|
Feb. 18,
2007
Segue surprises
Salsa leaders in race to PV
MARINA DEL
REY, Calif.---Doug Baker may want to talk to Peter Hirsch about strategy
before starting his record bid in Del Rey Yacht Club's 19th biennial
race to Puerto Vallarta Friday. Or maybe not.
Hirsch, of
Santa Monica, is sailing one of the supposedly slower boats in the
non-spinnaker class of the Salsa fleet that started last Friday, but in
Sunday's mid-day position reports he trailed only the overall leader,
Jim Puckett's Amazing Grace, by six nautical miles.
Later Sunday
night, Amazing Grace, a Farr 55, was fighting to hold off David Kory's
Barking Spider 3, a faster boat, near the finish of the Salsas' first
leg at Cedros Island and into the first of three scheduled
overnight layovers in Turtle
Bay on the Baja California
peninsula.
Hirsch's
Segue, an Island Packet 51.6---strictly a cruising-type boat with all
the amenities, including a cockpit canopy and a rating of 114---was only
six miles back in the earlier reports but was then trailing by more than
30 miles.
Kory
reported by e-mail: "Amazing Grace has been
motoring a lot and got in front of us. But all that motoring should hurt
them on corrected time, and I am hoping to finish ahead of them, despite
my impossible handicap of -24 [seconds per mile], compared to their +12.
Tenacity, our other main competitor, appears to have gambled last night
and lost. They were close behind us [Saturday] afternoon but were 10
miles back this morning, and also had more motoring than us. So I'm
hopeful we'll beat them as well. We'll find out Monday night, at our
party in Turtle Bay."
Barking Spider
3 is a MacGregor 65, just like Joss, the boat that holds the 22-year-old
record that Baker hopes to break with his Andrews 80, Magnitude 80,
which rates minus-165. Strictly as a point of interest, that's 4 minutes
39 seconds per mile faster than Segue, although they're not competing
against each other except for possible bragging rights.
Segue led the
next non-spinnaker boat, Hideshige Seki's Polaire, by a whopping 47
miles---a pretty good performance by Hirsch, who insists he's not a
diehard racer.
"Oh, no, not
at all," he said. "But I sailed the [2005] race as a crew member on
another boat, and afterward I said, 'I've gotta come back and do this on
my own boat.' It's just a wonderful adventure."
Hirsch's start
Friday was somewhat casual. In a breeze of only 2 knots, Segue crossed
the line about 15 minutes after the gun, ahead of only one other boat.
So what has
Segue been doing right that Baker might like to know? Well, turning on
the engine for 13 hours to overcome painfully light wind on the first
day and night helped, but Racing Division boats can't do that, and the
Salsa boats must pay a time penalty for the privilege, which is
sometimes worth the price.
Segue hasn't
used a spinnaker---it doesn't have one---but that has been no
disadvantage for the non-spinnaker boats because everybody was sailing
upwind into 8 knots of wind from 150 degrees, tacking across the rhumb
[direct] line to Cedros Island. Seas were flat.
Awards will be presented at
separate banquets in Puerto
Vallarta March 2 and 3. Corum, the lead sponsor,
will present the Admiral's Cup Trophy 41 watch to the winner of each
class within each division. The timepiece with a 41mm stainless steel
case and nautical pennants instead of numerals to indicate the hours was
introduced by Corum before the 2005 race.
Corum is an independent,
family owned company producing high-quality and prestigious Swiss
watches since 1955. The Admiral watch, along with the complete Corum
line, may be seen at www.corum.ch
Position
reports, boat tracking and more race information at www.pv07.com
Racing Division
/ Starts Feb. 21 and 23
(Handicap
ratings in seconds per mile in parentheses)
Magnitude 80
(Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long
Beach (-165)
Scout Spirit
(Reichel/Pugh 77), David
Janes, Newport
Beach (-123)
Raincloud
(J/48), Lorenzo Berho,
San
Diego (-25)
Sapphire
(Synergy1000), David Rasmussen, Novato, Calif. (27)
E.T. (Antrim
27), Todd Hedin/Liz Baylis, San
Rafael, Calif.
(60)
Salsa Division
/ Started Feb. 16
Spinnaker class
(Standings at
Monday roll call, subject to engine use penalties)
1. Amazing
Grace (Farr 55), Jim Puckett, Pacific Palisades, Calif. (12), 70 miles
to go to first layover).
2. Barking
Spider 3 (MacGregor 65), David Kory, Concord, Calif. (-24), 76.
3. Tenacity
(J/133), Gil Maguire, Marina del Rey (9), 85
4. Voice of
Reason (Ericson 32), Jim McCone/Mike Verla, Lomita, Calif. (180), 137.
5. Classic
Impulse (Catalina 40), Sean Roll, Riverside, Calif. (102), 140.
RETIRED:
Jungle Jim (Jeanneau 49), Jim Maslon, Marina del Rey (69).
Non-spinnaker
class
1. Segue
(Island Packet 51.6), Peter Hirsch, Santa Monica, Calif. (114), 76.
2. Polaire
(Tayana 52), Hideshige Seki, Tokyo, Japan (87), 123.
3. Vision
(Tayana 48), Jean Rooryck, Woodland Hills, Calif. (78), 132.
4. Far Niente
(Catalina 42), Pat Hearne, Monarch Beach, Calif. (102), 139.
5. Aquarius
(Jeanneau 43), Hiro Funaoku, Marina del Rey (117), 142.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Del
Rey Yacht Club
(310) 823-4664
www.pv07.com
RACE CHAIRMAN
David Ross
(310) 980-7829
pv07@dryc.org
PRESS OFFICER
Rich Roberts
(310)
835-2526
richsail@earthlink.net
|
