VOLUME 573 March 2025
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Cover: Jacob Rosenberg underneath the Golden Gate Bridge on Dec. 24, the day after Mavericks' biggest day ever. Waves under the Golden Gate Bridge were big and beautiful. Jacob Rosenberg, Johnny Heineken and Stefaans Viljoen were among those riding these beauties. Bryan McDonald drove a 15-ft whaler as close to Jacob as possible. Grace Towle was aboard and captured the shot with Bryan’s Canon r5, and, despite Grace’s doubts, they ended the session dry.
Photo: Grace Towle & Bryan McDonald
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64’ BRUCE ROBERTS kETCh, 2000
$180,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
45’ NORSEMAN 447 CENTER COCkPIT, 1983
$130,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
42' AquaLodge Houseboats 2020 - $115,000 ea. Mark Miner (415) 290-1347
55’ TAYANA 55, 1983
$179,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
41’ hUNTER 41, 2007
$139,000 San francisco (415) 867-8056
39’ SWAN 391, 1984
$99,000 San Rafael (415) 453-4770
39’ CAL 2-39, 1978
$44,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
40’ 1996 BENETEAU OCEANIS 40 CC $129,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
39’ BENETEAU fIRST CLASS 12
$44,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
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.
36’ CATALINA MkII, 2007
$124,500 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
34.5’ J BOATS J105, 1999 $69,500. San francisco (415) 867-8056
EMERY COVE • 3300 POWELL ST, #105 • EMERYVILLE, CA 94608 • (510) 601-5010
ALAMEDA • 1150 BALLENA BLVD., SUITE 121 • ALAMEDA, CA 94501 • (510) 838-1800
42' AquaLodge Houseboats 2020 - $115,000 ea. Mark Miner (415) 290-1347
52’ SANTA CRUz “LIghTNINg”, 1996
$399,000
50’ hUNTER 50, 2012
$285,000
40’ SALAR 40, 1975
$84,900 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
$159,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
$339,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010
38’ ERICSON 38-200, 1990 $59,000 Emery Cove (510) 601-5010 46’ DUfOUR 460 gRAND LARgE, 2018
Cove (510) 601-5010
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.
34’ BENETEAU 343, 2006
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.
$129,000
Cove (510) 601-5010
$95,000
Mar. 1, 22 — Northern California Dockwalker Trainings, Virtual, 10 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Dept. of Boating & Waterways, https://dbw.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=29230
Mar. 1-29 — Small Boat Sailing, South Beach Harbor, San Francisco, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, weather permitting. Free, but pre-register. BAADS, www.baads.org/sailing
by Sterno
Single burner stainless steel, stove, includes tarvel case, 7000 BTU.
Stove #8013537 Now $3999
Refill Cartridge, #8013543: Now $399
by Cobra
Handheld, floating, submersible to 1 meter for 30 min. All NOAA weather channels. Noise-cancelling microphone. Includes a 1,000 mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery, drop-in battery charger, AC charger and DC charger.
HH350: NOW $16999
HH500: NOW $19999
by Star brite
Lifts dirt from non-skid deck surfaces. Leaves a non-slippery, protective polymer coating.
1 gallon: Now $3799
#19079: Now $1199
by Sikkens
Marine Gloss Natural Teak Marine Light Quart: Now $4999 Gallon Now $12999
Yacht Braid Made in the USA
*our LOW PRICES! on $100+ orders. (any combo or sizes or colors)
EPOXY SYSTEM by West
Epoxy 105-A Quart: $3999
105-B Gallon: $9999
Hardener
205-A: $2199 • 205-B: $4999
206-A: $2199 • 206-B: $4999
WATER FILTER by Camco
Inline RV/Marine Water Filter with flexible hose. Protects against bacteria, reduces bad taste, odors, chlorine and sediment in drinking water. NOW $3899
Mar. 2-30 — 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
Mar. 5 — Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race seminar, OYC/Zoom, 7:30 p.m. Provisioning, food, water, medicine. SSS, www.sfbaysss.org
Mar. 5-26 — StFYC Wednesday Yachting Luncheon, noon. Archived on YouTube at https://tinyurl.com/3kbp3vdh
Mar. 6-9 — Sacramento Boat Show, Cal Expo. Info, www. sacramentoboatshow.com.
Mar. 7 — What's New in the Rules, Encinal YC, Alameda, 6:30-9 p.m. Rules & tactics with Dave Perry. $15-$30. EYC, www.encinal.org
Mar. 8, 9 — She Tells Sea Tales, Northwest Maritime Center, Port Townsend, WA. $20-$30. Info, www.nwmaritime.org.
Mar. 9 — Spring forward for Daylight Saving Time, 2 a.m.
Mar. 9, Apr. 13 — Second Sunday Work Party, Sausalito Community Boating Center, 9 a.m.-noon. Info, secretary@ cassgidley.org
Mar. 12 — A Flicka 20's Pacific Odyssey, Port Townsend Sailing Association clubhouse, 5:30 p.m. With the Resourceful Sailor. Free. Josh, www.sailingwithjosh.com or www.ptsail.org
Mar. 13 — Full Worm Moon on a Thursday.
Mar. 15 — Southern California Dockwalker Trainings, Virtual, 10 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Dept. of Boating & Waterways, https://dbw.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=29230
Mar. 15 — Clover's Pot O' Gold Party, Sausalito YC, 5-8 p.m. Dinner, dancing, Irish music; supports Clover's restoration to benefit veterans. $153.75. Info, www.vetsboats.org
Mar. 17 — St. Patrick's Day.
Mar. 21 — The Alchemist Quintet, Spaulding Marine Center, Sausalito, 6:30-9 p.m. Jazz concert. $20-$25. Info, www. spauldingcenter.org.
Mar. 22 — Vernal Equinox.
Mar. 22 — Olson 25 Fleet Speed Clinic, Berkeley YC, 9 a.m. $10. Info, www.jibeset.net.
Mar. 22 — Herring Festival, Sausalito Center for the Arts, 5-8 p.m. Local chefs, live music, silent auction, raffle, cocktails, art. $60-$65. Info, www.sausalitocommunityboating.org.
Mar. 30 — Open House/Free Sail, Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley, 1-3 p.m. CSC, www.cal-sailing.org.
Mar. 31 — Cesar Chavez Day.
Apr. 1 — April Fool's Day.
Apr. 3 — Latitude 38 Spring Crew List Party, Bay View Boat Club, San Francisco, 6-9 p.m. $10; tickets must be purchased in advance. Info, www.latitude38.com/crew-party
Apr. 5 — Sail a Small Boat Day, Richmond YC, 10:30 a.m.3:30 p.m. Try out a variety of small craft for free. Free hot dog lunch. RYC, www.richmondyc.org.
Apr. 9 — Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race seminar, OYC/Zoom, 7:30 p.m. Communications, weather. SSS, www. sfbaysss.org.
Apr. 10 — Northern California Dockwalker Training, Virtual, 9-11:45 a.m. Dept. of Boating & Waterways, https:// dbw.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=29230.
Apr. 12 — Southern California Dockwalker Trainings, Silver Gate YC, San Diego, 10 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Dept. of Boating & Waterways, https://dbw.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=29230
Racing
Feb. 28-Mar. 1 — Islands Race, Long Beach to San Diego. NHYC/SDYC, https://islandsrace.com.
Mar. 1 — John Pitcher Regatta. CPYC, www.cpyc.com.
Mar. 1 — South Bay Tour Race, Berger/Stein Series #3. DRYC, www.dryc.org/RACING.
Mar. 1, Apr. 5 — Mercury Series. EYC, www.encinal.org.
Mar. 1-2 — BAYS Winter #3 (youth). SFYC, www.sfyc.org.
Mar. 2 — Bob Furney Race. MPYC, www.mpyc.org.
Mar. 7-9 — Port of Los Angeles Harbor Cup collegiate regatta, hosted by the Cal Maritime Academy Keelhaulers. LAYC, www.layc.org/harbor-cup.
Mar. 8 — Long Distance #1. SSC, www.stocktonsc.org.
Mar. 8 — Spring Shorteez. CPYC, www.cpyc.com.
Mar. 8, Apr. 12 — Santana 22 Team Racing in Santa Cruz. SCYC, www.scyc.org.
Mar. 8-9 — Big Daddy Regatta. Buoy racing on Saturday followed by a dance party, and a pursuit race on Sunday. Theme: Mardi Gras. RYC, www.richmondyc.org.
Mar. 8-9 — California Dreamin' match-racing series San Francisco stop. StFYC, www.stfyc.com.
Mar. 9 — PHRF Spring 1-2. MPYC, www.mpyc.org.
Mar. 12 — Wednesday night Sunset Series starts. SeqYC, www.sequoiayc.org.
Mar. 12, 19, 26, Apr. 5 — J/22 Spring Series. StFYC, www.stfyc.com.
Mar. 14 — Friday night races start. BYC, www.berkeleyyc.org.
Mar. 14-16 — Channel Islands 500. NHYC, www.nhyc.org.
Mar. 15 — Rites of Spring. OYC, www.oaklandyachtclub.net.
Mar. 15 — Rosenblum Regatta. SFYC, www.sfyc.org.
Mar. 15-16 — J/105 Fleet 1 & J/88 Invitational. SYC, www.sausalitoyachtclub.org.
Mar. 15-16 — Beneteau 36.7 Midwinters, Spring Keelboat One Design Weekend, J/105 Wings Cup. SDYC, www.sdyc.org.
Mar. 15-16 — ILCA California Masters on Mission Bay in San Diego. MBYC, www.mbyc.org.
Mar. 15-16 — Spring Dinghy Regatta for 5O5s & ILCAs. ACSC, https://theclubspot.com/regatta/VK7BP0kWfK.
Mar. 15-16 — 2v2 Team Racing. EYC, www.encinal.org.
Mar. 15-16 — Los Angeles SailGP. Info, www.sailgp.com.
Mar. 16 — One Design Spring 1-2. MPYC, www.mpyc.org.
Mar. 19 — Sunset Series starts. MPYC, www.mpyc.org.
Mar. 22 — Spring Series #1. CYC, www.cyc.org.
Mar. 22, Apr. 5 — Spring Series. SSC, www.stocktonsc.org.
Mar. 22-23 — San Francisco SailGP. Info, www.sailgp.com.
Mar. 22-23 — Opti Harken #2. SFYC, www.sfyc.org.
Mar. 22-23 — Spring Dinghy Regatta on South San Diego Bay. Coronado/SDYC, www.coronadoyc.org.
Mar. 23 — Sadie Hawkins women's skipper regatta on the Estuary. IYC, www.iyc.org.
Mar. 23 — Doublehanded #1. SSC, www.stocktonsc.org.
Mar. 28-30 — Etchells Midwinters West. SDYC, www.sdyc.org.
Mar. 29 — Round the Rocks. SSS, www.sfbaysss.org.
Mar. 29 — Jaws Pursuit. SYC, www.sausalitoyachtclub.org.
Mar. 29 — Londerville Regatta. HMBYC, www.hmbyc.org.
Mar. 29 — Champion of Champions. SCYC, www.scyc.org.
Mar. 29 — Año Nuevo Race. MPYC, www.mpyc.org.
Mar. 29-30 — San Francisco Cup. SFYC, www.sfyc.org.
Apr. 2 — Wednesday night race series begins. RYC, www.richmondyc.org.
Apr. 2 — Wednesday night races start. VYC, www.vyc.org.
Apr. 2 — Sunset Sails start. CPYC, www.cpyc.com.
Apr. 3 — Thursday night race series begins. BenYC, www.beniciayachtclub.org.
Apr. 4 — Friday Night Races start. CYC, www.cyc.org.
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Apr. 4 — Spring Twilight Series starts. EYC, www.encinal.org.
Apr. 5 — Doublehanded Farallones. BAMA, www.sfbama.org.
Apr. 5 — Spring Regatta. SeqYC, www.sequoiayc.org.
Apr. 5 — North Bay Series #1. VYC, www.vyc.org.
Apr. 5 — Doublehanded Buoy Fiasco in Santa Cruz. SCYC, www.scyc.org.
Apr. 5 — Andy Byrd Memorial Race. CPYC, www.cpyc.com.
Apr. 5-6 — Spring Fest. StFYC, www.stfyc.com.
Apr. 5-6 — RS21 2v2 Team Race. SFYC, www.sfyc.org.
Apr. 5-6 — California Dreamin' match-racing series ends in Long Beach. LBYC, www.lbyc.org.
Apr. 6 — Estuary Cup. EYC, www.encinal.org.
Apr. 6 — Lefler Race. MPYC, www.mpyc.org.
Apr. 11 — Spring Island Nights start. IYC, www.iyc.org.
Apr. 12 — Don Wan Regatta. TYC, www.tyc.org.
Apr. 12 — South Bay Bridge #1. Info, www.jibeset.net.
Apr. 12 — Single/Doublehanded Regatta. SeqYC, www. sequoiayc.org.
Apr. 12 — Singlehand/Doublehand #1. BenYC, www. beniciayachtclub.org.
Apr. 12 — Trans-Folsom Regatta. FLYC, www.flyc.org.
Apr. 12-13 — Wheeler Regatta. BYC, www.berkeleyyc.org.
Apr. 12-13 — Alerion 28 Regatta. RYC, www.richmondyc.org.
Apr. 12-13 — Moore 24 Spring Roadmasters in Santa Cruz. SCYC, www.scyc.org.
Apr. 13 — Doublehanded Sunday #1. YRA, www.yra.org.
Apr. 14 — Spring Monday Night Madness starts. BVBC, www.bvbc.org.
BENICIA YC — Frostbite Series: 3/8. Info, www.beniciayachtclub.org/racing.
BERKELEY YC — Chowder Races: Every Sunday through 3/9. Info, www.berkeleyyc.org
CAL SAILING CLUB — Year-round Sunday morning dinghy races, intraclub only. Info, www.cal-sailing.org
COYOTE POINT YC — Winter Sails: 3/9, 3/23. Info, www. cpyc.com or www.jibeset.net.
GOLDEN GATE YC — Seaweed Soup Regatta: 3/1. Info, www.ggyc.org or www.jibeset.net.
ISLAND YC — Island Days: 3/9. Info, www.iyc.org or www. jibeset.net
KONOCTI BAY SC — OSIRs (Old Salts in Retirement) every Wednesday, year round. Info, www.kbsail.org
LAKE MERRITT SC — Robinson Midwinters: 3/9. Denis, redleader429@comcast.net or (707) 338-6955.
OAKLAND YC — Sunday Brunch Series: 3/2, 3/16, 3/30. Info, www.oaklandyachtclub.net.
RICHMOND YC — Small Boat Midwinters: 3/2, 4/6. Info, www.richmondyc.org
SANTA CRUZ YC — Midwinter Series: 3/15. Info, www. scyc.org
SAUSALITO YC — Chili Midwinter Series: 3/2. Info, www.sausalitoyachtclub.org.
SEQUOIA YC — Winter Series: 3/22. Redwood Cup pursuit race series: 3/15 (St. Patrick's Day Race). Info, www. sequoiayc.org or www.jibeset.net
SOUTH BEACH YC — Island Fever Series: 3/15. Info, www.southbeachyachtclub.org.
TIBURON YC — Midwinters: 3/16. Info, www.tyc.org
VALLEJO YC — Tiny Robbins Midwinters: 3/1. Info, www. vyc.org or www.jibeset.net. In the Tropics Mar. 18-22 — Banderas Bay Regatta.
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Apr. 25-27 — Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race, to Ensenada or San Diego. NOSA, www.nosa.org
May 28-31 — Tahiti Pearl Regatta, French Polynesia. Info, www.tahitipearlregatta.com
June 21 — Start of the Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race, San Francisco to Hanalei. SSS, www.sfbaysss.org.
July 1, 3, 5 — Start of the Transpac, San Pedro to Honolulu. TPYC, www.transpacyc.com.
July 4-7 — Tahiti-Moorea Sailing Rendez-vous. Latitude 38 is a sponsor. Info, www.tahiti-moorea-sailing-rdv.com
October 30-November 15 — Baja Ha-Ha XXXI, San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, with stops in Turtle Bay and Bahia 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.
Predictions for Station 9414290, San Francisco (Golden Gate)
March Weekend Currents NOAA Predictions for .88 NM NE of the Golden Gate Bridge
3/23Sun 0131 0506/1.3F 0733 1035/1.2E 1453 1849/2.1F 2237 3/29Sat 0113 0408/2.6E 0747 1052/3.4F
Source: https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
⇑⇓ are the Shuttered dockS on angel iSland a Sign of government failure?
The park service has allowed the dock to deteriorate out of what is seemingly an internal desire to be rid of boaters. They truly only cater to the day trippers who ride over on one of the existing ferries, pay their fees, and are away by 4 p.m.
Many local businesses have tried to step up and assist the park service to fix the dock area, only to be given the runaround, or a continuation of lies from start to finish. As boaters, we all know what a treasure the island and its location are.
Sadly the park service, in spite of the island's history, does not! They are treating it as the regrettable unwanted child. Knowing the ineptness of the park service, I cannot say that the docks will be up and running by summer's end. Sadly, I too see '26 as the year it will be resolved.
Empty docks and a beautiful view at Ayala Cove in summer 2023. In January, the park announced that the day slips were closed until further notice, but 16 slips have since been reopened. The park is "looking to patch the rest as we get closer to summer," a source told us. However, permanent repairs that were originally scheduled to begin in June and completed by November have now been pushed back until 2026.
⇑⇓ calling on the gov'na
We need an organized political campaign to save Ayala Cove. Hrdwrenut said it correctly. The Park Service views boaters as an annoyance and an invasion of their private space anytime after 4 p.m. They want tourists to go home at 4 and not come back till after 9 the next day. I remember once rowing my dinghy from my moored boat at 7:30 to the docks for a toilet run when I heard a loudspeaker boom out from shore telling me landing before 8:00 was forbidden.
The best thing that could happen would be leasing the island services to a private company. The State Parks Service is incapable of managing much more than their pensions when it comes to Ayala Cove, which has been slowly deteriorating from neglect for decades. They don't care about boats and boaters. Hey Gavin, can you help?
Bruce Adornato
⇑⇓ golden era of Sailing in the golden State
For my mental health, can someone point to anything that's getting better about being a sailor in California, or even a Californian in general? I've run out of ideas.
Unhappy Cappy
In other states, rebuilding would begin in less than one month!
Jack Everett
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Sealing off a productive debate
It is fair to say that the damage to the floating piers is mostly due to their use by seals and sea lions.
Several years ago, they began to take over the piers at night. To shoo them off in the morning was a pain, possibly dangerous due to their numbers, and constituted harassment of marine mammals, which is unlawful. Eventually, the pinnipeds just stayed on the piers all day. When they did swim away, they left huge amounts of very stinky feces behind. Boaters would have to use many buckets of sea water to wash it off. In the past year, these pinnipeds have just about doubled the amount of pier frontage that they have taken over, and the damage has moved closer and closer to the ramp.
The Park has established a 15-minute passenger loading dock at the inboard end of the now defunct slips. At every tide, there is a current at 90 degrees onto and off this dock. When this current is strong, to dock safely will present a challenge to even the most proficient boat handlers in the average auxiliary-powered sailboat. To spend a night on the moorings is lovely, but it is an unattractive alternative to the day tripper who wants to hike around the island with family and young kids.
Will the new piers be taken over by seals? Does the Park have plans to exclude them? Before pinnipeds began to use these piers, they had many places to haul out on Angel Island, and these places are still completely available to them. The docks were the only place for boats to tie up at Ayala Cove. There is no alternative for the boats. Seals sometimes haul out on private floating piers in Sausalito. Owners know that if you don't shoo them off right away, they will become a problem as they have on Angel Island. Unless the park has some way to prevent the pinnipeds from taking over again, it may as well just abandon the project.
PS: The ranger with whom I spoke at the Island in late December 2024 said that repair/replacement of the piers is scheduled not for this summer but for the summer of 2026.
Bill Mittendorf
Bill — It is not fair to say that the damage to Ayala Cove's piers is due to pesky pinnipeds. The docks on Angel Island are 23 years old and some of the pilings are from the 1980s. The Bay Area has also seen some serious storms over the past few years that were the final nail in Ayala Cove's coffin.
With that said, the pinnipeds certainly haven't helped the dock situation. Plans must be made to deal with sunbathing seals and sea lions at each and every marina.
⇑⇓ contradicting and confirming
The docks have been trashed for quite a while. If sensible people ran the park they would know that every 10 or so years everything needs to be rebuilt. And plan for it in the budget. Nothing lasts forever, including us.
Have you ever tried to dock when the eddy is strong there? It took us three tries to get the right angle of attack and get in while being pushed sideways, and my wife is a damn good boat driver. Many other people gave up that day. So I guess that's the 15-minute passenger-loading dock — they did that to kick back and watch the show.
Joe Maciorowski
⇑⇓ pinnipedS at arm'S length
For different reasons, Alameda has a seal float that attracts the seals that enjoy resting near their fisheries. It was a mitigation project that had enormous success. Check the Facebook site Alameda Point Parks and Nature for more information and photos. A big attraction is perhaps a wide ramp that allows easy access, especially for pups.
The float is a huge attraction for nature watchers and close enough to shore that people using the trail (on foot or bike) frequently stop to view them. The float is sometimes so full they are difficult to count, except with a drone. So far, sea lions haven't been seen on the raft. Seeing the float filled with seals is a real treat. And nearby docks are not used as haulouts and only rarely is the Island breakwater used. When I see seals on the rocks, I check the float and it is full.
Leora Feeney
⇑⇓
In Monterey, they also have a huge problem with sea lions. Last time I docked there, they had put up wooden barriers, or something like little fences, on docks popular with the lions. It seemed to work — there were sea lions only on docks with no barriers. These barriers are inconvenient for humans as well, but they work.
Doug Clark
⇑⇓ piSS poor performance
It makes me crazy how many facilities — parks, schools, etc. — can't get budgeted to do routine preventive maintenance, but then we have to shut things down and do complete rebuilds, presumably at higher expense, when they (surprise, surprise) break.
⇑⇓ Seeing ineptitude in everything
As a lifelong sailor on S.F. Bay, and very frequent visitor to Angel Island, I am very frustrated by the ineptitude of the State Parks. Just like the fires in L.A., this state is incapable of managing anything we care about. June! Why? Uh, regulations and funding. Did they find the smelt in Ayala Cove?
Tom
Tom — Re fires in L.A.: How dare those incompetents in Gov'mint fail to provide more than a measly .16-inches (that's "point one-six") of rain in the past seven months (June 1) in L.A.? It's an outrage. Especially with the two prior years of excessive rainfall (seeing a pattern here?) at +10and +13-inches respectively, encouraging an abundance of tinder-like growth.
And don't even get me started on the audacity to combine all that with the hottest year on record, capping a run of the hottest 10 years all in the same decade. And wind. Did someone say wind? Of course, we're sailors. Those pesky Santa Ana winds, 60-70-mph. Why didn't they just reef?
How much would you be willing to pay for this "improvement" to a private, for-profit company?
Jon
Jon — I'd be willing to pay a private company $1/foot for a 24-hour stay. My boat is a 50-ft sloop, so they'd need to offer a reservation system for dock space. They'd also need to dredge Ayala Cove. I draw over 9 feet, so I'm very limited.
Tom
Tom — We just want to make sure that you picked up on Jon's sarcasm there. Not every catastrophe, inconvenience or uncertainly can be blamed on ideologies you don't care for.
⇑⇓
Do the editors at Latitude 38 really believe the environmental zealots who are administrators at these state agencies have any desire at all to meet us boaters halfway?
How naive can you be?
They have been given a free rein, and job security, by the politicians in our one-party state. I've been a boater for over 40 years, and I have zero plans to get my boater card.
You told Uri Sarid [at the conclusion of the December 2024 issue's Letters], who was writing that we should require all dredging be done with electrical equipment, that he had a legitimate concern about pollution from machinery currently used in dredging. Of course, the cost of dredging
would skyrocket if it had to be done with electrical powered machinery, leading to even less dredging and fewer marinas. Pat Brown Catalina 30 Alameda
Readers — Are the shuttered docks on Angel Island a sign of government failure? There is no question that the California State Parks, a public, taxpayer-funded institution, is struggling to maintain infrastructure for boaters visiting the parks. Could/should the park service have better planned to replace the docks, or is the larger system to blame for the painfully slow permitting and review process? Regardless, beware of piling on your every grievance, or making outlandish connections to policies and ideas that you don't care for. Isn't anyone going to say that the docks are closed because of DEI and wokeness? Sorry, we don't want to stumble into the divisive political ruts that pervade the current national discourse.
We firmly believe the following (and we don't think it's naive): We actually all agree on the ultimate goal! We want to sail, enjoy nature and tie up to sound docks in beautiful locations. We all want clean water and clean air. We all believe in some kind of stewardship of nature. We only disagree on how best to achieve these ends, and to what degree someone is to blame when things go wrong.
From our perspective, it seems as if California State Parks failed to adequately plan for the inevitable replacement of docks on Angel Island. It's likely, however, that park staff were likely stuck in a system where they weren't able to schedule planned obsolescence of infrastructure or to set aside a budget. "Large projects like the dock replacement compete for funding statewide with other projects at other parks," the manager for Angel Island and superintendent for California State Parks said of repairs to Ayala Cove in an interview with Latitude in May 2024.
That's no excuse! We refuse to accept the shoulder-shrugging response, "That's just the system we have to operate in." Then someone change the system! At the very least, can't the arduous permitting and bidding system be a little easier? At present, dock repairs "cannot go out to bid until CA State Parks has secured all permits," the parks deputy district superintendent told us in an email in February. "Once all permits have been secured, the bidding process will take a minimum of six months." Surely there's a way for the park to apply for permits — for docks that have existed for decades — in advance, before funding is secured.
To those of you on the left: Maybe some degree of deregulation, especially on the bureaucratic side, is called for. Environmental laws cannot be so strict that they restrict access so that we can no longer enjoy the very nature that we fought so hard to protect. And to those of you on the right: If you completely deregulate/eviscerate hard-fought protections, then someday, when the pendulum swings the other way again, expect even stricter standards than before.
From our reporting on Angel Island, we often felt that the park didn't quite understand the resource they were managing. To our knowledge, the park manager at the time, who has now retired, did not have a background in marina management, though we weren't able to verify this. When asked about dredging in early 2023, the Angel Island manager at the time told Latitude, "The docks and mooring field fill up on nice days and the perceived issue with boats not being able to use the cove only applies to larger boats with a deep draft at low tide. I would imagine if more boaters were having difficulties navigating the cove, you would have received more
[complaints]?" Last year, however, the manager admitted, "Yes, the cove is silting in — mainly in the very center."
The common political refrain in this moment of American history is to claim conspiracy when addressing very real, very annoying and seemingly very preventable problems. In the case of boating in the Bay Area, we can understand why people would think the government doesn't care about boaters, or even actively dislikes them: The boating infrastructure in the Bay Area, one of the most expensive places to live in the country, SUCKS! But Bay Area boaters pay high slip fees and property taxes.
If the system can't change and improve, people are likely to cry conspiracy and rebel.
Through the course of writing these very Letters, the Angel Island Conservancy — a nonprofit made up of a few local sailors (among others) that works directly with the park — contacted Latitude 38 with good and bad news. New docks will not be built this year, and 2026 is now the target. But the park said they've reopened 16 slips, with more repairs planned. "Angel Island Conservancy is a valuable partner of State Parks and I have been meeting with them regularly in recent months," parks deputy district superintendent Matthew Allen wrote us in an email. "I can confirm that they are advocating on behalf of boaters." Allen said he was willing to open a direct correspondence with boaters to stay apprised of the public's concerns. You can contact him at: Matthew.Allen@parks.ca.gov.
