If you want a better handicap on the golf course, you contact a golf pro, if you want a better trip across the Atlantic, you talk to a pro-.

Gulf Stream experts Jenifer Clark, an oceanographer, and her husband, Dane, a meteorologist, will be giving a special workshop at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) on Saturday.

?Racing to Bermuda, The Gulf Stream and Weather Strategies Seminar? will give skippers and navigators exclusive tips on plotting an ocean race such as the annual Newport to Bermuda race.

?I have been doing the Gulf Stream since 1975; I l just love it,? said Mrs. Clark in a telephone interview. ?We call our service the ?AAA of the ocean?. My husband and I work together and create packages for the races.?

Currents in the Gulf Stream are forever changing, speeding up, moving around, battling with prevailing winds, changing temperatures. Finding the lucky current can mean the difference between winning and losing a sailing race. Understanding what is going on in the ocean can also save lives.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark both former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists. A couple of years ago they decided to go out on their own to freelance.

?The currents change all the time,? said Mrs. Clark. ?That is why I create an analysis of the Gulf Stream, three times a week. I did have one sailor send me a letter when I was at NOAA. In January, he wanted me to send him a chart for June. It is not like a map book. He didn?t know that things change every day, that is why I have a job.?

When conditions are bad in the Gulf Stream, Mr. Clark will sometimes advise mariners against sailing.

?He will advice them to delay their trip,? she said. ?When it comes to a race they have no choice, about when they start, however, in 1982, Dane had the Newport to Bermuda race postponed for two days, and saved lots of lives.?

For the 1982 Newport to Bermuda race there was a subtropical low pressure system off the coast of the United States making seas dangerous.

?A couple of boats went out anyway and did a 360 degree turn and someone was killed. His advice saved lives,? said Mrs. Clark. ?When the race did start, they had a beautiful spinnaker start. They put out these huge sails that are real pretty, but it wasn?t unsafe conditions.?

Besides helping racers, Mrs. Clark also advises on other issues relating to the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream.

?Recently, a guy died at sea on a cruise ship,? she said. ?He had a heart attack. Officials had to decide whether he died in the Gulf Stream or outside of it. If it was in the Gulf Stream it was international waters, otherwise it was Florida waters. I had to pull up data and analyse it. Due to the mid surface temperature, I knew they were in the stream when he died. So it became international.?

The Clarks have also guided countless row boats across the Atlantic Ocean.

?One guy died, but most make it across in these small boats,? she said. ?We had a guy who came to me who had bone cancer and had to find a vacation spot where the water was always warm. I sent him to Florida in August. It made his bones ache if the temperature went below 80 degrees.?

Mrs. Clark said last year they gave advice regarding a huge cold eddy circulating counter clockwise straddling the rhumb line, the straight line from Newport to Bermuda.

?The current speeds were four to six knots,? she said. ?That is extremely high. They had to get on the west side of the rhumb line, but to get there they had to get through the stream which was adversely flowing to the Northeast. I had to send them way to the west to get through the Gulf Stream at its shortest distance and then get into this cold eddy.

?A lot of the routing software told them to go east of the rhumb line. That was a possibility, but it was 200 miles off the rhumb line, which was quite a ways to make up. People who did that ran into very still water where the winds died down and came in last. Ours was the winning route.?

Mrs. Clark said the advice they give racers is not cheating, as long as it is given before the start goes off.

?Anything you pay for ahead of time, before the first gun goes off, is valid,? she said. ?It is not cheating unless they do it en route.?

Mrs. Clark was recently accused of helping British sailor Ellen McArthur to cheat. The story made headlines in England, but the two were both cleared of cheating allegations.

She said it is very gratifying to have people tell her they won a race because of her or found an unusual current through her advice.

?That is why I work,? she said. ?I love it. The money is a side issue for me. It is kind of neat because I get paid to do my hobby. I think I will never stop.?

Ironically, she and her husband, do not sail, although she would very much like to sail on a yacht.

?Years ago, I did want to get onboard one of the sail boat races coming and going back,? she said. ?The race officials thought it was unfair to have me onboard. I wanted to go back with one of the yachts, but it didn?t happen. Now that I am 60 years old, I am really too old to do it.?

At the talk at the RBYC, Mr. and Mrs. Clark will give a historical overview of ocean and weather features observed during the Bermuda races for the past 27 years. The Clarks will talk about the impact of the Gulf Stream, discuss strategies and hold a question and answer session.

There will be a continental breakfast, buffet lunch and an afternoon snack at the RBYC. Their 17-year-old daughter, Rachael, will be helping with the RBYC seminar. Mr. and Mrs. Clark are very proud of her.

?She helps us a lot with the seminars,? Mrs. Clark said. ?She is a wonderful help. She is the audio-visual person. She tells me to get on task. She is going to be a real business person.?

Tickets are $55 each. The fee covers lecturers, course material and lunch/refreshments.

In order to book your place at this seminar, please contact Donna Heslop, Sailing Secretary at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club on 294-6716 or by email at sailingofficerbyc.bm.