Rockstars start to chase- Corona del Mar to Cabo

Mag 80 (l) cuts in behind the race committee boat as Medicine Man (r) approaches the pin at the start. Rich Roberts http://www.UnderTheSunPhotos.com

Balboa YC’s U.S. Paralympian Nick Scandone had his SKUD out for the start Saturday. © Rich Roberts http://www.UnderTheSunPhotos.com

A close-by but well-behaved spectator fleet included Balboa YC's own Paralympian, Nick Scandone, and crew Maureen McKinnon-Tucker, out in their SKUD with their training partners for a practice session preparing for September's competition in China. Although the southeast breeze was only slightly up from Friday at 9 knots, the seas were considerably rougher.

The 10 boats---four Maxis and six Class A competitors---paraded to the line stretching seaward from Balboa Pier with Bob Lane's Medicine Man at the pin, to leeward of (in order) Jim Madden's Stark Raving Mad, Lew Beery and Tres Gordos' It's OK, Tim and Tom Hogan's Westerly, John MacLaurin's Pendragon IV and Mike Campbell and Dale Williams' Peligroso.

Doug Baker's record-seeking Magnitude 80 squeezed in from behind the race committee boat and immediately tacked to port to seek more favorable breeze out to sea.

Dennis Conner (l) checks in Stars & Stripes at the committee boat. © Rich Roberts http://www.UnderTheSunPhotos.com

Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes, Ed McDowell's Grand Illusion and Brack Duker's Holua completed the fleet. Within a minute or two, all had followed Mag 80's lead except It's OK, which continued past the pier and down the coast for another five minutes before tacking seaward.

Mag 80's record for the course is 2 days 13 hours 26 minutes 58 seconds. It must finish by 1:26 a.m. PDT Tuesday to beat it. At mid-afternoon iBoat tracking's bi-hourly report showed Mag 80 with a slight lead and inshore from everybody except It's OK.

It's OK's navigator, Michael Orr, tipped his hand to that strategy minutes before leaving the dock in front of Balboa YC, taking note of Friday's 27 starters in Divisions B, C and D.

'The guys that tried to go outside too early were sailing extra distance,' Orr said. 'The ones that went out from the first waypoint 30 miles off from San Diego did better. Chris Hemans' Entropy looked like they were sailing for Long Point on Santa Catalina Island.'

On the other hand, Orr said, 'You don't want to be sailing on port tack into shore at night. The wind is going to be 30 to 40 miles out.' The latest forecasts called for those winds now at 15 knots to prevail into Tuesday but then drop off significantly.

Grand Illusion winds up for the start in a run toward Balboa Pier © Rich Roberts http://www.UnderTheSunPhotos.com

Among Friday's starters, Timothy Beatty's Stealth Chicken, a Perry 56 from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., was farthest along at the official 8 a.m. position report Saturday but only a mile ahead of Tom Garnier's J/125 Reinrag2, which was the overall leader on corrected time at that juncture. All 27 boats had by that time escaped the light-wind 'Catalina Eddy' effect in the channel, although one---Tom Holthus' J/145 Bad Pak from San Diego, later dropped out past the border.

Holthus reported by e-mail: 'We had to pull out of the race. We had a steering issue that could not be fixed. We are motoring toward Ensenada. Everything is fine.'

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.

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.


Class leaders (at 8 a.m. Saturday)
Started Friday, March 28
CLASS B---Distance: Stealth Chicken (Perry 56), Timothy Beatty, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., 605 miles to go; corrected time: Reinrag2 (J/125), Thomas Garnier, Portland, Ore., 606. (WITHDRAWN---Bad Pak (J/145), Tom Holthus, San Diego, rudder problem.)

CLASS C
Distance: Ho'okolohe (Farr 55), Alyson & Cecil Rossi, Novato, Calif., 624 miles to go; corrected time: Katrina (Swan 53), Damon Guizot, Seward, Alaska, 634.

CLASS D
Distance: Problem Child (B32), Dan Rossen, Newport Beach, 640 miles to go; corrected time: Problem Child.

Started 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

iBoat tracking http://charthorizon.com/races/2008_corona_sanlucas/htdocs/

http://www.balboayachtclub.com/