To Pat Brown — Are we naive? We prefer to think of ourselves as optimistic, and we choose to work with the system that we have. It's a little less bleak than simply giving up, or thinking that the only way to fix the system is to destroy it.
Your Sightings section in the February issue included a nice article and spread about cruising in Japan. Nick [Coghlan] made a couple of generalities about Japanese sailors — to wit, they are relatively few in number, and predominantly male. From our experiences cruising in Japan for three months in 1989, the generalities are certainly true, which makes it incumbent on us to highlight notable exceptions.
Based on a recommendation from John and Heather Lidgard from New Zealand, we spent several weeks at Shima Yacht Harbor on the Kii Peninsula [on the island of Honshu]. While there, we met Kako Matsuzaki, who was around most days working on or sailing the pretty sloop she owned with her husband Hiro, a merchant marine officer. Kako rather uniquely referred to their sloop as "my boat!" She and Hiro would subsequently purchase a used US-built cruising boat in Southwest Harbor, Maine, home of our Tahu Le'a, and spend several years cruising both sides of the Atlantic. (In an amazing feat back in the era of snail mail and coil telephones, I managed to rendezvous with them while they were anchored near Annapolis.)
Back to Shima: We also met Tohr and Shigenko
Maruyama, who did extensive coastal cruising as a couple. Kako had guided us on land tours, while Shigenko had made a traditional Japanese tea service for us. In return, we made a bagel brunch (yup, managed to make traditional bagels on the boat!) and more for them, while we all discussed our plans and their goals and dreams.
So there at least were some women actively involved in sailing and cruising a few decades back. I hope the number has not fallen since.
There was an "event" that happened on the way to St. Thomas from Martinique that I wrote about but was somehow devoured by the interwebs when we were setting up shop here in Red Hook …
Anyway, we had just made it past Fort-deFrance in Martinique — a huge deal with lots of ship traffic at night, etc. I was on my second dog watch, 0300-0600, when we were being passed by a 200-ft freighter to starboard about a quarter mile away. The ship was old and had very dim running lights, so I was struggling to see it as they were passing. Suddenly, I could see the ship perfectly. I looked up and saw the most incredible firestorm in the sky that I've ever seen. It was moving slower than a meteor, a lot slower and was composed of at least 200 bright balls of light being trailed by swirling orange flames. It was traveling from north to south, and from my sea-level perspective it was about 8 inches wide and about 5 feet long, making it a huge astronomical event. I looked back at the ship and could see the deck crew all pointing at the sky.
It was silent, which was strange because it was so violent. As it descended into the southern Caribbean, the entire island of Martinique was lit up and the shadows danced at the pace of the flaming event's decent. It lasted for about four minutes from the first flash to its decent into the southern horizon. As the night returned, there was an almost perfect silence that was punctuated by a distant rumbling that sounded like boulders falling on a far away mountain.
I've been at sea for a little over 25 years and have seen some incredible things, but nothing holds a candle to this — nothing! A few days after making landfall on St. Thomas, [my partner] did a search on celestial events online and discovered that the Chinese had lost a big research satellite that night. To me, it looked a lot like when the space shuttle exploded during re-entry a few years back, so it very well could have been man-made. All I know for sure is that it was spectacular in every way.
⇑⇓ unSung SailorS
Many engineers are not recognized for their work. They often labor in the background with corporations, supervisors or products defining their work. They are unsung. Kurt Jordan is one of them. He is a composite materials engineer. He is expert with carbon fiber, fiberglass, etc.
Mostly, he designs America's Cup yachts. Since 1995, he has worked on boats for Young America, America True, One World, Alinghi twice, Oracle twice, and American Magic twice. He also worked on the design of the "one-design" fleet for SailGP. Although recognized in the America's Cup world, he is otherwise unsung.
Aside from sailing, he has also participated in over 300 transparent fish tanks worldwide, including some of the large ones at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He also helped design the bow and arrow on San Francisco's waterfront, and the curvilinear Lucas Museum in L.A.
Kurt's brother, Daniel, is not unsung. After years of being captain on commercial ships around the world, Dan is an active pilot with the Columbia River Bar Pilots Association. He has received several local and international awards and commendations for his contributions to piloting and safety.
These two careers began as junior members of the Berkeley Yacht Club.
Proud Father, Carl H. Jordan Past Commander of Berkeley Yacht Club
⇑⇓ the difference between the boSton marathon and Sailboat racing
Great article and great perspective. [From the January 15 'Lectronic Latitude with the same name as this letter.] I think it can start with a simple change in language. When I started sailboating, I was drawn to (or pushed from) the races. Race, race, race, with the subsequent points, standings, rankings, and trophies. This drove a competitive attitude that was unsustainable to my psyche, my marriage, my friendships, and my bank account.
Everything changed for me when I started calling them "events" rather than races.
Like a 10K running event, or a mountain biking event or an obstacle race (Tough Mudder, Questival, etc), the focus is on participating and, "Hey! I finished the course!" Or, "I set a personal best!" Or, "I did so much better than last year!" It turns out that once we focused more on the event, our own performance (forget the published standings), and the participation T-shirt (or regatta party), then we started to do better, and certainly it was a more positive experience. For us, it was really revelatory how just a small change in language — from "races" to "events" — caused a healthy change in attitude and performance.
Chris Latitude Nation
In the aforementioned January 'Lectronic, we wondered why 30,000 people would run the Boston with no hope of winning. Do sailors only want to race if they can win? What keeps people from racing? Is it complaints about the rating rules? Runners run for the personal challenge, exercise, camaraderie with their fellow "competitors," and just to be outdoors. Isn't that what sailing's about, too? What's the secret behind big, successful events? Having more happy losers?
⇑⇓ work on what you can control
When I first started sailing or, er … racing, I too thought about the ratings system and complained a bit. I have since been intimately involved in PHRF and understand both its strengths and weaknesses. But I digress: I finally began trying to understand how I could do better sans ratings: How was I finishing WRT other top rated boats?
First of all, I made sure that my boat was in top condition, and that my crew was well practiced at their respective positions. Finally, I looked closely at my performance in each race and began to learn what I didn't know and improve my own duties better. I learned to minimize mistakes and anticipate changes in conditions. I also raced in a one design one season to better understand my relative performance against other skilled skippers.
It's easy to blame the rating system, but in reality, we need to do our best and be willing to accept that our own performance is all we actually have control over. The goal for me is not necessarily to win, but to improve and learn.
Bill Schafer Ohana Corvallis, Oregon
⇑⇓ doing your beSt ruleS
Great article, Latitude, and great comment, Bill Schafer. I am definitely not the best in our fleet, but I constantly look to improve and learn. I think bad sportsmanship probably exists in all sports — including running — but it has no place in any of them, especially breaking rules. I imagine there are way more rules in sailing than there are in running, but sailing needs rules.
Just go out there, learn and have fun!
Milly Biller Big Pink, International 110 Inverness
⇑⇓ debriefing with the top of the fleet
In the local Laser fleet, we believe that we can build more participation by having top sailors help their fellow competitors learn and feel the satisfaction that comes with improvement. Our 2025 resolution is to put onto the race schedule two things: 1) pre-race briefings, detailing expected wind, current, sail settings and 2) post-race debriefs where sailors can ask questions of the top performers each day. The 5O5 fleet is renowned for this idea, and we are looking forward to doing it ourselves.
Al Sargent Alameda
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⇑⇓ there iS no i in team
Despite some singlehanded events, sailboat racing is mostly a team sport. There is quite a bit of effort in attracting, training, motivating and keeping crew for race after race after race. I cheer the skippers who do that!
To me, that team aspect is one of the attractions. But it also is a hindrance to racing in many classes.
Russell Turpin
Here's a photo finish of a different sort: January's Corinthian Midwinters saw boats crowd (or park at) the finish line. Was it "stressful"? Not really. (No one was going fast enough to do any damage.) If you were at the CYC bar afterward, you wouldn't have heard about any stress. Was it fun? You'd better believe it.
⇑⇓ look, racing iS JuSt not for me. it'S the StreSS
And then there are those of us for whom the stress and crowding of a race simply hold no interest. Me and my regular "crew," a 76-year-old friend and his 70-year-old wife, go out on weekdays when traffic is light(er) on San Diego Bay. We reef if necessary and go out in the ocean where we can really relax and enjoy ourselves. We'd much rather be surrounded by a pod of 1,000+ dolphins (yes) than by a fleet of stressedout people.
I'm not opposed to racing. My excellent boat (a Nonsuch 33) was designed for an ocean racer who wanted a fast family coastal cruiser. I'm only answering the question the article poses. Racing just isn't for everyone.
Brian
Brian — Technically, there can be stress in all aspects of sailing, from pulling in or out of a slip, seeing your floorboards floating down below, dodging a whale, crossing a foggy shipping lane, or paying your boat's slip fees, property tax and insurance. By contrast, if you have a good group of racers, then there can be lots of camaraderie, encouragement and festivities surrounding "the game." When we sign up to race, we sail on
days when we would not have gone out otherwise, and we're almost always thankful that we did.
⇑⇓ Speaking of racing: thiS year'S three bridge fiaSco lived up to itS name and windleSS winter racing reputation
I am so appreciative of the leadership and the entire crew at the SSS [Singlehanded Sailing Society] for the work and effort they put into holding races! (I am sure it requires a lot more hours than I can imagine). I also appreciate how the SSS promotes racing to try to attract more people. I saw firsthand at the 3BF skippers' meeting the free gifts, lower fees and promise of fun times on offer before the in-person meeting.
I was so happy to hear 100 sailors showed up! (I wish I could have been there.) I believe an "in-person" connection to the racing, competitors and promoters is important in attracting more sailors — so much better than a Zoom call!
Thank you to Richard and the SSS crew!
Memo Gidley Basic Instinct, Elliott 1050 Sausalito
The Fiasco is their most famous event, but the SSS runs a whole series of great races throughout the year. Hopefully lots of the folks who "discovered" SSS via the Fiasco on January 25 will come back out for the Corinthian, Round The Rocks, Vallejo 1-2, and others!
Rik Williams Irish Rose, Westsail 28 San Francisco
I'm more than a little bit in awe of each of the boats and sailors that/who managed to finish the race. Indeed, I'm going to have to label this small fraternity as likely the best sailors currently on the S.F. Bay. I mean, that's a serious achievement. Hats off to each and every one of them!
Kirk Denebeim Mirthmaker, Archambault 35 Bay Area
⇑⇓ very glad to finiSh
On Saoirse (third overall finisher) we sailed to Red Rock by way of the North Tower, including a few laps in the countercurrent eddy, then to Raccoon Strait; then after rounding, we headed to Treasure Island — the breeze was nice by that time — and we caught some favorable current down to Blackaller, with a bonus early flood to ride back down to the finish line.
Some fierce current to deal with all day in extremely light
winds. We were very glad to finish.
Gabriel Serafini Saoirse, Nauticat 44 Sacramento Delta
⇑⇓ Speaking of doublehanded Sailing …
To answer the parenthetical question, "How many schooners get sailed doublehanded?": Curtis Shoemaker and I sailed his three-masted Herreshoff Marco Polo schooner doublehanded from Kawaihae on the north end of the Big Island of Hawaii to Port Townsend, Washington, in fall 1999. (Shoemaker was featured in the New York Times bestseller, And The Sea Will Tell.) It was four on and four off for a month. Talk about sleep deprivation.
Ron Harben Hardcore Latitudian
⇑⇓ Speaking of the greateSt Singlehanded race in the world, charlie dalin won the vendée globe and SetS new record. but there waS a bigger Story …
I am sure that many people in France will celebrate the first place of Charlie Dalin and the new race record. I cannot imagine what it is like to sail for 64 days and 19 hours at an average speed of 17.8 knots. While Dalin deserves a lot of respect for his accomplishment, it seems that most of the French public has fallen in love with Violette Dorange.
Twenty-three-year-old Violette Dorange was the youngest-ever entrant in the Vendée Globe
Violette Dorange is 23 and she is the youngest participant in the history of the race. She is currently in 28th position* and will hopefully (and likely) finish the race. Her sailing résumé says that she once crossed the English Channel in an Optimist. This is a challenge, but nothing like sailing around the world solo on a 60-footer. I don't even think that she had ever sailed across the equator before this race. A few months prior to the Vendée Globe, Violette could not find financing, but she met with almost all the McDonald's franchisees of France and she convinced them to close her budget gap.
My late mother, who had never been on a sailboat, used to call me from France to talk about a sailor winning a race, being dismasted in the middle of the Indian Ocean or setting a new record. This is because in France, these events are discussed on broadcast TV during prime-time news. As a French native who now lives in California, I have become used to the fact that in the US, sailing is never discussed on broadcast TV.
Bernard Debbasch
*Readers — Violette Dorange finally crossed the finish line in Les Sables-d'Olonne, France, after 90 days at sea, literally as we were writing these very sentences. Congratulations to Violette, and thanks to Bernard for this letter.
By the way, an astute reader pointed out a correction to this sentence from the January 15 'LL: Charlie Dalin Wins Vendée Globe and Sets New Record "The only American to ever complete the Vendée Globe was Bay Area sailor Bruce
Schwab, who sailed his Tom Wylie-designed Open 60 OceanPlanet to ninth place in the 2004/05 edition."
Actually, Bostonian "Rich Wilson did it twice post-Bruce," the reader said, placing ninth in 2009 and 13th in 2016.
⇑⇓ more thoughtS on the deSign of Santa cruZ harbor in light of recent calamitieS
As a young man sailing in Southern California, I watched as the harbor at Marina del Rey was built with a pair of parallel jetties quite like those at Santa Cruz Harbor, before the Santa Cruz west jetty extension. Like every other man-made harbor, and most of the natural harbors (like San Francisco Bay) along the West Coast of the US, the entrance shoaled as waves rolled in.
For Marina del Rey the "cure" to the waves was to build an additional breakwater at 90° to the two jetties with enough room to let the sand migration across the entrance continue, but blocking the direct force of the waves. While this didn't completely solve the shoaling at MDR, it did reduce it significantly — and it stopped most of the wave action from storms. I believe it only provided minor mitigation to the surge caused by the tsunami, as the wave length is too long. Tsunamis act more like a fast low-/high-tide cycle and less like a wave. A breakwater in Santa Cruz, similar to that which now protects Marina del Rey, would go a long way toward calming the storm waves.
Top photo: The entrance to Marina del Rey Harbor, North America's largest man-made small-craft harbor. Note the breakwater sitting perpendicular to the entrance. Bottom photo: Could Santa Cruz benefit from a similar 90-degree-to-the-entrance breakwater?
But there is a second problem in Santa Cruz: Stable harbors have a comparatively small entrance to a much larger bay or harbor (EG: San Francisco Bay, Newport Harbor, Moss Landing, and MDR.) In Santa Cruz Harbor, there is a comparatively narrow entrance followed by a wider and generally deeper section of the harbor below the bridge. But, as Chuck Hawley stated [in February's Letters], the north harbor above the bridge gets shallower and narrower, concentrating the energy of the waves and causing the majority of the damage in this recent event and during the tsunami.
Some form of barrier under the bridge could potentially provide protection for this area most at risk, but wave action reflecting from the barrier back onto the lower harbor would need to be studied.
Beau Vrolyk Schooner Mayan
Santa Cruz
⇑⇓ you don't get what you pay WAY too much for
Despite the highest tax rate in the US, California ranks 31st in infrastructure. The Army Corps that is responsible for dredging does not have the budget to maintain civilian marinas and prioritizes commercial harbors. Santa Cruz needs a plan to include the Army Corps, the harbor tenants and local community to address this.
With two major events in the past 15 years, expect insurance carriers to exclude this harbor in future policies.
Larry Moraes
⇑⇓ JuSt fiX it and Save money already
What's sad is this has existed for a long time, but nothing has changed even though it costs staggering amounts of money to repair the damage every time.
⇑⇓ meSSage reduX
Ian Clements
Thanks for sharing my story of the note in a film canister [See "Message in a … Film Canister?" in February's Letters, page 27. Jack Edgerton tossed a note (in a small film canister) into the drink on the way back from the Channel Islands. It was found and mailed back with a response. Jack framed both and sent us the photo, which was illegible.]
After reading my letter from last month, I realized I'd just barely mentioned the note or the spirit it brought out in Jim and Kathy, who found the note. This happens every time I tell the story of surfing a Newport 30 at 13 knots — I forget about everything else.
I couldn't read the notes in the accompanying photo, but they are worthy of reading. Our short note read, "Memorial Day, 25 May, 1987. Great weekend trip to Santa Cruz Island California. Surfing, diving, lasagna, Trivial Pursuit and high seas on the homeward journey. If found, please mail to Roarke Ball."
Jim and Kathy did find it, and here is an excerpt from their letter. "Your film canister washed up on the beach at Point Sal, California, just outside of Santa Maria. [South of Pismo Beach and north of the Channel Islands.] It apparently took 346 days to choose a beach and to choose its discoverers. I'm glad we found it and I'm glad you sent it. Your sense of adventure and recreation was transferred to us. Thanks. Jim and Kathy."
I would sign off here, but what's always puzzled me is the film canister floated about 70 or 80 miles north against prevailing winds and seas. Things that make you go hmmmm.
Jack Edgerton
⇑⇓ baJa ha-ha XXXi — it'S a go! go! go!
Finally. The stars, planets and other heavenly objects will be aligning properly, and the Denebeim boys will, for the first time, be doing this Ha-Ha thing. We will then enforce our own "Stay in Mexico" policy for a couple of months and cruise the cruising places.
At last: Baja, here we come … by sea!
With Hydrovane: Your Independent Self Steering Windvane AND Emergency Rudder
Your best crew ...steers 24/7
Have con dence for all scenarios
Install o center, with davits & gear
Kirk Denebeim
Kirk — After growing up in San Francisco, and sailing
LEOPARD 46
Have you dreamed of standing on a remote Baja California peak with a fleet of 100-ish boats in the background? Well, the Grand Poobah's recent announcement that the 31st Baja Ha-Ha is a "Go Go Go" has many would-be bluewater sailors frothing for the fall and the continuation of one of the world's largest cruising rallies.
everywhere, my brother and I finally get to do our first Baja Ha-Ha. Count us in for our first, and do carry on!
Keith W. Denebeim
Kurt and Keith were commenting on the February 5 'Lectronic Latitude with the same name as this letter.
⇑⇓ laSt-minute participant
Two of my three crew gigs on the Ha-Ha have come about due to last-minute dropouts on participating boats. I'll be 81 years old when the shotgun goes off this go 'round and I'm hoping not to rely on schadenfreude to gain a berth on a boat this year.
Please see my Crew List ad and I'll send my sailing résumé and references on request.
Ron Harben Willing Crew
His second letter this Letters
⇑⇓ for many people, it waS a QueStion of completing their working liveS
Woo Hoo! I'm retiring later this year and I'll be wrapping up refit projects on my boat this summer to get some shakedown cruising done before joining the 31st Ha-Ha!
Ken Kotsur
Hoping to retire this year as well and do my first Ha-Ha! Bernard
How long till the Poobah starts telling everyone that this might, perhaps, maybe, not sure, probably, not really be his last Ha-Ha in an effort to squeeze more entries at the end?
Orlando Duran
Orlando — Please keep in mind the incredible amount of work, done by people in their 70s, required to put on the Baja Ha-Ha. It might be a little touch and go sometimes.
⇑⇓ latitude platitudeS
Dear Latitude — I'm still here in the Latitude Life. But I've got no home for you to send me a paper copy.
We followed your advice, sold everything and sailed away. I get 'Lectronic Latitude in my inbox, three times a week, and can't wait to catch up on latest news and download your monthly issue. But when we fly, I always stock up on a couple of paper Latitudes to maintain sanity in the air. Safe
Harbor South Bay (stayed there summer 2024 as Bandaras Bay nearly melted me in summer 2023) or West Marine have been my go-to places to get a paper copy.
We've been "stuck" cruising Mexico since November 2022. But we are hoping to bust out of here and make a Panama Canal crossing sometime in February 2025!
Love Latitude!
Love Latitude Nation!
Love Latitude Life!
After years of sailing on their Martin 242 'Steel Breeze', Mark Mazeski and Laney Gale bought the "last fully completed" (of 28) Outbound 46. They raced 'Dawn Patrol' and cruised the Salish Sea until 2018, then headed south for the 2022 Baja Ha-Ha. d
PS: It's always great to catch up on Andy Schwenk's latest adventure. I see his picture is posted in the January issue. As fellow PNW racers, it's great to follow his travels and tribulations.
Mark & Laney
SV Dawn Patrol, Outbound 46 Latitude Nation
Baja Ha-Ha XXVIII (28) Alumni
⇑⇓ the importance
Today, I subscribed to your magazine because it is such an important part of the sailing community. At a time when we are losing so many maritime businesses, services and destinations, keeping the magazine strong financially is vital. Latitude 38 is my main source of information for being informed and maintaining my connection to the community.
Now that I've subscribed, home delivery will be so convenient too. Thank you for all the hard work!
Dennis O'Hanlon
SV Nightingale, Hans Christian 33 Latitude Nation
⇑⇓ Still crewin' after all theSe yearS
I'm still sailing with crew I connected with on the Crew List over 10 years ago! It has been a great help to me!
Bill Crowley
Readers — Thank you for your support, both in kudos and in subscriptions and donations. We appreciate you, and we need you to keep going. We also appreciate all of you who are living the Latitude Life. So long as there are people out there who cast off the dock lines and head for the horizon, there will be a Latitude 38.
Have a comment? Email us at editorial@latitude38.com
It was apples and oranges last month when we shared our February Caption Contest(!) photo. Though most readers went with oranges, to some here at Latitude the sail-lizard was holding an apple that might have been plucked from the ship of knowledge. Eben Kermit shared what sounds like a little sailing ditty, or perhaps they’re the words of experience? — “On the high seas, when the ‘sprit’ moves you … choose oranges, not apples … they cure scurvy don’t-cha-know!” Winner and top 10 below.
“Laying down on the jib. Get to work!!” — Jeff Wilfong.
“With recent CIA cuts to staffing and budgets, a new career opened up for sailors to conduct intelligence-gathering missions.” — Kelvin Meeks.
“Hang 10 retired style.” — Johnny Morris Retzlaff.
“When you just have one jib tiedown, you have to improvise.” — Mark LeVander.
“I would like to tell sailors a funny photography joke but I feel that I would be exposed.” — Jay Handleson.
“When you said I’d be bunking in the V-berth this was NOT what I had in mind!” — Bob Martin.
“La-Z-Sail … the best seat on the boat!” — @taaseyhillart.
“Putting this jib back into its bag is like stuffing a boa constrictor into a coffee can.” — Judy Muetz.
“In order to adapt to his new empty-nest syndrome, Bob settled in for some relaxing, listening to podcasts, photography and sightseeing. Soon he realized this was not the crow’s nest that he was promised; it was better!” — Mark Caplin.
“This foredeck crew is so slow …” — Paul Dines.
"What she really loved was to hang over the edge and watch the bow of the ship slice through the waves. She loved it especially when the waves were high and the ship rose and fell, or when it was snowing and the flakes stung her face.” — Kristin Cashore, Graceling
Have you ever had that experience of meeting someone and then they just start turning up in your life? We have. It happens all the time — that’s what sailors do. Like the time we met a woman who was living aboard her 30-ft boat (can’t remember the type) in Florida … next minute, we were dock neighbors in Maine. Or like the time we met Larissa Clark and Duncan Copeland and their young children, son Eden and daughter Skye-Elizabeth, at the Sausalito Boat Show. A month later, lo and behold, we bumped into them again in San Diego at the 30th Baja Ha-Ha Kick-Off party.
Aside from just enjoying sailing, this fun-loving cruising family runs the notfor-profit organization Free Range Ocean. Larissa and Duncan have a combined 40 years of experience working on environmental campaigns, development and communications, and now they share their knowledge and put their research skills to work while living and sailing aboard their Beneteau 50 Freeranger
“Our plan is to enjoy a great family sailing adventure, have a lot of fun along the way, but also voyage with purpose,” the couple says. “So we have set up www.freerangeocean.org to use adventure sailing, citizen science, and storytelling to inspire action for a healthy ocean among boating and coastal communities. We invite everyone to join our efforts.”
It appears people are indeed joining their efforts — Free Range Ocean has recently been awarded the Ocean Cruising Club’s (OCC) Conservation Challenge Grant to support the sailors’ directory of Ocean Citizen Science Projects. OCC says there are an “estimated 30 million recreational boats on the water,” and these boats are often in places that researchers can only dream of accessing. Put simply, there are boatloads of people who could be “leveraged as citizen scientists.” And this is where the Freeranger crew come in handy.
Many sailors are aware of the challenges researchers and scientists face
in collecting samples and analyzing them to increase our knowledge and understanding of the ocean and pinpoint effective solutions for a healthy future. But often, we just don’t know where or how we can contribute.
If you’d like to know how you can “make a difference,” check out www. freerangeocean.org. Maybe you’ll discover something amazing!
SailGP is heading to Califor nia for back-to-back weekends, first hitting the Port of Los Angeles' San Pedro Bay on March 15-16, then up to San Francisco Bay on March 22-23 — just a one-week turnaround between events! The two venues couldn't be more different, especially this year. Los Angeles has been bone-dry with devastating wildfires, while Northern California has been beset by a series of atmospheric rivers off the Pacific Ocean, king tides, and stormy seas that laid waste to part of the historic Santa Cruz Pier. (Again.)
Season 5 has been action-packed through three events, with the new Tfoils and SailGP's own version of NIL deals and free agency. Unfortunately, Team USA has struggled, missing the entire Australian KMPG Grand Prix after capsizing while being towed out to the practice race. Emirates Team GBR and Tom Slingsby's Australian Team have jump-started out of the box, while the Kiwi Black Foils have been uncharacteristically inconsistent in the last two events, including at home in Auckland in front of packed grandstands at Wynyard Pier.
Los Angeles is a tight racetrack, and it should be the first opportunity for all 12 teams to be on the starting line at the same time. Emirates Team GBR, with driver Dylan Fletcher and strategist Hanna Mills, has caught fire, racing neck and neck with NorthStar Canada (USA?) in a thrilling podium race in Event 3 in Sydney. Ex-Brit helmsman Giles Scott was behind the wheel for the Canadians as the British flew past them on the final legs to capture the win, while hometowners Australia took third.
"I'll have to rewatch it, but I'm not sure what else we could have done," said Scott. "It just went the way of the Brits, that one. It was a shame not to get one over on my old buddies, but they sailed really well." While admitting "there is a little bit of disappointment" at coming second in Sydney, Scott said he was happy for his team to be on the podium for the first time in Season 5. "I think if you'd told us we were going to finish second here going into racing, we'd have bitten your arm off for it. I thought we were a shoo-in there and it didn't go our way," said Scott.
"The late penalty call wasn't the reason we lost," said Slingsby. "Could the final have gone differently? Maybe. But I'm not going to blame the umpires for that. We didn't sail well enough in the final race and that's the reason we lost."
And how about that costly USA Team capsize, and the team's struggles over the past two events, after a promising start to Season 5? The incident was caused by the wing being cambered while the US F50 was in tow, which meant the wing turned against the wind. A crew member pressed the wing-invert button. The USA Team received zero points for each race in Sydney, resulting in a current zero-point total score for the 2025 season. Russell Coutts, SailGP's CEO, has expressed his displeasure with the US team's performance. Red Bull Italy CEO Jimmy Spithill said, "Towing is something you've really got to be onto and paying attention to because it can just happen so quickly on these boats."
"Obviously, the incident that occurred on our way to practice racing has left the team in a very difficult position," said USA Team CEO Mike Buckley. "We now look toward L.A. and San Francisco as our opportunity to get back out on the water and make up for lost points. We're excited to race at home and see all the US flags out in the crowd supporting our team."
