Mag 80 closing on record as Reinrag 2 holds on

by Rich Roberts on 1 Apr 2008 Magnitude 80, Reinrag2 and a lot of other boats in Balboa Yacht Club's race from Corona del Mar to Cabo San Lucas may have food left over.

The race has been so fast it appeared that when Doug Baker's magnificent Mag 80 and Tom Garnier's tenacious Reinrag2 finishes Monday night they'd forego boat grub and be in town ordering dinner and popping champagne---Mag 80 for breaking its own course record and Reinrag2 for winning overall honors for the 800-nautical mile biennial race on corrected handicap time.

Satellite position reports at 3 p.m. PDT Monday indicated Reinrag2 would beat Mag 80 to the Cabo Falso finish line for bragging honors by about three hours at 5:05 p.m. PDT. With 40.4 miles to go, the 41-foot J/125 that started Friday in Class B held a strong 56-mile lead over the hard-charging Mag 80, an Andrews 80-footer that started Saturday. Reinrag2 was making 10.1 knots to Mag 80's 15.5.

Three other Class Bs, including two Santa Cruz 50s---Jack Taylor's Horizon (65 miles to go) and Jim Morgan's Fortaleza (78)---and Tim Beatty's Stealth Chicken (74.2) also were looking to finish late Monday night, although they were touch and go against Mag 80, boat for boat.

All but one of the 33 boats still racing were due in by midnight Tuesday. The exception may be Predator, the J/35 sailed by the all-woman Nauti Chicas crew led by co-skippers Sue Senescu and Terri Manok. After having their best spinnaker shredded by the rugged conditions the first night they were shy to hoist any others that might go the same way.

The only thing that could spoil the stragglers' hopes was a weather forecast suggesting that the wonderful winds would blow themselves out by Tuesday. A cruel April Fool?

Mag 80 navigator Ernie Richau reported by e-mail Monday: 'It's 10:20 a.m. [PDT] and we're having a great sail just off [Magdalena] Bay. The wind is 22 knots from the northwest and we are running with the code 2a spinnaker. Last night was fantastic sailing with wind from the northwest between 20 and 25 knots. [Now it's] 142 miles to the finish, we have our fingers crossed.'

Mag 80's record for the course is 2 days 13 hours 26 minutes 58 seconds, set in 2005. It must finish by 1:26 a.m. PDT Tuesday. It was nearly four hours ahead of that pace Monday, marked to finish at 9:10 p.m. PDT.

Three of the 37 starters had dropped out of the race. Tom Holthus' Bad Pak suffered a steering problem, while George Minardos' Aeolos and Paul Casanova's Muneca broke their boom.

Richard Mainland's Paddy Wagon appeared to be stalled midway of the course until it was learned that its satellite position transponder had been lost overboard


An emal sent by Glenn Highland, Bien Roulée (Monday) stated: 'Challenging last 20 hours -- plenty of wind and sea is making sailing terrific -- and challenging. Ever ready to find new methods to do things faster, crew BR tried doing two things at once -- checking 60' up the rig along with a spinnaker wind check in a gust to 25 -- a challenging combination for young Erik. Have worn through all of our spinnaker sheets -- jury rigging many things but we are keeping the boat moving -- and laughing a lot at how crazy this all is. Plenty of food and water with the short race -- and enough cocktails not consumed due to our busy social schedule keeping up with BR -- but we can fuel the party we plan in Cabo sometime soon. High boat speed was 23, highest wind speed we have seen is 33 -- but fantastic part has been how steady it has been at 15++ in wind speed. We have not seen single digits since the starting few hours.'

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 (positions on corrected handicap time at 1 p.m. PDT Sunday)
Started Saturday, March 29
MAXI CLASS
1. Peligroso (Dencho/Kernan 68), Mike Campbell/Dale Williams, Long Beach, 171 miles to go.
2. Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, Pico Rivera, Calif., 208.
3. Stark Raving Mad (Reichel/Pugh 60), Jim Madden, Oyster Bay, N.Y., 149.
4. Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach, 96.7.
CLASS A
1. Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, Long Beach, 219.
2. It's OK (Andrews 50), Tres Gordos Sailing LLC, Covina, Calif., 246.
3. Grand Illusion (Santa Cruz 70), Patrick O'Brien, Venice, Calif., 223.
4. Holua (Santa Cruz 70), Brack Duker, Pasadena, 224.
5. Westerly (Santa Cruz 70), Tom Hogan, Newport Beach, 223.
6. Stars & Stripes (Farr 60), Dennis Conner, San Diego, 258.

Started Friday, March 28
CLASS B (10 boats)---1. Reinrag2 (J/125), Thomas Garnier, Portland, Ore., 40.4. WITHDRAWN--- Bad Pak (J/145), Tom Holthus, San Diego.
CLASS C (10 boats)---1. Katrina (Swan 53), Damon Guizot, Seward, Alaska, 172. WITHDRAWN---Aeolos (Beneteau 44.7), George Minardos, Santa Monica; Muneca (Beneteau 47.7), Paul Casanova, Corona del Mar.
CLASS D (7 boats)---1. Sabrina (Calkins 50), Chris Calkins, San Diego, 174.


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

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