Five of six boats set to break Cabo record

by Rick Roberts on 11 Nov 2008
Five of the remaining six competitors in the 2008 Long Beach to Cabo San Lucas International Yacht Race - including the smallest boat in the race, Bob Lane’s Andrews 63, Medicine Man - were projected Monday to break the race record of 3 days 3 hours 46 minutes 24 seconds when they finish Tuesday morning.

However, the leading favorite to break the record, Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80, will not be among them. Baker reported Monday that the backstay gave way under 20 knots of wind early Sunday morning, and down came the mast. All aboard were reported okay as they motored into Ensenada.

It was ironic that the boat that set the record in the 3,571-nautical mile race to Tahiti earlier this year, suffered such a catastrophic failure in a relatively close-to-home 804-nautical mile race to Mexico.

'At about 2 a.m. Sunday morning the backstay parted and the rig came down,' Baker said. 'The crew did one heck of a job in cutting it away, making sure it didn’t sink the boat and then getting us underway to Ensenada.'

There is a detailed report from Mag 80 navigator Ernie Richau at the bottom of this article.

The rest of the fleet have been under the graces of consistent northwest winds of 16-20 knots and --- except for Chris Slagerman’s Peterson 68, Cheetah --- were expected to break the record.

Medicine Man was holding its own against the bigger boats and was projected to cross the finish line just behind OEX, the leader for first-to-finish honors.

Quite an achievement and quite an adventure as Med Man navigator Mike Priest reports.

'The transponder has spent some of the time under water as we stuff the nose under at 25 knots of boatspeed,' Priest said. 'Wind in the low twenties most of the night. Looks like a 320-plus-mile day for us yesterday [Sunday].'

Also onboard the boat is owner Bob Lane’s daughter, Cheri Lane, who having crewed on races to Ensenada and Santa Barbara before, wanted to do a long distance race… at least once.

'Co-habitating with 10 guys aboard a 63-foot vessel has been an experience,' Lane said. 'But the most memorable experience will be doing this with my father. Being able to share his joy and passion is something I will always treasure and never forget.'

Competitors finish at Cabo Falso located at the west end of Cabo San Lucas and, weather conditions permitting, should start arriving Tuesday morning.

Trophy presentations will be hosted by LBYC for all competitors Thursday evening, Nov.13 in Cabo San Lucas.

Online race tracking with satellite position reports are available by visiting the iBoat website www.iboattrack.com . Click on the '2008 Long Beach to Cabo San Lucas Race' link on the right side of the page.

Notice of Race, Sailing Instructions and additional information is available at www.lbyc.org .

Daily Standings

(from Monday, Nov. 10, 0800hrs Position Reports)

PHRF

Division I

1.. Bob Lane, Medicine Man
2. Doug Baker, Magnitude 80 – retired


Division II

1. Peter Tong, OEX
2. Per Peterson, Alchemy
3. Brack Duker, Holua
4. Ed McDowell, Grand Illusion
5. Chris Slagerman, Cheetah
6. Kevin Flanigan, Ocelot – retired


ORR (not all boats are being scored under ORR)

Division I

1. Bob Lane, Medicine Man
2. Doug Baker, Magnitude 80 – retired


Division II

1. Peter Tong, OEX
2. Brack Duker, Holua
3. Ed McDowell, Grand Illusion
4. Chris Slagerman, Cheetah
5. Kevin Flanigan, Ocelot – retired


Magnitude 80 report from navigator Ernie Richau:

I know everyone is interested in how the last couple of days have transpired for Magnitude 80 and her crew. I am now at home and have a minute to write you an update.

We started the race in a very light SSW wind with our 154% genoa beating toward Mexico. The wind built to 7 knots and we set the code 3a spinnaker then began to reach down the middle of the Channel between Catalina and Newport beach. As evening set in we were approximately 20 miles east of San Clemente Island. The wind backed to the SSW again so we hoisted the genoa and sailed upwind in 4-6 knots of breeze. The crew was looking forward to the forecasted 25 knots of wind for the NW. Once we got south of San Clemente Island the wind finally began to build ad go aft.

A couple of hours later we were reaching at 18 knots of boat speed when there was a nasty sound of cracking carbon and we abruptly slowed down. We had hit something in the water. The floor boards were lifted around the keel to check for damage and none was found.

The dagger board was inspected. It was making some very strange noises and clearly slowing the boat down. We cycled the board up and down a few times and determined there was some damage and we would keep it up for the night, then give it a good inspection at first light. A few hours later we had the code 4a spinnaker up running at 18 knots of boat speed. Soon it was time to change to the code 3a spinnaker. The wind had built to above 25 knots. Our teams plan before the start was to sail conservatively when the wind came up the first night. We knew the weather pattern was right for another race record and we didn't want to make any foolish mistakes in the stronger breeze.

It was now 3am, the crew was having a fantastic time sailing the boat at 19-22 knots of boat speed. The wind was from the NW at 25 gusting to 28. Things were going very well as I plotted our position and gathered more weather data in the nav station. We were about 155 miles from Cedros, just as planned for that time of the morning. Suddenly, there was a very loud bang that that only breaking carbon can make. This was nothing like the cracking sound I had heard earlier and I knew it was not good news. As I headed toward the hatch to get on deck and help, the off watch was jumping out of their bunks to do the same. Two more loud sounds of breaking carbon. I was at the hatch at the same time as Magnitude's owner, Doug Baker, to see 15 feet of the rig left standing and the rest of it hanging over the port side, slamming into the boat.

We went on deck and found the good news, everyone was okay. Immediately our boat captain, Ty, went to work on getting the rig disconnected from the boat. The mast was trying very hard to put a whole in the port side of the boat and we clearly didn't want that to complicate matters. Rob and Eric got the safety gear on deck and ensured the life rafts were ready to go, just in case. Mike and I went to the nav station where we determined the closest port. It appeared we had just enough fuel to get to Ensenada. 45 minutes later the carnage was cleared. This was no easy feat and everyone on the boat did an incredibly good job. With the hull intact and our appendages clear we started the motor and set a course Ensenada.

A new watch rotation was set with two crew on deck as we motored upwind in the 25 plus knots of wind and 12 foot plus seas at 6 knots. 11 hours later we were at the dock in Ensenada. As we cleaned the boat up Tommy, the only new crewmember on the boat, thanked everyone for the good job they did and summed up his experience with the following, ' I have done gybes in a buoy race with more yelling and screaming going on than we had during the whole time it took to cut that rig loose. Thanks guys'.

At some time during all of this Keith had noticed the apparent cause. The backstay, which is made up of continuous strands of fiber, had failed. The only remaining evidence was the thimble attached to the hydraulic ram.