In Auckland, the team recorded 7-6-10-10-9-8-9 fleet-racing results, leaving them bottom of the table for the event. This was in stark contrast to the team's third-place finish at the light-air season opener in Dubai. continued on outside column of next sightings page
We're back, baby! After a five-year hiatus, the Latitude 38 Spring Crew List Party is on and we can't wait to see you there. Mark your calendar for Thursday, April 3. It's your chance to connect to sailing, racing, cruising, or just going to a kick-ass party. This will be Latitude's first Spring Crew Party since the pandemic began five years ago.
It's also the first time we've held the event at the Bay View Boat Club on S.F. Bay, sitting in the "sports district" of the Mission Bay neighborhood between Chase Center and Oracle Park. It's a fun, up-and-coming area and a cool perch on the Bay, south of the city and Bay Bridge. There should be plenty of parking for Crew Party attendees.
The party will run from 6-9 p.m. The entry fee is $10, and you must purchase your ticket in advance (we can't take cash at the door) from the Latitude 38 Crew List Party page on our website. Bay View Boat Club will provide a no-host bar and have food available for purchase. Please note BVBC does not accept credit cards. Please bring cash for drinks and food.
Spring is almost in the air. The days are getting longer and just a little warmer, and boat owners are gearing up for the sailing season ahead. Come connect with sailing. And don't forget to make sure your name is on the Latitude 38 Crew List at www.latitude38.com/crewlist.
Clockwise from top left: New Zealand Team takes a plunge; USA Team took a plunge while under tow, damaging their F50 and forcing them to withdraw from Event 2.;Tom Slingsby takes a selfie in Sydney with, from left to right, Giles Scott, Erik Heil, Taylor Canfield, Diego Botin, Maelle Frascari, Peter Burling, Martine Grael, Dylan Fletcher, Manon Audinet, Sebastien Schneiter, and Nicolai Sehested; Already three events deep, SailGP Season 5 features new teams and new colors is as it flies into California in March. Inset: EmiratesTeam GBR strategist Hannah Mills shares the Victory Wheel trophy with her daughter.
Replacing the previous L-foils, T-foils have two horizontal sections at the bottom of the shaft; one curves inward, but the other curves outward, away from the F50. This increases the risk of collision and clashing foils if the boats get too close.
"We adapted to the new T-foils quicker than the other teams for whatever reason," said Slingsby. "You've got to be really careful. The first instinct is to get the boats really close to each other and engage. It does take a bit of getting used to, but all the teams did such a great job of making sure that no one hit each other.
"You don't get much notice before a nosedive," Slingsby continued. "The old foils used to give you a little bit more warning. You could get high for a couple of seconds and have time to react, but if you get a little bit too high on the T-Foils, they will just fly down. It happens very quickly."
SailGP will be happening very quickly, and very soon, in SoCal and the Bay Area in March. Will you be watching?
— mark reid
With Latitude 38's upcoming Spring Crew List Party at the Bay View Boat Club in San Francisco on April 3, we thought it fitting to run Corie Schneider's tips on how to be great crew.
Many people dream of casting off the dock lines, sailing into the big blue and anchoring in exotic ports, but most of us don't have boats. Many see this minor detail as a major impediment. Good news! Not only do you not need your own boat to get offshore, but it can be more fun to crew on someone else's boat. Here are a few tips for living in small spaces with complete strangers that might help you have a more enjoyable and successful experience as crew on a sailboat:
Set expectations before setting foot on someone else's boat. Cruisers are notoriously cheap, so have the dreaded "money talk" before signing up to crew. Will you be expected to pay your way? Or will you get paid? How will you split food and drinks? Talk about costs associated with repairs and docking fees. Having these awkward conversations before they become an
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At a February BCDC meeting, the Treasure Island Marina finally received its longawaited approval for redevelopment. Along with the landside redevelopment currently underway, a new 168-slip marina will replace the aging 108-slip marina, which was badly damaged in the January 2023 bomb cyclone. Treasure Island Marina will be one of the more significant marina replacements to hit the waterfront in decades.
Treasure Island itself was a redevelopment project created on a shallow reef north of Yerba Buena Island in the late '30s to host the Golden Gate International Exposition — celebrating the completion of both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a
marina approved
military base from 1941 until 1997, when it was purchased by the City of San Francisco under then-mayor Gavin Newsom. TI has since been under the direction of the Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA) for environmental remediation and redevelopment.
In 1999, Treasure Island Enterprises won the bid to redevelop the marina; they've been going through the public review and political process ever since. After years of negotiation, the originally proposed 400-slip marina was reduced to 168 slips ranging in size from 45 to 80 feet, preserving more space in the cove for recreational boating.
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8 tips, great crew — continued issue makes them much easier to tackle later on.
Daily communication is key. Out on the open ocean, priorities and affections change like the wind direction, so checking in with your captain and other crew will help keep the emotional storms at bay. Living in small spaces is challenging. Communication makes for smoother sailing.
Do what you know and know what you do. You don't need to be an experienced sailor to be a good crew, but you do need to be honest about your skill set. There are many aspects to cruising, such as cooking, cleaning and provisioning, as well as boat maintenance and repairs, and each is essential to a good voyage. Clearly state what you can do, and ask what is expected of you. Let the captain know what you are willing to learn and what is outside your comfort zone.
Keep all your personal belongings in one space. If you have a cabin, keep your clothes, hats, bags, etc. in your cabin. If you sleep in a shared space, roll up your bedding every morning so that people can utilize that space during the day. If you hang wet bathing suits or towels on the lifelines to dry, stow them once they're dry. It doesn't take much (particularly on small boats) to make a space feel cluttered. But it also doesn't take much to tidy up a cozy space.
Go slightly above and beyond your agreed-upon scope of work. If your job is to cook breakfast and lunch every day, throw in the occasional dinner. If you keep watch from midnight to 3 a.m., show up for your watch 10 minutes early. While these behaviors aren't expected or necessary, they will be greatly appreciated and will likely get you invited back.
To piggyback on the casual dig of the notoriously cheap cruiser, buy your captain and other crew a drink or a meal every now and again while you're in port. It is likely that your captain is bearing the financial brunt of the voyage, and while they can probably afford it, who doesn't love being bought a drink?
Let's face it, boats and boat captains have lots of idiosyncrasies. Ask about them. Does your captain have a weird pet peeve about using coasters? Or getting sand in the dinghy? Better to know than to have him or her blow up in a rage when your drink leaves a ring on the teak, or your shoes bring the beach on board with you.
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, unless you plan for a quick trip or find true love (which is possible!), do not sleep with anyone on your boat. It changes the dynamics instantly, and boats are too small for jealousy and drama. Unless you have a plan to make a quick exit, don't sleep where you eat, if you know what I mean.
— latitude / corie schneider
We sailed onto the hook in Sainte Anne Bay — off the windward island of Martinique in the southern Caribbean's Lesser Antilles — exactly 21 days, 6 hours, and 18 minutes after leaving Ilha Brava in the Cabo Verde chain last year. The sail, of course, was spectacular!
We had lost our upper spinnaker halyard block about a week before we set off, so the voyage was mostly under mainsail only as far downwind as she would go. This was no hardship, believe me, as we made landfall on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean almost exactly 48 hours ahead of our original estimation.
The sea was blue, steady, and immense!
Three days out, we saw a small pod of giant orcas consisting of two very large animals and one small one heading in the opposite direction from us. They were on the hunt, so they had no shits to give our way. Two days later, we saw a huge pod of false killer whales, about 18 strong, again on the hunt, only this time traveling in our direction. Let me tell you, when you're completely surrounded by giants tearing up the water around you in the middle of nowhere, the word "insignificant" takes on a whole new meaning.
On my second dog watch (3-6 a.m.) of our 12th night out, I made an incredible discovery. I looked around us and noticed quite a bit of bioluminescent activity around the boat — I mean, a lot more than usual. It seemed as though the little lights were popping off like fireworks all around us. I grabbed the spotlight, shined it on the water, and discovered we were surrounded by thousands (no, really, thousands) of yellowfin tuna, all jogging for position under the running lights forward.
I was freaking gobsmacked! There were so many of them that it looked like they could lift the boat right out of the ocean and carry us all the way to the Caribbean. They were with us every night until we got within 60 miles of Martinique. And then, suddenly, they were gone.
Then there was the magnificent frigatebird. This animal has a tiny body with a long split tail and a seven-and-a-half-foot wingspan. They mostly hunt flying fish, and they are fairly adept at that magnificent feat. But they also do this totally crazy thing where they tap on the backs of other birds' heads to make them puke up their last meal; then they eat it like a great big fledgling. I know it sounds totally gross, but they do it so much that it actually appears as if they prefer it to chasing those pesky flying fish. (I know, ew, right?)
Then there were the flying fish. Everything ('cept us) eats flying fish, so they breed a lot and spend most of their very short lives in different stages of absolute terror. Hence the evolved perpetual look of shock and dismay on their cute little faces when you find their crusty little dead bodies all over the deck in the morning. At first it was just a little sad to find one or two little flying fishes that didn't quite make it here or there, but the farther we got into the ocean, the more we found and the bigger they got. We developed a keen sense that told us when and where one would land on the deck so we could gear-up, clip in, go out on the pitching deck in the middle of the night, and toss them back into the drink into the unthankful mouths of the swarming yellowfin tuna.
On day six of my first dog watch, I got thwacked on the starboard side of my head by a big flying fish that fairly coated me in scales and funk for the next six hours. Those little guys stink to high heaven. We found them in the foot well, we found them in the mainsail reef, we found them in the galley under the spice rack, we found them under cushions and carpets, and towels and shoes, and ultimately had to dig an angry live one out of the litter box. (The cat was totally pissed.) On our last overnight, after saving about 20 of them, I found a huge pile of about 60 of them just forward of our starboard leading stanchion. It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. A giant pile of dead or dying little cuties. I scooped them up by the handful and fed them to the hordes of hungry predators.
Seventy-two hours out of Martinique, the ocean got mad.
The big, happy, fluf fy white clouds turned gray and the radar became our number-one squall tracking and dodging tool. And the seas got huge! From then until well after "Land-Ho!", the seas remained in the 15-20-
Despite being a world-renowned sailing venue we often note that San Francisco Bay tends to be one of the least friendly places in the U.S. for visiting sailors. This is not just for cruisers who happen to be traveling the coast but also for local sailors looking for a guest dock, dinghy dock or access along the waterfront.
So we’re happy to report when improvements are being made. We recently learned that the guest dock at Pier 1 ½ on the San Francisco waterfront has been repaired and reopened for visitors. The guest docks in front of Scott’s Restaurant at Jack London Square have been cleaned up and are also
available for visiting. Additionally, as reported in Letters, the Angel Island guest docks won’t be replaced until 2026 but they have managed to repair 16 slips with perhaps more coming available for summer 2025. Kirby Long of Napa Valley Marina also contacted us to let us know they recently opened a 200’ guest dock on the Napa River. We heard from Jim of SV Cheyenne that Suisun City has a 300' guest dock in their downtown basin.
San Francisco Bay municipalities could do much more to provide a welcoming environment for boaters but there are signs of progress. We'd like to see the progress continue.
ft range from astern, with the occasional awkward growler slapping us broadsides.
SVSN-E Cetacea, a 1984 Baba 30 cutter-rigged sailboat from Orcas Island, Washington, handled the seas like a champ with only a single cockpit "pooping" (aka shipping seas) that Dena was "lucky" enough to catch on video. (We've been in some pretty scary seas in this boat, and this is completely unprecedented in our experience with this vessel. We can't wait to show Bob Perry, the designer of the boat, the video.)
We rounded Îlet à Cabrit island off the southernmost tip of Martinique as the sun set. We were safe at anchor a little over an hour later, with another 2,187.5 miles added to our circumnavigation of the North Atlantic Ocean. And here's the kicker: We've never once used our electric motor. — james lane
For more photos from Cetacea, go to www.flickr.com/sovereignnations.
As the 10th edition of the Vendée Globe singlehanded race around the world draws to a close, we certainly will relish the exciting moments the event provided over the past few months. We were drawn into the numerous stories that developed among the 40 IMOCA 60s that set out from Les Sables-d'Olonne, France, last November.
The Vendée has supplanted the Ocean Race as the best around-theworld race on the planet, and it's giving the America's Cup plus its "sister" series SailGP a run for their money. Next time (money willing), American Cole Brauer, who just picked up her new Rolex as Yachtswoman of the Year, will hopefully join the fleet.
This time it was Charlie Dalin, the French skipper of the scow-bowed MACIF Santé Prévoyance, who crossed the Vendée Globe finish line in January to take the victory. Dalin led the fleet for a total of 42 days and won in an incredible time of 64d 19h 22m and 49s, smashing the 2016 mark by more than eight days!
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US Sailing announced the winners of the 2024 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year awards. Ian Barrows and Californian Hans Henken were named the Yachtsmen of the Year, and Cole Brauer was named Yachtswoman of the Year.
These awards recognize exceptional accomplishments in the sport of sailing over the past year, from Olympic medals to becoming the first American woman to sail alone, nonstop, around the world. The winners were honored at a US Sailing Awards Ceremony in February at the 2025 US Sailing Leadership Forum in Coronado, California.
— latitude
Clockwise from top left: Boris Hermann, in the buff, on 'MaliziaSeaexplorer; Charlie Dalin on 'MACIF'; Yoann Richomme and 'Paprec Arkéa' took second; new superstar and youngest-ever Vendée Globe sailor Violette Dorange; 'Initiatives-Coeur' skipper Sam Davies took 13th; Pip Hare and 'Medallia' limp into Melbourne, Australia. Inset: Alain Leboeuf (President SAEM Vendée) with skipper Pip Hare.
Despite being a world-renowned sailing venue, San Francisco Bay is one of the least friendly places in the US for visiting sailors. But small improvements are being made: The guest dock at Pier 1 ½ on the San Francisco waterfront has been reopened for visitors. The guest docks in front of Scott's Restaurant at Jack London Square have been cleaned up and are also available for visiting. Napa Valley Marina recently opened a 200-ft guest dock on the Napa River. And as we reported in Letters, several slips in Ayala Cove have reopened, with more slips set to be opened before the docks are replaced next year. Well done, Bay Area. Now keep it up.
"The emotions are indescribable. It's the result of so much work!" said Dalin. "The confrontation with Yoann [Richomme on Paprec Arkéa, who finished second] was exceptional, and in the end, I beat this record thanks to him because we constantly pushed ourselves to find the best of ourselves. Until the end, nothing was won." Sébastien Simon on Dubreuil miraculously finished third despite breaking his starboard foil south of Australia.
Violette Dorange, sailing on DeViner with McDonald's sponsorship, became the youngest sailor in history (she's 23) to have completed the Vendée Globe, with the French national media already crowning her the new star. "I pursued my dream!" Dorange exclaimed. "I am still in shock, stunned by the size of the crowd when I arrived! It was incredible! I feel like I am having an out-of-body experience. Three months without seeing one single human face, and now, this huge crowd."
Pip Hare lost her mast on Medallia in a remote and precarious location in the Southern Ocean more than 700 miles from the nearest port of call — which turned out to be Melbourne. "In the 16 years I have been solo ocean racing, I have not retired from one single race," said Hare. "Broken rudders, mast climbs, crushed fingers, broken bulkheads, total electrical shutdown … the list is long. I have always found a way to stay in the game. It has never been enough to send me off the racecourse.
"When I looked up to see the mast of Medallia falling toward me on December 15, in a split second, everything was over," recalled Hare. "I felt a loss so deep I couldn't breathe and I didn't want to move. There was no getting up off the floor. I don't think I will ever be at peace with dismasting during this race," she said. "So what next? Do I want to go on? Do I have the energy to get up and fight some more? Yes. Bring it on!" Hare recently won the Seamanship Award from the Ocean Cruising Club for exceptional skill or bravery at sea. Hare said, "More men have walked on the moon than women who have completed the Vendée Globe. That's the only inspiration I need to succeed. The race is over but the story is not."
Six female skippers started the 10th Vendée Globe, equaling a record set in the 2020-21 edition. Justine Mettreaux, Swiss skipper of TeamworkTeam SNEF, crossed the finish line in eighth place as the first among the women skippers, with a time of 76d 1h 36m. Clarisse Crémer, skipper of L'Occitane en Provence, finished 11th in 77d 15h 34m. Crémer had a foil cylinder failure, requiring her to shim the system by blocking it with wood wedges. But then a surge of water soaked her electronics and she had to cannibalize a system out of the parts left working.
As we go to press, five boats are still racing. Assuming they all finish, 33 out of the original 40 starters will have completed the course. Charlie Dalin's sub-65-day record-breaking run set a high bar for the next Vendée Globe which will set off around the world in 2028.
Yacht harbors have definite personalities. Some are quite proper and yachty, and some are sterile, securely locked at each corner. Some are warm and friendly and others funky. A marina's personality, like any neighborhood, will change to reflect the times and the current cast of characters who occupy it. Some are working class, a "Good Old Yacht Harbor" — nonpretentious marinas occupied by modest folks who love their modest boats and enjoy their boating friends. You won't typically find megayachts, goldplaters or blue blazers here; paint-stained T-shirts, plaid shirts, overalls, shorts and deck shoes are the uniform of the day for most folks.
Alameda Yacht Harbor (now Fortman Marina), as it was known in the '60s and '70s, was a great Good Old Yacht Harbor. Situated on San Francisco Bay's Oakland Estuary, it was a rich environment of old salts, characterfilled wooden boats, and many "new technology" fiberglass boats promoted as maintenance-free. (Yes, see those ads in early '70s issues of Latitude 38.) The surrounding industrial sites and shipping piers enhanced its nonyachty personality.
The harbor began in the 1890s as the berthing basin for Alaska Packers Association's square riggers unloading Alaskan canned salmon. In the 1930s, the basin began evolving into a yacht harbor, complete with a sixton marine railway for quick haulout/bottom jobs. The railway was free to use, but had a five-day time limit. By the '70s, the railway was all that remained of Alameda Boat Works, which had produced many beautiful wooden yachts through the 1940s, '50s and '60s.
By the early '70s, the harbor was a color ful neighborhood of sailors, class-boats and liveaboards. In 1972, I purchased a Nordic Folkboat built in Denmark in the 1940s. Naturally, I was placed among 12 neighbors on Folkboat Row, also known as "Middle Finger Cruising Club," so named not for the well-known gesture, but because this row of slips was in the middle of the marina, and the Folkboat owners were a laid-back, chummy bunch.
The marina held a rich, eclectic mix of wooden boats, including classiclooking Phillip Rhodes 33-ft Windward Class sloops, 23-ft Bear Boats, 25ft Golden Gates, a couple of 33-ft wood IODs (International One Design), a Scandinavian design, a 35-ft teak Arthur C. Robb Lion Class sloop, a Stephens-designed 38-ft Farallon Clipper built in Stockton, a Hinckley 30ft wood sloop, two Herreshoff H 28 ketches, a 28-ft Herreshoff Rozinante yawl, a Yankee One Design and a Sunset Sloop (both built at Alameda Boat Works), and a handful of Scandinavian double-ended Spitzgatters. There were also 26-ft plywood Thunderbirds, a 33-ft plywood Spaulding 33, and many other one-off wooden boats. The remainder of the 300-slip harbor was filled with a mix of fiberglass sailing boats and cabin cruisers, the east end bordered by tin-roofed slips for motor yachts. Slips ranged from 25- to 36-ft — the average boat length of the time.
There was never a shortage of people working on their wooden boats. For the novice refitting their 30-year-old boat, this was the place. There were enough old salts around to fill a book on almost any project, and if you asked five owners how to do a job, you would get at least eight different answers. Several professional woodworkers and craftsmen were nearby to fix your mistakes if needed. Varnish and paint jobs were scrutinized by a cadre of neighbors, eager to point out holidays. Major refits were common; I re-canvassed the deck of my Folkboat there.
There was also plenty of activity in the basin to the west. Here, small ships offloaded containers. They would frequently clear their smokestacks just after I'd applied a fresh coat of varnish, the soot, floating gently down like black snowflakes, spreading itself evenly over my still tacky varnish.
This marina had character — the wood docks, the old square-rigger basin, the eclectic mix of well-used boats, rickety but functional bathrooms, and a small clubhouse available for barbecues. It was a gem tucked behind Del Monte's two 1,000-ft-long brick warehouses and bordered by a working rail spur where tankers would often block the auto entrance to the marina for an hour at a time. One night, a tank car derailed and spilled its cargo of foul-smelling tallow. Even after cleanup efforts, the harbor stank for weeks. Most drivers passing by on Buena Vista Street never knew there was
Romberg Tiburon Campus, a research arm of San Francisco State University (SFSU), is facing closure due to SFSU budget cuts. Also housing the Estuary & Ocean Science Center (EOS Center), the Romberg Tiburon Campus has supported maritime commerce, naval defense and training, and marine science and education for more than a century, and is especially well suited to support the interdisciplinary mission of the EOS Center. It's also the only marine science lab on San Francisco Bay.
EOS's vision is to create a sustainable center for scientific discovery, innovation
and education focused on the health and resilience of the San Francisco Estuary, the Gulf of the Farallones and other nearby coastal ecosystems.
According to the EOS Center's Interim Executive Director Dr. Katharyn Boyer, "12 active research labs will close down, grant funding will have to be returned, including the $5.8M from NOAA for a new Aquatic Research and Training facility and substantial amounts of funds from the State Coastal Conservancy for projects specific to our campus on the Bay."
— latitude
another world behind the industrial façade.
Directly across from the harbor was Dirty Dave's, a genuine neighborhood dive bar for the longshoremen, crane operators and railmen who worked the docks. It was not the place for a beer after a day of sailing, unless you were also inclined to enter a biker-bar wearing plaid shorts and flip flops. Instead, one could frequent the local yacht clubs, or the nearby Harbor Café with its Italian cuisine and casual bar, owned by Chef Fernando and his wife.
Yes, the Alameda harbor had an inviting, friendly personality full of charisma and lively weekends. Marinas have had to change with the times. The boats are mostly fiberglass and the gates are locked for security. Yet "Good Old Yacht Harbors" are still places to connect with boat neighbors and a new generation world of emerging old salts.
— mike robinson
"A marina's personality, like any neighborhood, will change to reflect the times and the current cast of characters who occupy it," wrote author of this Sightings Mike Robinson. Main spread: Fortman Marina today. Inset: Alameda Yacht Harbor, or what is now Fortman Marina, sometime around the 1970s. Whether motor or sail, wooden boats were the heart of the marina.
After reading Andy Schwenk's description of his Seattle-to-San Francisco passage ("Turkey Trot," January 2025), I thought I would share our somewhat different experience along that same route two months prior.
Our less-qualified crew enjoyed five days of sailing. We also lost a crewman. But we ultimately got him back, with help from the US Coast Guard, and new Bay Area yacht club friends.
We sailed Alert, a 1982 Seguin 44. Designed by Olin Stephens II, she was one of the 13 built by Lyman Morse in Thomaston, Maine. She won the 1985 Marion-Bermuda race for her first owner. The second owner, a higher-up in one of the three-letter agencies, sailed her in the Chesapeake Bay until September 2001, when other duties called.
The third owner, a retiring pilot, wanted the boat re-rigged for singlehanded sailing so his wife could handle her in the event he was injured. So in 2002, he sailed Alert back to LymanMorse, which was owned then, as it had been in 1982, by his former college roommate, Cabot Lyman. I was advised that no friendship discounts were requested or granted. (If you want to see even more amazing contemporary things that L-M can do with these vessels, look up Magic or Aletheia.)
After sailing of f the western coast of North and Central America for 15 years, Alert was transferred to a new owner, whose stewardship included interior reconditioning by the owner's talented woodworking father (discounts included).
ALL PHOTOS SV ALERT
As the fifth steward, the only thing left for me to do was a drivetrain overhaul, which was accomplished largely by the great teams at Gallery Marine and Pacific Fiberglass in Seattle. I did successfully over-pitch the prop myself, which turned one haulout (and bridgeand-lock trip) into two.
By summer 2024, it was time to bring Alert south. My 30-year friend Mark was game. He'd spent a week during each of the two prior summers sailing Alert with me in the San Juan Islands. During those trips we'd managed repeated crossings of both the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca; how hard could a downhill trip be?
Mark vouched for two Houston sailing buddies, Tom and Erik, with latesummer availability. Both were ex-military, with delivery experience. A phone call or two later, we had a plan (or at least a Google Doc listing date ranges and provision preferences). We met at SeaTac on August 25 at noon.
Why then? I would say the best $200 I've ever spent sailing was the money I spent on Commanders' Weather. Sebastian and the team crushed it. Perhaps it was just that week or weather cycle, but 80% of the forecasts from the other sources ended up being incorrect or at least suboptimal. Commanders' suggested, for many detailed reasons, our weather windows and alternative routes. They were spot-on. I can't imagine going offshore without their input again.
We set out at 5 p.m. to catch the ebb. Our goal was to refuel at Neah Bay the next morning. Per Commanders', this would allow us to duck under a system as we turned the corner, putting waves behind us we could ride, and wind on the beam we could harness.
Our plan worked flawlessly for nine hours. Then the engine died. After a few hours of diagnostics (I'd just had the fuel polished, the Racors were fine, etc.), while drifting back and forth in the fog across the busy shipping channel, we called it.
Called TowBoatUS, that is. Roger and his family at Marine Assist Port Hadlock were terrific; they had our sorry 30,000+ lbs tied up at the Port Angeles gas dock by daybreak. I called Irvin down at Gallery Marine and it was decided a new fuel lifting pump was in order. One rental car and
seven hours of driving later, we were back in business.
We never saw the sun that day. By nightfall, the storm we'd planned to duck was on us, with the Strait's epic flood right on our nose. We made slow and wet progress. Our ever-helpful Victron graphed a steady decline in voltage toward the 11.5V minimum where the lifting pump would again fail. Swapping out the alternator in the seaway did not change the math.
We tucked into Neah Bay at 0400 to reassess. We determined that we could deliver sufficient voltage by running jumper cables across the floorboards to the starter bank. Tellingly, we could find no instances on the internet of this working, let alone being advised. Our choice was a two-day trip back to Seattle or a five-ish-day passage to San Francisco.
We decided to carry on. With our final go-cups of coffee (and a spare starter battery — both from Village Market in Neah Bay), we were off, again. We rounded the Olympic Peninsula, shut down the engine, and headed for our
first left. It was champagne sailing.
That is, until Mark came on deck for his 0200 watch and said to his longtime friend Erik, "Mohammed, why are you trying to steal the boat?" And then tried to wrest the helm from him.
As the poem goes, "[Hearing] such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter." As it later unfolded (much later), Mark, feeling unwell, had put on a second scopolamine patch. This drug, as all label readers know, lists hallucinations among its primary side effects.
That would explain why Mark was now having an animated conversation with the range. After the sun rose, he began banging on about "the orange clowns in the rigging." (I'm sparing you the one about "the fertility ritual in the galley.") Perhaps frustrated with our indifference, Mark began packing, and kept asking, "When is Uber coming to take us to the airport?"
On a boat, crazy makes a small space smaller. Plus, we were effectively down
50% of our crew, as someone needed to stand in the companionway to keep an eye on the increasingly agitated 6-ft 2-in 200 lb. triathlete. Mark resisted our attempts to reason with him about the patches, let alone remove them. So I called the Coast Guard.
They concurred in our view that Mark was a danger to himself and us. But they also said it was against policy to winch crazy people onto helicopters. They suggested instead that I take Mark to Astoria, OR. I observed that it was almost 100 miles away, and on the wrong side of the Columbia River bar. We ended our call amicably, agreeing that I would
head east and check in every two hours.
