TUESDAY January 16| Blue Blazes Takes Top Honors in San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race | |
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Puerto Vallarta - Dennis Pennell's San Diego-based R/P 50 Blue Blazes took top honors in both Americap Division 3 and in fleet in the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta race, which, for most entries, ended with a slow crawl to the finish line. Winds were relatively benign off the Baja coast - never reaching more than 20 knots according to several sources making this one of the more pleasant southbound races in recent memory, albeit absent of record-breaking performances. Although racing in the Performance Cruising B Division, which gives motoring allowances, it was a point of substantial national pride that Marco Rodriguez's Acapulco-based Beneteau 40.7 Iataia took line honors Monday, 36 minutes ahead of Blue Blazes, which had started a day later. |
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The Puerto Vallarta sailing team, winners of the 2005 Regatta, will also be competing again this year at the Festival Nautico. They are the only all-girl team in the races. Patrick Penman - Promovision |
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| Shortly afterwards, however, the winds out of the Sea of
Cortez shut down, leaving the third boat, Jim Gregory's Pt. Richmond-based
Schumacher 50 Morpheus, stuck in a hole overnight. Others, farther up the line
suffered a similar fates, dodging glassy holes until Wednesday afternoon.
Finishing 1, 2 in Division 1 were Mike Campbell and Dale Williams' Dencho 70 Peligroso, and Dave James' maxi Scout Spirit. Dennis Conner's SC 70 Mongoose won Division 2, followed by John MacLaurin's Davidson 52 Pendragon. In Division 3, Morpheus took second behind Blue Blazes. Although this was not a particularly dramatic PV race, a high-tech innovation made it more accessible than ever to enthusiasts back home. This was the first West Coast race to use the FIS Flagship tracking software, which gave both the race committee and armchair spectators an up-to-the-minute online view of each boat's progress (as in the image below). Each boat was fitted with a transponder which broadcasted its course, speed and position in real time, translating it to a color-keyed visual on the Flagship Web site. As you will see if you check out http://fistracking.com/pv/index.html, the highly sophisticated display can be set to view a single boat's track, a single class' track or the entire fleet. Racers, of course, were forbidden to access this data. Use of this technology is now being debated for the 2007 TransPac and other offshore races, and, if reaction to this trial is any indication, we'd bet the idea will eventually get a big thumbs up.
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TUESDAY
January 16Vallarta Race Proves to Be 1,000 Nautical Miles of Fun
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There were plenty of ups and downs, but racers enjoyed the lighthearted event. San Diego - In 1953, San Diego Yacht Club began hosting international races that start in the waters just off Point Loma and finish in various ports in Mexico. This year, 15 boats entered the Vallarta Race with the first boat starting February 21 and the last boats February 24. "Competing yachts sailed 1,000 nautical miles to the finish line, located off Punta Mita, on the north end of Banderas Bay," said Jeff Johnson, San Diego YC regatta director. "From the finish, the entrance to Nuevo Vallarta Harbor is another 14 nautical miles southeast." |
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Blaze of Glory - Blue Blazes, along with skipper Dennis Pennell (third from left) and crew, took first in the Americap Division of the Vallarta Race. The sailors clocked in at Puerto Vallarta just behind first place overall winner, Iataia. (Jeff Johnson) |
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Entrants competed in one of three racing divisions under the Americap II Ratings system or in two Performance Cruising Divisions using PHRF ratings. "In this type of racing, performance cruising boats are allowed to use their engines to motor through the light air patches - for a time penalty," Johnson said. Iataia, a Beneteau 36.7 with Marcos Rodriguez and crew from Acapulco Yacht Club, started the race alone in the Perform-ance Cruising B class February 21. In the Americap Division 3, Blue Blazes and Dennis Pennell from San Diego YC were second to start, on February 22. "Like Iataia, she hooked into a nice offshore breeze at the start," Johnson said. "But it took all of 128 hours, 24 minutes and 31 seconds to reel in Iataia." "Luckily, we were able to watch this pursuit on the FIS Race Tracking site, sponsored by the San Diego YC Sailing Foundation. This is a real advance for spectators and race organizers." Rodriguez and crew in Iataia crossed the finish line first, earning first place overall. "As the sole competitor in Performance Cruising B, she may not have had any class competitors, but the race to the finish was on with Blue Blazes who followed 36 minutes later," Johnson said. Iataia completed the race in 167.41 hours elapsed time (144.08 corrected). Free Range Chicken, Bruce Anderson's Perry 56 from Balboa Yacht Club, beat out Jim Madden aboard his J-65, Brand New Day of San Diego YC in Performance B, finishing in 185.59 hours (corrected time). Of special note, Rodriguez and his crew were finally bringing Iataia home after more than a year in the U.S., including competing in the 2005 Transpac race to Hawaii. Pennell sailed Blue Blazes to victory and a first place finish in Division 3, besting the fleet of five competitors and edging out Morpheus, Jim Gregory's Schumacher 50 from Richmond Yacht Club, by only three hours (corrected time). Also in Division 3, Lucky Dog, Bob Shanner's J-125 from San Diego YC, checked in at the dock in Puerto Vallarta on February 28˙with the bottom two or three feet of her rudder missing. The damage didn't deter Lucky Dog from finishing fourth overall in the Americap Division. For complete race information and results, go to www.sdyc.org. |
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