From the Boathouse: A media man at America’s Cup

Ahoy!

What a busy nautical schedule I have plotted on my chart, and my first waypoint on Friday is San Francisco.

I will be flying, not boating, to the America’s Cup media center, located in the center of the racing at the America’s Cup Park at San Francisco’s Pier 27. The media center is inside the newly built cruise ship terminal. Support services include conference rooms, interview rooms, lounge areas, WiFi Internet and service teams to help wayward media professionals like me.

I will be attending Race 3 out of potentially seven races of the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinal rounds. The Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 and Artemis Racing are in the semifinals, and both are vying for the one open spot in the finals to compete against Emirates Team New Zealand. The winner of the finals will be challenging the Oracle Team USA for the distinguished America’s Cup trophy.

The first race day for the semifinals was Tuesday. Luna Rossa Challenge crossed the finish line first, two minutes before Artemis Racing. Luna Rossa’s skipper, Max Sirena, and his crew completed the 15.38-nautical mile course with the winds averaging 16 knots across the bay during the race. However, the semi’s are going to be very exciting, especially at the beginning of the series, since each team will be out for blood. Wednesday will have held Race 2 of the semifinal round.

After the exciting day in San Francisco that evening, I will immediately fly south to my next waypoint at the Lake Arrowhead Yacht Club for racing on Saturday and Sunday. This is the last sailing race series of the season. The Championship Series consists of three weekends and nine races to conclude the fabulous summer racing series.

I will be sailing with my teammates, Kurt Zimmerman, who is the owner and skipper, and Annie Keller, who works the forward position, and I will take my seat in the middle working the multiple lines. The three of us sail great together aboard the orange-colored C-Scow No. 911, also known as Yacht Rod. Motor heads will see the play on words, yet we are on the water.

Lastly, I have an update to my column last week about the yacht delivery services of Dockwise Yacht Transport. Catalina Bujor, the marketing officer for Dockwise, sent me an email explaining a change in the ports of call.

“I wanted to make you aware that we no longer call on La Paz or Ensenada,” she said. “Golfito, Costa Rica, is as far as we go on the West Coast. Then we head down under and back via Golfito, then on to Port Everglades, Florida, Martinique, with Palma de Mallorca as the drop off in the Med. “We will keep you in mind should we hear of any clients who need help from Golfito north.”

I will relay any news if I hear of any deliveries northbound along the US Pacific Coast.

The tip of the week is we are in the middle of the boating season, even though the boating season along the coast in Southern California is year-round because of our great weather. Actually, I find the off-season months to be the best for getting out on the water. You have less traffic and cooler air temperatures than in the middle of summer.

The local professional meteorologists usually have an easy task of reporting our sunny weather conditions, except when a storm threatens to pound the Southland. The forecasts can be tricky since our West Coast weather normally travels west to east, and a lot of our pressure systems originate near Alaska, traveling south and east sometimes, making it a guess when the system will go east with the jet stream. Midwest forecasters generally look to the north and west to see what systems are approaching.

This weekend’s boating weather should be favorable, with the marine layer along the coast, hopefully, clearing by the afternoon. This will keep our daytime air temperatures on the cool side, in the low 70s, with nighttime temperatures dipping to the low 60s. The winds will be 5 knots, increasing to 10 knots in the afternoon, with 1- to 2-foot wind waves on the high seas.

Otherwise, the Pacific Ocean swells will be slightly increasing, from 2 to 3 feet coming from the west and a small, lingering 1-foot swell from the southerly direction. Boaters need to cruise with caution in the wee morning hours because of patchy fog.

Lastly, did you know that the voice you hear over the VHF marine band radio announcing the weather report is not real but automated?

Please be boat smart and boat safe. Lastly, please boat responsibly and look behind you before you turn the wheel at the helm.

Tune in to the No. 1 boating radio talk show in the nation, “Boathouse Radio Show,” broadcasting live coast-to-coast on the CRN Digital Talk Radio syndicated network. See times at https://www.boathousetv.com, https://www.facebook.com/boathouseradio and https://www.twitter.com/boathouseradio.

Safe voyages!

MIKE WHITEHEAD is a boating columnist for the Daily Pilot. Send marine-related thoughts and story suggestions to mike@boathousetv.com or go to https://www.boathousetv.com.