The Grand Canyon was (allegedly) built by water on a rock. Over the next 10 hours, I politely but firmly reiterated that I thought the USCG had better training, experience and equipment to deal with the issue. Ultimately, we agreed to split the difference; they'd send a 47-ft cutter out 50 miles, and I'd transfer Mark to them.
If you ever get to do this, you will learn it involves essentially no technology. You will be requested to hold a course. The seas will be what they will be (we got 6 to 8 feet). The captain will bring his vessel alongside. If he thinks his people can catch your people, he'll say, "Now."
Perhaps when you do this, it will work on the first try. Perhaps his vessel will not stave in your stanchions on early attempts (not complaining; grateful). We made the transfer on the eighth attempt.
As Mark and the USCG cutter headed for Astoria, the three of us collapsed in the cockpit. It had been a stressful 12 hours. Finally, someone said, "Three hours on, six off?" Someone else said, "Fair enough; I'll make dinner."
That night was the most eventful, weatherwise. I came up the companionway steps for my 0300 watch to see waves double the height of the stern rail. You could sense they aspired to break over us. I turned toward the bow to read the instruments: 35-40 knots wind speed, 10.5 VMG.
"How're we doing?' I asked Tom nervously. He smiled and said, "She's fine. I put a second reef in at 30 knots. At anything over 25 knots she outruns the waves." "Cool," I said bravely, "I'm making tea; do you want caf, or decaf?"
I spent the next three hours cheering Alert on. I'd never prayed for 25+ knots before.
The scopolamine detour had cost us time, distance and fuel. This required a detour to Crescent City, which was uneventful, except for their crazy low-tide gas dock setup. We caught a tuna on the way, which was three squares for two days.
We also heard via text from Mark, who apologized for any inconvenience.
We said none was necessary. After then flying back to Houston and reflecting for another day, he texted to ask if he could rejoin us. We said we'd love to get the band back together, but that we were done with planned tour stops. Moreover, there weren't many places for unplanned stops between where we were and Redwood City.
After 48 hours of sorting, we arrived at a solution: I would e-file for a transient berth at Brisbane. Mark would fly to SFO, taxi to their docks, and we'd pick him up there. Easy peasy.
Except that the Brisbane harbormaster didn't get the message. (Admittedly, I didn't get the paperwork emailed in until 2 a.m.) Accordingly, he was understandably miffed to arrive at work at 0800 Sunday to find a large Seattlebased sailboat tied to his outermost slip, and a stranger who'd tailgated a member down the gangplank running down the dock to get onto it.
I jumped off and explained our circumstances. Those now included that we'd just used our 6.5-ft draft to plow a new furrow in the channel at low
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tide. I asked for his dispensation, citing hardship, Sequoia Yacht Club membership; the whole Belushi Blues Brothers speech in the tunnel to Carrie Fisher. He relented. (I think he almost laughed;
up with due and greater gratitude.
With Mark back aboard, the sails filled, and we had a delightfully fast and sunny romp down to Westpoint Harbor. My wife arrived with sandwiches and
bars in the South Bay (Hurrica and Sequoia's), we went home to Mountain View for dinner.
I saw some great sunsets on that trip. I don't specifically recall seeing the marty collins
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The Singlehanded Sailing Society's Three Bridge Fiasco could have as easily been titled "Crap Shoot."
Andy Schwenk, who sailed his Covey Island schooner Sir Edmund, described the lead-up to the race: "All week long, talk on the docks was 'This one's gonna be different; this year we'll have wind. It will be fun,' they said. 'Everyone will have a chance,' they said. Well none of that was true; as the day drew near, the weather forecast for breeze on race day disappeared like the 49ers' playoff chances."
An ebb current dominated the scene on Saturday, January 25. What didn't dominate was the breeze. During the Cityfront starts that morning, it switched around between a meek easterly and a mild northerly. A westerly filled in by lunchtime but didn't make it all the way to the farthest mark, Red Rock in the North Bay. The 328 entries, they were dropping like fl ies. Some were never even able to make a clean start. Others crossed the restricted start line multiple times, incurring 20-minute penalties. Nevertheless, 41 boats were actually able to finish the theoretically 21-mile course ahead of the 7 p.m. time limit.
The SSS puts on this most challenging in-the-Bay race for singlehanders and doublehanders. The starts and finishes use Golden Gate Yacht Club in the San Francisco Marina. It's chaotic for the racers and stressful for the race committee.
The slowest boats start at 9 a.m., and each PHRF or BAMA rating has a different start time, from slowest to fastest. The sailors can cross the start
line in either direction, take the three marks (Blackaller Buoy east of the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge; Yerba Buena/Treasure Island, bisecting the Bay Bridge; and Red Rock, just south of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge) in any order, and round them in any direction.
The first-to-finish boat the past two years was a J/125, Rufless. This year Rufless finished fourth in division, but another J/125, Arsenal, led the way across the finish line.
"We had a fun Three Bridge Fiasco," commented Arsenal's skipper, Andrew Picel, who sailed with crew Leland Hubble. Arsenal finished at 4:07 p.m. but incurred a 20-minute penalty for a startline violation.
"Heading out to the race course, we had a plan in mind, but that quickly changed due to the lack of breeze. It was glass starting toward Treasure Island, so we decided our best chance was to start with the ebb and at least get moving away from the start line." The duo rounded their first mark, Blackaller Buoy, then quickly ended up under the Golden Gate Bridge, drifting out to sea. "We couldn't do anything about it until we started to see a 6-knot breeze and had enough power with the kite to head toward Raccoon Strait. We then completed the course clockwise and were lucky to find a nice little breeze around the Berkeley Circle and the back of Treasure Island later in the day."
(and Second) on Three Hulls
The first multihull to finish (at 4:17)
ended up swapping places in the standings with the second multihull to finish due to a time correction. Although this is a pursuit race, and each boat starts according to a time assigned to its rating, when we get to the -30 or below ratings, everyone starts together (at 10:46:03) and the race chair sorts it out later.
We worried about this container ship, as the boats in its way had very little steerage and even less propulsion. But the bar pilot did a masterful job of transiting the fleet, and the dreaded five horns were not sounded.
Jeremy Boyette and Aidan Mobley scored multihull line honors with the Seacart 30 Flux. "Aidan and I did have a plan to go counterclockwise; what we were seeing on the HRRR [weather forecast] made us think Treasure Island was going to be the main problem from a wind point of view. But when we started there was barely enough wind to keep from drifting over the line. We tried to sail around the start pin and head to TI, but couldn't make progress and decided to go to Blackaller after a few minutes of no forward movement. There was a bit of a northerly build happening and an eddy current along the beach, so this looked better than trying to head straight to Raccoon Strait and be ebbed out the Gate with most of the fleet.
"We decided to go for TI, but there was an inbound container ship, then an outbound container ship, so we sailed over to TI to be clear. But this really added a lot of time. We were talking about going to Red Rock next but TI was right there. Once we got around TI, the westerly had built enough to get around the rest of the course in about an hour.
"So we ended up going Blackaller, TI, Red Rock. Arsenal went Blackaller via the Cityfront, Red Rock, then TI and beat us by about 10 minutes."
Correcting out over Flux (rated -87) in the standings was the Explorer 44
'Round Midnight (rated -39), sailed by Rick Waltonsmith and Dave Olson.
"How can two sailors have three opinions on how to sail a race?" wrote Rick. "Only in our infamous Three Bridge Fiasco, that's how. Dave Olson and I agreed on one thing at the start: 'The ebb is huge, the wind light, and going to Blackaller first means being swept out the Gate.'
"How can two sailors have three opinions on how to sail a race?"
"So, after barely not letting the ebb take us over the line early, we headed for Red Rock." After two hours of fighting the ebb between Alcatraz and the Gate, the North Tower was less than 100 feet off their stern. "'We've been going backward for the last hour,' I said. 'Getting flushed out means we go home, OK, Dave?'
"Then, we got some wind! Dave said, 'Let's at least round one mark. If this breeze holds, we can crab across the Gate and round Blackaller.' We did that, and hoisted the roller-furling code zero. 'Point Blunt or Raccoon? Hell, let's just get across the Slot!'
"We went through Raccoon Strait quite easily and headed for Red Rock. Several keelboats, spinnakers up, were ahead of us. The northwest breeze was dropping. Those ahead of us struggled with yet another jibe to get around that bare chunk of rock in three counties (and
recently sold).
"After we rounded, at least 20 boats were approaching Red Rock. We were pleased to just be away from that congestion and back into the westerly. After a pleasant 10-knot-average run across the lower Slot, there was a bit of south in the breeze, which got us under the S.F. side of the Bay Bridge.
"Tacking up the Cityfront was really pleasant. 'We're going to finish this damn thing!' I said. Having rounded Blackaller already, we could just head for the line at GGYC. The big Wylie 60, C Cubed, beautiful for a keel boat, was approaching the line from the west and Blackaller. Only in the 3BF would two race boats cross the finish line in opposite directions less than a minute apart."
The First (and Only) Singlehander
A trimaran was the only singlehanded boat to finish. Evan McDonald sailed his F-22 Greyhound to victory at 5:31. "I was thinking Red Rock first if I could break away," he reports. "I figured it might be hard to round it with light winds until the tide switched if I didn't get it early.
"I tried to cross early toward Raccoon. Early was not that early, as my drifting start put me in the middle of a big ball of boats drifting down the San Francisco waterfront. Once I got clear to maneuver and I felt some breeze, I
headed toward Marin, but that breeze started dying and I was getting flushed out. I headed back to the S.F. shore seeking current relief sufficient to sail east, and there was Blackaller. So I rounded it counterclockwise — unplanned, but one down."
He then proceeded clockwise to Red Rock and Yerba Buena.
"After I moved up and back along Crissy Field [between the start line and Blackaller] for several hours, the wind built a bit so I decided to go for broke and pull out my spinnaker. I figured I would get sucked out or make it across. I didn't feel like anchoring. The asymmetrical gave me enough power to get across. I was pointing at Point Blunt and crabbing toward Sausalito in 4 knots of wind. After I made it across the Gate and scratched my way up to Raccoon, the wind built sufficiently that I never stopped moving forward for the rest of the race — slow
but steady progress all day. There was current relief everywhere on the course, in all the usual places: near shore, outside the main deep channels, behind objects."
Many racers found themselves on the "wrong" side of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Nico Popp and Burak Kocal, sailing the Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600 Invictus, placed second in the Doublehanded PHRF 57-71 division, after Andy Schwenk and Ward Naviaux on Sir Edmund. "We got flushed out the Golden Gate, almost abandoned, and still managed to finish," writes Nico.
"Our initial plan was to head to TI first, leveraging the north wind and using the current protection of the Cityfront. However, at the start, there was zero wind, and everyone seemed to be going backward. Thinking quickly, we motored up-current 7 minutes before our start toward the harbor entrance, cut the engine before the warning signal, and let Invictus drift to the start line. It was a clean start! The new plan was to sail
to Blackaller and anchor nearby. Unfortunately, the current started taking us toward the Golden Gate instead! There wasn't much we could do.
"After 30 minutes, a 5-knot north wind arrived, and we made our way toward Red Rock. In hindsight, we should have seen it as a sign from the gods to head back to the Cityfront and anchor, but come on — that north wind looked like it was going to build! Thirty minutes later, it died again. By noon, we found ourselves at least a mile outside the Golden Gate. With nothing else to do, we decided to eat our sandwiches and wait. Who knows? Maybe the west wind would come to save us.
"We were about to start the engine when I noticed a spinnaker sailing from Bonita toward us. Wait a minute! Finally, a 9-knot westerly had arrived, allowing us to cross back through the Golden Gate and reach Mark 16 [Blackaller]. While most boats tried for Red Rock, we believed that despite the extra distance, the Cityfront and its ebb relief was the smarter call. We saw a beautiful schooner heading to Red Rock instead, and
they ended up making the right choice. At the time, however, the prospect of a big ebb and Raccoon Strait did not seem attractive. We carried the west wind with us along the Cityfront, and that's when we saw many friends who had finally left anchor and were riding to TI with us. Passing TI, where there was little wind, we managed to catch a steady 12-knot westerly breeze to Red Rock. We were determined to finish this race.
"We thought we had Red Rock secured, but the wind died right in front of it. Giving up wasn't an option. We sought current relief to the right of Red Rock. After 30 minutes of waiting, we noticed a line of wind to the left in the current. Miraculously, we managed to reach it with the kite. Nearly grounding at Red Rock, we rounded it successfully, then headed below Angel Island.
"Now contending with a flood, we passed under Alcatraz and caught the eddy, then crossed toward the Cityfront all the way to the finish line — at night. Stamina was the name of the game, and we made it! We went home with big smiles on our faces, not even tired. It wasn't a perfect race, but it was a perfect day on the water."
Speaking of Sir Edmund, skipper Andy Schwenk reports on their divisionwinning race: "The start looked like turn four at Daytona on the final lap, with
everyone giving it all they had to get across the line. Soon the great flush began. It didn't care what your choice of course was, everyone was on the same course, out to sea, unless they anchored. We watched as the Blackaller Buoy made its way up-current along our starboard side. As we neared Mile Rock well outside the bridge, it was nice to know we were in the company of some of the fast folks, and we might just get the westerly first. The kite filled, and we set sail for Red Rock up Raccoon Strait.
"The start looked like turn four at Daytona on the final lap."
"We tested the depthsounder on our port rounding and found even with a 9-ft draft we didn't touch when it read 9 feet. We chased a pesky Express 27 skippered by the legendary Will Paxton down to Treasure Island for a starboard rounding. Then we rode the current up to the finish before the squall rolled through. "Rumor has it that it will be better
next year. What better way to start your year off right, under sail?"
Among boats that couldn't finish was Richard vonEhrenkrook's Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass, with Rachel Porter. "We knew it was going to be sketchy," reports Richard. "The weather forecasts were bouncing like a tennis ball all week prior. Still, we circled the other two Cal 20s like it was the last race of a Nationals.
"Then, a tack and jibe and we were off for Red Rock under kite, hoping to get the dregs of the flood east of Angel Island. Our Plan A was not to be; we languished just south of Point Blunt. Interestingly, despite the impeccable logic, only six or so boats took our hint, and we met four of them as we dropped the hook in 70 feet of water: Robin Van Vliet and Jennifer McKenna in the J/24 Little Wing oozed past us on their way to the Albany shore, never to be seen again. Robert Crawford's Cal 20 Black Feathers and Rik Williams' Westsail 28 Irish Rose rendezvoused and then drifted west with the new ebb.
"We soon weighed anchor and headed to the island to catch the shore countercurrent to Point Stuart, where we dropped the hook and made to eat lunch and watch the river flow, observing the gaggle of early retirees stream past slowly
on their way to Richmond. Just as the food came out, the anchor came loose, and we had to fight to get back into the eddy. A puff filled in from the southwest, and we set the kite and eked around the point in the 10 feet of relief by the rocks.
"The southwest air carved over the island and gave us the horsepower to rock-climb past Ayala Cove, then across and out of Raccoon Strait toward Red Rock, completely unaccompanied by racers, grinning from ear to ear. If we could make Red Rock it didn't matter if we did it at 2 knots VMG; we'd catch the ebb and be gone.
"Our reverie didn't last after about half a mile, and we set the hook again, in the outbound shipping lane, and waited for pressure. It wasn't long after we got back underway that Arsenal glided past, and we were back into fits and starts, watching the parade of speedies begin to overtake us, presumably the escapees from the Golden Gate parade.
"Our early successes became a slowboat hate mission, fetching Red Rock after 3:30, and despite decent southwest breeze to and past Yerba Buena, we pushed water all the way to Alcatraz, where we timed out.
"As if to thank us for our perseverance, 10 minutes later we were hit with 25-knot gusts from the NNE and rain. A perfect Fiasco indeed!"
If you feel as if the winds that we and the racers described were confused, confusing, and contradictory, you'd be correct. Yet none of those citations are typos.
Al Sargent, who crewed with Rowan Fennell on the Moore 24 Paramour, put together a deep-dive video about their race and posted it at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SBfTcCfZsJA&loop=0
The next SSS race in the 2025 season was the Corinthian on February 22, after this issue went to press. We plan to report on that event in April's Racing Sheet. The series will continue with Round the Rocks, a third Bay tour, on March 29. See www.sfbaysss.org, and register for SSS races at www.jibeset.net — latitude/chris
SSS THREE BRIDGE FIASCO, 1/25
SH SPINNAKER <104 — No finishers. (3 boats)
SH SPINNAKER 105-164 — No finishers. (5 boats)
SH SPINNAKER ≥165 — No finishers. (4 boats)
SH SPORTBOAT — No finishers. (3 boats)
SH NON-SPINNAKER — No finishers. (7 boats)
SH ALERION 28 — No finishers. (5 boats)
SH MULTIHULL — 1) Greyhound, F-22, Evan McDonald. (1 boat)
DH SPINNAKER <44 — 1) Arsenal, J/125, Andrew Picel/Leland Hubble; 2) Saoirse, Tripp 41, Russell Huebschle/Gabriel Serafini; 3) C Cubed, Wylie 60, Charles Ray/Zan Drejes. (9 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 45-56 — 1) Flite, Olson 40, Max Roth/Kai Ponting. (8 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 57-71 — 1) Sir Edmund,
Covey Island 49 schooner, Andy Schwenk/Ward Naviaux; 2) Invictus, Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600, Nico Popp/Burak Kocal; 3) Sun Dragon, Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300, Sergei Podshivalov/Frank Van Diggelen. (11 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 72-80 — 1) Tangaroa, J/109, Dan Brousseau/Tracy Usher; 2) Basic Instinct, Elliott 1050, Memo Gidley/Eliot Lee. (7 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 81-92 — No finishers. (10 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 93-104 — No finishers. (10 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 105-119 — 1) Shaman, Cal 40, Bart Hackworth/Ben Landon. (11 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 120-134 — No finishers. (10 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 135-152 — No finishers. (10 boats)
DH SPINNAKER 153-185 — No finishers. (7 boats)
DH SPINNAKER ≥186 — No finishers. (8 boats)
DH SPORTBOAT <80 — 1) 'io, Antrim 27,
Buzz Blackett/Jim Antrim; 2) Shake & Bake, Farr X2, Jack Peurach/John Duncan. (7 boats)
DH SPORTBOAT 81-137 — 1) Split Water, J/88, Mark Howe/Laura Parent; 2) Kangaroo Jockey, J/70, Peter Cameron/Brett Dewire; 3) Inconceivable, J/88, Steven Gordon/Charlie King. (11 boats)
DH SPORTBOAT ≥138 — No finishers. (8 boats)
DH NON-SPINNAKER <101 — No finishers. (7 boats)
DH NON-SPINNAKER 102-158 — No finishers. (7 boats)
DH NON-SPINNAKER ≥159 — No finishers. (6 boats)
DH EXPRESS 37 — 1) Mudshark, Dante Branciforte/Nich Schmidt. (6 boats)
DH J/105 — 1) Jose Cuervo, Larry Bekins/ Michael Stephens; 2) Roulette, William Woodruff. (11 boats)
DH WYLIECAT 30 — No finishers. (5 boats)
DH OLSON 30 — No finishers. (8 boats)
DH ALERION 28 — No finishers. (11 boats)
DH SC 27 — 1) Wilder, Ian Sprenger/Mark Voropayev. (6 boats)
DH EXPRESS 27 — 1) Motorcycle Irene, Will Paxton/Jeane Rodgers; 2) Peaches, John & Michael Rivlin; 3) Bombora, Rebecca Hinden/Zac Judkins. (20 boats)
DH OLSON 25 — No finishers. (5 boats)
DH J/24 — No finishers. (5 boats)
DH MOORE 24 — 1) The Flying Tiger, Vaughn Seifers/Nick Nash; 2) Topper II, Conrad Holbrook/Eric Ochs; 3) Snafu, Karl Robrock/Jason MacCormack. (28 boats)
DH WYLIE WABBIT — 1) Hare-O-Dymanic, Ethan Petersen/Andy Hamilton. (4 boats)
DH MULTIHULL — 1) 'Round Midnight, Explorer 44, Rick Waltonsmith/Dave Olson; 2) Flux, Seacart 30, Jeremy Boyette/Aidan Mobley; 3) Ma's Rover, F-31, John Donovan/Mark Eastham. (8 boats)
OVERALL — 1) Arsenal; 2) 'Round Midnight; 3) Saoirse; 4) 'io; 5) Flux; 6) Greyhound; 7) Split Water; 8) Motorcycle Irene; 9) Sir Edmund; 10) Ma's Rover. (292 boats) Full results at www.jibeset.net
Earlyon the morning of January 18, 2025, the sailing vessel Francesca, a 1999 Beneteau Oceanis 461, slipped away from Marina Village in Alameda, headed for the remote Farallon Islands. This wasn't just any trip — this was a mission with a purpose. Francesca's crew, myself, (skipper Larry Hall), coskipper Harmon Shragge, Arzen Joy, John Daughters, Katie Blaesing, and Don Bauer were ferrying vital supplies and personnel to one of the most pristine wildlife sanctuaries on the West Coast.
Three researchers from Point Blue Conservation Science were to trade places — Allison Yan was joining the island's researchers, while Amanda Reardan and Ben Peterson would be joining Francesca for the return to the mainland.
The day started early, with the crew gathering at 6:00 a.m. to load the vessel. It was a chilly, overcast morning, but spirits were high and Francesca cast off 45 minutes later. Light winds meant motor sailing, but the stunning sunrise over the Oakland-Alameda estuary more than made up for it.
Thankfully, for our trip the weather was cooperative. Light winds of 5 to 7 knots and gentle rolling seas made for smooth sailing. Visibility stretched to 10 miles, and while the morning was cool and gray, the sun came out as we neared the islands. Temperatures stayed in the 50s — brisk, but manageable.
We reached the Devil's Teeth (Farallons) by 11:45, well ahead of schedule. The first task was to secure Francesca to the lone mooring. To my surprise, this process went much more smoothly than I'd anticipated. Once the boat was safely tied up, the Farallon's tender came out to meet us. The tender would ferry our crew and all their gear and provisions to the island. They would then reload Francesca with gear and
waste to be brought back to the mainland.
As the tender neared the shore, we were greeted by a unique crane attached to the rocky shore and designed to hoist the small boat out of the water with occupants and gear still aboard. The cable goes taught and up you go until the crane swings you toward shore. Once safely on land, it became clear that this remote spot had strict protocols in place to protect its delicate ecosystem. We all underwent a necessary disinfection process, that included disinfecting our clothing, before being allowed to explore the island.
The Farallon Islands are more than just rugged rocks rising from the sea. They're a haven for seabirds, sea lions, and elephant seals, as well as a base for crucial marine research. Access is tightly controlled, but in return for our efforts, we enjoyed a rare opportunity: a guided tour of this extraordinary, offlimits place. For an hour, we explored the island, marveling at the abundance of wildlife. Elephant seal pups rested alongside their mothers, while cliffs teemed with murres. It was a once-ina-lifetime experience.
We began our tour by walking along a charming stone path, leading us through the island's rugged terrain. Our first stop was an encounter that truly took my breath away: a group of elephant seals, recently having given birth. Watching the mothers with their pups was an incredibly moving experience, offering a rare glimpse into the tenderness of these enormous creatures.
As we continued our trek along the rocky cliffs, we were met with the sight of murres — thousands of them — covering the sheer cliffs like a packed
Superbowl stadium in an almost surreal display of life. These birds, known for their striking black and white plumage, create an overwhelming visual spectacle, making it impossible to look away.
Next, we encountered an unexpected but delightful sight, the Farallon Island salamander, a species unique to this island chain. It was a bonus to see this rare creature in its natural habitat, adding another layer of wonder to our journey.
Our exploration then took us to a quiet cove where sea lions were frolicking in the water, their playful behavior adding a lighthearted tone amidst the rough, rocky shoreline. The sounds of their calls echoed across the cove, a reminder of the vibrant wildlife that call the Farallons home.
All the while, the vistas surrounding us were absolutely breathtaking. The dramatic cliffs, the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, and the raw beauty of the island created a stunning backdrop for our entire journey. It was a day filled with awe, discovery, and a deep appreciation for the incredible creatures and
landscapes that make the Farallon Islands such a surreal place.
When the tour was over, it was time to leave — a farewell that came all too soon. We boarded the tender once again, and the crane hoisted us up over the cliffs and lowered us back into the ocean. The brief return to Francesca felt bittersweet, but the promise of more adventure kept our spirits up. Once on board, the crew quickly got to work, transferring all the gear from the cockpit into the cabin as we prepared for our trip home with our slightly changed crew. Allison was staying behind, while Ben and Amanda, who were returning to the mainland, joined us for the journey back.
Before setting sail, Ben offered an alternate route home. "We could circumnavigate the island, unless you're in a rush to head home." Naturally, I agreed without hesitation. Ben was thrilled; he'd long wanted to see the island from the water. With a course set around the island's perimeter, we began motoring along the shoreline, taking in the stunning views of the cliffs, now even more
majestic from the perspective of the sea.
The cliffs were teeming with murres, their black-and-white forms dotting the rock faces in huge numbers, creating a living tapestry against the backdrop of the ocean. As we moved along, we slowed the boat as we approached a small bay where the seals had been resting earlier. It was a peaceful moment, watching them from the water, the rhythm of the sea providing a calming soundtrack to the scene.
We continued to motor slowly, taking in the beauty of the arches along the
coast, which looked like massive keyholes carved by centuries of wind and water. The power of the sea was palpable as the waves crashed against the rocks, and we couldn't help but marvel at the forces of nature at work. It was an awe-inspiring reminder of the island's raw beauty and the untamed power of the ocean.
By the time we circumnavigated the island and turned toward our course back home, I felt a renewed sense of wonder — grateful for the chance to experience the Farallon Islands from both land and sea. It's a far different view than from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Like the sail out, our sail home was peaceful, though the cool evening air carried a distinct chill, reminding us that the day was coming to an end. Extra blankets were a welcome comfort as we huddled together, sharing good conversation, with the calm waters guiding us back toward the Golden Gate. There was a quiet sense of contentment as we reflected on the day's adventures — the wildlife, the cliffs, and the beauty of the Farallon Islands all fresh in our minds.
As we neared the entrance to the Bay, the sky began to paint itself in hues of orange, pink, and purple, signaling an incredible sunset. Just as the sun dipped below the horizon, I caught sight of something truly magical — the elusive green flash. For a brief, fleeting moment, the last rays of the sun refracted through the atmosphere, casting a bright green glow across the sky. It's a rare phenomenon, and if you blink, you'll miss it, but I was lucky enough to witness it in all its brilliance. It was the perfect end to an unforgettable day.
We approached the dock ahead of schedule at around 7:00 p.m., which allowed for a calm, unhurried arrival. It was about a 13-hour round trip including a tour of the island. With the sails down and Francesca safely tied up, we quickly unloaded the gear and prepared the boat for her next adventure. The day had been filled with moments of wonder, and as we finished up, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the incredible experiences that would stay with me long after the sail was over.
Upon reflection, the highlights of the day included navigating the 2-3 knot
current out the Golden Gate, and the challenge of the tide on the return leg. Wildlife sightings added magic to the trip, with porpoises joining the seals, murres, and elephant seals in making the day memorable. Touring and circumnavigating the Farallons was the cherry on top.
If Francesca is a reliable workhorse, then her crew was the perfect team to
complement her. Months of preparation paid off as everyone worked in sync, from loading supplies to cleaning up at the end of the day. Their attentiveness and camaraderie were evident throughout the voyage.
This cruise has set a high bar for future voyages. There were no major challenges, and the trip underscored the value of careful preparation and strong teamwork. Moving forward, the team may consider small adjustments to enhance comfort during long journeys, but the formula is clearly working.
