FMV Cup - Puerto Vallarta Race comes to an end with Horizon on top

by FMV Cup 2016 on 27 Feb 2016 2016 FMV Cup - Puerto Vallarta Race - The 2016 edition of the Vallarta Race was a tale of two races. As sailors reached the dock in Marina Vallarta, their stories emphasized the contrast between the two. The first race is the run from San Diego to Cabo which this year was like none other. The second race involves attempting to avoid the holes and minimize the light air that most boats encountered crossing the Sea of Cortez and approach to PV.

While this diversity is expected on any Vallarta Race, the extremes seen in 2016 were unique. Boats like Gordon Leon's Farr 40 Flyer reached 22 knots and were rocking and rolling on the first half, while even the trimaran Mighty Merloe fell victim to the shutdown of breeze on the second half approach to the finish, floating along at two - three knots at times. For those following the Vallarta Race, it was hard to focus on anything else when Mighty Merloe was on the course. Watching the race tracker, you'd see the trimaran skip ahead nearly twice as fast as the rest of the fleet. HL Enloe's Mighty Merloe completed the race in 67.82 hours and as the only Tuesday finisher.

Rio100, a 100' super maxi, with its crew of 19 set the monohull course record, sailing the course in 77.7 hours, which eclipsed the 2010 record of 80.87 hours set by Bill Turpin's R/P 75 Akela. Owner Manouch Moshayedi and captain Keith Kilpatrick have been sailing the boat since November 2014 where they started with a crew of 26 and have been optimizing it over the years to a typical crew of 18. Yet even with a record-breaking performance, Rio100 owed too much time to fellow Division one boats and finished fourth in class.

The overall regatta winner came down to two sleds: The Santa Cruz 50 Horizon who finished just ager 2:00 AM on Wednesday, and Roy Disney's Pyewacket who powered across the line at 2:50 PM. With the last miles of the race stretched out in front of the Andrews 70, the crew of Pyewacket thought they might get enough wind during the approach to the finish, but ended up just under two corrected hours behind Horizon, finishing second overall.

It was an excellent race. PV Race definitely thanking the Mexican authorities for allowing us to race to Puerto Vallarta.

PV Race had a number of points where we had wind transitions where we had to decide which way to go, especially in the Sea of Cortez. That was the most challenging part, figuring out how to get past the light spots in the course once we turned the corner in Cabo.

Vallarta Race is always a winter race, and SDYC timed it with the full moon. It had tons of sea life, breaching whales, and dolphins and tuna boils. It had a great run down to just short of Cabo, rolled the dice, and got lucky at the cape. It had a beautiful sail across which is kind of what this is all about.

The results of Mexican teams were: Peligroso was the first boat to arrive in Puerto Vallarta with three days, nineteen hours, fifty-three minutes and fifty-two seconds. The second one was Vincitore with four days, seven hours, twenty-seven minutes and six seconds. Patches was the third Mexican boat with five days, three hours, fifty-four minutes and fourteen seconds. And the last one was Flyer.

San Diego Yacht Club is proud to continue the tradition of racing offshore to the Mexican mainland, a tradition started in 1953 thanks to a friendly relationship with Acapulco Yacht Club that remains today. SDYC has a year full of west coast offshore racing including the upcoming Islands Race, the newly founded California Offshore Race Week, and the fall's Rum Runner regatta. And of course, SDYC looks forward to 2018, presenting what will be the 33rd edition of the Vallarta Race.

Thank you to SDYC's Commodore Doug Werner and Pam Werner, three-x Vallarta Race chairman Steve Malowney, supporting members from San Diego Yacht Club, finish boat provider and captain John Rogers and all those who make this event happen.