"4 days, 23 hours, and 4 seconds" ----The new elapsed time record for Del Rey Yacht Club's 1200 mile Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta Yacht Race 1985.

JOSS, a brand new MacGregor-65 owned by the late Richard Daniels and his wife Camille broke RAGTIME'S old record by over twelve hours.

"The wind was honkin' right out of Marina del Rey," Camille Daniels recalled she said. "We'd had a storm the night before, and we actually were able to set a spinnaker right off the starting line. That night the wind blew the wind point right off the Windex!"

JOSS crossed the finish line in Puerto Vallarta flying her huge red and white spinnaker, silhouetted against the mid-afternoon sun, before a wildly cheering crowd of enthusiastic spectators viewing from the beach in front of the Race Committee hotel. That was over two decades ago, and even though long distance racing boats have gotten bigger and have benefited from such new technology as carbon fiber masts, canting keels, shifting ballast, etc., etc., no one has been able to beat JOSS' record!

Such well known yachts as WINDWARD PASSAGE, BLONDIE, PEGASUS, MAGNITUDE-80, and many more have tried, to no avail. Perhaps the most determined skipper was Roy Disney, holder of every major west coast yachting event elapsed time record----except this one. He came close in PYEWACKETT in 2003, finishing less than six hours over the record.

The record has survived one of its owners, Dr. Richard Daniels, who died in 2005, knowing he was still the champ. "I can't believe that one of those fast new boats didn't break it," Camille said. "You have to have just the right conditions. I wish them luck in 2007. Somebody's going to beat it."