This voyage was more than just a trip to the Farallon Islands. It was a testament to teamwork, a chance to contribute to vital conservation efforts, and an adventure none of us will ever forget. I couldn't have been prouder of my crew. If I could sail with this team every time, I'd be thrilled. And for Francesca's regular crew members who couldn't join this trip, it is my hope they will be part of similar adventures in the future.
— larry hall
Editor's Note: Francesca's voyage was taken on behalf of the Farallon Patrol established by Charlie Merrill in 1972. Volunteers like Larry Hall and his crew are instrumental in keeping the field station on the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge operating 365 days a year. They are always looking for more skippers to help support their operations and transport people and gear to Southeast Farallon Island. If you are interested in volunteering your vessel and crew, you can find more information at www.pointblue.org/engage-with-us under Volunteer.
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the marina.
Collegestudents — especially "starving" college students — make the best crew. They are smart, agile, enthusiastic, and best of all, hungry. The problem is, they graduate and move on. Or worse, once they become valuable as crew, they can find a berth on a more competitive boat than my old racercruiser. It's critical to earn their loyalty to the program, and one of my strategies involves their stomachs: We sail across the Bay to an upscale restaurant, my treat. They can bring guests, and that usually brings in more recruits. In terms of speed around the course per dollar spent, it's a better return than almost any new sail.
This year's preseason crew dinner was particularly promising, with some eager novices and even a couple of talented dinghy sailors at the table.
It was well after sunset when we cast of f to sail home. I made sure there was a flashlight attached to each PFD, and put on my favorite headlamp.
"Careful where you aim that thing!" Lee Helm admonished me. She's only an occasional crew these days, but would never miss a free meal.
"OK, I'll switch to red," I said as I changed the color of my headlamp.
"You could use the pirate method!" suggested one of the friends of one of my crew prospects, along for the ride and the dinner.
"Pirate method?" asked another crew prospect.
"AARRH! 'T is the real reason pirates wear the eyepatch!" he proclaimed. "Me left eye could be adapted to daylight. Me right eye is in the dark, so it's darkadapted. When we storm our prize with cutlasses drawn and chase the crew below, we take off the eye patch and can see in the dark lower decks."
"That won't answer," replied another crew prospect, who just happened to be a student of ophthalmology. "The range of light intensity in human vision, from lowest perceivable to highest tolerable light level, is about 10 to the 14th, in terms of candela per square meter. And that's many orders of magnitude beyond what the pupil size can adjust to. The primary factor for night vision is the buildup of rhodopsin in the retina, increasing light sensitivity in the rods by many orders of magnitude. Pupil dilation is only about a hundredth of a percent of the low light adaptation."
"But rhodopsin is not circulating in the blood," said the guest that the ophthalmology student had brought. "It's
local to the retina, so the adaptation could, at least in theory, be eye-specific."
"But no eyepatch will be that ef fective," argued the first scientist. "And do you really want to board a strange ship, ready for a sword fight, with depth perception impaired?"
"AAARRH, me likes the concept anyway," said the would-be pirate.
Meanwhile we had cleared our own decks for action and pushed off for an easy downwind departure under sail.
"Lee," I whispered when I had her attention. "A couple of swabs on this crew will probably whine 'let's start the motor' if the wind dies. I'm going to tell them the motor is not working, so please play along."
"Cool!" she whispered back. "But I might go, like, off-watch if we're out late."
"No prob," I said. "I've cleared the port quarter berth, the starboard pilot berth, and forward V-berth. As long as the breeze doesn't die completely, I think this crew will appreciate the sensations of snoozing in a boat under sail."
But that was for later. Having dispensed with eyepatches, the conversation turned to other "facts" that aren't really true.
"Ever wonder why some countries drive on the right and some on the left?" The question was posed by a future transportation engineer. No one even had a guess, so she continued.
"In regions where soldiers were equipped with swords and shields, it was natural to pass on the right," she explained. "Protection from the shield, usually in the left hand. Europe was dominated for centuries by Roman soldiers with shields. But even though the Romans got to England, they didn't have the same influence, and in a culture where knights carried swords but no shields, it was more sensible to pass a potential adversary on the left, with sword in the right hand, when approaching head-on."
"Makes sense," admitted a history
grad student, "but not supported by the data."
"Ever wonder why port tack has to keep clear of starboard tack?" asked Lee. "All the replicas and pictures of ancient sailing craft show what looks to me to be seriously under-canvassed rigs," she asserted without waiting for an answer. "They must have also had, like, deck-sweeping sails for light air. People being mostly right-handed, steering oars were usually on the starboard side. Think two boats approaching on opposite tacks, working to weather as best they can: Which helmsperson is in a better position to keep clear?"
"AAARRH! The one steering from the low side has the view under the sails, by the powers!" concluded the pirate.
"That one might actually be true," I suggested.
"But we'll never prove it," admitted Lee.
"I like the reason there are so many different lengths of miles," added the history major. "This is for real: 'Mile' is for a thousand, and the Roman mile is the distance the Roman army would march in a thousand double steps. 4.852 feet per double step, 2 feet 5 inches per step. I don't know how the mile got changed to 5,280 feet."
"Bigger soldiers, later in history." I guessed "But the nautical mile is 6,076 feet. Not based on any army, but set to equal one minute of angle on the Earth's surface."
"The great UTC time compromise is also a good one," Lee volunteered. "The French put the modifiers after the object, so the French version should have been 'Time Universal Coordinated,' or TUC. But in English the modifiers come first, so, like, the Limeys wanted UCT. The great compromise was to put one modifier in front and one behind, so we end up with UTC."
"Why are pirates called pirates?" asked the guest with the pirate obsession. "Because they AARRRH!"
Dynamic range of the human eye. The light intensity is on a log scale, so the range from sunlight to dimmest perceptible light level is an amazing 10 to the 12th power. (All diagrams adapted from Ryan's Retina Ebook, 6th edition, Elsevier 2018.)
"Is the chute packed?" I asked, seeing a need to change the subject.
"No," answered a foredeck crew prospect, one of the dinghy sailors on board. "But I can find the three corners. I think we can just fly it as is, right out of the hatch."
There were strings to rig, and the several flashlights required shattered all hope of actually keeping our eyes dark-adapted on this moonlit evening on the Bay. The sail went up with a wrap, as I expected, but worked itself out without much fuss.
"Here's another fact that, like, might not really be true," said my foredeck crew, after halyard tails were made up and sheets were adjusted for the wind, and cleated off cruiser style. "Red light preserves night vision. The theory is great, but in practice I'll take dim white
over red any night for working the pointy end."
"Depends on what you're looking at," suggested Lee. "For the chart table, I want to see with my cones. I need to see, like, color on the chart, and I need the acuity and resolution."
"She has a point," confir med the ophthalmology student. "Scotopic vision, meaning low light levels that only the rod receptors respond to, degrades resolution by a factor of about 10. So even if you are 20/20 in photopic mode, using your cones in brighter light, you'll be effectively 20/200 in scotopic."
That reminded the pirate of another joke about eyes, ending with "first day with the hook." We had all heard that one before.
"The Air Force studies night lighting in detail," added the foredeck hand,
"and came up with 550 nanometer green for cockpit panel lighting."
"That's not for night vision," said the historian, who, surprisingly, had been in the Air Force. "Green is more compatible with night-vision devices, for some reason."
"It is possible to activate photopic vision without ruining rod sensitivity, but it's difficult," explained the ophthalmology student. "Rods are insensitive to wavelengths longer than about 625 nanometers, which is mostly red but includes some green. So you don't need pure red to sustain night vision. But it's still hard to get right. The range of light sensitivity of the rods — the low-light receptors for scotopic vision — is 100 million to one."
"That's why I hate-hate-hate night instruments with discrete steps in brightness level," Lee complained. "I need a dial for continuous brightness adjustment in night mode."
"There's a MILSpec for night lighting," said the historian. "It agrees with you on that point."
"And like, worst of all," continued Lee, "some units access the brightness controls through the power button. I mean really. If a novice crew who hasn't read the chartplotter manual is left on watch at night, the last button they want to push while searching for the brightness setting is the power button."
"I've been there," admitted the foredeck crew.
"We have three kinds of things we need to see at night," Lee concluded. "There's the gadgets that make their own light: Chartplotter, sailing instruments, radio and AIS displays, illuminated compass cards, even the lighted buttons on the MP3 music player. Fat
chance getting all of them dim enough to not blast away the rhodopsin and lose the rod sensitivity we need for a dark and stormy night."
"What's number two?" I asked.
"Things that don't make their own light, but things on the boat that we have to light up to see. Paper charts, although I guess those are, like, obsolete. But anything we have to find, use or read. And sail controls on deck, especially when they're like, color coded. So I want my cones working for those tasks. Ten times better acuity, no blind spot in the middle like with rods only. Pure red to keep the rods in night mode is a compromise."
"And number three?"
"All the stuff not on the boat. You know, buoys, islands, rocks, other boats running dark. Distant lighthouses. That's when I want my rods at their factory-rated 100 million times sensitivity. A red compass card turned down like very, very low might be OK, but going below is right out."
We debated lighting strategies for some time, but the leftover sea breeze was starting to fade. The spinnaker came down, jib went back up, and a faint land breeze, which I was pretty certain would build as the night progressed, started to come up.
"Why don't we start the motor?" complained one of the guests, right on cue. It was not easy, but I eventually convinced her that the engine was not working, and that she should climb into
the pilot berth, take a nap and enjoy the ride. Two more guests followed, taking up three of the available bunks. Luckily the land breeze did come up, and it must have been very pleasant for the newbies: a fast boat in a steady breeze, off-watch in a comfy berth for the first time. The bow crew and his girlfriend were enjoying the privacy of the dark foredeck. That left just myself, Lee and the wanna-be pirate in the cockpit.
"How do pirates settle disputes?" he asked. "They AAARRRbitrate!"
"Lee," I pleaded in a whisper, "Can you do something about that guy?" And I added, "Do you know who invited him?"
Lee knew what had to be done.
"What's a pirate's favorite element on the periodic table?" she asked.
He thought for a few seconds, then bellowed out a very satisfied-sounding "ARRRgon!"
"No, silly," Lee corrected him. "It's gold."
— max ebb
This month we visit the RegattaPRO Winter One Design Series, the J/111 North Americans, Team Racing in Half Moon Bay, the Bill Bennett Cup and Pier Pressure in SoCal, the Berkeley Midwinters and OYC's Sunday Brunch Series. US Sailing hands out a slew of awards, including the Rolex Yachtsmen and Yachtswoman of the Year, and Box Scores returns from a brief hibernation.
RegattaPRO W inter One Design wrapped its fourth and final race of the series on Saturday, February 8. For 24 years, Jeff Zarwell has been organizing this series — which has become a stalwart during the sailing season of serendipity. The regatta welcomes J/105, J/88, J/70, J/24, Moore 24 and Olson 25 fleets west of the Berkeley Circle.
On February 8, all boats sailed the same two laps around a hotdog course. Pre-race, one race committee member cited a 6-knot wind prediction; Zarwell's research turned up a zero-wind forecast. Breeze eventually delivered 4-7 knots, enough to power two races. Swing became the verb of the day, as the markset boat measured, dropped, moved, measured, listened to Jeff, and adjusted several times. For the record, wind was anticipated from 300°. There were moments of vacillation between 335° and 285° at the northern windward mark, later clocking a swing to 195° (the Sutro swing), then settling back at 250°.
"That was a wild race Saturday, with bizarre current and fluky wind," says Brandon Mercer, owner of the J/24 Tenacious Cuttlefish. He, along with his 16-year-old Richmond YC junior sailor daughter Addision, have put together a crew that's committing to a full season. "We got a bullet the first race, but in the second one we hit a current line right at the mark that pushed us back to third place. Will Pochereva is a world-class driver — he's tops at the helm. We ended up winning the series with all first places after the throwout."
From the Express 27 fleet, Greg Felton of the SFYC-flagged Under the Radar speaks candidly, "I hear the RegattaPRO midwinters were exceptional this year." The skipper says he missed weekend one due to a ski-patrol refresher, sat on the dock while marveling at the storm that canceled weekend two action, then discovered on weekend three that required jib sheets had been moved to sails that were left behind; fortunately, the crew remedied the situation in time for January's Race 2, later sailing on to earn second over the line. At February's final competition, UtR earned a sixth and a first.
Felton says he finally caved thr ee years ago and bought Under the Radar (ex-Monster Express), which has been a great experience. That decision was significant. Having benefited from being on other people's boats for more than 45 years, Felton is still getting into an ownership groove, and says recruiting crew and keep them coming back, "despite my poor decisions or driving waste, or attempts to keep the boat light (by removing gear), and providing each crew with his/her favorite beverage and not-quite-so-soggy sandwiches" keeps him on point.
After four weekends of racing, the Express 27 leaderboard has RYC racers at the top: first to Will Paxton and his gal Motorcycle Irene, second to Steve Carroll on Tule Fog and third to Steve Katzman of Dianne. Under the Radar finished up in ninth place.
Meanwhile in the Moore 24 fleet, veteran racer Peter Schoen has sailed in this series since the early 2000s. For 202425, he brought Mooretician to the line, but in years past has been atop J/105s. "I consider this midwinter series as good practice for a one-design fleet during the off-season, plus it gets us and the boat out on the water sailing. We mostly race with our regular crew and opt to use the older sails — don't want to wear out the Roadmaster racing season rags," he says with a grin. Makes sense for a crew that competes in upward of 50 races a year. Schoen purchased the boat with Roe
Patterson in October 2007. This crew placed second in the series, after Conrad Holbrook on Topper II. — martha blanchfield
SYC/REGATTAPRO WINTER ONE DESIGN (6r, 1t)
J/105 — 1) Ne*Ne, Tim Russell, 13 points; 2) Roulette, William Woodruff, 16; 3) Archimedes, Larry Levitt, 20; 4) Box of Rain, Charles Pick, 24; 5) Black Flag, Theresa Brandner/Traci Thomas, 24. (20 boats)
J/88 — 1) Speedwell, Tom Thayer, 9 points; 2) Butcher, Dave Corbin, 11; 3) Ravenette, Brice Dunwoodie, 12. (5 boats)
EXPRESS 27 — 1) Motorcycle Irene, Will Paxton, 10 points; 2) Tule Fog, Steve Carroll, 16; 3) Dianne, Steve Katzman, 21. (12 boats)
OLSON 25 — 1) Sketch, David Gruver/John Collins, 8 points; 2) Synchronicity, Steve Smith, 19; 3) Shadowfax, JP Camille, 19. (7 boats)
J/24 — 1) Tenacious Cuttlefish, Brandon Mercer, 5 points; 2) Downtown Uproar, Darren Cumming, 14; 3) Froglips, Richard Stockdale, 15. (7 boats)
MOORE 24 — 1) Topper II, Conrad Holbrook, 8 points; 2) Mooretician, Peter Schoen/Roe Patterson, 10; 3) Moorigami, John Siegel, 14. (6 boats)
J/70 — 1) Spirit, Andy Dippel, 7 points; 2) Son of a Son, David Fried, 8; 3) Sandpiper, Courtney Clamp, 13. (3 boats)
Full results at www.sausalitoyachtclub.org
Skeleton Key a J/111 Four-Peat
The Kansas City Chiefs may have
With 20 boats registered, the J/105 fleet was the largest in the RegattaPRO Winter One Design Series.
been going for a three-peat, but Skeleton Key did them one better and went for a four-peat when the J/111 North American Championship was sailed off Key West on January 20-25 as part of the Southernmost Regatta. Unlike the Chiefs, Skeleton Key succeeded.
Ten J/111s sailed under mostly overcast skies in shifty northerly breezes. Peter Wagner's StFYC/SFYC/NYYC Skeleton Key team from San Francisco climbed to the top of the podium on the last day to be crowned J/111 North American Champion for the fourth time. The wind on that day ranged from 17 to 24 knots. Skeleton Key's crew must have felt right at home — that's typical wind speed for a San Francisco Cityfront summer afternoon.
Crew were Seadon Wijsen, tactics; Ryan Kern and Dave Lyons, spinnaker trim; Cory Schillaci, pit; John Collins, bow; John Hayes, mast; and Nick Gib-
bens, headsail trim.
For all the details and results, see www.thesouthernmostregatta.com and www.yachtscoring.com/emenu/16411. — latitude/chris
Half Moon Bay YC bravely (or foolishly) hosted their first-ever Team Racing event on February 8 in Coronado 15 dinghies. If you thought fleet sailboat racing was wild, team racing is kinda like chess — but with boats — and also a little bit like bumper cars.
Nine fearless C-15 crews from HMBYC and Sacramento hit the water, forming three teams: blue, yellow and green — because we believe in primary colors and mildly controlled chaos. Our on-thewater umpires, Vicki Sodaro and John
Left: Greetings from the J/24 'Tenacious Cuttlefish'. Right: The Moore 24 and Olson 25 fleets start their morning race on sunny February 8.
Christman, had the impossible task of keeping things under control, enforcing rules, and reminding sailors that "Blocking an opponent is a good tactic, but ramming them is frowned upon." The signal boat, manned by PRO Joe Rockmore, ably assisted by Mike and Connie Day, presided over round-robin racing where each team raced against the other two teams. They got in six starts before a lunch break, and six after.
At first, the racecourse looked like a nautical version of rush-hour traffic — boats zigzagging, sailors shouting, and at least one person realizing they should've paid more attention to the rules. But by the end of the day, teams started getting the hang of it (or at least faking it convincingly). It was a fantastic day of racing, strategy and just the right amount of mayhem.
Will we do it again? We asked the racers, and the comments back were
Pier Pressure in Santa Monica Bay! It's Del Rey YC's Berger/Stein Race #2 on February 8. Clockwise from top left: Paul Hofer's Jeanneau 380 'Scarlet Fever' leads Jerry and Leah Kaye's C&C 25 'MisQue'; Stacy Sinclair's Peterson 44 'Rhiannon' dips behind the 6-ft swell; a mark placed off the Venice Pier is part of the course; John Rushing's Farr 30 'Menace'.
uniform: "Absolutely!" But they also asked for more training and feedback after the racing. Would the umpires agree to do it again? No comment.
See www.hmbyc.org/sailing/racing — joe rockmore & ryan alfonso
On January 18-19, the waters off San Diego YC played host to the Bill Bennett Cup, part of the Etchells West Coast Spring Series, with Chris Busch's Buschido, from the hosting club, securing the overall victory in a field of 27 teams. The regatta honors the memory of sailor Bill Bennett.
Buschido posted three first-place finishes and one second to claim the overall title with just 5 points. They sat out the last of the five races in the regatta. Sailing for SFYC, Jim Cunningham's Lifted secured second place with 9 points
"The Bill Bennett Cup is always high on my radar, and I've been close to winning, but the coveted first-place quilt gifted by Leslie Bennett has always eluded me," commented Chris Busch. "This was our year, with conditions that suited us and a string of consistent finishes due to good starts, nice speed and placement
on the course. My crew, Patrick Powell and Chuck Sinks, did an excellent job of picking the correct side on the first beat and kept the boat going fast with timely gear changes. Bill will always be in my thoughts, and I've got to believe he would be smiling down this past weekend."
In the Corinthian division, Don Jesberg's SFYC-flagged Viva emerged victorious with 23 points, followed by Don's sometime sailing partner Ethan Doyle on Capricorn in second with 25 points.
When asked about the regatta, Don Jesperg noted, "It's a pleasure to reconnect with longtime friends, both on the racecourse and back at the dock." He went on to share his excitement about the West Coast Spring Series and Etchells North American Championships, hosted at SDYC in 2025, as a great segue into the Etchells Worlds at SDYC in 2026.
The West Coast Spring Series continued with the PCCs on February 22-23, after this issue went to press. Still to come is the Etchells Midwinter West on March 28-30 and the Orca Bowl on April 26-27. The North Americans will follow the Spring Series on May 16-18. — sdyc & latitude/chris
SDYC BILL BENNETT CUP, 1/18-19 (5r, 0t)
ETCHELLS OVERALL — 1) Buschido, Chris Busch/Jim Madden, 5 points; 2) Lifted, Jim Cunningham, 9; 3) Rock On, Argyle Campbell, 15; 4) Warpath, Steve Howe, 21; 5) Viva, Don Jesberg, 23. (27 boats)
ETCHELLS CORINTHIAN — 1) Viva; 2) Capricorn, Ethan Doyle, 25; 3) Blue Fin, Michael Terry, 43. (15 boats)
Full results at www.sdyc.org
Now I understand why everyone complains about the weather forecaster. Whoever he or she is seems to have gotten it wrong for the month of February. The forecast for Saturday, February 8, was for almost no wind out of the north. As it turned out, we got not bad to pretty decent wind coming from the NNW, which allowed us, once again, to round the buoys twice. The sun was out and the current was strong, making anchoring weird as the committee boat lay abeam of the wind. The strong ebb made finishing tricky again, as it did last month, with some boats dropping their spinnakers and turning up to make the downwind finish line. This time everyone heard the signals and no one was over early. Twenty-one boats across three divisions started Saturday's race. They are all winners to me.
In the Who's Gonna Be Second Division (PHRF <85) it was, once again,
Andrew Picel piloting his Melges 24 Takeoff to victory. In the Hotly Contested Division (87-112) Mike and Sean Mahoney's Tartan 101 Story Maker took first place. In the Yeah, But It's Paid For Division (114-170) Vaughn Siefers sailed his Moore 24 The Flying Tiger to victory.
On Sunday the 9th, the sun was out and the air and sky were clear as a bell. Leading up to the start, the wind was light and variable, shifting from due west to due south and back again at around 3 knots. We picked a spot right in the middle and set the mark at 225°. The concern was that, with such light wind and the strong ebb, the boats might never make it back to the finish line. With that in mind we chose a oncearound course. Naturally, as we started the first division the wind picked up to about 10 knots leaving us wondering if we would get all six divisions off before the first finishers got back. It wasn't quite that bad, but we were starting the last division with spinnakers on the horizon. There were a few overzealous and over-early boats, but they were ushered back in a firm but loving voice.
In the Little Red Corvette Division (PHRF <126) it was Powdered Toast Man, the Melges 24 sailed by Nick Pullen and Glenn Rawlinson, taking first. In the Still Classy Division (PHRF ≥159) Richard vonEhrenkrook piloted his Cal 20 Can O'Whoopass to a win. In the Where's
Will? Division, Will Paxton and Jeane Rodgers co-skippered the Express 27 Motorcycle Irene across the line first. In the Alone With My Thoughts Singlehanded Division, Bob Johnston's Alerion 38 Surprise! took first place. In the Express 27 Division, Steve Katzman sailed Dianne to victory. In the Black Tie Alerion 28 Division, Mike Quinn and Kersey Clausen took first on Resilience.
This year's midwinters brought some especially good racing, mostly because we got especially good weather and racing conditions. We must have done something to please Poseidon.
See www.jibeset.net
— mark bird, byc race chair
BYC SATURDAY MIDWINTERS (3r, 0t)
PHRF <85 — 1) Takeoff, Melges 24, Andrew Picel, 4 points; 2) Swift Ness, J/111, Nesrin Basoz, 11; 3) Arch Angel, Antrim 27, Bryce Griffith, 14. (11 boats)
PHRF 87-112 — 1) WYSIWYG, Olson 30, Hendrik Bruhns, 6 points; 2) Yankee Air Pirate, Olson 30, Don Newman, 10; 3) Baleineau, Olson 34, Charlie Brochard, 10. (7 boats)
PHRF 114-170 — 1) The Flying Tiger, Moore 24, Vaughn Seifers, 4 points; 2) Free, S&S 30, Jim Carlsen, 8; 3) Lickety Split, SC27, Rick Raduziner/Randy Thomas, 11. (9 boats)
BYC SUNDAY MIDWINTERS (4r, 1t)
PHRF <126 — 1) Son of a Son, J/70, David Fried, 7 points; 2) Takeoff, 7; 3) Spirit, J/70, Andy Dippel, 9. (13 boats)
PHRF ≥159 — 1) Froglips, J/24, Richard Stockdale, 4 points; 2) Can O'Whoopass, Cal 20, Richard vonEhrenkrook, 5; 3) Zeehond, Newport 30 MkII, Donn Guay, 7. (8 boats)
DOUBLEHANDED — 1) Motorcycle Irene, Express 27, Will Paxton/Jeane Rodgers, 4 points; 2) Pacifico, SC27, Ron Tostenson/Bart Hackworth, 6; 3) Kwazy, Wylie Wabbit, Colin Moore/ Guillaume Canivet, 9; 4) Lickety Split, 12. (17 boats)
SINGLEHANDED — 1) Surprise!, Alerion 381, Bob Johnston, 3 points; 2) Akumu, B-25, Greg Ashby, 8; 3) Dura Mater, Cal 2-27, Jackie Philpott, 9. (6 boats)
ALERION 28 — 1) Zenaida, Fred Paxton/Arnie Quan, 4 points; 2) Resilience, Michael Quinn/ Kersey Clausen, 6; 3) Chesapeake III, Jim Fair/ BJ Price, 8. (8 boats)
EXPRESS 27 — 1) Dianne, Steve Katzman, 3 points; 2) Eagle, Ross Groelz, 7; 3) Tequila Mockingbird, Randall Rasicot/Lise Smith, 9. (6 boats)
Full results at www.jibeset.net
Oakland YC Sunday Brunch Race 3 of OYC's Sunday Brunch Series on February 2 was not too cold,
but it was wet and a bit foggy. The wind was predicted in the mid-teens with substantial gusts that in reality was closer to 10-12 knots of breeze with gusts in the teens.
With that, 22 racers came to the line. The wind direction was close to calling for a reverse start, but the race committee elected to go with up-Estuary courses, which found some spinnaker boats popping their chutes as they crossed the start line. The wind was a bit fluky, as it is for most Estuary races, but it held and the racers completed the courses and were back at the club in good time. Another good day on the water.
For Race 4 on February 16, the forecast said 1-5 knots with gusts to 7 knots. As the race committee readied the deck and watched the Estuary, they saw nary a flutter of flags. Marks were set, courses chosen, and the Coast Guard called, and still maybe 1 knot. So, a postponement was in order while we watched to see if a little more time would get us enough wind to start the race.
The start was in the end of the flood, and it would be ebbing during much of the race, with very small currents — a good thing with little to no wind. Ah, but after a 20-minute postponement, flags started to flutter — nothing big but enough to get the racing started.
There were 28 boats patiently waiting and ready to race. The RC called for a short course for all the fleets to get a race in and completed for everyone. It was crowded at the marks, but good racing, and after the leeward mark rounding, the
SDYC THISTLE MIDWINTERS WEST, 2/4-8 (9r/0t)
1) Grant Gridley, 28 points; 2) Greg Griffin, 33; 3) Bobby Sessions, 39; 4) Philip Gordon, 40; 5) John Baker, 53. (24 boats)
Full results at www.sdyc.org
EYC JACK FROST SERIES (8r, 1t)
PHRF — 1) Good and Plenty, Soverel 33, Justis Fennell, 8 points; 2) Humble Vandal, J/92, Rhett Smith, 18; 3) Mudshark, Express 37, Dante Branciforte, 21. (10 boats)
SANTANA 22 — 1) Meliki, Deb Fehr, 8 points; 2) High & Dry, Igor Polevoy, 17; 3) Anemone, Hank Lindemann, 18. (5 boats)
MULTIHULL — 1) Waterwings, F-31RS, Todd Olsen, 7 points. (1 boat)
Full results at www.jibeset.net
YRA DOUBLEHANDED MIDWINTERS (4r, 1t)
SPINNAKER 1 — 1) Prima, J/105, Artem Savinov/Val Sokolsky, 3 points; 2) Kestrel, J/105, Eric Patterson/Allan Leblanc, 8; 3) Sun Dragon, Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300, Sergei Podshivalov/Frank
Oakland YC's Sunday Brunch Series Race 4 on February 16 under heavily overcast skies. The windward mark is set off Oakland's Jack London Square. This series sticks to the Estuary, but the club's Rites of Spring Race, coming up on March 15, will make use of the Central Bay.
ebb and the wind worked together and all had a nice final leg.
