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Feb. 23,
2007
PV racers
cooking with weather made to order
MARINA DEL
REY, Calif.---Los Angeles needed rain
like Magnitude 80 and Scout Spirit need big wind to meet their hopes of
breaking the 22-year-old record in Del Rey Yacht Club's 19th
International Yacht Race to Puerto Vallarta, presented by Corum.
The weather
gods came through on both counts Friday when 20 knots of brisk
southwesterly breeze chasing an overnight storm out of town swept the
two fastest boats south on their 1,125-nautical mile quest to beat the
mark of 4 days 23 hours 4 seconds set by Dick and Camille Daniels'
MacGregor 65, Joss, in 1985.
Joss's average
speed for the record was 9.5 knots, and Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 from
Long Beach and David Janes's Scout Spirit from Newport Beach were doing
all of that as they slashed through 10-foot seas in picture post card
conditions: blue sky, fluffy white clouds and an L.A. basin sparkling in
rare clarity against a backdrop of newly snow-covered mountains.
It was so
clear one could even read the landmark "Hollywood" sign on the hills above downtown.
That view
won't last, but prospects for continued breeze in the race were high
based on reports from preceding classes now off Mexico.
Lorenzo Berho's Raincloud that started Wednesday averaged 8 knots over
24 hours and reported following winds as strong as 29 knots. Farther
ahead near the tip of Baja
California the Salsa fleet had 12-14 knots on
their tails as they reached their second layover destination at Cabo San
Lazaro.
Baker said,
"We go at least wind speed, depending on where the wind's coming from.
We'd go a knot to two knots faster than the true wind."
And where the
wind is coming from is their fastest point of sail.
Scout Spirit,
a Reichel/Pugh 77, won the start by 1 1/2 boat lengths, but Magnitude
80, an Andrews 80, ducked to leeward, stretched its longer legs and slid
past into the lead in the first couple minutes of the race.
Meanwhile, the
10 Salsa boats were finishing their second of three legs---218 nautical
miles from Turtle
Bay to Cabo San Lazaro on the
Baja
California peninsula---with David Kory's Barking
Spider 3, the faster-rated boat, crossing about 72 minutes ahead of Jim
Puckett's Amazing Grace, probably not enough to claim overall honors on
corrected handicap time.
Neither boat
used its engine on the leg, so penalty time will not be a factor.
Kory reported, "We
made it across first again, and as no one motored this leg, it was an
honest victory. Alas, Amazing Grace will correct out ahead of us. We
haven't seen [Gil Maguire's] Tenacity, though, and hold out hope we may
stay ahead of them on corrected time.
Tenacity finished
12 minutes after Amazing Grace.
"As soon as we
crossed the finish line, Zirao [Zheng] threw out his fishing line, as
the fishing tournament part of the race has begun," Kory wrote. "A few
minutes later, we were taking down the mainsail and motoring towards
Magdalena
Bay when
'ding-a-ling-a-ling,' the little bell on his fishing line started to
jingle. He ran back to the line and quickly pulled in a 28-inch blue fin
tuna! So we are going to have a feast tonight---sashimi appetizers and
tuna steaks on the grill. This is a fine ending to a great downwind
sail, over 200 miles of spinnaker runs, and we hit speeds in the teens
on a few occasions, too."
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
(Handicap
ratings in seconds per mile in parentheses)
PHRF A (started
Feb. 23)
Magnitude 80
(Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long
Beach (-165).
Scout Spirit
(Reichel/Pugh 77), David
Janes, Newport
Beach (-123).
PHRF B (started
Feb. 21)
1. Raincloud
(J/145), Lorenzo Berho, Puerto
Vallarta (-25), 812 miles to go.
Salsa Division
/ Started Feb. 16
Leg 2
(Standings boat
for boat; handicap ratings to be computed at finish)
Spinnaker A
1. Barking
Spider 3 (MacGregor 65), David Kory, Concord, Calif. (-24), finished Thursday at
15:49:24.
2. Amazing
Grace (Farr 55), Jim Puckett, Pacific Palisades, Calif. (12), finished Thursday at
17:01:10.
3. Tenacity
(J/133), Gil Maguire, Marina del Rey (9), finished Thursday at
17:13:20.
Spinnaker
B
1. Voice of
Reason (Ericson 32), Jim McCone/Mike Verla, Lomita, Calif .
(180), 34 miles to go.
2. Classic
Impulse (Catalina 40), Sean Roll, Riverside, Calif. (102), 34 miles to go (1
hour engine use).
RETIRED: Jungle
Jim (Jeanneau 49), Jim Maslon, Marina del Rey (69).
Non-spinnaker
1. Polaire
(Tayana 52), Hideshige Seki, Tokyo, Japan (87), finished
Friday at 02:15:58.
2. Far Niente (Catalina 42), Pat
Hearne, Monarch
Beach, Calif.
(102), 28 miles to go.
3.
Aquarius (Jeanneau 43), Hiro Funaoku, Marina del Rey
(117), 48 miles to go.
4. Vision
(Tayana 48), Jean Rooryck, Woodland Hills, Calif. (78), 50 miles to go
(8 hours engine use).
5. Segue (Island Packet 485), Peter
Hirsch, Santa
Monica, Calif.
(114), 54 miles to go.
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
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