Pye V to face 78-year-old wooden rival in PV09

by Rich Roberts on 27 Sep 2008 Offhand, it's an alltime mismatch: Roy E. Disney's new Pyewacket V racer-cruiser against Byron Chamberlain's Rose of Sharon in Del Rey Yacht Club's PV09 International Race Series to Puerto Vallarta starting Jan. 31.

The 78-year-old wooden schooner will certainly be the oldest boat in the race. Perhaps any race. 'I can guarantee last place,' Chamberlain declared.

But Chamberlain's easy attitude for the 20th biennial event, presented by CORUM Swiss Timepieces, reflects the lighter side of a new format consisting of four separate races along the way from Marina del Rey down Baja California and concluding at the resort city of Puerto Vallarta on the Mexican mainland.

Besides, Rose of Sharon should get a whale of a handicap.

The object is to provide serious racers an opportunity to sail hard between layovers at Turtle Bay, Magdalena Bay and Cabo San Lucas for as many legs as they choose to sail. There are currently 37 preliminary entries. The limit is 40 for boats going as far as Cabo or Puerto Vallarta because of mooring limitations at those ports.

Rose of Sharon will be going all the way.

'We have an office that just opened in Puerto Vallarta,' Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain, 70, has a marine insurance business based in Newport Beach---or, rather, he now works for his son who runs the business he started 50 years ago.

By that time Rose of Sharon was already an old boat but a special one designed by Starling Burgess, who also created three successful J-class defenders of the America's Cup---Enterprise in 1930, Rainbow in 1934 and Ranger in 1937---the latter in collaboration with the late Olin Stephens II, who died Sept. 13 at 100 years of age. In earlier years, Burgess was allied with the Wright brothers in aviation design.

Fifty-one feet overall and 42 feet at the waterline, Rose of Sharon was built and launched in Nova Scotia in 1930, its name taken from a variety of historical references, some biblical. Chamberlain, its fourth owner, acquired it in 1976.

Earlier, he owned a boat called the Golden Hind---no, not Sir Francis Drake's 16th century, 70-foot galleon of the same name or he might be racing that instead.

Chamberlain has a thing about old boats and mature sailors.

'[Wooden boats] are coming back,' he said.

He hopes to assemble a crew of septuagenarians like himself and has already lined up one old pal, John Conser, the noted Southern California catamaran designer who just reached 70.

Rose of Sharon has seen good days on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Great Lakes, racing in the Newport to Bermuda, a couple of Swiftsure races, the SORC in Florida and winning PHRF honors in (the other) Newport to Ensenada in 1980, among other successes.

'We were first to finish in the 1981 Ancient Mariner race from San Diego to Maui with an elapsed time record that still stands,' Chamberlain said, '13 days 7 hours.'

Chamberlain also recalled racing against Disney in the 60s when both sailed schooners.

So, clearly, Pye V will have its hands full, especially if the race handicappers are favorable with the Rose of Sharon's rating.

The boat is not entirely original. Chamberlain has replaced the deck, wiring and plumbing and reinforced the wooden masts while installing a microwave, electric refrigeration, four-burner stove, furnace, hot water heater and 18-gallons-an hour water maker.

'We broke the bowsprit going to Hawaii so we put on a new one in '82,' he said.

Speaking of bowsprits, they seem to be making a comeback these days.

'Everything goes around,' Chamberlain said. 'They finally come back to the real good ideas.'

GPS and all you should know before going offshore

First, you learn to sail, then to race. Then you learn to race offshore, and no event offers a more comprehensive introduction to the sport than Del Rey YC's biennial race to Puerto Vallarta, now revamped in its 20th year into an International Race Series.

Past participants in this race have said that one of its highlights was the series of pre-race seminars.

An introductory GPS (global positioning system) course has been added to the usual schedule of pre-race preparation seminars at the host club. Saturday, Nov. 8, starting at 10:30 a.m., Jim Puckett, second in Spinnaker A Division in 2007, will present a 90-minute course on using GPS and digital charting. Bring your own hand-helds.

Also…

Thursday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m., Preparation Seminar:
Race overview by Tom Redler;
Party overview by Debbie Wasserman;
Cruising Mexico by Pat Raines;
Panel discussion led by Sandy Sinclair and Peter Hirsch, followed by Q&A.

Sunday, Nov. 2, 9 a.m., Southern California Yachting Assn. (SCYA) Safety at Sea program (morning-afternoon):

Medical and other emergencies at sea, Jerry Kornfeld and Bruce Brown.

(Fee for this all-day program is $20. All other seminars are free of charge.)

Thursday, Dec. 4, 7 p.m., PV race preparation:

Radio communications, Gordon West;

Provisioning, Marilyn Henley;

Boat prep and ditch bag, Jean Adam;

Rules and handicapping, Peggy Redler;

Coping with adverse weather, Tim Turks;

International document and paper processing, Ita Gordon.

Saturday, Jan. 10, 9 a.m., workshop for paid entrants (morning-afternoon):

Scoring system details, Peggy Redler;

Entering ports from sea, David Feinstein;

Fishing tournament, Larry Silver;

Re-entering U.S., Renee Stokes, Customs and Border Control officer;

Using GPS and charts to find unmarked finish lines, Alison Osinski.

All seminars, except for the last 'Workshop for Paid Entrants,' are open to the public. An RSVP to the host DRYC (310.823.4664) would be appreciated.

The new format

The first leg will be 376 n.m. from Marina del Rey to Cedros Island outside of Turtle Bay, then 220 n.m. to Magdalena Bay, famous for its friendly migrating whales; 152 n.m. to lively Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja peninsula, and the last 286 n.m. across the Gulf of California to Puerto Vallarta on the mainland.

The overall winner will be determined not by accumulated time but by combined finishing positions in the four races, as in a regatta---but with no throwouts.

To ensure that all participants will be able to finish a race in time to enjoy the layover and the start of the next race, they may use motors if the winds become so light that their sailing speeds drop below their designated 'crossover' speeds. The crossover speed is defined as 'that boat speed at which the application of the motor penalty will have no detrimental effect on the final computed corrected time.'

The PHRF handicap is applied only to the distance sailed.

If five or more boats are interested there will still be the traditional non-stop, 1,125-nautical mile format of 'the longest and oldest enduring race to Mexico.' In 2007 Magnitude 80 set the record of 3 days 15 hours 51 minutes 39 seconds that toppled Joss’s 22-year-old standard.

Preliminary entries

Spinnaker

Amazing Grace (Farr 55), James Puckett, DRYC

Apollo V (Peterson 42), Ned Knight, Point Loma YC

Between the Sheets (Jeanneau 49), Ross Pearlman, DRYC

Colt 45 (Tripp 40), Dan Chepley Jr., Ventura YC

Corsair (Peterson 43), Craig Brown, Long Beach

Endless Summer (Ranger 33), David McMillin, Dana Point YC

Felicita (J/120), Perry Peters, Arizona YC, Phoenix

Friction Loss (J/30), Shawn Ivie/Dan Taron, South Bay Yacht Racing

Geronimo (J/109), Gene Pitkin & Assoc., Cortez Racing Assn.

Jungle Jim (Jeanneau 49), Jim Maslon, DRYC

Locomotion (Andrews 45), Ed Feo, Long Beach YC

MACS (J/35), Evie and Steve McClure, Alamitos Bay YC

Mayhem (Farr 52), Ashley Wolfe, OPYC, Calgary, Canada

Pyewacket V (Reichel/Pugh 60), Roy E. Disney, Newport Harbor YC

Rose of Sharon (Burgess 51), Byron K. Chamberlain, N