The OYC Race Speakers Series kicked off on January 19. Before Race 2, Kame Richards spoke about racing sails. The series continued on February 2, with Ryan Nelson of Rogue Rigging talking about tuning your rigging and rig inspection. A lot of good information was shared, broken parts inspected, and products, approaches and safety discussed. The third speaker will be Mark Mines, bar pilot, giving a San Francisco Bar Pilot overview on March 16.
And right in the midst of the Sunday Brunch Series, on March 15, is OYC's Rites of Spring race on the Central Bay. If you're racing the Sunday Brunch Series, you get a break on the registration fee.
See www.oaklandyachtclub.net and sign up for races at www.jibeset.net. — debby ratto
Van Diggelen, 9. (11 boats)
SPINNAKER 2 — 1) Rooster, Melges 20, John Oldham/Ian Charles, 3 points; 2) Humble Vandal, J/92, Rhett Smith, 9; 3) Warpath, Olson 30, Karissa Peth, 14. (8 boats)
NON-SPINNAKER 1 — 1) Free, S&S 30, Jim Carlsen/Jim Bilafer, 4 points; 2) Chesapeake III, Alerion Express 28, Jim Fair/BJ Price, 5; 3) Sir Edmund, Covey Island 49 schooner, Andy Schwenk/Cyril Kollock, 6. (5 boats) Full results at www.jibeset.net
CYC MIDWINTERS (4r, 0t)
PHRF 1 — 1) Kuai, Melges 32, Daniel Thielman, 8 points; 2) Lucky Duck, J/90, Dave MacEwen, 11; 3) Nuckelavee, Melges 32, Mark Kennedy, 13. (10 boats)
PHRF 2 — 1) Basic Instinct, Elliott 1050, Memo Gidley, 11; 2) 'io, Antrim 27C, Buzz Blackett, 11; 3) Greyhound, Viper 830, Zhenya
On February 6, San Francisco YC received the 2024 St. Petersburg Yacht Club Trophy at the US Sailing awards banquet in San Diego. The award recognized SFYC for outstanding race management at the 2024 Diversified Melges 24 World Championships.
According to US Sailing, the trophy "is awarded to a local sailing organization for exceptional race management at a specific event. Among other factors, the comments of participating sailors weigh heavily in the selection of a winner."
St. Petersburg YC (in Florida) originally awarded the trophy in 1967 to recognize the club that ran the best regatta. It was donated to US Sailing in 1977.
Nearly 100% of the 31 Melges 24 teams completed the post-regatta competitor survey, offering glowing feedback on their Worlds.
Kirueshkin-Stepanoff, 13. (14 boats)
PHRF 3 — 1) Kuda Wuda, SR33, Craig Page, 3 points; 2) Humble Vandal, J/92, Rhett Smith, 6; 3) Lonestar, Beneteau 10R, Madeline Morey, 13. (6 boats)
PHRF 4 — 1) Salty Hotel, Express 27, John Kearney, 5 points; 2) Liquid Asset, Ranger 33, John Rook, 9; 3) Vera Cruz, Jeanneau 349, Michael Johnson, 10. (8 boats)
PHRF 5 — 1) Can O'Whoopass, Cal 20, Richard vonEhrenkrook, 4 points; 2) Raccoon, Cal 20, Jim Snow, 5. (2 boats)
NON-SPINNAKER 1 — 1) Q, Schumacher 40, Glenn Isaacson, 4 points; 2) Freedom, Worth 40, Jib Martens, 6; 3) Lagniappe, C&C 99, John Bundschuh, 8. (4 boats)
NON-SPINNAKER 2 — 1) Fjaer, IOD, Richard, Mark & Jeff Pearce, 3 points; 2) Finistere, Sabre 38 MkII, John Arndt, 8; 3) Surprise, Catalina 34, Peter Birnbaum, 10. (7 boats)
J/105 — 1) Ne*Ne, Tim Russell, 3 points; 2) Roulette, William Woodruff, 6; 3) Jose Cuervo, Dave Williams, 9. (6 boats)
Full results at www.cyc.org
This is the first time that S FYC has won this award since its inception. SFYC joins Richmond YC as the only Northern California yacht clubs to win the trophy. (RYC won it in 2001 for the Byte Class North Americans.)
In August 2024, Commodore Jenni Dailey welcomed the sailors at the opening ceremonies with the memorable words, "This club is your club," making clear the commitment of the SFYC community to the visiting teams.
"To say I'm thrilled would be a dramatic understatement," said regatta chair Matthew Sessions. He commented that 1,000+ hours of pre-regatta planning and onsite execution by dozens of volunteers were the reasons for the regatta's success. The Melges Worlds occupied SFYC for 17 days.
This is principal race officer Mark Foster's fifth regatta that has won the trophy. Foster highlighted the outstanding RC volunteers coordinated by Forrest Gay as well as the excellent club resources (such as race committee boats and equipment).
SFYC's director of sailing Forrest Gay said, "The 2024 Melges 24 Worlds was
a long time coming, after being postponed for two years by the COVID pandemic. Once we finally zeroed in on August 2024 for the event, we started building the team. Securing PRO Mark Foster from Texas early in this cycle was a critical piece of the equation. Lighter wind than expected for many races and even a real rain shower, with real shifts, all called for extra effort by the race committee to get the course as close to correct as possible for the sailors."
The Worlds consisted of 12 races over five days in a variety of conditions, fantastic Belvedere weather, extensive media coverage, and great competition that came down to the final race to determine the winner. Shoreside hospitality included daily awards presented by local sailing heroes, the "Beer Boat" hydration station for the afternoon return sail from the Berkeley Circle, live music, sponsor swag and prizes, morning weather briefings, catering and an SFYC membership that welcomed 150+ competitors. At the same awards event, part of
US Sailing's Leadership Forum in San Diego, Kirk Brown of Long Beach YC received the Harman Hawkins Trophy for "extraordinary commitment to the development of umpiring in the US and around the world." He was a member of the group that developed match-race umpiring in the 1990s and has developed and delivered countless seminars, lectures, clinics and instructional races over the past 30 years.
Among organizations earning Community Sailing awards was Gig Harbor (WA) Junior Sailing, recognized for "10+ Years Hallmark Performance."
Earning an Adaptive Award for Excellence in Instruction was Andrew Buechele of Mission Bay Aquatic Center in San Diego. For more, see www.ussailing.org.
— latitude/chris
Rolex Yachtsmen and Yachtswoman
Speaking of US Sailing awards, at the same event, US Sailing announced the 2024 Rolex Yachtsmen and Yachtswoman of the Year. They are Olympians Ian Barrows and Hans Henken, and solo nonstop circumnavigator Cole Brauer.
Ian Barrows and Hans Henken won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in the Men's Two-Person Skiff (the 49er), breaking an eight-year Olympic medal drought for the US. After the Olympics, Henken returned to the roster of the USA SailGP team as a flight controller and grinder. A California native, Hans is a Stanford alumnus.
Cole Brauer placed second in the inaugural Global Solo Challenge, becoming the first American woman to sail solo nonstop around the world and doing an excellent job sharing the adventure with the public. Mostly from the East Coast, Brauer went to the University of Hawai'i and became the captain of the sailing team there. She had already received the 2024 Young Voyager Award from the Cruising Club of America.
— latitude/chris
A Stormy Start to February
"Dry January" had multiple meanings for Californians this year. Some humans decided to give their livers a break from the excesses of the holiday season, and
For more racing news, subscribe to 'Lectronic Latitude online at www.latitude38.com
February's racing stories included:
• Vendée Globe • SailGP
• Vallarta Cup • Corinthian Midwinters
• America One Racing News
• The Super Bowl vs. Yacht Racing
• Previews of March Races, and more.
Mother Nature took a break from precipitating wet stuff onto said humans. Just as February was imminent, the winter storm door reopened. Several yacht clubs were able to run keelboat races in the rain on February 1 and 2, however Richmond YC canceled their Small Boat Midwinters on Sunday the 2nd. We received this email at 9:30 that morning: "Due to weather conditions, the Small Boat Midwinters has been canceled today. Feel free to come down to our fireplace for a warm bowl of beef chili and all-beef hot dogs…"
— latitude/chris
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It's the middle of winter but summer is not far away. Club Nautique sailing instructor and charter captain Rod Witel sent us a couple of summer charter stories to get you thinking ahead. The first is a Club Nautique flotilla charter in Croatia, and the second a charter in Sweden with friends.
Club Nautique, an S.F. Bay Area sailing/powerboating school and yacht charter company, sponsored a one-week Croatia flotilla for its members September 7-14, 2024.
For many of the 70+ participants, this was their first inter national charter, so CN provided pre-charter clinics for Medmooring (with lazy lines) and to practice picking up mooring balls.
Many of the crews arrived in Croatia early to sightsee the UNESCO World Heritage cities of Split, Trogir, and the "Jewel of the Adriatic," Dubrovnik.
Our flotilla of 12 boats (four catamarans and eight monohulls) set off from the Baotic Marina in Trogir, where we provisioned for breakfasts and lunches. Dinners were onshore.
We enjoyed daily lunch stops in idyllic bays to eat, relax, and swim in the warm blue water before sailing to our overnight destinations.
The highlights of the trip started at the quaint village of Milna, Braĉ, where we had a group dinner at Perun, a very accommodating and delicious quayside restaurant.
The flotilla remained safely in Milna for a second day as a front brought high winds and big seas. Some chose a winetasting tour, confirming Croatia's excellent viniculture reputation.
From the Pakleni Islands, we took water taxis (20 min./20 euros p/p) to the famed Hvar, a fun, vibrant town with breathtaking sunset views from the historical Fortica Fortress high above the city.
Our longest sail (24 miles) brought us to the charming seaside village of Komiza on the island of Vis. The famous Blue Cave was closed due to a southern swell, but the crews enjoyed exercising on the town quay, eating yet more delicious gelato, swimming, shopping, and wine tasting, and some booked a military
ALL PHOTOS ROD WITEL EXCEPT WHERE NOTED
tour that included Tito's Cold War submarine caves.
We ended with a giant raft-up in Sesula Bay on the island of Solta, and enjoyed a lazy afternoon swimming and relaxing behind the boats.
Some walked to the nearby town of Maslinica for live folk music before everyone met up for a delicious dinner at Sismis restaurant, which provided the mooring balls we rafted to.
My last Croatia charter was in 2011, a one-way charter from Split to Dubrovnik. Since then, Croatia has joined the EU and is much more expensive; it is inundated with American tourists in the summer and the marina fees are exorbitant.
Yet it is a magical place to charter, with amazing history and architecture, warm blue water, and friendly people. Croatia should definitely be on your chartering bucket list.
Chartering Sweden
"Sweden! Why Sweden?" my chartering cohorts, Dwayne Sullivan and Robert Baumann, asked.
As an avid charterer, I have sailed most of the popular waters around the world and a few off the beaten path. I was looking for something a little different. I indeed found it in the Stockholm Archipelago, which consists of 30,000 islands — many uninhabited with pristine bays to explore, some with small restaurants or a small store, and a few with large marinas close to towns with historical forts and castles.
We sailed the central part of the archipelago, similar to Washington state's
San Juan Islands and Canada's Gulf Islands. Our charter base was just 20 minutes east of Stockholm, which allowed for easy post-charter sightseeing in the clean, safe, and beautiful city. The dollar was strong against the Swedish krona, and our one-week charter aboard a Bavaria 44 monohull cost $5,000.
Taking advantage of the long summer days of high-latitude sailing, we sailed July 13-20 and scored daytime temps in the low to mid-70s with moderate 8- to 13-knot winds. We had some great sails.
Here are some observations for those who want to follow in our wake with a highly recommended summer charter in the Stockholm Archipelago.
Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Don't take navigation lightly in the archipelago. There are many shallow and narrow channels. The waters are well marked with ATONs (Aids to Navigation), but we always had two phones running Navionics routes and utilizing the chartplotter — and eyes wide open!
All boats have stern anchors and bow ladders, so we learned to moor bow-to and tied our bow to trees or stakes with rings on
them that we pounded into the granite shoreline ourselves. Even docking in a marina is bow-to, and you tie your stern to either a lazy line or a stern mooring ball.
Oddly, we never saw a single catamaran. People were very friendly and helpful, and the food was surprisingly good. (Naturally, we loved the Swedish meatballs and reindeer steaks.)
Everyone spoke English and we went cashless. We used our credit cards or Apple Pay for everything everywhere.
The water is colder than S.F. Bay, but that didn't stop the locals from jumping in. A hardy lot, those Swedes.
We were surprised to see bevies of
Rod Witel, Dwayne Sullivan and Robert Baumann were all turned around with stern anchors and bow ladders. It worked.
white swans floating around us until we realized the Baltic Sea is brackish.
The sailing was exceptional, the beauty was spectacular, the people were friendly, and as far as we could tell, we were the only Americans plying those waters.
We are already talking about going back and exploring the northern or southern sections of the archipelago. So many islands, so little time.
— rod witel
The Moorings has opened a new base in La Paz, Mexico, expanding your options in the Sea of Cortez. They join West Coast Multihulls with a base in Loreto and Dream Yacht Charters with their base in La Paz.
Chartering close to your time zone: One great challenge for Californians wanting to charter is the fact that most charter destinations are many time
zones away. This can make the trip there and back much more time-consuming and tiring.
Where could you go that's close to our time zone? Three of the best places are the Sea of Cortez (one hour ahead), Belize (two hours ahead) and Tahiti (two hours behind). Of course the closest warm weather, warm water chartering is in the Sea of Cortez, with the best seasons in the spring and fall.
With reports this month on Stella Blue's first cruise to Mexico; Salty Dancer's return to cruising after a grounding scare; Quester's for-onceleisurely trip to Hawaii, and a tasty assortment of Cruise Notes.
Stella Blue — Saga 43
Mike Kalil and Stephanie Propp
Living the Dream Dillon, CO and Nainamo, BC
We began our journey in the Pacific Northwest in September 2024, and joined
Mike and Stephanie got the cruising bug after visiting San Diego and renting a Catalina 22. up with the Baja Ha-Ha in November. Since parting ways with the rally in Cabo, we have been living the dream!!
We love exploring Mexico, and have had such a great experience here. When we left Cabo, we high-tailed it up to La Paz in order to avoid the big wind event that canceled the final parties in Cabo. We weathered that Norther in La Paz, and really enjoyed the town. From there, it was on to Isla Espiritu Santo, where we enjoyed our first experience snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez. We were (and continue to be) amazed by the variety of fish and other sea life!
After enjoying several days in the area, we sailed north into the Sea of Cortez, determined to see as much of the northern coast of Baja as we could handle. We had heard how intense the Northers can be this time of year, and made a pact to try to "tough it out" in order to see as many
Puerto Escondido.
places as possible. We are so glad that we persevered, as it has truly been a special experience.
As we pushed north, at times bashing into large, short-period waves, we were rewarded with picturesque islands and bays with endless beaches. We saw countless dolphins, and caught fish that made for some delicious meals on board!
We loved Isla San Francisco and Agua Verde, and had Elephant Rock Cove on Isla Catalina all to ourselves. Here the fish were afraid of us, suggesting snorkelers are not frequent here, and we saw our first shark while snorkeling — a small black-tip reef shark.
When the forecast called for another strong Norther to pass through, we sought shelter in Puerto Escondido for a week. We hiked Tabor Canyon and rented a car to explore the nearby town of Loreto. When the wind abated, we made the decision to continue pushing north into the Sea, and visited such gorgeous places as Islas Carmen and Coronados, Caleta San Juanito and Bahia Concepcion. We enjoyed these spots immensely, and particularly enjoyed meeting fellow sailors in the anchorages and getting together to share our experiences!
As the mild conditions continued, we pushed farther north into Santa Rosalía and San Francisquito. Here we decided we were satisfied with how much we had seen, and were craving warmer water, so we set out across the Sea of Cortez.
We departed San Francisquito and stayed at Isla Tiburon for one night, then on to our first mainland Mexico anchorage of Las Cocinas. After another stop at Bahia San Pedro, we stayed in the marina in San Carlos for a week to refresh and celebrate our crossing. After that, we continued south for three days, straight down to Mazatlán.
After another week there enjoying the markets and good food, it was an
overnight sail to Isla Isabel. So far this has been our favorite spot. Arriving just after dawn, we were greeted by breaching humpback whales all around the island.
We found a cohort of lovely sailors in the anchorage and enjoyed a sunset happy hour on the ridge, surrounded by frigate birds and bluefooted boobies, and yes, more whales! The fabulous snorkeling rounded out this special place, and I highly recommend a visit there. It was very difficult to leave! We pushed south to the San Blas area and took a panga tour through the jungle, which was such fun. Our next anchorage
the end of March to prep for a crossing to Hawaii. By summer the plan is to be in Alaska and from there, who knows? Most likely back to Mexico next winter!!! We love it here!
— Mike 2/1/25
south breakwater. No one was aboard at the time — owner "J" Mills had flown home for the holidays just a week earlier. Luckily, one of the marina guards saw it happen, and he and the marina staff got the boat off by daybreak. She was towed to the MPE Boatyard, where she underwent repairs. When J finally returned last March, the boat was ready to go again, and, with a new crew, he picked up where he had left off in his planned circumnavigation ….
Danna, my yet-to-know crew, joined me in Puerto Escondido and we slowly cruised south through the islands and anchorages on our way to La Paz. I had made that trip many times during my previous four years in the Sea of Cortez after the 2006 Ha-Ha, but it was all still like new. We spent a week in La Paz visiting with friends and enjoying that vibrant bay and city, and then sailed south to Bahia de los Muertos, another wonderful anchorage along the inside coast of Baja, with two beachfront restaurants that we just couldn't seem to get enough of.
From there we crossed over to Mazatlán to pick up two more crew, Diane and Margaret. The Old Town part of Mazatlán was as picturesque and fun as I recalled from my previous voyage there in 2009, but with a few more pizza places and somewhat fewer local food restaurants. Still, a wonderful place to explore as we waited for the big solar eclipse event on April 8. And it was well worth the wait, celebrating the stark transition from morning light to dusk in the middle of the day with a wonderful group of cruisers on the docks at the Marina Mazatlán. The sky grew dark, lights came on all around the marina, the dogs and the cruisers bayed at the moon as it blacked out the sun, and we all watched in awe as the light slowly returned to the world as the moon moved on. Mazatlán was literally at the epicenter of the lunar track, so it was indeed a "total" eclipse.
was Chacala, a charming town with great beaches, restaurants and a fabulous hike up to the crater of a volcano. Finally, we arrived in La Cruz, which is where we are now at the end of January. Here we're enjoying the company of friends, both old and new, and learning to wing-foil! Indeed, this whole journey has been so amazing, as this is our first time cruising. We will continue to head south and explore Mexico until returning north at
Salty Dancer — Jeanneau 44DS
James "J" Mills
Mexico to Costa Rica (Part 1)
Incline Village, NV
Readers — In December, 2023, during a blow off Puerto Escondido, Salty Dancer's mooring lines parted in the wee hours and she started drifting toward shore. Somehow missing 60-some other boats in the anchorage, the boat ended up on the rocky
We departed the marina that afternoon as the sun returned, and started an overnight passage to Isla Isabela, home to the blue-footed booby and a truly wild frigate bird nesting ground.
This isolated little island is a protected nature preserve, and there were a number of ecological study groups there. I had heard that a permit was needed, but none was requested during our two days there. Going ashore was an easy dinghy ride around the point from the Monas anchorage to the little settlement bay, and we spent most of the day walking among the nesting frigates and boobies, and the
ever-present iguanas.
After two days anchored off Isabela, we sailed for San Blas with typical blue
skies, calm seas, and fair winds. San Blas is definitely one of my favorite little cities, despite the typical dusk onslaught of jejenes (no-see-ums) and mosquitoes. We got a slip at the little Fonatur marina there and Diane and I celebrated both our birthdays on April 11 with margaritas at the San Blas Social Club overlooking the pretty town center plaza and cathedral. The next day we took a panga tour up the mangrove-laden river to the crocodile farms and park, with all manner of wildlife along the way.
The jejenes were starting to impact our enjoyment of the area after a couple of days — at least for two crew who claimed they were being eaten alive. The bugs didn't seem to like me as much and we wondered if perhaps different blood types were more appealing than others. Just a theory, but B+ seemed the least attractive. (Your results may vary.)
With a world circumnavigation being my ultimate goal, and Costa Rica my most immediate destination, my insurance company was requiring an inspection and certification of my seven-yearold standing and running rigging on Salty Dancer before they would extend my cruising coverage beyond Mexican waters. I had arranged with Mike Danielson at PV Sailing in La Cruz to handle that for me, so off to Banderas Bay we went. With a short stop at Chacala Bay, we were at Marina Riviera Nayarit by the 15th and enjoying dinner and margaritas in their fine restaurant.
We spent five days in the marina there, and the PV Sailing crew did their inspection and certified Salty Dancer safe and sound to proceed. My crew spent a day in Sayulita and treated me to a much-appreciated massage in La Cruz, then Margaret and Diane departed for their homes in the States, leaving Danna and me to proceed south again.
No trip to Banderas Bay would be complete without a visit to Yelapa. We were heading that way anyway, but PV Sailing had already organized a weekend locals' cruise-out to the bay, so we joined in and spent two days with the group. The Yelapa Yacht Club served us a wonderful dinner, and we enjoyed breakfast and lunch — and cocktails of course — in the palapas along the white sand beach.
The swell in Yelapa can be uncomfortable, and when it became so, we decided to depart in the afternoon for Tenacatita Bay and Barra de Navidad.
I'd noticed some patches of red tide in Banderas Bay as we sailed to Yelapa, and the red tide was very prevalent as we came into Tenacatita. Making water while at anchor was probably not advisable, and even swimming seemed questionable except at low tide, when the red waters pulled back out into the bay. Ed Leco on Voyager was anchored near us and was heading the same direction with the same concerns, and we decided to buddy up for Barra de Navidad the next day for a little resort living at the marina there.
There is a prominent, rocky island point on the south end of Tenacatita Bay. The Navionics Boating app indicated that it was possible to sail between the last two islands. While Voyager's crew of wild millennials were engaged in some spinnaker flying, we headed over to take a look at that gap to see if it would save any time going to Barra. Despite what Navionics said, it didn't look particularly appealing to me, so we took the longer route around the last island, followed by Voyager.
In the marina, we pulled into a slip next to Chemistry, an older but wellmaintained 38-ft sloop, and Danna struck up a conversation with its owner, Sean. Chemistry had apparently taken that inside route between the Tenacatita point islands a week earlier and hit an uncharted rock in the middle of the gap. Sean claimed he had done it numerous times before with no incident, but this time he hit that rock solidly, breaking his keel joint, cracking the hull and nearly losing the boat. Somehow, he had managed to get the boat back to the marina, where he got some additional pumps running and some temporary patches on the hull. The jury was still out as to whether
he would try to repair the substantial hull damage or let his insurance company total the boat.
Another lesson learned on the sea, and thankfully not firsthand.
Barra de Navidad was Danna's last stop with Salty Dancer, and after several days wandering the streets and cafes of the little village and luxuriating in the marina resort pools, she hopped a plane from Manzanillo back to the States. I was sad to see her go; we had had some great times in the two months she was aboard. But, as things sometimes happen, Sean and his dog, Buffy, needed a ride to his home in Ixtapa, so I wouldn't be singlehanded again quite yet.
After topping of f the fuel tanks, we departed Barra on April 27. I had originally planned two stops on the 220-mile passage to Ixtapa, but the weather and wind combination canceled our first stop in Cabeza Negra, and we sailed on through the night. Our second harbor-hop to Caleta de Campos wasn't much better, but we arrived in daylight at least, and Buffy needed to go ashore. Anchoring in deep
water with a 6-foot swell rolling under us was a bit tenuous, but Sean and Buffy dove in and swam to shore, took care of business, and then swam back with no problem. We barbecued dinner on board and then made a short night of it, catching up on some sleep, and departed at dawn for Ixtapa.
I'd been trying to get a rise out of the Ixtapa Marina via email and WhatsApp for the past couple of weeks with no response, to see if they had a slip and if the fuel dock was operating. As we entered the bay, I called on my cellphone and finally spoke with them, only to receive bad news: The entry channel was too shallow for Salty Dancer's 7.5-foot draft, so we kept going around the next point to Zihuatanejo, where we dropped anchor in a wide-open anchorage near the beach.
My old friend Tom Trolia lives in ZTown part of the year. I got ahold of him
on WhatsApp and we arranged to meet for dinner. Sean and I launched the dinghy and motored to shore. After paying the local beach watcher, Mateo, 100 pesos to watch the dinghy, we met Tom for dinner and cocktails.
Sean and Buffy departed the next day, and I checked in with the capitana del puerto; a somewhat more complicated process than I had encountered before. The port captains now are all Mexican navy personnel, but nonetheless the check-in process varies significantly from one port office to the next.
My new "mystery crew" was slated to meet me on May 3. Fatima, or "Fats" as she preferred, was flying in from South Africa to sail the next leg of the trip. In the meantime, boat chores, watermaker service, provisioning, and getting fuel delivered were my primary concerns. Dinners with Tom and his local friends, and getting to know my neighbors, Pablo and his girlfriend, on Vision, from Poland, were also part of the adventure.
Fats arrived on time and ready to go. We had one last dinner ashore and then
moved the boat across the bay to a new anchorage where the water quality was better, and I could actually use the watermaker. Next morning, May 5, we departed Zihuatanejo at 0-dark-thirty for a 120mile overnighter to Acapulco.
Acapulco was a mess; still reeling from the effects of the hurricane last October, with marina docks and sunken boats broken and piled up on the shore. The port captain warned us not to anchor in the usual anchorages because they didn't know where or how many more sunken boats there might be. We anchored around the corner to the north, off the long beach that fronts the highway and the supermarkets, but chose not to go to shore.
The Per formance Marina still had a fuel operation of sorts working, and I wanted to top off my fuel again since diesel stops between there and Costa Rica would be few and far between. The fuel dock was unusable, but they had rigged up a Medmooring system where we hooked to a buoy offshore and then backed up as close as possible to the big concrete abutment where the fuel dispensers were located. After two rather tenuous attempts, in a 3-foot swell, we were finally able to maneuver into place and get fuel. No further reason to stay in Acapulco at that point, so we shoved off for another long, 180-mile passage to Puerto Escondido.
Puerto Escondido was typical of the exposed west shore of Mexico: deep anchorages with 3- to 6-foot swells rolling in. We were able to anchor fairly close to a protected end of the beach and right in front of the port captain's office, on May 9. The check-in process was much simpler than in Z-Town, and the little city had a plethora of beachfront palapas and a supermarket just a half mile up the hill.
Unfortunately, the cruising lifestyle was already wearing thin with Fats. The long overnight passages and short stays were not what she had expected (despite the detailed itinerary I had provided before she came). She really wanted to spend time ashore and explore inland Mexico. So we decided that Puerto Escondido would be her departure point.
On May 12, singlehanded, I pulled up anchor and headed south along the coast near Huatulco. Port Angel was the first potential destination, but the harbor was small, the swell was big, and the anchorage was crowded with pangas on moorings. I continued on to Bahia de Sacrificios, and began to think about preparations for crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec. — J 12/3/24
Next month — across the Gulf and south to Costa Rica.
