PV Series brings adventures on sea and on land

by Rich Roberts on 15 Feb 2009
The plan for Del Rey Yacht Club's PV09 International Race Series to Puerto Vallarta, presented by Corum Swiss Timepieces, was four races in one with stopovers in between - but by sea, not land.

It may have been the only sailboat race in history in which the escort vessel was a Winnebago.

When the race committee's scheduled power cruiser became unavailable because of a mechanical problem two weeks before the start, DRYC member Marty Fliegel offered his 36-foot Class A recreation vehicle as a substitute to meet the fleet at Turtle Bay, Magdalena Bay and Puerto Los Cabos. Fliegel, Mickey Scheinbaum and Sterling Tallman hit the freeway to the border early on the morning of the start Jan. 31 and picked up Baja's Highway 1 that runs the 1,000-mile length of the peninsula.

'It's a good road,' Scheinbaum said, 'but it's only two lanes, with no shoulders, so you need to be careful. We never drove at night.'

The toughest parts were the rugged little unpaved side roads leading off the highway to Turtle and Mag Bays, where speeds were limited to as little as 10 m.p.h. Nevertheless, they reached every port before the racers.

Eddie Hollister, a veteran crew member on Jim Maslon's Jungle Jim, said, 'I didn't think they were gonna make it to Santa Maria [north of Mag Bay where the fleet anchored]. It's just a little surfing camp with hardly any road at all coming in. But there they were. It was fabulous. I have nothing but praise for them. Somehow they came up with this.'

As for the race, Hollister said he especially enjoyed the presence of Byron Chamberlain's Rose of Sharon. The 79-year-old wooden schooner was generally perceived as a colorful throwback to the past but, in most conditions, was also surprisingly fast.

'What a wonderful thing to see,' Hollister said. 'He port-tacked [crossed] us at the start. And we were blessed with great weather this year. It started slow but got faster and faster, and when we left Cabo it was like being shot out of a cannon.'

The wind peaked early in Race 4 across the Gulf of California. Boats reported wind speeds above 20 knots, first on the nose but later swinging after to allow beam reaching, if not spinnaker running.

Joel Young, owner of Transformer, a Beneteau 52, said, 'We were seeing up to 14 knots right out of Cabo.'

That's when the headsail halyard parted and, well, somebody had to be hauled up the mast to retrieve the loose end. The chore went to Jim Doherty because he was the lightest crew member---not to mention, 72 years old.

Not only that, 'He went up three times,' Young said.

The second time was because the halyard wound up on the wrong side of the spreaders. The third time was when the halyard broke again in the middle of the night, but they waited until daylight to send Doherty aloft once more.

Dan Howard's Beneteau First 45, Carmagnole, also had a sail problem on its first race beyond Santa Monica Bay---no main sail for a good part of the last race.

'[The first night] around 10 o'clock, after several hours of sailing in 20 knots of wind I decided I'd like to reef,' Howard said. 'But the reefing system wasn't right and we lost five slugs [attaching the main sail to the mast track].'

So the reef became a total douse, and for 11 hours they sailed with only a jib at about 7 1/2 knots.

'We lost 16 miles to Amazing Grace,' Howard said.

But it didn't ruin the race for Howard, who sailed with his wife Virginia and daughter Samantha.

'No, all the stops were so much fun,' Howard said. 'That made it worthwhile.'

Perry Peters agreed. The Phoenix, Ariz. financial advisor sailed his J/120, Félicita, in its first offshore race.

'I'm looking forward to doing it again,' he said. 'Shame on people who pass up the chance to do these kinds of things. Step up there on your faith and follow your dreams.'

The awards ceremony was scheduled for Saturday night at the Westin Resort & Spa.

http://www.pv09.com/