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Feb. 24,
2007
Dismasted Scout
Spirit finds friendly port in a storm
PUERTO
VALLARTA,
Mexico---In its
battle with Magnitude 80 for the record in Del Rey Yacht Club's 19th
International Yacht Race to Puerto
Vallarta, presented by Corum, the good ship Scout Spirit
wound up in an unexpected place: Magnitude 80's slip in Long Beach's
Alamitos Bay Marina.
Worse yet,
without its mast.
Such are the
fortunes when men go to sea to test the natural forces in their meanest
state, which dashed the hopes of David
Janes and his crew as they hurtled downwind 15 miles
past Santa Catalina Island only 3 ½ hours after the start in Santa
Monica Bay Friday.
With the wind
blowing 20 knots from behind over turbulent seas, Magnitude 80, a
slightly larger and faster Andrews 80, was already running away at
record speeds, but Scout Spirit, a Reichel/Pugh 77, was also on a wild
downhill sleigh ride when suddenly, at about 4:30 p.m., the backstay
gave way and the mast fell forward above the lower spreaders about 15
feet above the deck.
Surveying the damage in
Long
Beach, Pete Heck, the watch captain, said, "We
heard this loud bang and looked up to see the backstay let go. Then
the mast broke. We were lucky. It fell over the starboard side and
not on the deck.
"The crew did a great job
and no one got hurt. The boat only has one scratch on it and we saved
the new North main [sail]. We had to cut loose the rest of the mast. It
weighs about 1,000 pounds and there was no way to get it onboard. We
were in pretty rough seas. As soon as we got everything cleared away and
secured we started motoring back to Long Beach. It took us eight hours to
get back plowing [upwind] through the waves the whole way."
David
Janes, the owner and skipper,
looked tired and disappointed but was relieved that everyone was okay.
"It was a little hairy for a
while in rough seas, but everybody did their job and nobody got hurt,"
Janes said. "That's the most important
thing."
Arriving at
Long
Beach before dawn, Scout Spirit asked the Harbor
Master where they might park their crippled boat.
"Well," they
were told, "Magnitude's slip is available right now. They'll be gone for
awhile."
Long gone, it
seems.
By Saturday
afternoon Magnitude 80 was clocking 16.7 knots over the 1,125-nautical
mile course, well above the overall average speed of Joss, a MacGregor
65, when it set the record of 4 days 23 hours 14 seconds in 1985 in
similar conditions.
That's no
guarantee of a record, though. The wind can be treacherously tricky in
the Gulf of California past the Baja
California peninsula and even less reliable over the last 30
miles in Banderas Bay to the finish line off the
beach in front of the Westin Regina Hotel.
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
Standings:
Racing Division
(Handicap
ratings in seconds per mile in parentheses)
PHRF A (started
Feb. 23)
Magnitude 80
(Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long
Beach (-165), 753 miles to go.
RETIRED---Scout
Spirit (Reichel/Pugh 77), David
Janes, Newport
Beach (-123).
PHRF B (started
Feb. 21)
1. Raincloud
(J/145), Lorenzo Berho, Puerto
Vallarta (-25), 526 miles to go.
Salsa Division
/ Started Feb. 16
(Positions
available through Friday; will be updated Sunday)
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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