Quester — Oyster 56
Roxanne Vettese
Leisurely Puddle Jump
Anacortes
Racing sailors never rest. No matter what boat they are graced with crewing, no matter what conditions and circumstances they are thrust into, no matter
what their responsibilities are, they are always trying to maximize speed and performance. The old adage, "If there are two sailboats on the ocean, there is a race," is not only true when it comes to racing sailors, it barely registers with them as worth the breath it takes to repeat it. Of course it will be a race. What else is there?
So when I found myself this past July on a five-person crew of the Oyster 56, Quester, pulling away from her Anacortes slip and nosing into Puget Sound on her way to Honolulu, this racing sailor had some trepidation. This was going to be the first such crossing from the West Coast to Hawaii I had signed on to that was not a race — or rather "the race" — that is, the Transpac. How was I going to pass my days and my watches without the intensity of a racing mindset? How was I going to keep my focus when focus was not as much of a priority? How was I going to manage calories when I was likely not going to be burning them as fiercely as I would under racing conditions? In fact, how was I going to react to actually having time to relax, shower, read, eat well, contemplate, ponder, and otherwise take advantage of the leisurely pace Quester was going to set?
My transpacific experiences began in 2009 with Orange Coast College's Alaska Eagle program. Alaska Eagle (the former
1977-78 Whitbread racer Flyer) was OCC's flagship vessel, and for many years OCC offered ambitious sailing adventures aboard her, including acting as the communication vessel for the Transpac. (This was prior to all of the technological innovations such as Yellow Brick.) In the '09 race, Alaska Eagle was not an official racer, but captain Brian Furie and first mate Karen Prioleau ran her as such.
The Eagle had to keep up with the bulk of the fleet. We never used the autopilot. Everyone took their turn on the helm, night and day. There were sail changes and reefings, spinnaker hoists and spinnaker blowouts — the last one managing to wrap itself around the propeller, thereby eliminating any engine use for the last 1,500 miles. In short, even though we were not racing, we were. It was an excellent introduction to high-performance, bluewater sailing. We were 12 days on the water and I ate it up.
In 2011, just to ear n my chops, I made my next Pacific crossing — also on Alaska Eagle — uphill, bringing her back from the 2011 Transpac and depositing her in San Francisco. That was a 15-day slog, and once again we fouled the prop — this time on some errant fishing gear — halfway across, and had to dock at Jack London Square under sail.
My third Pacific crossing was my introduction to the Oyster 56 Quester and her very capable and experienced owner/ skipper Michael Yokell. Michael had sailed Quester nearly everywhere, all throughout Puget Sound, throughout the South Pacific, through the Panama Canal, and across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Michael is smart, technologically savvy, a stickler for detail and precision, and a fearless and wise owner/skipper.
He is also incredibly affable, and he and his wife Deb enjoy nothing more than gathering a variety of folks from various backgrounds and throwing them together on Quester for an adventure.
I was one of these fortunate people when Michael decided to enter the T ranspac in 2019, its 50th anniversary. Because he was not a racer, Michael enlisted the aid of Andy Schwenk as his second in command. Suffice it to say, under Andy's stellar guidance, we performed well, Quester earning a second-place finish in her seven-boat fleet — bested only by Chubasco, who for the first five days could not catch us. Chubasco eventually got the wind behind her and took off, leaving Quester in her dust. (She beat us by 12 hours.) To their credit, two of Chubasco's crew wandered up to Quester after the race and told us that we'd had them extremely worried. Apparently, the
question for many days was, "Who are those guys?"
In the interim between 2019 and July 2024, I helped deliver Quester from Anacortes to San Francisco, the first leg of a harbor-hopping trip down the West Coast to Mexico and then across to Nuku Hiva and the greater South Pacific. On the San Francisco trip, Michael mentioned that he was toying with the idea of entering the 2024 Vic-Maui Race. I encouraged him to do so with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the tragic Lahaina fire led the Lahaina Yacht Club to cancel the race. Undeterred, Michael decided that Quester would sail to Hawaii anyway — just for fun. Without giving it much thought I said "Great! Let's go!"
So, off we went. On July 15, 2024,
Clockwise from above: 'Quester' at the dock in Washington; derelicts in Neah Bay; 'Quester' owner Michael Yokell; the 2019 Transpac crew; rainbow in mid-Pacific; sunrise over Diamond Head on arrival day.
following loosely in the wake of the 2024 Pacific Cup fleets, we headed to Honolulu.
Our first stop was Neah Bay. Michael had never seen it and was curious. I was interested as well because a close friend was heavily involved in the Makah Tribe's efforts to clean up the bay and revive its vibrant fishing culture. We happened to arrive just one day prior to the start of that major cleanup. There were many derelict fishing boats rotting on their lines, and a few half or fully sunk in their slips. It was going to be (and has been) a monumental cleanup task.
Once outside the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Quester settled into her gentle routine and I settled in with her. The watch rotation was two hours on, six off — a luxury! Cooking duties were shared among all the crew (I was used to a dedicated cook — also a luxury). Quester had a high-capacity watermaker and could carry 250 gallons of fresh water, so showers were always an option.
Our Raymarine autopilot did most of the driving. One had only to push a button now and again to make the necessary course corrections — which were aimed at maximizing the comfort of the crew, not the speed of the boat. My watch rotation was the midnight to 2 a.m. stint, which afforded me ample time to stargaze — once we got out from under the pesky
marine layer, anyway. As I was standing a single-person watch, I was also able to softly sing to my heart's content. It's my way of staying awake. (While I have a decent voice, this technique was not always appreciated on my other Pacific crossings.)
My days were spent reading, writing and perusing the headlines (via Starlink) — activities I never had the time for while racing. I also enjoyed the rare opportunity to make a long passage with my boyfriend of many years, Steve Aronson, and one of my best racing buddies of all time, Bob Hazel. Steve is an even more diehard racer than I am, and his experience of being forced to be a casual cruiser (and who had also signed on to help bring Quester back to Anacortes) had an entirely different vibe to it. Steve never quite embraced the relaxed pace going to Hawaii, and the trip back — a different story for a different day — was fraught with some significant challenges. On the other hand, Bob, always a calm presence on a boat, fell into cruiser mode from the outset and was an invaluable, positive influence when things got slower than expected.
You might take the racer out of the race, but you can't always take the race out of the racer.
And to be fair to Steve, on the way to Hawaii there were some mildly frustrating moments. Michael and Deb are blessed with having the time and means to be free of tight agendas. So, when the wind dropped about a third of the way across, both of them, being very anti-engine noise, elected to ghost along under sail rather than turn on the iron genny. This slowed our progress significantly and, having hotel and plane reservations that were being affected by our delay, made for some (very minor) tension. What are you going to do? When you're not in charge, then you're along for the ride, and you just have to get over it — quickly. We did.
On August 2, 2024, with the sun rising above Diamond Head, Quester arrived in Honolulu — three days past her estimated landfall date. All was well, though. Hotels had been communicated with and plane reservations easily changed. We cleaned her up, had a lovely farewell lunch at the Waikiki Yacht Club, and parted on the kind of terms only a crew having just crossed an ocean can part on — if they are at all smart — and that is with fondness for each other's strengths, understanding for each other's weaknesses, and happy memories of a shared adventure.
Reflecting on my Quester experience, I realize that, of all my Pacific crossings, the crossing this past July was by far my most enjoyable. Maybe I'm getting older.
(I am 63. I have been sailing since I was 10 and racing since I was 30.) The relaxed pace of this crossing was certainly kinder to my body — I actually got sufficient sleep! And perhaps I am getting wiser as well. Yes, racing is absolutely exhilarating, and it is by far the best teacher for learning how to sail a boat safely. Efficient sailing is safe sailing. When you are a racer, you tend to place your boat into conditions that non-racers may otherwise pass on. Racing forces you to push your perceived limits.
But I'm beginning to believe that it's OK — just occasionally — to tur n down the volume, put your feet up, and just amble along.
— Roxanne 2/1/25
Cruise Notes
• Jef f Alligood and five close friends did last year's 30th Anniversary Baja HaHa Cruisers Rally aboard the San Diegobased Jeanneau 53 Satori. It was the first for both the boat and the crew, and, says Jeff, "A wonderful experience was had by all during our first Baja sojourn."
generator and autopilot gremlins being the main culprits. Despite this, the crew remained upbeat. "Thanks to a stout solar array, lithium house bank, and the crews' focus on conservation, we finally exited Mexico and headed south with full provisions to Papagayo." Much has been written about the Gulf of Tehuantepec and its frequent and notorious "Tehuantepecker" winds, but Jeff reports Satori made it through with virtually no wind!
But this was only about a quarter of the boat's itinerary — Jeff's ultimate destination is Aruba.
As they slow-sailed south from Cabo, "We soon learned — the hard way — that boat maintenance and adverse weather conditions were going to be a recurring theme on our adventure," says Jeff, with
"Unfortunately, the sailing gods made us pay during the final 24 hours of sailing into Papagayo, where we were tossed around like a bobber on a cane pole, almost losing our dinghy along the way. My father, a retired captain in the Navy, once told me, 'The farther from shore you get, the smaller your boat becomes.' Wise and accurate advice! We dreaded leaving the safety of Marina Papagayo, but at least we headed downwind to Marina Golfito, where we arrived safe and sound after a relatively uneventful leg south. We rested for a day or two,
anxious to depart for Panama, where we met our agent, paid a few fees, and safely transited the Panama Canal — another first! We said goodbye, possibly for good, to the Pacific Ocean, and are looking forward to the next legs of our journey to Aruba and the Virgin Islands."
• "You got me inspired and on a path to write my own book and I finally finished it!" writes George Greenberg of the Tartan 4300 Rio. Readers may best remember George from his crazy story in the January 2021 Changes
boat). In June, after almost four months of not being able to even get off the boat, they were finally allowed to enter Cyprus.
George's new book is Cruising Around the
In early 2020, Rio was on a planned twoweek passage from Phuket, Thailand, to the Maldives — when COVID-19 came along and ports started closing all over the world. Refused entry into the Maldives, George and crew had no choice but to keep on going. From there, Rio's track ping-ponged through the Arabian Sea to Djibouti, up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal — with every one of the five ports they tried along the way denying them entry (although they were allowed to fuel and hire agents to provision the
World. It's available as an ebook or in soft or hard cover. We have not seen a copy ourselves yet (George told us about it just before the Changes deadline), but will read and review it in a future issue.
• Mediterranean cruisers and everybody else — will likely be steering well clear of one of the most spectacular destinations in the world for the foreseeable future. The island group of Santorini in the southern Aegean, unique for its small town perched on the rim of a blasted-out volcano, has been experiencing almost
nonstop earthquakes since early February. Although the area hasn't experienced any large eruptions in 3,500some years, the volcano is far from extinct. Nea Kameni, the tiny island in the middle of the caldera, has been sizzling and smoking for centuries.
The recent magnitude 3-5 temblors have led to a closure of tourism for the island, and some inhabitants have evacuated. Concerns are understandable: the circa 1600 B.C. eruption that formed present-day Santorini is estimated to have been one of the largest in recorded history. (Its VEI 6 [Volcanic Explosive Index] rating makes it 4-5 times more powerful than Krakatoa in 1883 and Pinatubo in 1991.) It blackened skies and affected weather around the world, and its tsunami rolled completely over the island of Crete, which some researchers
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theorize ended the Minoan civilization literally overnight. The remains of the town of Akrotiri, excavated in the late '60s, are thought by some scholars to be the real site of the fabled Atlantis.
The latest 'Fleetwood' is currently lying in Rio Dulce, Guatemala.
• The irrepressible Jack Van Ommen, who turned 88 on February 28, is about to head out cruising again on his latest boat, the 1986 Elan 31 Fleetwood IV — his first-ever fiberglass boat! Regular readers of the past 25+ years will know Jack from his many cruises aboard the first two Fleetwoods — both 30-ft Naja kit boats — and the losses of both boats
after groundings. (Fleetwood III, a Waarschip 30 that he acquired three years ago, was deemed unsuitable for cruising and is currently for sale in the Netherlands.) Look for more on Jack and his new boat and cruising plans in the next issue. In the meantime, you can check out www.cometosea.us.
• By the time you read this, Her man Koempel and Meredith Green will have arrived back in New Zealand to prep their Washington-based Wauquiez 43 Tieton for some more South Seas cruising. Readers may recall that the boat made the 23-day crossing from Mexico to Hiva Oa as part of last year's Pacific Puddle Jump.
T ieton arrived in Whangarei in midNovember, and Herman and Meredith will use that as their base for further exploration. "After fixing the windlass and
66’ GOrBON 66 ’97 $550,000 Bajavento. A luxurious performance vessel that can easily be sailed shorthanded. Professionally maintained. Cruise in style and comfort.
54’ rOBerTS 54 ’79 $225,000 Spirit. Rugged bluewater vessel designed with comfort and safety in mind. Nicely upgraded. Coast Guard Certified for up to 42 passengers.
45’ BeNeTeAU OCeANIS 45 ’14
$285,000
Adelie. Bright, airy interior with all the bells and whistles. Solar panels and upgraded electrical system. Three private staterooms.
generator, we'll spend a month touring the South Island in our van," says Meredith. "After that, we hope to sail in the Bay of Islands for a week or so, then head to Fiji and Vanuatu for the season. If politics and time allow, we'll go to New Caledonia. We plan to return to New Zealand in November for the cyclone season.
"As far as visas go, New Zealand has been very open to us. Tieton can stay for two years before we have to pay tax. (I'm not sure if the clock resets if she leaves the country.) We got the "Visitor Visa — Private Yacht or Plane," which is good for multiple entries. We can stay for up to six months at each entry and the last time we can enter is October 2028. Given our plans, it works perfectly. The visa process was simple and relatively cheap, especially in comparison to a French Polynesia long-stay visa."
— latitude / jr
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23 FT Bear BoaT 1946 . ‘Smokey’, Nunes built. Awlgrip hull and spars. Full canvas cover. Racing and cruising sails. Mexico and Pacific Northwest vet. Lots of gear to go with boat. Good condition. Please contact David via phone only. $4,500. Sausalito, CA davesdivingservice@gmail.com (415) 331-3612
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22 FT SanTana 22 1976. Pocket racer/ cruiser ‘Albacore’. Race-proven (podium finishes 2023 and 2024 Nationals) with all equipment, two full suits of sails including spinny gear. Also cabin cushions, lights, etc. so a good weekender. Fun and competitive local fleets, especially in Alameda and Richmond — racers or potentials preferred. Includes the classic 2.3hp Honda 4-stroke air-cooled outboard. Road-tested trailer extra: $1200 OBO. $3,900 OBO. Point Richmond jan.grygier.ca@gmail.com
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28 FT H28 1978. Fiberglass, manufactured by Compass Yachts in Auckland, New Zealand. Lots of sails included. Main and jib nearly new. 1996 Volvo Diesel. $6,500 OBO. Stockton Sailing Club memcom@gmail.com (209) 483-6301
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25 FT CaTalina 250 w/Trailer 1999. This capable, trailerable coastal cruiser has many upgraded features of boats far larger: inboard Yanmar diesel and saildrive, an upgraded rudder, wheel steering, shallow-draft winged keel, completely redone/improved electrical systems, upto-date instruments including autopilot, all standing and running rigging upgraded, up-rated mast and boom. The value of this Catalina 250 far exceeds the listing. Completely overhauled/refitted in 2016 with impeccable documentation of all work done. This boat is ready for anything on the Bay, Delta, and even short trips out the Gate; or put it on the trailer and your options are limitless. 2020 survey valued at $27,000 available upon request. $17,500. Marina Bay, Richmond, CA cbhbackinca@gmail.com (949) 565-5252
27 FT n or S ea 27 1997. Beautiful. Professionally finished and designed for offshore sailing. That was my dream but I met the love of my life and she didn’t share the same dreams. After sailing around Puget Sound for 10-12 years it’s time to say goodbye. Email me and I will send you a complete list of all the equipment included. $59,000. Seattle, WA boatbutcher@hotmail.com (253) 3801413
25 FT CaTalina 250 wing Keel 1997. Hull #276. ‘See Monkeys’. Set up for singlehanding. Tiller. Raymarine ST1000 tiller pilot included. Boat is trailerable. I do not have a trailer. Hull cleaned three times a year. Per diver, paint is in excellent shape. Last painted December 2022. Re-fiberglassed rudder at the same time. Honda 9.9 outboard, regularly serviced. Major service in September 2024. New VHF radio March 2022. 2021: replaced standing and running rigging, upgraded to twobattery system with switch and charge controller, replaced lifelines with bare steel wire. $11,000. Coyote Point, San Mateo john@jfbatlaw.com (650) 207-5267
25 FT Meri T 25 1984. Needs TLC. Comes with two-axle trailer w/good tires. Two #1 sails, #2 sail, #3 sail. All sails are in old condition. Two spinnakers. VHF radio. Clear title, up-to-date registration. Call Cecil. $5,000. Clearlake, CA d20001.pearson@hotmail.com (707) 339-2359
27 FT Bal B oa 1978. Maxi — trailerable. Health forces sale. $7,000. Marina Bay Yacht Harbor, Richmond rtrouble@pacbell.net (775) 677-7503
25 FT CaTalina 1977. Sailboat on EZ Loader trailer. Impeccably restored by experienced marine mechanic. New: galley, head, GPS, fireplace, upholstery. Primo condition. Turnkey ready, no saltwater, beautiful custom woodwork with teak marquetry inlays, numerous essential sailing accessories included. $15,000 OBO. North Lake Tahoe, CA laurieswanson20@gmail.com (530) 2779854
27.93 FT PaCiFiC SeaCraFT 25 MK ii 1978. Sailboat with excellent trailer and tremendous amount of gear ready for someone handy. New Yanmar 2YM15 with 1.5 hrs, two furlers, six sails, cockpit and interior cushions, two anchors, wind vane self steering and tiller pilot, Furuno radar, propane system parts. Too many parts to list — contact Todd Chandler for link to photos. $18,900. Newport, OR todd@chandlermarineservices.com (541) 992-9289
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
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30 FT BaBa 30 1978. Project, mid-refit. New spruce spar, new chainplates. 1 hr on rebuilt Yanmar 3GM. All tanks, plumbing and electrical removed. Email for more information. $20,000 OBO. Quincy, CA stirlingbuilders@gmail.com
30 FT alBin Ballad 1978 . A very seaworthy racer/cruiser, with six-foot standing headroom, in good condition and ready for long, enjoyable weekend sailing or club racing. Volvo MD6A diesel, folding prop. Sail inventory includes: 125 and 155 roller-furling jibs, two mains and two spinnakers. Selfsteering configuration. Standing and running rigging recently replaced. USCG documented. $3,900. Vallejo Yacht Club jerryhalterman@astound.net (925) 7888283
30 FT SlooP 1983 . Sloop and slip for sale in Vallejo. Slip is wide 32-foot easy in, easy out slip at Glen Cove Marina (dockominium). Boat has an electric motor. Boat and slip go together. $46,000. Glen Cove Marina john@wadsworthassociates.com (925) 381-0481
30 FT TarTan 30 1972 . Too many upgrades to list. Our son was going to bluewater, but started a family. Sitting for 3 years. Atomic 4. New lifelines, standing rigging, mast step, sails, dodger, stainless gas tank. $14,500. San Rafael dianeirisballard@gmail.com
30 FT PaCiFiC 30 1982. Designed in the ’20s, built in the ’80s of quality Canadian fiberglass, ‘Ramona’ is 30-ft on deck with elegant overhangs that guarantee compliments every sail. An original “gentleman’s (or gentlewoman’s) daysailer,” ‘Ramona’ has everything you need and nothing you don’t for a comfortable day on the Bay. Why sail a motorhome when all you really need is a sports car? Dependable Yanmar (recent List Marine service), crisp Pineapple sails, new standing rigging (including top of mast), rollaway head, and a great napping berth. Designed by William Roué of legendary ‘Bluenose’ schooner fame. Twenty-one-ft waterline, 8-ft beam, 4.5-ft draft, 4700-lb displacement, and one of the sweetest sailers that just happens to be undeniably pretty. $10,500. Richmond rgriffoul@sbcglobal.net (510) 290-0955
30 FT wylieCaT 30 1997 . New square-top made by Ullman sails in Santa Cruz. Powered by a Yanmar 1GM10: runs great. Boat’s clean and ready to sail. Text me at 949-9458470 Dave. $43,000. Newport Beach lagunawide@gmail.com (949) 945-8470
30 FT Knarr 1998 . ‘Fifty/Fifty’ has a fiberglass hull and is the last and most recent Knarr built by Borresen boatyard. Classic boat in excellent condition – a joy to race and sail! $42,500 OBO. San Francisco, CA stone_paul_a@yahoo.com (408) 8767197
30 FT yanKee one ClaSSiC wooden raCing SlooP 1949 . Master Mariners award-winning sailboat designed by William Starling Burgess and Stone-built. ‘Flame’ was totally restored in 2015. Varnished wood hull. Roller furling. Complete survey in 2023 available. “A Sailor’s Saiboat.” $49,900. Richmond, CA stefroche916@gmail.com
30 FT CaTalina 1979 . Unique opportunity to own a coastal cruiser of great repute located in the very safe/ secure marina at the Hotel Grand Isla de Navidad only a few miles north of the Manzanillo Airport at the heart of the central Mexican West Coast cruising waters. The well maintained boat is also equipped with davits, a Universal 5434 diesel engine with less than 500 running hrs and a number of recent uprades. Contact owner. $19,600. MX West Coast helenekbeauchemin@gmail.com +52 (312) 107-7417
30 FT eriCSon 30+ 1980. Five-anda-half-ft draft keel. Version,0 Universal Diesel, new propane two-burner stove conversion. Rigging replaced late ’90s. Two mainsails. Original roller jib. $13,000 OBO. Sausalito newcombarger@yahoo.com (415) 3426230
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. $14,000. Marina del Rey, CA welter.ryan@gmail.com (949) 554-9390
31 FT CaTalina 310 2000. Must see to believe! Excellent condition. Set up to singlehand. Hoyt jib boom, self tending. Bow thruster and dodger new. Doyle mainsail and stack pack recent. Standing and running rigging have been replaced. Pulled. Painted and engine serviced April 2024. 1155 engine hrs. Same owner for 18 years. Many upgrades and custom interior. Walkaround queen berth. Perfect couple’s cruiser. Sausalito transferable slip. $68,500 REDUCED. Sausalito, CA jimlewitt@gmail.com (415) 302-6823
34 FT CaTalina 1993 . ‘Rollover’ is a well-equipped boat. All running rigging is led aft for easy solo sailing and family cruising. Recent bottom paint, electric windlass, and (2) sails in great shape. Overall very good condition. Clean! $59,900. San Francisco, CA marypestell@gmail.com
32 FT CaTalina 320 2002. ‘Grace Kellie’ is the perfect family cruiser. She features a roomy layout with a functional galley, a large dinette that converts to a berth, a private aft cabin, and a V-berth forward. Her wide beam extends aft, creating a voluminous cockpit with cushions, princess seats on the stern, fold-up wood table, and walk-through transom for easy access to the swim step. She has been well maintained and is in excellent condition. She has new AGM starting and house batteries. $67,000. San Francisco cdlowe1769@sbcglobal.net (408) 8009560
34 FT BeneTeau 331 2000. ‘Boomtown’ is lively and well maintained. She’s ready to go and often seen cavorting on S.F. Bay. Simple systems, easy to sail and ideally suited for Bay and coastal cruising. She’s comfortable at a mooring or on the hook for a weekend or longer. Roller furling jib, in-mast furling, and power winch make life simple. Hauled and painted every 2 to 3 years and dived on regularly. All systems below are clean, well maintained and functioning well. Westerbeke 27hp. with low hrs, never misses a beat! Currently being serviced: raw water flush, oil change etc., and full interior/exterior detailing. For more information or to schedule a viewing, please contact Joe. $60,000. Berkeley, CA cunliffe@sbcglobal.net (510) 648-9253
35 FT deHler 34 1985. ‘Private Reserve’ — Dutch-built racer-cruiser. Tiller, all lines led aft, all-teak interior, new batteries, Yanmar with 1900+ hrs, recently updated standing and running rigging, Q4 2024 haulout. Text for details. Also possible: fractional ownership or no-equity partnership, or use as a trade for a full-keel 36- 42-ft cruiser. $18,000 OBO. S.F. South Beach Harbor valtaft@gmail.com (650) 670-5300
32 FT CHallenger 1976. Fantastic liveaboard/cruising boat. This beamy boat has plenty of headroom. Good storage options. Sleeps 5. Bone dry. Email or text for more pictures. No trades. $12,000 OBO. Antioch, CA marwellmethod@gmail.com (510) 3257144
34 FT exPreSS 34 1986. 1986 “Boat of the Year” 1987 Sailing World Magazine. One of Carl Schumaker’s finest designs. Two-burner stove with oven, hot water. Almost-new North main, lightly used North jib on Harken roller furling, many bags of sails, two spinnaker poles, raceready, fully equipped. Priced to sell. $35,000 OBO. Richmond Yacht Club karlengdahl10@gmail.com
35 FT FanTaSia 35 MK ll 1979. In very good condition and ready to go. Most all systems upgraded including standing rigging and lifelines. Above-deck Maxwell windlass, Profurl 4200 genoa furler, ComNav autopilot, Vector AIS, Dometic fridge in updated galley and full stand-up workroom are just some of the features that make so much in a 35-ft boat. Ten-inch pillow top mattress! Runs great! ComNav Commander P2 color autopilot, Octopus hydraulic steering ram, Blue Sky charge controller, new lifelines (2018), new rigging (2018), New Found Metals stainless ports, Garmin chartplotter, Vesper SP160 antenna splitter, Vesper XB-8000 AIS, Standard Horizon AIS/GPS VHF w/remote handset in cockpit, Iverson freestanding bimini, lazy jacks, transom hoist. $45,000 carey.shine@gmail.com (541) 973-9562
32 FT eriCSon 32 1972. In excellent shape. Wheel steering and roller furling jib. Many new features: instruments, cockpit canvas, dodger and window screen, mainsail stack, boom kicker (eliminates uphaul) and new head. Engine hrs < 500 on Universal diesel. Recent hull paint fall 2023. Many custom features including cockpit dining table. Very well maintained. Reason for sale is my age and health. For more photos and info see Craigslist URL. $20,900. Oakland North Marina gumdoc@mac.com (510) 368-9611 www. tinyurl.com/2ed8rh4p
