Light winds for PV09 International Race Series Day 2

by Rich Roberts on 2 Feb 2009
The wind remained light as the leaders in Del Rey Yacht Club's PV09 International Race Series to Puerto Vallarta crossed the border, but nobody was complaining. Much. Yet.

Bob Kettenhofen's Dare, a Beck 60, was approaching Banderas Bay off Ensenada at mid-morning, 19 nautical miles ahead of the next boat, Kevin and Rhonda Wixom's Blue Note, a Beneteau 473, with several others nearby, including Peter Noonan's Defiance, a Swan 56.

The latter's navigator, Mike Priest, reported: 'We had a nice moon for most of the evening, some fog in the early AM hours and locally we had some breeze from aft pre-dawn, which has since glassed off to less than 2 knots from astern ... thank you for the wisdom of the motoring allowance!'

Priest was referring to the new 'Cross-Over speed' formula developed for the 20th biennial event, presented by CORUM Swiss Timepieces, that factors in each boat's PHRF handicap rating to create a relative speed that allows it to use its engine when its sailing speed drops below a certain point. Otherwise, using the engine is a disadvantage---and most of the boats were choosing to fire up rather than drift hopelessly.

Computations for each of the four races won't be official until the fleet reaches each destination, but it appeared Sunday that Jim Puckett's Amazing Grace, a Farr 55, could be the overall leader, 34 miles behind Dare but logging only 5 hours of engine time to Dare's 12.

In 2007 Amazing Grace was second overall to David Kory's Barking Spider, a MacGregor 65, in the Salsa Division. This time, sailing a much smaller Barking Spider, a Catalina 36 MK2, Kory was next to last boat for boat but gutting it out with only 6 hours of engine use.

Kory reported: 'At the 8pm [Saturday] roll call we found out that we were the only boat that hadn't motored at all, which was a big plus because we were only 3 miles behind the leader. So we were feeling pretty goof, although the winds finally died at 9:30pm, so we were having to motor, too.

'It is a funny thing that we'll be racing for hundreds of miles, but at the start line we were bunched so closed we could shake hands with other race boats on both sides. Surprisingly, Rose of Sharon deemed to pull away from everyone at first, but we seemed to be holding out own and not dropping back as fast as we expected. The winds were mostly light but we kept sailing.'

Byron Chamberlain's Rose of Sharon, a 51-foot, 79-year-old wooden schooner, did drop back after a strong start and was mid-fleet at Sunday morning's position report.
Defiance was third boat for boat while burning fuel for 9 hours but didn't seem concern either way.

'Last evening's wine pairing of the Aussie Pillar red with the meatloaf and gravy and grilled veggies was perfect,' Priest said. 'Looking forward to Coq au Vin tonight.'

The finish of the first phase in the new four-race format will be 376 nautical miles down the Baja California peninsula at Cedros Island outside of Turtle Bay. Dare's projected ETA was Monday at 3:23 p.m. PST, but some expert observers considered that to be optimistic, given the light wind conditions.

Subsequent contests will be 220 n.m. to Magdalena Bay, famous for its friendly migrating whales; 152 n.m. to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja peninsula, and the last 286 n.m. across the Gulf of California to Puerto Vallarta on the mainland, finishing off the beach in Banderas Bay in front of the race headquarters Westin Resort & Spa. Restart dates are Feb. 4 from Turtle Bay, Feb. 7 from Magdalena Bay and Feb. 10 from Cabo Falso.

Position reports
(At 9:44 a.m. Sunday)

Spinnaker-A
Amazing Grace (Farr 55), James Puckett, Del Rey YC, 5 hours engine use/268 nautical miles to go.
Carmagnole (Beneteau First 45), Dan Howard, DRYC, 12/258.
Dare (Beck 60), Bob Kettenhofen, Balboa YC, 12/234.
Felícita (J/120), Perry Peters, Arizona YC, Phoenix, 7/266.

Spinnaker-B
Barking Spider (Catalina 36 MK2), David Kory, Point Richmond, Calif., 6/276.
Jungle Jim (Jeanneau 49), Jim Maslon, DRYC, 10/261.
Rose of Sharon (Burgess 59), Byron K. Chamberlain, Newport Harbor YC, 9/262.
Tranquility (Beneteau First 40.7, Max Lynn, Santa Barbara YC, 8/261.

Non-Spinnaker-A
Artsea (Grand Soliel 45), Marty Laffer, DRYC, 12/260.
Blue Note (Beneteau 473), Kevin & Rhonda Wixom, Mission Bay YC, 8/253.
Defiance (Swan 56), Peter Noonan, St. Francis YC, 9/256.
Lumiere (Beneteau 49), Carl Marusak, MD, DRYC, 9/271.
Transformer (Beneteau 49), Joel Young, So. Bay Yacht Racing, 7/273.

Non-Spinnaker-B
G-Rated (Catalina 42 MK2), Sid and Mark Lampert, DRYC, 8/285.
Rhiannon (Peterson 44), Bill & Stacy Tarr, DRYC, 11/271.
Complete position reports

http://www.pv09.com/