quickly. Race competitively. Weekend cruise comfortably. Put her away easily. Ideal for shorthanded sailing, but also plenty of room in the cockpit for pleasure sail passengers. $126,000. Point Richmond, CA. tcknowles@comcast.net (510) 331-7899
cruiser, plenty of head room and storage. She is sound but is a project boat. Needs work on motor and some electrical. Batteries in good shape, all new thru hull fittings. New standing rigging, electrical wiring and LED lights, VHF antenna of this past year. Brought overland from East Coast so lifelines, stanchions and bow sprit were removed and need to be reinstalled (all included). Stainless frames for dodger and Bimini but no canvas. Sails and covers in fair condition. Interior cushions in good condition. Nice interior layout. Priced to reflect engine and other work to be completed. $25,000. Sausalito. jaygrant11383@gmail.com (415) 4136707
38 FT INgRId sLooP 1979. ‘Osprey’ is a ferrocement-constructed hull finished in Santa Cruz, w/55hp Westerbeke diesel (168 hrs) w/”spare parts kit,” twin Racors w/case of filters, 2 steel 25 gal fuel tanks beneath cockpit, tiller steering, full keel, 6-ft 5-in headroom in main salon, 6-ft1-in in galley/nav station, Aries Standard vane, 2 electronic autotiller units, 20-mi Raytheon radar (to be installed), minimal other electronics, 26,000 lbs displacement, incl 11,000 lbs internal ballast. Aluminum spars, new SS standing rigging, 4 new 6V sealed Cat batteries in 2018, 2 sets ground tackle, head w/Y-valve and tank, working set of sails plus spare main. Built as a bluewater cruiser, ‘Osprey’ needs some TLC to personal specs. $14,500 OBO. Noyo Harbor, Fort Bragg, CA. cliffw@att.net (907) 602-3523
38 FT CARReRA 38 1987. Imported by Sven Svendsen. 2023, mast removed with new standing rigging installed, two new batteries, two new compasses, new bottom paint, new zincs, new service of the outdrive/prop, hydraulic outhaul, vang and mast bend, twocylinder Volvo recently serviced with oil change/pump/filters, all work done by Svendsen. Two mainsails, two spinnakers, genoa and two roller jibs, spinnaker pole, Ballenger mast and boom. $22,500. Pt. Richmond Marina, CA. franzsteinerarchitect@comcast.net (510) 914-1289
36 FT CAsCAde 1977. Bluewater-ready turnkey sailboat. 55 hrs on new Yanmar 30 hp, navigation autopilot, leather interior hand-carved wood. Dickinson diesel heater, full head with hot shower, full galley and more. Great liveaboard with large V-berth, comes with transferable slip! $25,000 OBO. Newport, OR. sureshanjie@yahoo.com Suresh (510) 459-8018or Dustin (808) 756-1389
36 FT FARR 36 1977. ‘Sweet Okole’ – Bruce Farr-designed, 36-ft with coldmolded construction. 2017 Southern carbon spar and boom plus full set of Ullman sails from Dave Hodges. Raft and safety gear for more crossings. We have done 15 crossings: first overall in ’81 Transpac, second overall in ’85 Transpac, first in class in ’19 Transpac, second in class in ’23 Transpac, multiple class wins in Pac Cup. Would consider sailing with the buyer to Hawaii on 2024 Pac Cup. $75,000. Richmond Yacht Club. ldeantreadway@gmail.com (510) 6041990
45 FT hAR d IN 1978. Center cockpit ketch, Great condition. Custom teak interior, teak decks, 11 sails, 2 dinghies, 2 outboards. Fully equipped for cruising or liveaboard, New sail covers, batteries. Isuzu diesel runs great, $79,000. Pillar Point Harbor. vkarawanny@gmail.com (406) 291-1509
51 FT sANTA CRuz 50 Mk LL 1984. Deep-keel taller rig. Hull #27. Call or email Jack Spriggs. $115,000. Anacortes, WA. Spriggsyachtserivces@gmail.com (206) 399-7040
