Old boat wins early respect in Puerto Vallarta Race Series

by Rich Roberts on 1 Feb 2009 If you like beautiful old boats, you would have loved Saturday's start of Del Rey Yacht Club's PV09 International Race Series to Puerto Vallarta, presented by CORUM Swiss Timepieces.

As most of the 15 contemporary craft struggled off the line in four knots of beam breeze wafting over Santa Monica Bay, Byron Chamberlain's 51-foot, 79-year-old wooden schooner, Rose of Sharon, powered up to chase Bob Kettenhofen's early leader Dare, a sleek Beck 60, toward the horizon.

The 20th biennial event has eight boats in the Spinnaker A and B classes and seven boats in Non-Spinnaker A and B, which started 10 minutes later in 65-degree sunshine under a cloudless sky. Sleeper, Ron Simonson's Jeanneau 44 from the Cabrillo Beach YC in San Pedro, withdrew late in the week when a crew member was seriously injured in an auto accident.

The finish of the first phase in the new four-race format will be 376 nautical miles down the Baja California peninsula at Cedros Island outside of Turtle Bay.

Subsequent contests will be 220 n.m. to Magdalena Bay, famous for its friendly migrating whales; 152 n.m. to 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, finishing off the beach in Banderas Bay in front of the race headquarters Westin Resort & Spa. Restart dates are Feb. 4 from Turtle Bay, Feb. 7 from Magdalena Bay and Feb. 10 from Cabo Falso.

Chamberlain, 70, is a semi-retired marine insurance broker from Newport Beach and no stranger to the final destination, where he and his son Craig, also on board, will open another office.

'We cruised down there 30 years ago,' he said, 'just our family. This is just a way of spending time with family and friends.'

Yeah, well, they looked fairly serious setting four sails---main, jib, staysail and a blast from the past called a gollywobbler---something that even Kettenhofen, a professional sail maker, probably hasn't seen lately. It's the big, floppy sail usually used in light wind and rigged from the top of the main mast above the staysail and behind the jib.

***
Les Stowe, an experienced schooner sailor writes 'The correct description of the sail between the foremast and the main mast would be an 'Advance' I sailed on 'Wanderlure', an Alden 44 LOA Schooner,Nina a 65 Ft. Staysail Schooner, Burgess design also like Rose of Sharon, Kelpie, and few others. If that sail was a Golly, it is normally set with a spinnaker, the tack of the golly is tacked down inside the sheet of the spin. and the two are 'Married' together as its called.
The golly is sheeted to the end of the main boom usually. Also, when you go to weather, you will set the Advance if you have one, which is the sail in the picture or a very flat 'Fisherman' which can be used as an 'Advance' Fisherman.

But, it is called an 'Advance' Fisherman. The Golly would be over twice the size of the sail pictured there.

The best the rest of the fleet could do was to pull their big asymmetrical spinnakers and reachers out of the bags.

A new and unique 'Cross-Over speed' formula developed for the event factors in each boat's PHRF handicap rating to create a relative speed that allows it to use its engine when its sailing speed drops below a certain point. Otherwise, using the engine is a disadvantage.

CORUM is an independent, family owned company producing high-quality and prestigious Swiss watches since 1955. The Admiral’s Cup collection, along with the complete CORUM line, may be seen at www.CORUM.ch


The entries
Spinnaker-A
Amazing Grace (Farr 55), James Puckett, Del Rey YC
Carmagnole (Beneteau First 45), Dan Howard, DRYC
Dare (Beck 60), Bob Kettenhofen, Balboa YC
Felícita (J/120), Perry Peters, Arizona YC, Phoenix

Spinnaker-B
Barking Spider (Catalina 36 MK2), David Kory, Point Richmond, Calif.
Jungle Jim (Jeanneau 49), Jim Maslon, DRYC
Rose of Sharon (Burgess 59), Byron K. Chamberlain, Newport Harbor YC
Tranquility (Beneteau First 40.7, Max Lynn, Santa Barbara YC

Non-Spinnaker-A
Artsea (Grand Soliel 45), Marty Laffer, DRYC
Blue Note (Beneteau 473), Kevin & Rhonda Wixom, Mission Bay YC
Defiance (Swan 56), Peter Noonan, St. Francis YC
Lumiere (Beneteau 49), Carl Marusak, MD, DRYC
Transformer (Beneteau 49), Joel Young, So. Bay Yacht Racing

Non-Spinnaker-B
G-Rated (Catalina 42 MK2), Sid and Mark Lampert, DRYC
Rhiannon (Peterson 44), Bill & Stacy Tarr, DRYC