Two spaces left in Midwinter Clinic/Regatta
J World San Diego has two spaces left in the annual midwinter clinic and regatta starting next week. Spend five days (Wed-Sun) with J World coaches in a productive workshop covering everything from sail trim and boat-handling to strategy and tactics.
Visit here for more info, or give us a call! 800-910-1101
San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race Opportunity….
So our San Diego to Puerto Vallarta race programs this coming March was a sold out event… until we got a cancellation last week. So, some sailor out there is about to get lucky. About 1100 miles (mostly) downwind into the land of sunshine aboard a turboed 50 footer. This is a fully managed, turnkey program. What more could you possibly want?!?
So to whet your appetite, here’s a video from the last running of the SD-PV Race. We had a great team aboard, and an’ interesting’ year in the weather department. We started in some real breeze, and were just trucking. That’s our Hula Girl surfing at sustained 15-20 knots of boatspeed (at about 2:50-ish in the video). Then a couple days later things took a turn, and the breeze shut off down near Cabo. What’s in store for this year? Who knows, but that’s what makes it fun!
The berths aboard our Offshore Racing Programs generally fill up a year or more in advance, so this is a pretty rare opportunity. If the winter blues are taking their toll and you want to see all the blues the the Pacific can offer up, visit here and/or contact us for details.
Super Cool from Supercomputers
At this time of year when everyone seems to be gazing backwards and looking at the big picture of the past year, I thought I’d share a global view of a different sort. For us sailing nerds, this is amazingly cool (get ready to waste some time). Click here http://earth.nullschool.net/.
Wow, this is too awesome. You can view the globe in any projection, and the winds at various altitudes (click the text ‘earth’ to pull up the settings menu). Move forward in time for the forecasts. Click on a location, and you get wind speed and direction. Thanks to our friend Rich, creator of iNavX, for bringing it to our attention!
Anyway, as a final note, we here at J/World want to thank you all for being a part of our team. We wish all of you and yours a continued happy holiday season, and fantastic new year!
Fair winds, and following seas, as they say. And maybe you can use the above map to find them!
All the best,
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
Ridiculous…
Really, it’s just nuts. Completely ridiculous. The winter weather in Puerto Vallarta is something to behold. Rick, our lead instructor in PV, has been reporting impeccable sailing conditions which our J/80s have been loving, and yesterday yours truly made it out on the water on the Surfin’ 65 cat Profligate.
Yesterday was the the final day of the Banderas Bay Blast, a fun-focused, low-key ‘race’ spread out over three days which goes harbor/anchorage hoping and serves as a fundraiser for the schoolchildren in the area. It was pretty much a perfect day. There was a bit of surf out at the starting area. A great breakfast on the beach. Then it was out to the boats on a panga (our driver got a bit, shall we say, ‘sporty’ in the surf). And finally, the headliner, a downwind spinnaker run to Paradise Village.
A fun crew, perfect weather, quick boat, what more could anyone ask for? Oh yes, the whales…
Lots of whales playing about. Tough to see there in the background mostly because the limitations of my phone camera, but you get the idea.
If you want a getaway for some idyllic winter sailing, this really is the spot. And J World has plenty of options to get you out on the water!
Sunshine and Daydreams…
The San Diego Hot Rum is a tremendously fun event… In the days-long-gone (before the Age of Litigation) the entry fee was a bottle of rum (or a couple, depending on the size of your crew). While the sailors were finding their way around the racecourse, all the entry fees were ‘compiled’ in large vats, to which copious amount of whatever constitutes ‘hot butter’ were added, and voila… the makings far a great post race winter party were complete.
Nowadays, everything is pretty much the same. The boats may be sleeker and faster but the weather and good times persist. That picture above is San Diego in late November, Hot Rum #2 of 2013, beautiful day, big fleet, and Point Loma lurking in the background. Somewhere close to 80 degrees. Not too shabby.