40 FT ChALLeNgeR 40 1974. Good news! Extensive refit was begun in 2020 including: Thorough cleaning and repainting of storage, mechanical areas, and bilge. New motor mounts and turbo assembly on Yanmar 4JHTE. New throttle and gear Morse cables. Scupper hoses replaced. PSS seal installed. Shaft cutlass bearing replaced. New raw water intake thru-hull. New raw water intake hose. New AC/DC panel. Rewired entire boat. New LED cabin lights. New outlets w/GFCI. New Group 31 starting battery, Aux. 5-amp engine battery charger, 660AH lithium house bank, Victron 3KVA inverter/charger, Victron AC/DC distribution w/remote monitoring, Dec. 2023 Micron 66 paint. Needs holding tank (has manual head and portable toilet), Needs freshwater tank and plumbing (has drains for sinks). $45,000 OBO. Marina Bay, Richmond, CA. seanmcal@gmail.com (310) 971-5208
44 FT keLLy PeTeRsoN 1981. Bluewater center-cockpit cruiser designed by Doug Peterson. Makes a great liveaboard. Equipped for cruising. Perkins diesel. Monitor windvane. 2019 Caribe dinghy with outboard. Cutter rig. Furling jib/staysail. Spectra watermaker. New bottom paint. New tankage. $99,000 OBO. Coronado, CA. lusitana@sbcglobal.net (619) 985-5138
40 FT C ATALINA 400 2000. She is a two-cabin well maintained sloop and is set up for cruising. She has all-new B&G electronics along with other new equipment. She sails great and has in-boom furling. $145,000. ryckjohnson@gmail.com (916) 765-7081
50 FT Cus T o M B R u C e Ro B e RT s 2000. Serious offshore steel sailboat, go anywhere. Check out website for detailed info. $154,000. San Carlos, Sonora, MX. Fritzfrei@yahoo.com www.svparamita.ca
46.5 FT Mo R g AN 462 1981. Solid cruiser. Comfortable boat will make a great liveaboard. Ten-hour daysail south to Puerto Vallarta. Overnight sail north to Mazatlán. New stainless steel port lights. Reconditioned hatches. New instruments. Reconditioned engine. $15,000 OBO. Marina Fonatur, San Blas, Nayarit, MX. koolekat1958@hotmail.com www.bit.ly/ morgan462
46 FT CAL 246 1974. ‘Kohola’ located in San Carlos, MX. 80% complete on total refit. New paint, rig, electronics, dinghy, 15hp Yamaha. AGM batteries, inverter, solar panels/controller, 12V fridge. Too much to list; email for more info and pics. $50,000 OBO. San Carlos, MX. bobonparadise@hotmail.com
47 FT Ted CARPeNTIeR LIdo shIPyAR d 1957. Ketch with 11-ft beam, 7-ft draft. Hull is strip-planked tongue and grooved. This vessel was built by naval architect Ted Carpentier, who also worked as an engineer for Hughes Aircraft and was a personal friend of Howard Huges. It was custom-built for the CEO of United Airlines (the original spinnaker is in United Airlines colors). I have owned this boat since 1996. The interior has been refinished, Elco EN7000 motor installed, teak deck and a new carbon fiber mast and boom and new toilet are ready to be installed. Coast Guard Vessel documented. She is a fine vessel in the San Francisco Bay area. $85,000 OBO. San Francisco Bay Area. vksbo@hotmail.com (510) 967-8421
48 FT FAR e A s T MARIN e R ke TC h 1970. Newly rebuilt motor. New upholstery. New sail covers. Needs some work. Call or text Jim. $9,500. San Francisco. (209) 756-7991
43 FT seReNdIPITy 43 1981. Very well equipped for cruising, this classic Doug Peterson design is located in Mexico and is seriously for sale after a circumnavigation. Universal diesel, two spins, two mains, Moniter vane, Maxwell windlass and much more. $54,500 OBO. Mexico. geneosier@yahoo.com
47 FT VA g AB o N d 1979. Bluewater Yachts Vagabond ketch. The true image of an offshore cruising yacht, the classic, beautiful William Garden center cockpit ketch is a proven bluewater cruiser. Contact for links with photos, full description. 2022 AIS, watermaker, wind/solar, $125,000 OBO. La Paz, MX. art@artcanoes.com (206) 818-3955
