32nd Biennial Mexico Race at San Diego Yacht Club

by Steve Malowney on 18 Jul 2013 32nd Biennial Mexico Race, at San Diego Yacht Club, gets underway from 13th to 22nd March 2014. Tom Holthus and Lorenzo Berho, San Diego Yacht Club members, plan to compete for line honors in the mono hull division with the Bad Pack (STP 65) and the Peligroso (Kernan 70) respectively.

Acapulco Yacht Club's Sailing Commodore, Ricardo Brockman has also committed his RP 52 Vincitore to PV2014 and MEXORC. Don't be surprised if several of the big fleet of Transpac 52's going Hawaii this summer decide to join the fleet and get their boats to Puerto Vallarta for the MEXORC which will follow the finish of the PV race. For those of you staying for MEXORC, there will be two or three more TP52's competing from the Acapulco Yacht Club including Jorge Ripstein's Patches.

In the always competitive West Coast 70 fleet you can look for previous winner Per Petersen to bring his team on the Alchemy back for another run at the top prize. However it will not be an easy task with a list of competitors which will include Roy P. Disney's Pyewacket, Tom Paker and Jim Yabsley's big yellow Taxi Dancer and likely a few more to follow as the race gets closer on the calendar.

For 2014 starting a day ahead of the bigger boats will be a fleet of fifty footers and several smaller boats including last year overall and two time winner Dennis Pennell's Blue Blazes returning for another go at it. This race he will face challenges from a host of Santa Cruz 52's and 50's, Jack Taylor's on his SC50 Horizon is planning on racing PV and MEXORC again and one of SDYC's new members - Lani Spund owner of SC52, Kokopelli has volunteered to be the point of contact for the 50's/52's. With additional interest from the Santa Cruz 50's and the J-125's including 2012's second overall winner Viggo Torbensen's Timeshaver this is shaping up as one of the best fleets in recent memories.

The 2014 Race to Puerto Vallarta is looking to be one of great interest among the large multi hull fleet that has been quietly assembling on the west coast. Early commitments have come from race veteran H.L. Enloe's Loe Real accepting challenges from Tom Siebel's new MoD 70 Orion and potentially John Sangmeisters new modified ORMA 60. Siebel's Orion recently arrived in San Francisco via Puerto Vallarta, San Diego and France where the boat was previously based after doing sea trials in Banderas Bay and taking guests out in San Diego. Sangmeister's trimaran began its life as an ORMA 60 and was subsequently purchased by the Artemis America's Cup team to perform as a testing platform for their wing, sail development. During this testing the boat was lengthened to 70 feet and outfitted with modern dagger boards to generate additional lift. In addition, there is the possibility of a couple of the highly acclaimed Gunboat Catamarans considering participation with these three speedsters. This should be an exciting race in the multis!