San Diego Hot Rum Series update
by J/Boats 25 Nov 2022 10:49 PST
San Diego Hot Rum Series © Mark Albertazzi
The San Diego Yacht Club's incredibly popular Hot Rum Series started on time again on November 5th with races scheduled on November 19th and December 3rd, 2022. With 128 entries, it proves the event is as popular as ever for Southern Californians. It's one of the most popular "pursuit style" races in America, where the slowest boat starts first hours ahead of the biggest and fastest boats, and whoever crosses the line first wins! Starting and finishing just off the western end of Shelter Island, the fleet heads out en-masse through the Point Loma passage to two buoys offshore and returns to the same start line to finish the race just off Shelter Island.
Since it is consistently one of the world's largest PHRF "pursuit races", the little boats know they almost always have no chance of winning overall and simply enjoy the parade of beautiful large sailing yachts gliding past them in all their glory. The smallest, slowest boats (J/22s & J/24s) start well over an hour before the biggest boats- the spectacularly fast fleet of four J/145s, for example.
After the first two races, two J/105s are dominating the top of the overall standings. Leading is Jim Dorsey's J-OK with a 3-2 tally for 6 pts. Second is Rick Goebel's Sanity with a 2-4 for 6 pts. Sitting in 7th place is Dave Vieregg & Bennet Greenwald's J/105 Perseverance with a 6-10 for 16 pts.
In the 19-boat PHRF 1 "big boat" division, the J/145s are doing well. The top 145 is Ernie Pennell's More Madness with a 4-5 for 9 pts and sits in 4th place. Rudy Hasl's Palaemon is next with a 2-8 for 10 pts to sit in 5th place.
In the huge 27-boat PHRF 2 division, the top teams are John Laun's J/120 Caper with a 12-1 for 13 pts and sit in 5th place. The next J/120 is Chuck Nichols' CC Rider in 8th, with Brian Ganz's J/111 Zoom sitting in 9th and Ed Sanford's J/111 Creative in 10th place.
In the huge 38-boat PHRF 3 division, the podium is occupied by all J/105s. Leading is Jim Dorsey's J-OK with a 2-1, but is tied on points with Rick Goebel's Sanity with a 1-2. Third is Vieregg/ Greenwald's Perseverance with a 3-4.
More San Diego YC Hot Rum Series sailing information here.