48 FT MeTALu JAde 1978. Aluminum cutter-ketch lying in French Polynesia and awaiting your offshore adventure –Cooks, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Antarctica! Built by one of France’s most renowned yards, and launched in 1978, ‘Athanor’ was fully refitted in Seattle in 2015: new engine, sails, rigging, electronics, coatings, watermaker, etc. Light use since arriving in Polynesia (COVID lockdowns). Meticulously upgraded and maintained, she’s truly ready to splash and sail whichever direction you want to go! Safety, comfort, and speed. Import tax paid, with a hardstand in place, making the logistics of taking ownership simple. View details at website or email for more information. $122,000 OBO. French Polynesia (Raiatea). sv.athanor@gmail.com www.tinyurl.com/ ym5mfsd6
43 FT CusToM sChoCk keTCh 1973. Professionally built of mahogany over oak, ‘Debonair’ has been lovingly maintained and extensively upgraded. A seaworthy passagemaker, ‘Debonair’ recently completed a 16,000-mile Pacific tour. From rig to sails, systems to safety, ‘Debonair’s voyage-ready. $72,900. Port Hadlock, WA. ketchdebonair@gmail.com www.tinyurl. com/2s36wtce
49 FT CusToM ChoATe PeTeRsoN sLooP 1988. Solid performance racer/ cruiser. Spacious headroom, storage, large galley and main saloon, with roomy aft cabin and separate head. Rod rigging, great winches and running rigging layout. $70,000 OBO or Trade. Sausalito, CA. libertyshipmarina@comcast.net (415) 613-3665
46 FT sTeeL yAWL, FuLL ReFIT 2005. ‘Endeavor’ is a strong, sea-kindly vessel, designed by Henk Tingen and built in Holland in 1958. Purchased 1987 and brought back from near-extinction. We had 13 years cruising about the world; maybe now it’s your turn. Fall in love with your dream boat. Lots of good kit included, can be ready to sail to Norway in 2023! Contact C. Masters for complete list. $100,000. Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. svendeavor1958@gmail.com (206) 960-3793
48 FT suNCoAsT 1980. Type of vessel: ketch. Estimated speed: 10 kt power, 6-8 kt sail. Built Netherlands 1980. Time of lay-up: fall 2012. Hull: length 48-ft, beam 15-ft, draft 7-ft. Frames: varied dimensional steel. Topsides single skin steel plate, 1/4″ thick estimated; bottom single skin steel plate, 1/4″ thick estimated; deck and bulkheads steel plate. Hull layout: V-berth, forward head, forward triple berth, settee/berth, chart station, galley, captain’s berth, engine/machinery/ maintenance room, after master bath, after head, straight inboard diesel engine auxiliary powered. New bow thruster (2010), electronics, autopilot, forward underwater sonar. Six-cyl Leyland diesel, midline, 350 gal water, 250 gal fuel. Pictures at website. $54,900. Cleveland, OH. maudeij@yahoo.com.au (954) 235-2527 www.guapasailboat.com
67
Transpac vet 1967. LOD 62-ft. Circumnavigator, easily sailed by two, many recent upgrades, enclosed cockpit. Not a project boat. See website for details; tender not included. $265,000. Long Beach, CA. archie@sytitania.com (916) 601-2390
60 FT CusToM CReALoCk 1997. Just back from NZ! This 60-ft steel schooner will take you anywhere you want to go. Available to view in Tiburon. $200,000. Tiburon. otterkicks@gmail.com (707) 499-9414 www.schoonershellback.com/
54 FT JeANNeAu 54 ds 2009. Fully loaded in mint condition — This boat was truly loved on! She is ready to take you anywhere in the world with safety, class and style. Please call for extensive inventory list. Must see her! $425,000. Alameda, CA. lrtravioli@hotmail.com (559) 269-7669
60 FT sT e P he N s B R o T he R s hI sToRIC yAWL 1938. Historic Transpac yawl ‘JADA.’ Fresh COI completed February 2024. Coast Guard-inspected, certified for 38 passengers. A storied vessel with celebrity history, ready for new adventures. Contact Carole. $99,000 Reduced. San Diego, CA. carole@sailjada.com (858) 222-9479
