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Feb. 24,
2007
Mag 80 ripping
off miles, but Scout Spirit drops out
MARINA DEL REY,
Calif.---Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 was on a
breakaway record pace early Saturday morning in Del Rey Yacht Club's 19th
International Yacht Race to Puerto Vallarta, presented by Corum, but David
Janes's rival Scout Spirit apparently was already out of the race for
reasons immediately not known.
There had been
no direct communication between Scout Spirit and the Del Rey YC organizers
since, according to the Flagship tracking system, Scout Spirit left the
race course at 4:30 p.m. Friday about 3 1/2 hours after the start and
docked somewhere in the Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor area.
The tracking
system showed the Reichel/Pugh 77 still in that location at 8 a.m.
Saturday, while at the same time Magnitude 80 was ripping off the miles at
between 15 to 18 knots halfway down the Baja
California peninsula opposite Turtle Bay.
Navigator Ernie
Richau reported: "It's 0830 on Saturday morning.
Yesterday we started with the wind in the upper teens and from the beam.
After getting into the San Pedro Channel
we set the code 7 A and took down the #2 jib. Ripping along at 20-plus
knots is the only way to start off a race to
Mexico. Once past Avalon the
code 4 was set and we have been running all night [with] 20 knots of wind
from the northwest."
So Magnitude 80,
an Andrews 80, is on a strong pace to break the record for the
1,125-nautical mile course of 4 days 23 hours 14 seconds set by Dick and
Camille Daniels' MacGregor 65,
Joss, in 1985.
Joss, a
MacGregor 65, averaged 9.5 knots in similar conditions, although Magnitude
80 this time found that it didn't need to go outside Santa Catalina Island
to find more favorable breeze but simply shot down the San Pedro Channel
between Santa Catalina Island and the mainland on the rhumb (direct) line
to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the peninsula.
Lorenzo Berho's
Raincloud, a smaller J/145 that started two days earlier, was sailing at
8.5 knots 575 nautical miles from the finish at 8 a.m. Saturday, 241 miles
ahead of Magnitude 80.
No other
up-to-date information on the race was immediately available.
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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