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Sept. 21,
2006
New 'Vallarta
Row' hangout awaits racers at PV
MARINA DEL REY,
Calif.---Del Rey Yacht
Club's biennial International Yacht Race from Marina del Rey to
Puerto
Vallarta finishes right
off the beach in front of the Regina Westin Hotel & Resort, where most
of the racers stay. Now boats may tie up on a new "Vallarta Row" on the
other side of the hotel.
How good can it
get?
 The site just
across the street from the main hotel entrance is part of the modernized
Opequimar Centro
Marino boat yard located along the channel leading into Vallarta Marina.
New indoor and outdoor facilities include a new yacht club hangout for
racers with meal service, flat-screen satellite TV and free use of
computers with high-speed Internet connection.
Racers will be
offered complimentary guest memberships during their stay in
Puerto
Vallarta, providing them
shoreside access to their boats without the necessity of a water shuttle
or a long walk to the marina entrance.
Ron Jacobs, race
chairman in 2005, checked out the new complex earlier this year and said,
"The idea is to have slips or Med ties right on the channel there to give
the racers much easier access to their boats."
Social events
and other amenities at both ends of the 19th and longest enduring race to
mainland Mexico (1,125 nautical
miles) remain part of the entry package, and by the time they arrive in
Puerto
Vallarta the racers will
have experienced another innovation---a new format for mini-races within
the race.
With 21st
century satellite technology, the race will incorporate the scope of
several other popular races to Mexico. The
approximate finishing points of those shorter races will be marked with
navigational
“crossing lines” along the Baja
California coastline and beyond.
At each invisible line,
satellite transponders will record each vessel's date and exact time of
crossing. The Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas will be
set perpendicular to the rhumb line and extend 70 miles offshore so that
tactical navigation is not compromised. Without stops or check-ins, the
boats' times will be recorded automatically by signals to shore from the
transponders mounted on the stern pulpits.
The segments
will be Marina del Rey to Ensenada (159 nautical
miles), Ensenada to Cabo San
Lucas (669) and Cabo San Lucas to Punta Mita at the entrance to
Banderas
Bay (280).
From Punta Mita the boats will
continue the final 17 miles into the bay to complete the race in front of
the Westin Regina within earshot of tourists sipping margaritas amid the
palm trees.
Prizes will be
awarded in Puerto Vallarta to the boats with the best corrected handicap
times between crossing lines, but the segments will not be factored into
the overall results.
The traditional trophies and
Corum watches will be awarded to the top overall finishers.
While Racing Division boats
will not stop, Salsa Division competitors also will have transponders to
report the time of their two scheduled stops when a boat crosses the
finish line of Leg 1 at the north end of
Cedros Island and the finish line of Leg 2
abeam of Cabo San Lazaro.
Race entry
packets are available online on the new race Web site at www.pv07.com
Corum is an independent,
family owned company producing high-quality and prestigious Swiss watches
since 1955. The Admiral's Cup Trophy 41, with a 41mm stainless steel case
and nautical pennants instead of numerals to indicate the hours, was just
introduced by Corum last year. The watch, along with the complete Corum
line, may be seen at www.corum.ch
More information
at www.pv07.com
GENERAL INFORMATION
Del
Rey Yacht Club
(310) 823-4664
www.dryc.org
RACE CHAIRMAN
David Ross
(310) 980-7829
pv07@dryc.org
PRESS OFFICER
Rich
Roberts
(310) 835-2526
richsail@earthlink.net
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