38 FT keTTeNBuRg 1955. Mahoghanyplanked on oak frames. Needs varnish and paint, engine work if you must. Now berthed in Berkeley, she wants to get her sails wet! I am nearly 80 and she is only 68 and needs a stiff breeze! No leaks. Decent old sails ready to sail today. Bottom refastened with hundreds of bronze screws, then corked and painted. Will instruct in sailing, varnishing, Cetol application, and bottom caulking/painting. New carburetor included! $199 OBO. Berkeley Marina I Dock. Richard@newmed.com (510) 527-3600
30 FT M ALC o LM C ABIN C R u I se R 1936. Under roof in San Rafael. Beautiful interior, sleeps 5. Four-cylinder diesel. All new Renogy electric system. New cushions and curtains by Marcia of San Rafael. We use her all the time on the Bay. $65,000. San Rafael Yacht Harbor. melco@mcn.org (707) 884-4836
24 FT CoRsAIR F-24 Mk II 2003. 2003 Corsair F-24-ft trimaran with new Ullman Main; Jib; Screacher & Spinnaker. Also New Colligo Jib & Screacher Furlers 2018. Top-down Colligo Spinnaker Furler 2021. Sunrise nets 2021. Solar panel, Garmin GPS on swing arm, VHF with Masthead Antenna, Raymarine Autopilot with wireless remote, two anchors, ATN Jib cover, new main cover. 2002 Pacific trailer with brakes. 2014 Tohatsu 6hp. $34,500 OBO. Richmond Yacht Club. lightspeed@wylie39.com (916) 207-1887
CAL 34 PARTNeRshIP sAusALITo. Join our fun and experienced sailing partnership! Seeking operational non-equity partner. Experienced and newer sailors welcome. Open sailing calendar with no restrictions on days. Well maintained 1968 Lapworth design, with spacious and comfortable interior. Dues $2000/yr. $165. Sausalito. bill.martorano@sbcglobal.net
seekINg 25% NoN-equITy PARTNeR seAWINd 1000 CATAMARAN . Solid, clean, safe, comfortable, fun catamaran. Convenient location. Easy scheduling/ sharing. See website. Email sailing résumé and three references. Price to be negotiated – between $500-$1,000/ month. For one week-plus use per month. Marina Bay Yacht Harbor, Richmond, CA JanPassion1@gmail.com (925) 303-3747 www.sailhokahey.com
RACeR-CRuIseR AT souTh BeACh
hARB o R 1986 Dehler 34 at , racercruiser, tiller, Yanmar. $300/month: two weekend days, four weekdays, fuel, electricity, parking, and insurance. A semi-annual maintenance contribution of $500 is required for a non-equity partnership. An ownership option is available. $300. South Beach Harbor. valtaft@gmail.com (650) 670-5300
CATALINA 36 PARTNeRshIP doWNToWN sAusALITo. Non-equity partnership, outstanding berth location in downtown Sausalito. $400/mth for two weekend days/five weekdays access. Maintenance fund TBD. $400. Sausalito Yacht Harbor. chris@venturepad.works (415) 309-0331
LookINg FoR BoAT PARTNeRshIP
Looking for partnership on 30-50-ft sailboat, preferably East Bay. Equity and non-equity considered. Have 20+ years of experience sailing on the Bay and chartering internationally. I have partnered successfully on a 31-ft Beneteau for five years. Now I have a small sailing dog that I want to sail with me and the others are allergic. Looking for a clean boat in good condition that is sailed regularly, and responsible, nice sail partners. Berkeley. ddodgesf@gmail.com
s eek IN g sAILB o AT PARTN e R sh IP eAsT BAy. Looking to join a partnership on 36-45 ft sailboat, preferably East Bay. Equity and non-equity considered. Have 30+ years of experience sailing on the Bay, with trips to the Caribbean and Mediterranean. Looking for a clean boat in good condition that is sailed regularly, and responsibly. Open to partnering on buying a boat as well. East Bay. ericrlaw@gmail.com
26 FT MeLges PoWeR 26 CeNTeR CoNsoLe 2018. The sweetest center console on San Francisco Bay! 400 hp Mercury Racing Verado outboard. Expertly maintained, fully loaded, and ready for four-season boating. Custom spray curtains. $139,000. Richmond YC. 843708@gmail.com (203) 837-7792 www. tinyurl.com/mz5cytax
RedWood CITy MARINA sLIPs AVAILABLe. Slips 30 -75 at great rates! Amenities: parking, bathrooms, laundry, pumpout, free wi-fi, keyless entry. Guest berths also available. Call for availability. 451 Seaport Court, Redwood City, CA 94063. crevay@redwoodcityport.com (650) 3064150 www.redwoodcityport.com/marina
