Top 10 ready to outsail early birds down to Cabo

by Rich Roberts on 29 Mar 2008 Smooth seas, 70 sunny degrees (F.) and 9 knots of southerly breeze---that's the postcard start that sent the first 27 boats on their way to Mexico in Balboa Yacht Club's biennial race from Corona del Mar to Cabo San Lucas Friday.

Of this group, Timothy Beatty's Stealth Chicken, a Perry 56 from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., is the fastest rated but figures to fight off 10 faster boats in the Maxi and A Divisions starting Saturday in an unofficial first-to-finish fight.

Based on optimistic forecasts for good winds the fleet expects to find near the international border, Beatty projected an elapsed time of 3 days 11 hours 16 minutes for the 800-nautical mile race, which would put him in Cabo at 11:16 p.m. PDT Monday night, just ahead of the projection for the record holder---Doug Baker's Magnitude 80, an Andrews 80 from Long Beach.

Mag 80 will be among those starting Saturday and has a drop-dead finish time of 1:26 a.m. PDT Tuesday to beat the standard of 2 days 13 hours 26 minutes 58 seconds it set in 2005.

Stealth Chicken, with a PHRF rating of minus-33 seconds per mile, might have been placed in the hot group but Beatty likes it better this way.

'We'd be the last boat in if we started Saturday,' he said before casting off, 'so this adds a bit of competition to the picture.'

Mag 80 is rated minus-168, which means no matter who finishes first it will give Stealth Chicken 30 hours of handicap time. The slowest-rated boat in the race is Vance and P.K. Edwards' Wind Dancer, a Catalina 42 from Ventura, Calif. that rates 102---thus, gets 270 seconds per mile from Mag 80, or 60 hours for a race it took Mag 80 only a little over 61 hours to sail three years ago.

All of that might matter to Baker and his team if they worried much about handicap honors. Records are more their game.

'There's a chance that we can get the record,' said Ernie Richau, the navigator. 'There's been a trough of pressure over the race course that will help get us down to the border and out of Southern California, and we should have 15 to 20 knots [of following breeze] the rest of the way.'

Two hours after Friday's noon start off Balboa Pier iBoat's satellite tracking indicated the fleet hadn't yet found that pressure and was making only 5 or 6 knots of speed while trying to break out of the 'Catalina Eddy'---the light-wind area in the lee of Santa Catalina Island 26 miles offshore.

Seeking that escape route, only a minute or two after the start Peter Bretschger's J/120 Adios, Tom Garnier's J/125 Reinrag2, Jim Morgan's Santa Cruz 50 Fortaleza and Sue Senescu and Terri Manok's J/35 Predator---an all-woman entry---had tacked to port to head west offshore and were soon followed by all the others, except a handful that sailed past the pier to wave goodbye.

Dennis Conner will be among those starting today, sailing his Farr 60 Stars & Stripes that rates minus-72.

Highlights of the starts will be shown on KDOC-TV's Daybreak OC weekday morning news show from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. starting Monday. Hosts are Pete Weitzner and Shally Zomorodi.

The finish line is off the beach in front of the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Hotel, a location also known as Cabo Falso, just before boats would turn the corner at the tip of the peninsula into Cabo San Lucas.

Besides the usual Southern California standard PHRF and international ORR handicap systems, this race also will score the a dozen competitors on the evolving IRC method.

All 37 boats will be tracked on the website iBoat, which has provided satellite positioning that will update each boat's location every two hours. Daily reports will be posted according to boats' positions at 8 a.m. PDT.

Started Friday, March 28

CLASS B
Stealth Chicken (Perry 56), Timothy Beatty, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
Free Range Chicken (Perry 59), Bruce Anderson, Las Vegas
Bad Pak (J/145), Tom Holthus, San Diego
Mighty Tangaroa (Santa Cruz 50), Edward Ureno, Huntington Beach, Calif.
Fortaleza (Santa Cruz 50), Jim Morgan, Los Angeles
Horizon (Santa Cruz 50), Jack Taylor, Dana Point, Calif.
Reinrag2 (J/125), Thomas Garnier, Portland, Ore.
Rocket (Santa Cruz 50), Carl Fuller, Newport Beach
Bien Roulee (Andrews 39), Glenn Highland, Corona del Mar
Valkyrie (DK 46), Andy Rasdal, Pasadena.

CLASS C
Ho'okolohe (Farr 55), Alyson & Cecil Rossi, Novato, Calif.
Paddy Wagon (Ross 40), Richard Mainland, Los Angeles
Tango (J/133), Roy Jones, Corona del Mar
Magic (Beneteau 47.7), John Johnson, Sandy, Utah
Entropy (Tripp 41), Chris Hemans, Newport Beach
Adios (J/120), Peter Bretschger, Newport Beach
Resolute (J/122), Tim Fuller, Dana Point, Calif.
Katrina (Swan 53), Damon Guizot, Seward, Alaska
Aeolos (Beneteau 44.7), George Minardos, Santa Monica
Muneca (Beneteau 47.7), Paul Casanova, Corona del Mar

CLASS D
Reliance (Nelson/Marek 41), Bill McKeever, Grand Terrace, Calif.
Between the Sheets (Jeanneau 52.2), Ross Pearlman, Marina del Rey, Calif.
Predator (J/35), Terri Manok/Sue Senescu, Oceanside, Calif.
Problem Child (B32), Dan Rossen, Newport Beach
Sabrina (Cal kens 50), Chris Calkins, San Diego
Wind Dancer (Catalina 42), Vance & P.K. Edwards, Ventura, Calif.
Tai Pan (Beneteau 50), Dale Dodge, Marina del Rey, Calif.

Starting Saturday, March 29
MAXI CLASS
Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach
Stark Raving Mad (Reichel/Pugh 60), Jim Madden, Oyster Bay, N.Y.
Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Pico Rivera, Calif.
Peligroso (Dencho/Kernan 68), Mike Campbell/Dale Williams, Long Beach

CLASS A
Westerly (Santa Cruz 70), Tom Hogan, Newport Beach
Holua (Santa Cruz 70), Brack Duker, Pasadena
Stars & Stripes (Farr 60), Dennis Conner, San Diego
It's OK (Andrews 50), Tres Gordos Sailing LLC, Covina, Calif.
Grand Illusion (Santa Cruz 70), Patrick O'Brien, Venice, Calif.
Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, Long Beach