Magnitude 80 sets sights on Joss's record

by Rich Roberts on 13 Jan 2007 Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 will be the biggest and fastest boat in Del Rey Yacht Club's 19th biennial race to Puerto Vallarta next month, but its toughest rival may be a ghost boat from the past.

The Alan Andrews design from Long Beach is inherently bigger and faster than the boat that holds the record, but the same could be said for a lot of others over two decades since the late Dick Daniels and his wife Camille sailed their MacGregor 65, Joss, 1,125 nautical miles to the Mexican mainland resort in 4 days 23 hours and 4 seconds in 1985.

'Sooner or later somebody's going to get the record, as long as Del Rey continues to have the race,' Baker said.

But whoever it is will have to catch some fair winds as well as a handful of luck.

Roy E. Disney's third Pyewacket, a Reichel-Pugh 75 that had swept away all of the other major West Coast ocean racing records, came close in 2003, less than five hours over Joss's time. Then in 2005 his bigger, faster maxZ86 Pyewacket dropped out with a broken topmast as Magnitude 80 went on to miss the record by only three hours.

The downfalls have been light winds in the last 290-nautical mile run across the Gulf of California followed by tricky conditions in Banderas Bay.

Over the 36 years of the race participants have always commented on the difficulties inherent in the last portion. Race officials long ago decided that the challenge at the finish was one of the factors that made the race special. Boats that have done well in past years have always felt a sense of pride in being able to overcome the obstacles that lay in the last 300 miles.

DRYC's Tom Redler, one of the skippers of the SC 70 , Citius, that scored a 'clean sweep' in the 1987 race, said, 'If you pay constant attention to the wind shifts, play the prevailing wind percentages, stay clear of the shoal areas and work your butt off, you can do well. If you get careless at the end, or let down even for a few minutes, the course will eat you up!'

Baker said, 'For the last few races it’s been slow across the gulf, and then you have to get all the way through that bay because you have to finish at the beach.'

Camille Daniels recalled that even on the record run in 1985 'it took us six hours to go the last 20 miles. We blast-reached across the gulf with the boom in the water, but as soon as we passed Punta Mita [at the entrance to Banderas Bay] it was like we hit the brakes.'

Earlier in the '85 race, as Joss approached Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja California, it was trailing two faster-rated boats, Fred Preiss's Christine and Nolan Bushnell's Charley, which had finished first in the Transpacific Yacht Race two years earlier.

Mike Elias, who sailed on Joss and now sails on Magnitude 80, said, 'Christine and Charley got quite a distance in front of us. [From position reports] we saw them match racing and going kind of deep [south], so we realized we could probably get around the cape early in the morning and just cut the corner. At roll call we had caught and passed them and were 28 miles in front.'

Magnitude 80 was fourth fastest behind three larger boats in the 2005 Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii. This time its closest competition will be Scout Spirit, a slightly smaller R/P 77 that won on corrected handicap time in 2005 despite finishing more than a half-day behind Magnitude 80.

'Scout Spirit isn't as fast,' Baker said, 'but anything can happen. You don’t disregard them.'

A change in the course this year could provide Magnitude 80 a boost toward the record. No longer will boats be required to leave Santa Catalina Island to starboard. They can now sail past the west end directly out to open sea and full sea breeze---as Joss did in '85.

'That could be huge,' Baker said. 'It's hard to say, depending on where the wind's coming from. The better track normally is to go outside Catalina because you don’t get that lee. In the record-breaking course Catalina was not a mark.'

Baker and Daniels are both members of the Long Beach Yacht club and longtime friends.

'I've known her for 25 or 30 years,' Baker said. 'She said if somebody has to break the record she'd just as soon it would be me.'

'It would be cool for the record to stay in our club,' Daniels said.

The entry deadline is Jan. 20. Starting days are Feb. 16, 21 and 23.

The event features a Racing division that will make a 1,125-nautical mile non-stop run from Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta and a Salsa division that will have three layovers along the way. Each division offers its own assortment of trophies and other prizes.

FIS Tracking Services will provide satellite tracking of all boats for automatic scoring and the opportunity for non-participants to follow the race on the Internet (see New for PV07).

That feature will serve the new format for the race that will incorporate the scope of several other popular races to Mexico. The approximate finishing points of those races at Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas and Punta Mita at the entrance to Banderas Bay will be marked with navigational 'crossing lines' where the boat's satellite transponders will transmit each vessel's date and exact time of crossing. Winners of each segment will be recognized at the awards dinner in Puerto Vallarta, where the traditional trophies and Corum watches will be awarded as usual to the top overall finishers.

Corum, the lead sponsor, will present the Admiral's Cup Trophy 41 watch to the winner of each class within each division. The timepiece with a 41mm stainless steel case and nautical pennants instead of numerals to indicate the hours was introduced by Corum before the 2005 race.

Corum is an independent, family owned company producing high-quality and prestigious Swiss watches since 1955. The Admiral 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