34 FT PeTerSon 34 1979. Refit over the last several years. I am getting a bigger boat. Lots of major upgrades, some new sails, winches, clutches, decks redone, plumbing, new wiring, chartplotter, VHF, MFD in cockpit, autopilot. New head, bottom paint with barrier coat done in fall 2023, new cutlass bearing, motor mounts. Fuel tank was recently cleaned with all new fuel lines. Two-cylinder Yanmar diesel. Looks a little rough but runs great. Has a two-blade folding prop. Sails include new genoa, newer main, lots of spinnakers and old race sails. Standing/running rigging in great shape. Tough old boat, very well built, solid shape structurally. Allan Andrews keel and rudder. $25,000. Ventura, CA scottnordeng@gmail.com (805) 953-4458
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
32 FT HerreSHoFF 1998. Sail around the world!! Beautiful, strong cruising cutter. Herreshoff-designed, bowsprit and boomkin, cold-molded 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. Call Ken’s cell 925 786-7878. P.S. Consider adding an electric motor. $22,500. Berkeley, CA (925) 786-7878
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. $34,900. Tiburon sailingfearless@gmail.com 415-745-2292
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
32 FT gulF PiloTHouSe 1980. Fully equipped. Radar, color GPS, built-in battery charger, modern autopilot, solar panels, 12V fridge, water heater, anchor winch. All sails restitched. Two steering stations. Tools and spares. $15,000. Long Beach darblessing@gmail.com (562) 537-3720
38 FT HugHeS 38 CruiSer 1980 . BUKH diesel inboard motor serviced summer 2024. Mainsail storm orange like new. Storm jib orange like new. Spinnaker 950 sq. ft. Genoa 1 & 3. Autopilot Autohelm 5. GPS portable 12 Garmin. 6-foot keel (6400 lbs). Sleeps 6. Solar panel. Sold as is — needs some TLC. One owner. $17,500. North Bay Village, Miami ,FL ambersluck@shaw.ca (250) 327-9642
38 FT x-yaCHTS x-382 2002. Exquisite example of X-Yachts’ transition into performance cruising. No expense was spared building and fitting out this wonderful example of Danish boatbuilding. Always loved, expertly maintained, and extensively upgraded with quality gear. Excellent condition. $139,000 OBO. Ventura cmldesign@gmail.com (650) 380-3095
35.9 FT Mariner 36 1979. ‘Susie’ in Santa Rosalia, Sea of Cortez, cruiser for 16 years. Currently in Guymas on the hard. Fully equipped off-grid boat, Boat perfect for a couple. Well found and fast. Maxwell windlass Bruce 40lb main anchor 250″ 5/16 chain. Cape Horn vane. Perkins 108. Bruce stern anchor. Spectra water maker. Technautics refrigeration. 240 watts of solar/ new controller, and inverter charger. Modified fin keel, skeg hung rudder. Eight foot Achilles with 3.5 horse Tohatsu. Stack pack 135 Genny, profurl furler. Spectra Santa Cruz water maker, sails are in good shape. Standard Horizon VHF radio, Raymarine radar, Lorance chart plotter. Richie compass. Needs new instrumentation, depth sounder (the important one) works just fine. Call for more pictures. $25,000. Guaymas, Sonora, MX in storage greatscoot@hotmail.com (520) 988-7529
38 FT down eaST SlooP 1976. During ownership of ‘Anita’ we’ve done the following: Sandblasted the bottom, faired in and coated with 2 coats of marine epoxy, painted. Installed new Yanmar 53hp diesel w/new fuel tank, drive train. Installed 90% new wiring, batteries, panels etc. New SS stanchions, bow and stern pulpits. Installed Corian counter tops, new cushions and solid teak chart table top and a heavy duty Lofrans windlass. New 300-ft 5/6-in G4 chain. Other improvements and gear, too numerous to mention. ‘Anita’ has great headroom in saloon, giant V-berth, freeboard of a much larger boat, huge amount of storage space. Search URL for sailing adventures in SoCal. Courtesy to brokers. $49,500 capnernie1@aol.com www.tinyurl.com/ ynxxcca2
37 FT alSBerg BroTHerS exPreSS 37 1985. ‘Limitless’ is a proven offshore and inshore racer/cruiser with a proven winning record with many podium finishes. A Transpac and Pacific Cup racing veteran, ‘Limitless’ is ready to go to Hawaii in turnkey condition. There’s an extensive sail inventory including class carbon fiber mains, cruising Dacron main with new Tides Marine track. The sail inventory includes E/P, Ullman, Quantum and Hyde sails from 2016 to present, some new never-used sails (A5, Code 0, A4). Also, new 2023 Ballenger spar with new rod rigging, newer running rigging, two carbon fiber spinnaker poles and reaching strut. Many more extras included…. $69,500 Price reduction. San Pedro, CA E37LLfast@aol.com (310) 720-0620
37 FT CSy 37 1979. Mexico vet ready to go again. Heavy-construction bluewater boat. One of the roomiest 37s around. Three cabins, two heads. New Beta Marine engine, two fridge/freezers. CPT autopilot. Good sails with asymmetrical spinnaker, recent standing rigging plus much more. After 50 years of cruising, I’ve gone over to the dark side with a trawler, so this needs to go. Check out Practical Sailor review at URL. $35,000. Point Richmond sailorboyone@gmail.com (530) 219-1566 www.tinyurl.com/4jkj9jky
38 FT HC 38 M K i i 1981. Ready for new ownership. Located in Mazatlán, MX. Great weather and workers available. Mazatlán, MX lord41897@mypacks.net
39 FT Freya 2003. Proven famous bluewater cruiser/racer. Every amenity for safety and comfort except air conditioning. Lying San Diego, ready for the Ha-Ha. Turbocharged Yanmar recently rebuilt. Bristol condition. Tall rig, 13 standing riggings, 13 halyards, two autopilots, two chartplotters, windvane steering and much more. Complete suite sails for heavy weather, paraglider spinnaker, Jordan series drogue, Dynaplate grounding to mast, sleeps 6. Watermaker, hydraulic backstay. Email or call. $120,000. San Diego berniekreten@yahoo.com (916) 335-6555
39 FT Cal 39 MK ii 1981. Tall rig with shoal keel. Westerbeke diesel. Profurl. CPT autopilot. New headliner. $19,900. Richmond ccackerma@gmail.com
39 FT Cal 39-2 1977. ‘Sea Star’ is for sale. For details see URL. $39,000 bob@bobwalden.com www.tinyurl.com/ Buyseastar
39 FT irwin CiTaTion 1979. Built in Florida for San Francisco Bay. Great liveaboard and coastal cruiser. 2023 bottom painted. Extensive rebuild/replacement of most systems in 2006 including Yanmar 3JH4. Monitor vane/e-rudder. dodger/bimini. Call or email. $45,000. Richmond, CA svcasablanca1979@gmail.com (925) 391-1250
37 FT Tayana MK 2 CuTTer 1986. Ba nyadah (home on the water) is a sound vessel with many features; some cosmetic work required. Perfect for someone looking to get into an offshore boat at an affordable price. Most work is DIY. She has faithfully taken us on 1000s of sea miles and is looking for her new family. (Sadly, our current circumstances mean it won’t be us.) Please email or call for full details. $15,000 OBO. Sausalito jaygrant11383@gmail.com (415) 4136707
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
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, two-cylinder 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. $15,000. Pt. Richmond Marina, CA franzsteinerarchitect@comcast.net (510) 914-1289
42 FT ConTeST deCK Salon 1982. High-quality Dutch offshore fast cruiser. Skeg rudder, Yanmar1540 hrs. Onan gen 660 hrs. Good sails, rig and B&G electronics, radar, solar, 2x Depth, 2x GPS plotters. No teak decks, big aft cabin. Ready to go. $88,000. Ventura, CA distantbeat@gmail.com (805) 574-9791
49 FT HylaS 47/49 1989. Well equipped, with H49 stepped transom. Custom stern arch and hard bimini w/1000W solar panels. Yanmar 4JH3E diesel, watermaker, two autopilots, washer, fridge, freezer. Corian countertops. All modern electronics. Ten winches, windlass. Cutter rig, Profurl, slab reefs, Sta-Lok terminals. Four sails. Three cabins. Classic wood interior. Seaworthy world cruiser. Owned and maintained by Navy vet/submersible pilot/USCG 500 Ton Master since 2002. Great liveaboard located St. Thomas, USVI, with mooring. All toys, tools, spares — everything included. Reduced price for quick sale. Price firm. Email for more info. $149,000. St. Thomas, USVI kirktek@gmail.com (540) 353-6245
40 FT PaSSPorT 40 1983. This is a world-capable yacht, ready to take you cruising. Beautiful yacht in really good condition. She is cutter-rigged with oversized rigging and extra cockpit winches. Major equipment has been replaced or renewed. She is cruise-equipped. Call or email. $110,000. Orcas Island, WA svlandsend@yahoo.com (360) 632-8896
47 FT nelSon MareK 1996. Custombuilt racer-cruiser model with beautiful lines and a shallow draft. Well equipped for cruising. Comfortable saloon with three-cabin layout and two heads. Great galley space with Force 10 three-burner stove/oven and DC refrigeration system. Epoxy construction. Yanmar diesel. Schaefer in-boom roller furling mainsail. Harken roller furling headsail. Lewmar electric-powered halyard winch. Cockpit dodger, etc. Needs some TLC, but the deal of the century. Come and get it. $20,000. Tiburon
FT
two heads and showers. Very clean boat throughout!! Original owner. Raymarine electronics, radar and Smartpilot. Yanmar engine with 53hp and 367 hrs. Lewmar windlass. $179,000. San Francisco, CA marypestell@gmail.com
44 FT Kelly PeTerSon 1979. Classic offshore cutter. New in the last 3 years: Profurl, running and standing rigging, radar tower, Zeus 3S 9, HALO20+, Cebro, forward head, new H2O and sanitation hoses, 12V rewire, stanchion bases, propane system and much more. Health issues force sale. Socalsailmail at yahoo for details and photo packet. $75,000. San Carlos Sonora, MX socalsailmail@yahoo.com www.drive. google.com/drive/folders/1TGsR157tp obWXIy2ReZMlk9xGMI0x7UZ?usp=d rive_link
50 FT ValianT 2004. Custom-built for the original owners 20 years ago. Valiants are known for their super-strong construction, and for the way they sail shorthanded. Designed and built for the shorthanded crew, the 50-ft Valiant is the queen of the fleet with her newly expanded true cutter sail plan, and featuring a double-spreader rig mast and anchor bowsprit. An amazing opportunity presents itself! This is the only Valiant 50 built with the Pullman berth and forepeak storage. More photos and details are available upon request. $399,000. Redwood City, CA sail.legacy@gmail.com (415) 572-0891 www. svlegacy.net
41 FT iS lander Free P orT 1976. 58 hrs major overhaul Perkins154, new Autohelm 5000, new 5/16-inch ss standing rigging, Raymarine E7 Downvision sonar display geared for Pacific Puddle Jump, all safety equipment included. $45,000 OBO. San Carlos, Sonora, MX nissenkj54@gnail.com (707) 450-7523
50 FT Fd-12/Tayana 1980. Offshore cruiser. Modified fin keel, cored hull, teak decks. Repowered engine 110hp Volvo 5-cylinder turbodiesel less than 100 hrs, generator, electronics. Two cabins forward, large master cabin, galley, refrigerator. Two heads. Fuel 300 gal, water 300 gal, 75 gal holding. Call or text. $125,000 OBO. Ventura binfordmort@gmail.com (323) 399-6472
43 FT C&C 43-1 1971. “Limited edition” 43 by Bruckmann. A multi-year repair/restoration completed in 2022. Roller furling, Harken batt cars, and autopilot allow shorthanding. Windlass and anchor package makes anchoring efficient. See SailboatData.com C&C43-1 page for layout and specifications. $46,500. Port Ludlow, WA Calypso43@outlook.com
46.5 FT Morgan 462 1981. Owned since 2011. Solid cruiser. Comfortable boat will make a great liveaboard. Ten-hour sail south to Puerto Vallarta. Overnight sail north to Mazatlán. New stainless steel port lights. Reconditioned hatches. New instruments. Reconditioned engine. $10,000 OBO. Marina Fonatur, San Blas, Nayarit, MX koolekat1958@hotmail.com www.bit.ly/ morgan462
46 FT Cal 2-46 KeTCH/SolenT 1975. REDUCED Want to cruise/live aboard in comfort/style in one of these grand old ladies? Don’t want to spend years in a boatyard before you can go? This is the boat for you. Cal2.46.DreamCatcher.forsale@gmail.com. $79,500 Cal2.46.DreamCatcher.forsale@gmail. com
48 FT Tayana 2008. Deck salon. Well outfitted and ready for cruising. Many recent upgrades. Pride of ownership. and recent pre-survey. Priced below survey value. Contact Wes Koenig. $379,000. Bellingham, WA weskoenig@msn.com (360) 201-2459
40 FT CHeoy lee rHodeS deSign 1967. Beautiful cruiser ready! 20 gph watermaker. Generator, solar, wind generator, 6-passenger life raft. Glass decks, 3-cabin layout. Full canvas cover. Rebuilt Perkins. Everything in working order. Turnkey. Immaculate condition. $40,000. Huatulco, Oaxaca, MX watersports54@yahoo.com (559) 9037402
45 FT BeneTeau oCeaniS 45 2012. Boat is currently berthed in Papeete, French Polynesia. She is fully equipped for ocean passage, in fact we have sailed her in 2022 Baja Ha-Ha, stayed till 2023 in Sea of Cortez, then did Puddle Jump to Tahiti, where the boat is now. She has new saildrive, watermaker, hundreds of upgrades and options. I also have current (2024) marine survey. Please see details at URL. Email me for full inventory of the boat. Thank you! $195,000 OBO. Papeete, Tahiti karwas@gmail.com (408) 702-0695 www. tinyurl.com/4jktwkwb
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).
$29,000 OBO. Marina Bay, Richmond, CA seanmcal@gmail.com (310) 971-5208
47 FT Ted CarPenTier lido SHiPyard 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
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 1958 Fully reFiT in 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 15 years cruising about the world; maybe now it’s your turn. Fall in love with your dream boat. Lots of good kit included in the sale, she can be ready to sail to Norway in 2025! Contact C. Masters for complete list. $69,500 NEW PRICE!! Ipswich, Suffolk, UK svendeavor1958@gmail.com (206) 9603793
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. $39,900 OBO. Mexico geneosier@yahoo.com
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
53 FT Swan 1989 . A Germán Frers design. Interior is maintained in firstclass condition. Upholstery somewhat faded. Most important it is original. No DIY modifications. New mattress toppers. Google 1989 Swan 53, will provide sistership pictures. Vessel has new North mainsail. loaded with winches and deck gear. One year’s moorage included. A classic with many extras. Assured contact by text. Owner estate sale. $375,000 CDN dollars. Ladysmith, BC, Canada (Vancouver Island) sail.papillon@gmail.com (778) 710-9918
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. $185,000 OBO. Tiburon otterkicks@gmail.com (707) 499-9414 www.schoonershellback.com/
38 FT Henry J. Gielow Cutter 1935. Rebuilt over 14 years, ready to sail, member of the Master Mariners. Email for photo spread and comprehensive narrative. $59,500. Sierra Point Marina, Brisbane, CA richardsalvini@yahoo.com (650) 996-4215
34 FT laBruZZi 1917 . Built in San Francisco in 1917 by Alphonz LaBruzzi, this classic Bay cruiser has been awardwinning in the Classic Yacht Association. Well maintained in a covered slip in San Rafael, this vessel has recently been hauled for a bottom job and other work, bringing her to excellent condition. Current survey is available. Powered by Isuzu diesel with low hrs. Illness forces sale. $20,000 OBO. San Rafael Yacht Harbor stickypatoo@gmail.com (707) 882-1726
20 FT new MaHogany MoTor launCH 2023 . Professionally built replica of a 19th century fantail launch. Honduras mahogany on oak frames, teak deck and cabin. New 2-cyl Yanmar diesel 2023. Custom galvanized trailer. Will be displayed at Wooden Boat Show, Corinthian YC June 22–23. $21,000. Marshall Boat Works, Tomales Bay rvwedel@gmail.com (510) 233-0102
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
35 FT walTer greene aCaPella TriMaran 1982. ‘Humdinger’ has had two owners since new. Transatlantic race veteran, Round Britain and Ireland race in 1982, Route du Rhum also in 1982, chartered as ‘Aspen’. Pacific Northwest Swiftsure races. All with first owner. Boat moved to S.F. Bay in 1999 and extensively raced in SSS and BAMA events. Pacific Cup in 2014. Family and friends cruising CA coast as far as San Diego. Boat set up for singlehanded saiiing with lines led aft, Harken furler jib and screacher. ATN sock for spinnaker. Sails include carbon main, carbon jib, laminate screacher. All Pineapple. NewYamaha 9.9 outboard. USCG documented vessel. Email for complete equipment list. $75,000. Emery Cove Marina lnolsen@comcast.net
20 FT glaSTron gx199 1988 . Great shape older Glastron runabout. Never been in salt water. Light usage. Mercruiser V-8 engine. $7,000. Bethel Island, California Delta blmunro@sbcglobal.net (415) 900-5072
SailBoaT Trailer . 27 ft 5-ton double axle, electric brakes. Contact for photo. $2,000. Mendocino County retallic@pacific.net (707) 391-8605
rare 90-FT SliP oPPorTuniTy in S.F. Bay. $25,000 offered for buyer connection. Ideally located 90-ft slip just steps to the St. Francis Yacht Club; views of Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, Angel Island, Alcatraz, and quick access to the city, Palace of Fine Arts, Crissy Field. Enjoy Fleet Week, Opening Day on the Bay, Rolex Big Boat Series, and SailGP. A rare one-time opportunity to bypass the long waitlist and get into this rare large slip that includes two parking spaces. Couple it with a membership at St. Francis Yacht Club and you have a dream waterfront lifestyle. $1,000,000. 99 Yacht Rd, San Francisco, CA 94123 jeannine@caslips.com (714) 345-8330 www.caslips.com
ParTnerS wanTed For BerTH in San FranCiSCo. Partnership wanted for 45-ft wide slip at San Francisco Marina. Power and water extra. Located in S.F. Marina District by St, Francis and Golden Gate Yacht Clubs. World-class sailing! $1,800. San Francisco, CA gray.aida@gmail.com
aweSoMe 50 FT SliP Pier 39 San FranCiSCo . For sale: Stunning city views, 15-ft+ beam, 50-ft length. New cleats, dock box, power pedestal, and hose management. Perfectly located for entire Bay Area coverage and beyond. Very easy access, great maintenance team, parking, and more. $24,000. Slip G-32, Pier 39 Marina greg.rossmann@gjrcap.com (650) 7400263
eMery CoVe BoaT SliP For renT. Berths for rent. Emery Cove Yacht Harbor 35-ft = $472.50/month C dock and 40-ft = $540/month E dock. Dockominiumrun marina in Emeryville. emerycove. com. Brand-new docks, aluminum with Ipe wood deck, brand-new restrooms, beautiful grounds and just dredged. Great location center of S.F. Bay. Email studio6161@icloud.com. Emeryville, CA www.emerycove.com
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
J/111 ParTnerSHiP. I’m looking for partner(s) to buy a J/111 with and race it, sail it, and as a bonus, we can make some $$ with it. Great boat/rating, fastfun, and I have a prime berth in S.F. S.F. spinnaker.sailing@yahoo.com www. tinyurl.com/5n6ztvbf
alBin 36 Trawler 50% eQuiTy ParTnerSHiP. Classic. Beautifully maintained, fiberglass hull. Seeking a Marin County partner with sound boating experience. December 2024 marine survey available. Must be seen. $30,000. Clipper Yacht Harbor, Sausalito byronmfox@gmail.com (415) 307-2405
PuTTing TogeTHer a ParTnerSHiP. Had a great partnership in the ’90s. Hope to have an even better one soon. This is the opportunity to help shape the partnership. My thinking: 3-4 partners on a 20-year-old 30-36-ft well maintained sloop, berthed at Pier 40 or other, balancing drive time from the Peninsula with sail time to Angel Island, $25-35K each for boat procurement and initial repairs, $250-350/mo each for ongoing maintenance. Flexible on all points. $30,000. San Francisco mitch@bayward.com
raCing ParTnerSHiP wanTed . Looking to join or create a syndicate, and/or purchase boat for racing, 34-ft or smaller, requiring max 6 crew. Many racing years, 5 years racing experience on S.F. Bay. Looking to share back-ofthe-boat position, driver and/or main, but can do any position in a pinch. Equity or operational open to possibility. cah72360@gmail.com
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.F. Bay Area Glen Cove Home. If you aren’t participating in the Thursday night “Regatta on the Strait” you can watch it from home. This appealing 4BD/2.5BA home boasts vaulted ceilings, a gourmet kitchen, and fresh updates including new carpet, a new roof, and exterior paint. Glen Cove Marina, 2014’s Small Marina of the Year, is just one mile by car or a 10-min scenic walk on the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Call Morrison Real Estate. $749,000. Glen Cove, Vallejo, CA morrisonrealestate8@gmail.com (888) 800-0886 www.DinaMorrison.com
draMaTiC waTerFronT alaMeda TownHoMe. 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
Villa w i TH 60 FT d o CK For sale, with 60-foot dock. Located on the end of a canal, easy access to the lagoon and Pacific Ocean, and a well-known documented safe “hurricane hole” that allows you to continue insurance during hurricane season without extra cost. This area is one of few on the entire western seaboard and can save thousands in moving costs and famous for big-game fishing. The dock is perfect for a powerboat because of the depth. The villa has two homes and is currently run as a vacation rental with four suites, pool, palapa, outdoor kitchen and more. Please see website for more information and photos. $689,000. Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, MX info@villasantabarbara.ca (315) 115-7196 www.villasantabarbara.ca
a MaSTerPieCe oF Modern arT on THe San FranCiSCo Bay. Discover modern luxury in this architectural masterpiece, built of steel, glass, and concrete. Suspended over the San Francisco Bay, this one-of-a-kind home features a private 45-ft primary deep-water dock and 25-ft guest dock both with seamless access to the San Francisco Bay. Nestled in the exclusive Brickyard Cove community, this stunning property is perfectly positioned adjacent to the Richmond Yacht Club, offering an ideal waterfront lifestyle. $2,950,000. Point Richmond, CA Brickyard Cove mark@theledererteam.com (510) 7744231 www.tinyurl.com/3x9s6c95
Maine CoaST CoTTage For renT
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
aCT i V e r a C ing BoaT Building Crew. Sub-110 PHRF asym boat, with a very busy calendar, seeking one or two more crew to add to the roster. Boat has a very solid crew, missing a main piece to make us consistent front-runners. Well prepared boat with crisp inventory. East Bay humblevandalsailing@yahoo.com (650) 722-2777
e x P erien C ed l ong-Ter M Crew w a n T e d. INDIVIDUAL OR ONE BERTH TEAM Custom 55 trimaran, well-maintained and equipped, proven passage maker. 2025/2026 San Juan Islands to Panama. Please see URL for detailed boat information, crew requirements and contact information. www.svSurrender.com
laTiTude 38 ‘aMBaSSador’;. Latitude 38 is seeking an “Ambassador.” The ideal candidate is a sailor based in the SF Bay Area, is friendly, outgoing, well-organized and a self-starter with excellent communication skills. They are someone who can work independently as well as manage a team of volunteers. An ambassador encourages enthusiasm, understands the scope and goal of a project and is able to appreciate, respect and organize a team of volunteers to execute a project with efficiency and eagerness. This is an ideal position for someone who is financially secure and looking to stay active and social, and is excited to be part of our vibrant sailing community. Meet and greet the great people who help us distribute the magazine. Read about a few of them here: www.latitude38. com/lectronic/meet-great-people. Email Penny with AMBASSADOR in the subject line. This is a volunteer position, but a stipend will be offered. SF Bay Area Penny@latitude38.com
Two Har B or S Har B or PaT rol Po S i T ion S aVaila B le. 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/
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
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
exPerienCed yaCHT BroKer / SaleSPerSon needed . 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
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
PuerTo VallarTa BuSineSS For Sale. 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 FB: www.tinyurl. com/mjb9v9je. La Cruz , Nayarit, MX yummiesbydonyteri@gmail.com 52 (322) 275-3322 www.Yummies-Mexico.com.mx
Plan your MexiCan geTaway 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
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
ViKing liFe raFT. Viking valise life raft, offshore. I used for two Pac Cups. Needs repack. Great condition. $800. Redwood City captmaddog@gmail.com (650) 533-7732
SailBoaT eQuiPMenT For Sale . 4-cylinder Westerbeke 35 hp 1296 hrs 60 lbs oil pressure. Paragon transmission 1 to1 ratio. Comes complete from alternator to propellor. Will demo, $ 4,500. Garhauer heavy-duty traveler with heavyduty stainless risers $950. Vallejo, CA braypatrick615@gmail.com (925) 4781535
dieSel Marine engine . Westerbeke model #27A with HURTH transmission and original clutch. As new, never used, with original tags attached. $3,700. Pillar Point Harbor cherieerie@gmail.com
yanMar 2yM15 dieSel Maine MoTor. This YANMAR 2YM15 diesel motor is a reliable and powerful option for any boat owner. With a 2-stroke engine and 15 HP, this motor is sure to provide the thrust needed for a comfortable and safe ride. YANMAR 2YM15 is a great choice. It’s easy to install and will provide consistent performance for years to come. Don’t miss the opportunity to upgrade your boat’s power with this topof-the-line motor. $975. Moss Landing pcummins569@gmail.com (831) 2477939
CruiSing gear. Offshore Commander 3.0 life raft 4 person $1700. EPIRB global V5 cat 2 $600. Fortress collapsible anchor with storage bag 21 lb. $450. 200 ft. 5/8 rode with 50 ft. chain $300. Watermaker Rainman portable high-output 30 gallons + per hour with self-contained Honda generator $4500. All items like new. Reno, NV twasik6747@gmail.com (775) 691-9147
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″
Alameda Marina / Pacific Shops Inc. 16 www.alamedamarina.net/
ATN ................................................ 27 www.atninc.com
Baja Ha-Ha Rally .............................. 84 www.baja-haha.com
Berkeley Marina ............................... 18 www.berkeley-marina.com
Berkeley Marine Center ..................... 26 www.berkeleymarine.com
Boat Yard at Grand Marina, The 12 www.boatyardgm.com
Brisbane Marina 61 www.brisbaneca.org/marina
Canvas Works 25 www.thecanvasworks.com
Club Nautique 13 www.clubnautique.net
Cruising Yachts 17 www.cruisingyachts.net
Denison Yachting .............................. 99 www.denisonyachtsales.com
DeWitt Studio ................................... 96 www.jimdewitt.com
Division of Boating & Waterways 57 www.dbw.ca.gov
Emery Cove Yacht Harbor 37 www.emerycove.com
EZ Sextant ........................................ 28 www.thirdreefsw.com
Fisheries Supply Co. .......................... 61 www.fisheriessupply.com
Gianola Canvas Products ................... 32 www.gianolacanvas.com
Grand Marina 2 www.grandmarina.com
Haven Boatworks 60 www.havenboatworks.com
Helmut's Marine Service 29 www.helmutsmarine.com Hood Sails 15 www.hoodsails-sf.com
33 www.hydrovane.com
Hylas Yachts
Owl Harbor Marina .......................... 50 www.owlharbor.com
Punta Mita Beachfront Condos 34.77.97 www.latitude38.com
Quantum Pacific 72 www.quantum.com
Raiatea Carenage Services 85 www.raiateacarenage.com
Richard Boland Yacht Sales 98 www.richardbolandyachts.com
Richardson Bay Marina 28 www.richardsonbaymarina.com
Richmond Yacht Club 51 www.richmondyc.org
Rondar / Spinnaker Sailing San Francisco 27 www.spinnaker-sailing.com
Ronstan Marine, Inc. 20 www.ronstan.com
Rubicon Yachts 5.6.7 www.rubiconyachts.com
SailGP 73 www.sailgp.com Sailrite Kits
www.sailrite.com
San Francisco Boat Works 64 www.sfboatworks.com
San Francisco on the Bay 35 www.sfonthebay.com/list-38
San Juan Sailing 30 www.sanjuansailing.com
Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors/ SAMS 29 www.marinesurvey.org
South Beach Harbor 8 www.sfport.com/southbeachharbor
Spaulding Marine Center 77 www.spauldingcenter.org
St. Francis Yacht Club 33 www.stfyc.com
Summer Sailstice 65 www.summersailstice.com
Svendsen's Bay Maritime 9 www.sbm.baymaritime.com
Swiftsure Yachts 14 www.swiftsureyachts.com
Sails
Francisco & Monterey Bay
Precision Details
www.boatdetailing.com
Marina
Richard: 510-610-6213
Mik: 510-552-7272
Rob: 619-552-6943
Barney: 510-541-1963
David: 781-526-8469
Michael: 831-236-5905
George 415-793-9376
Stephenie 415-299-9780
