SIGHTINGS to ta-ta
north to alaska
continued on outside column of next sightings page 0AGE s Latitude
38 s -AY
That is the question. Several readers, cruisers, and allaround rally enthusiasts have written asking: What's up with this year's SoCal Ta-Ta? Well, to be honest, we're testing the waters to find out. If you're reading this in early May, please contact the Grand Poobah ASAP, at: richard@latitude38.com. To recap, for five of the last six years, Richard Spindler (aka the aforementioned Poobah), founder of Latitude 38 and the Baja Ha-Ha, has hosted the SoCal Ta-Ta, 'Reggae 'Pon Da Ocean', a Southern California mini version of the BOTH PHOTOS LATITUDE / JR
Readers who might not know Ants Uiga, a formerly Oakland-based sailor, may know of him through one of his creations. In 1984, while race chair of the Singlehanded Sailing Society, he came up with the idea for a little event called the Three Bridge Fiasco. Thirty-some boats participated that first year, and the rest, as they say, is history. These days, the 300+ boats that take part in this wintertime rite of passage make it one of the largest inland sailboat races in the country. Ants has been on something of a hiatus from sailing for a few years, devoting his retirement time to the pursuit of other interests such as fly fishing, the building of drift boats and rowing craft, and the rebuilding and enjoyment of vintage British motorcycles. So it's no surprise that it took another even more eclectic event than the TBF to bring him back to sailing. In June, he and two crew will set out on a Moore 24 named Team Silver Alert from Port Townsend, Washington, for the fourth running of the 750-mile Race Ants Uiga, the man who to Alaska, which ends in Ketchikan. invented the Three Bridge Ants has lived the last several years far Fiasco in 1984, plans to do from the ocean in a place called Bodfish, the Race to Alaska in 2018. California. Located in the mountains east of Bakersfield, most backyards and garages in Bodfish are filled with dirt bikes, hot rods, fishing boats and jet skis (the latter for use on nearby Lake Isabella). Decidedly out of place is Moore 24 hull #70, originally named Peptide. The 1980s George Olson design (and Ron Moore-constructed) ULDB seemed to Ants like the ideal craft for the event — and he drove all the way to Victoria to get this one. When we talked to him at the end of March, in addition to the usual race prep and light restoration work on the boat, he was fabricating the structures that would support the, ahem, two rowing stations — each equipped with 14-ft oars. Like we said, eclectic. Race rules for the R2AK are pretty simple: no motors, no support. Anything else goes. There was a guy last year who did the event on a standup paddleboard — and actually finished. Of course, for Team Silver Alert and the other sailboats, sailing is preferable, and the Moore 24 is a boat that does that very well, especially off the wind. But in the first three R2AKs — the inaugural event was in 2015 — winds have ranged from zero to, well, howling. Accurate forecasts are hard to get, so you have to be prepared for anything, thus the oars. Most of the track is up the Inland Passage (and most is in British Columbian waters, with only the last 20-30 miles in Alaska), which is good in the sense that participants are somewhat protected from large ocean swells. The bad news is you have to negotiate narrow inlets where the current can run up to 12 knots. Aboard for the trip will be Ants's longtime sailing partner Jim Mullarkey and Carol Klammer. Ants and Jim, who have sailed on and off together since the ‘80s, are both 69; Carol is 34. Now is probably a good time to explain that a ‘Silver Alert' in Washington is like an Amber Alert, except it refers to a senior citizen who has wandered away from an elder-care facility. This will be Ants's first R2AK and his main ‘tactic' is to keep the boat moving (some solo sailors anchor for the night), and to time the passages through those narrow inlets so they're going with those strong currents. There are no handicaps in the R2AK. Whoever gets to the finish line in Ketchikan first is the winner. For that boat, a $10,000 prize awaits. Second place gets a set of steak knives (really!). There are no