December Issue of Latitude 38 Out Now! – SFGate

Posted On: December 3, 2019

Happy holidays, Latitude Nation. And for all of you on the West Coast, the current deluge of rain marks the unofficial but totally welcome end of fire and power-outage season. We can think of no better way to rejoice than with a new copy of Latitude 38. Here’s a sneak peek.

Baja Ha-Ha XXVI — The Golden Years

“A total of 121 boats with 464 sailors started the 26th annual, 750-mile Baja Ha-Ha from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, with stops at Turtle Bay,” wrote the Grand Poobah in this year’s Ha-Ha recap, which leads off the December issue. We would like to thank the Poobah for cranking this story out on a tight deadline, and with a gazillion other jobs hanging over his head. We simply cannot thank Latitude 38’s founder and longtime publisher enough for this Herculean effort.

Martin Machado’s Fresh Coat of Paint

“Some buddies of mine — one of whom deckhands on my salmon skiff in Alaska — finally had an opening with the crew,” Martin Machado, an artist, sailor, fisherman and merchant marine who was featured in the pages of Latitude last year, said of his new-to-him boat partnership on the Pearson Commander Larus.

Among Martin Machado’s many maritime pursuits was this mural, which he painted at Facebook’s San Francisco offices in the spring. “There is a bit of imagery from The Landing at Erramanga, a work by William Hodges, who sailed with Captain Cook,” Machado told us.
© 2019 Anthony Roberts, courtesy of Facebook’s AIR Program

Where’d Windsurfing Go?

“Windsurfing was well represented in the pages of Latitude 38 in the magazine’s early days, before it slowly disappeared through the ’90s. In 2001, Sports Illustrated ran a story with the lengthy title, ‘Where have all the windsurfers gone? It was the adventure sport of the 1980s.’”

Clockwise from top left: Surfing pioneer Tom Blake putts around on his sailing surfboard invention in the 1930s; Newman Darby tests his windsurfing concept on a lake in Pennsylvania; An unknown rider sends it off Hs Lordships in Berkeley in 2017.
© 2019 From top left: ‘Wind & Water: The Invention of Windsurfing; Naomi Darby; Latitude / Tim

Changes in (Californian) Latitudes

Each month, we love hearing about West Coast sailors’ far-flung travels across the Seven Seas. But in this month’s Changes in Latitudes, we have a story about cruising grounds right in our backyard: The Channel Islands, which are sailable year round, but really shine in the fall.

All Hail the Queen

“During the Yacht Racing Association awards party at Berkeley Yacht Club in November, Latitude 38 crowned a new Queen,” wrote racing editor Chris Weaver. “A Queen of the Unofficial Women’s Circuit, that is. The Women’s Circuit is a loose list of women-skipper races and seminars that we feature in the annual Northern California Sailing Calendar and YRA Master Schedule. We had encouraged participants in those events to advise us of their own accomplishments or to nominate a worthy woman sailor.”

But Wait, There’s More

Let’s not forget about Max Ebb, who brings us a list of nautical reads this month — the perfect gift for sailing and non-sailing friends alike (we also have a review of sailing-themed books in Sightings). In this month’s Letters, we talk about an east- northeast gale in October that led to those pesky power outages; but don’t call this the ‘new normal’, said one reader. We’ll also have a profile on the cruising and racing Overton family, a brief history of the San Rafael-based Active, a quick look at Seaward’s facelift, and, of course, the winner of this month’s Caption Contest(!).

Please enjoy the full December issue — online and in print!