Things running full tilt right now in San Diego and Puerto Vallarta. Get your sailing on.
Cheers,
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
Mid-Whaters??
Seriously? Mid-winters already? Hard to believe that the summer is gone, but seems to be so…
But the beautiful thing about the West Coast is that when winter comes, the sailing doesn’t go away! This is hot off the presses for you SF Bay Sailors:
Members of J/World’s BoatShare program will be participating in RegattaPRO’a WINTER ONE DESIGN INVITATIONAL SERIES aboard a J/105 with a J/World coach aboard.
They are looking for 2-3 enthusiastic crew members to join the team… Race dates will be November 9th, December 14th, January 11th and February 8th. Two races per day are scheduled. First Warning each day is 1130 hrs. The intended racing area will be the Berkeley Circle area. Courses will be windward/leeward courses.
The cost will be based on the total number of participants and will be a nominal sharing of the fee for the coach. Contact us here at J World for additional details…The first race is Saturday November 9, so we are looking to solidify the crew early next week. Please email us at info@sailing-jworld.com or call us at 510-271-4780.
Impossible…
Last week, hot on the heels of the America’s Cup, was the 2013 Rolex Big Boat Series. Could San Francisco possibly have been more beautiful for this event? No, I think not… absolutely impossible.
 |
| J/120s |
 |
| The classic short final run to the finish off St. Francis YC |
 |
| The J105 fleet charging off the line… |
We posted a lot of pictures on our website. Feel free to download and use whatever you like. For online use, we just ask that you add a credit and link to our website, www.sailing-jworld.com
Thanks to Swiftsure II for the cookies. And Walloping Sweede for the brownies. And Desdemona for the Bloody Marys and cerveza… gracias amigos!
All the best,
The J World Team
The Show
Ok, we’ve been pretty silent in our postings because the sailing scene around here has been anything but quiet. I don’t even know where to start in talking about the America’s Cup. I will be the first to admit that I had my reservations about the whole thing going into it, not the least of which were that the boats were too bleeding edge and the teams too few.
But in the end, it proved to be one of the best and most dramatic sailing events, ever. Man, what a great show. The boats were simply staggering to watch. The drama of how the event unfolded couldn’t have been written any better.
The whole Cup came down to one final race, with OTUSA tied on points with the Kiwi ETNZ. Both teams were fantastic, and the Kiwis really are the reason the event was so great. Without their fast boat, solid team, and admirable sportsmanship, this event would have never been the spectacle it was. That said, the comeback by the Americans to win it after being down 8-1 in points was mind blowing. That’s them above on their victory fly-by the cityfront (with New Zealand in the background)… and boy was it ever chaos on the Bay… look at that spectator fleet near the finish line!
And here we go, OTUSA heading for the barn with the fleet in pursuit….
And just for grins, here’s the replica of the America, the boat that started it all and loaned it’s name to the the trophy….
Congrats to OTUSA. And thank you to ETNZ. And here’s to hoping the next round will be in SF again, and will be as much fun as this one!
Wayne Zittel and the J World Team
Cool on the Bay…
Sailing/working with the Extreme 40 “Nespresso” at the America’s Cup venue this week…
Very cool boat. Very cool fleet. Pretty impressive scene that they have going on over in Europe (and elsewhere on the world circuit). Seriously, “elite level stadium racing?” So just when you think, “Man, why can’t the America’s Cup be like this?” your cool-ness gets eclipsed, put in perspective, as it were:
Ok, that’s very cool too, in a wholly different way. The AC is something totally different. Not better, not worse, just other. For all the foibles and politics and legal battles of the AC, when you see these things at speed in close quarters you realize that the boats and what all the teams have created is absolutely astounding. They truly are awesome… the boats – and the sailors of these machines – are nothing short of impressive.
Now back to reality: what would it take to get an Extreme 40 circuit going around here? Seriously, go here and check out any of the races…
Wayne Zittel
YouTube
