Peligroso wins both IRC and ORR divisions

by us-irc-news on 6 Mar 2008 The 1,000 mile Puerto Vallarta Race organized by the San Diego Yacht Club saw the successful introduction of IRC racing in Southern California. Though the 19-boat fleet was half of its normal size due to a large number of races to Mexico this year, 10 of the entries chose to race under IRC. Prior to the US-IRC Southern California road show last fall, only 4 of the 10 IRC entries had valid IRC certificates.

Three of the four division winners under IRC - 'Peligroso', 'Valkyrie' and 'Super Gnat' were also were winners under ORR.

Given the short time frames, Jim Madden, one of the organizers of the IRC SoCal effort, thought that the addition of 6 new boats to the local IRC fleet was excellent. Madden pointed out that a few additional owners approached him before the race saying there were in the process of getting the boat measured for an IRC certificate, but just ran out of time. Madden said, 'We're looking forward to additional boats racing under IRC in the BYC Cabo race.'

The BYC Cabo race is next Southern California long distance race with starts schedule in late March, and it shows 40 entries as of now. BYC will run the race under ORR, IRC, and PHRF. A competitor can choose 1, 2, or all 3 scoring systems.

For the Saturday start in the Puerto Vallarta, which was most of the fleet, the first 24 hours were reaching conditions. The next 48 hours were mostly running conditions in good breeze - from 18 to 22 knots with gusts to 30. The last 2-3 days were a mix - upwind, reaching, and downwind.

The breeze shut off at Cabo for everyone but the largest, fastest boat - 'Magnitude 80' (who got around before it shut off and set a new course record), and there was in essence a 're-start' at Cabo, and boats all caught up to each other. The breeze then remained very fluky, shut off / on, and never got very windy from Wednesday across the Sea of Cortes for the 280 miles from Cabo to the finish in PV. It took some boats as long as 3 days to cross the last 280 miles, and the last finisher did not arrive until Saturday ORR Results IRC Results