PI e R 39 50-FT sLIP &; P R o J e CT
Bo AT. Pier 39 Dock A with project boat: 1985 Californian 38 motor yacht, low hrs twin-diesel engine. Contact Steven. $39,500. San Francisco. Cheflam@ymail.com (415) 368-1632
RARe s.F. 90 FT Slip. The best 90-ft slip opportunity in San Francisco Bay in decades is available for a discerning owner. San Francisco West Harbor just 30 yards to the St. Francis Yacht Club. Visit website. Serious? Contact harbormaster. SF West Harbor. doit@imaginethatsf.com www.rare90ftsfslip.com
dRAMATIC W AT e RFR o NT A LAMed A To WN ho M e. Dramatic waterfront Alameda 3BR/2.5 BA townhome with a private 44-ft deep-water slip attached to the property. An impressive 2,054 sq ft with multiple living spaces all designed to overlook the glistening Ballena Bay. $1,249,000. leah@leahtounger.com (510) 701-6497 www.tinyurl.com/3wdmepyu
Po INT R IC h M o N d To WN ho M e. 1314 Mallard Dr. www.1314Mallard.com. Indulge in waterfront bliss at this Point Richmond townhome. With 2 beds, 2.5 baths, and a 2,202 sq ft floor plan, this residence offers a 34-ft-deep water dock for sailing, paddleboarding, or fishing. The open living area connects seamlessly to an updated kitchen. Upstairs, two ensuite bedrooms provide comfort, with the primary featuring a double sink and a steam shower. A balcony off the second bedroom offers serene water views. An inspiring office space, storage shed, practical garage, and dedicated laundry room enhance functionality. Enjoy easy access to scenic trails and proximity to Richmond Yacht Club and major highways. Contact Nathan Jines. $1,345,000. Richmond, CA 94801. nathan@jinesre.com (510) 220-4714 www.jinesre.com
F L o ATIN g oFFIC e / h ouse B o AT.
A rare opportunity to have a unique waterfront (literally ON the water) building. The structure is built on a 16 x 40 concrete barge produced by the renowned Aquamaison in Sausalito, the premier builder of most of the houseboats that populate Sausalito and Alameda. The interior space currently consists of one large front office space (reception, lounge, office or?), a back office or conference room, a large storage area/ kitchenette, and expansive ‘basement’ storage with two access hatches. Use this ‘as-is’ for an office, studio, workshop, or? Or convert to a one bedroom, one bath home, add a roof deck, lots of potential! Currently berthed in Marina Village, Alameda. $149,000. Alameda, CA. wayne@sailing-jworld.com 415-606-2634
Enjoy breathtaking sunsets from this lovely 3BR, 1BA home perched above the gentle shore of Beal’s Cove, perfect for kayaking adventures, watching wildlife, and relaxing by the sea as the afternoon light floods the windows. You’ll love exploring all the islands have to offer during the day and retreating to the cottage in the evenings to catch the gorgeous pink, purple and orange hues of a Harpswell sunset. marcia@homesandharbors.com 866-8350500 www.tinyurl.com/43475rkj
CLuB NAuTIque uLTIMATe MeMBeRshIP Discounted sale by owner. Selling Ultimate membership ($16,995 value). It includes all Sail/Power classes for ALL certifications. See link for details. Contact Bill. $13,500. Sausalito, Alameda. Caribou24@me.com (415) 407-5830 www.tinyurl.com/3r6zas6v
PueRTo VALLARTA BusINess FoR
sAL e. Discover the exciting chance to own ‘YUMMIES Mexico,’ a frozen food sensation with a perfected menu and a loyal customer base aged 40-80. This successful Puerto Vallarta business is now on the market and ready for a new chapter. Explore detailed information on website and tinyurl.com/mjb9v9je La Cruz , Nayarit, MX.yummiesbydonyteri@ gmail.com 52 (322) 275-3322 www.Yummies-Mexico. com.mx
CusToM CANVAs shoP The Canvas Works is seeking one or more active managing partners to succeed us as we navigate a smooth transition to retirement. We have an experienced team of expert craftspeople, a strong customer base, name recognition, and a convenient workshop and dock space on the charming and historic Sausalito waterfront. We’re looking for experience with small-business operations, workflow scheduling, customer service, the ability to reprioritize on the fly, unfailing attention to detail; someone who enjoys work and people, and has a sense of humor. We don’t have a hard deadline or specific ownership structure in mind, but are committed to exploring any arrangement that allows The Canvas Works to continue to thrive. Lisa@thecanvasworks.com www.Thecanvasworks.com
AC s C I s s eek IN g AN Ass I s TANT PRogRAM dIReCToR. Alameda Community Sailing Center (ACSC) is seeking a full-time Assistant Program Director. This position works with the Program Director, Instructional Staff, Students, and Community Partners. Please check out the job description at website. Alameda Community Sailing Center. programdirector@sailalameda.org (510) 629-9282 www.tinyurl.com/3exa6c6n
PART T IM e Cus T o M e R s e RVIC e sAL es Re PR ese NTATIV e AT sAILIN g sC hoo L . Seeking an energetic customer service-oriented individual. If you are passionate about sailing and want to help people realize their sailing dreams, come join our team! Three days a week, eight hours a day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You must have excellent oral and written communication skills, strong computer skills, a positive attitude, and the ability to work effectively in a highly dynamic environment. Email your résumé and cover letter to Mark. mark@modernsailing.com www.modernsailing.com
yAC h T B R oke R WANT ed IN sA usALITo oFFICe. Oceanic Yacht Sales has an available position in brokerage power and sailboat sales at our Northern California premier waterfront office location, which includes a high-visibility sales dock. Established in 1991, Oceanic has been in the same Sausalito location at Clipper Yacht Harbor for 32 years. Join our team of experienced salespeople and enjoy strong management support and excellent marketing tools, as well as Oceanic’s outstanding name-brand awareness and reputation. Sausalito, CA. johnbaier@oceanicyachts.com (415) 3770866 www.oceanicyachts.com
T W o hARB o R s hARB o R PATR o L Pos ITI o N s AVAILABL e. Positions available for 2023 season! Two Harbors Harbor Department, on the west end of Catalina Island. Looking for experienced boat operators for seasonal harbor patrol positions (March–October). Harbor patrol assigns and facilitates the use of 700+ moorings on the west end of Catalina Island and assists with transporting passengers to and from shore. USCG license required for passenger transport, seasonal mooring included for patrol personnel with liveaboard vessels. Rates from $18-$21/hr. Two Harbors, Catalina. Jrconner@scico.com (310) 510-4201
sAILINg sCIeNCe CeNTeR – CoNTRACT ANd VoLuNTeeR PosITIoNs
oPeN Community Engagement Coordinator, Graphic Artist, Photographer(s) wanted as contractors or volunteers. Volunteer docents wanted for educational science exhibitions. Ask about other roles. info@sailingscience.org (510) 390-5727 www.sailingscience.org/
sLo sAIL ANd CANVAs Is hIRINg — MuLTIPLe PosITIoNs. SLO Sail and Canvas is hiring for multiple positions in our busy sail loft in beautiful San Luis Obispo, California. We specialize in building boat covers, trampolines, and sails for sailing dinghies, one-designs, and beach catamarans. The following job opportunities are open for immediate fulfillment: Sailmaking Department Manager, Manufacturing Assistant — Industrial Department, Production Sewing & Prep — Trampoline or Boat Cover Department, and Office Assistant. To learn more about each job opening, visit website. erik@slosailandcanvas.com (805) 4796122 ext.9 www.tinyurl.com/fpdkrmt
INsTRuCToRs WANTed. Join the captains at Club Nautique and start teaching US Sailing’s most comprehensive curriculum of sail and power courses, both offshore and inshore, in the nation. We have openings now for USCG-licensed captains who exhibit exceptional communication and boating skills, and the willingness to train and work in a professional environment. All instructors are classified as employees, not independent contractors. $28-$35 depending on experience. schooldirector@clubnautique.net (510) 865-4700 x313 www.clubnautique.net
e XP e RI e NC ed yAC h T BR oke R / s AL es P e R so N N eeded Rubicon Yachts is seeking a professional yacht broker/salesperson for its new Alameda, CA office. Yacht sales experience required, must be a self-starter, membership in CYBA is a plus. Contact owner/broker Mark Miner. Alameda, CA.mark@rubiconyachts.com www.rubiconyachts.com
JoIN ouR TeAM oF INsTRuCToRs! Spinnaker Sailing in Redwood City is looking for ASA-certified sailing instructors to teach out of our Redwood City Marina location. Part-time, flexible schedules, midweek and/or weekends. Please contact Rich or Bob by phone or email. Redwood City Marina. office@spinnakersailing.com (650) 3631390 www.spinnakersailing.com
LICeNsed CAPTAIN WANTed. Wanted: Licensed Captain with towing endorsement for TowBoatUS./Vessel Assist on the San Francisco Bay and Delta. Preferred if you live by SF waterfront, Alameda or Bethel Island areas. towboatus.bay.delta@gmail.com (925) 382-4422 www.towboatusdelta.com
SoUth oF the border
PLAN you R M e XICAN ge TAWAy NoW. At the gorgeous Cielo Y Mar condos. Located in Punta Mita, 35 minutes from Puerto Vallarta, available to rent from private owner. On the beach, 10 feet from the water, they offer spectacular views of ocean and mountains, the biggest infinity pool in the area, an endless beach, great surf breaks, great fishing, tremendous views of whales, bird life and the islands. While uncrowded and tranquil, just a fiveminute walk to several waterfront restaurants. Choose from a spacious, beautifully furnished one- or three-bedroom unit, or an amazing two-story penthouse with lovely shade trellis on the top floor. To reserve, call or email Dona de Mallorca. puntamitabeachfrontcondos@gmail.com (415) 269-5165 www.
doNATe youR BoAT The Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors strives to make sailing accessible to people with disabilities. BAADS is always on the lookout for donated boats to support its mission. Help an all-volunteer organization while receiving a charitable tax deduction. boatdonations@baads.org (415) 5329831
sWAP MeeT MAy 4 AT PsPyC. Marine gear, clothing, boat parts, tools, nautical treasures, and art for sale. May 4 from 8 a.m.-12 noon, free admission. PSPYC is next to KKMI in Point Richmond. Vendors: $30 fee. Email Angela for pre-registration info. Point San Pablo Yacht Club, Pt. Richmond, CA. angela.m.byrne@gmail.com www.pspyc. org
uNIV e R s AL AT o MIC 4. New head, new manifold, new alternator, new starter, new electronic ignition, complete block overhaul. $4,000. San Diego. viper36richardson@yahoo.com (415) 706-4556
LookINg FoR 24 FT PIVeR TRIMARAN No NAMe. We’re former owners of the plywood 24-ft Piver trimaran that sailed around the world in the ’70s. The boat’s last known location was San Diego. We’d appreciate hearing from anyone who might know the whereabouts of ‘No Name.’. wolfinds@mindspring.com (415) 8063334
Marina Village, Alameda Office 510-521-6213 Direct 510-610-6213 Westpoint Harbor, Redwood City Bill • Svendsen’s, Richmond/Alameda Rob • rbys@aol.com • www.richardbolandyachts.com
Richard: 510-610-6213
Mik: 510-552-7272
Rob: 619-552-6943
Capt. David: 916-710-1200
Barney: 510-541-1963
Bill: 510-410-5401
Michael: 831-236-5905
David: 781-526-8469
George 415-793-9376
