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 News from Around Banderas Bay | November 2006 
Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta 2007 Preview
 Rich Roberts - bymnews.com
| | Continuing Del Rey Yacht Club's tradition of innovation, the 2007 Puerto Vallarta Race will combine the best of ALL Mexican Races in ONE! Using technology made possible by Satellite Transponders onboard every yacht, DRYC has created Crossing Lines at 3 distinct locations along the Mexican coast: Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, Punta Mita. | 
| No Limits On Your Sailing Course
At each Crossing Line, the onboard transponders will record the vessels' date and exact time of crossing. The Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas Crossing Lines will be set perpendicular to the rhumb line and extend 70 miles offshore so that tactical navigation is not compromised. Pick your course and go with it! |
There are races and there are cruises, and then there are the best of both adventures combined into one: Del Rey Yacht Club's biennial International Yacht Race to Puerto Vallarta next February.
West Coast ocean races in recent years have offered equal opportunity to those with high-tech speed machines and those with boats that are less competitive because of age, weight or both. The latter involvement has boosted overall participation, and sailors in the PV and Transpacific Yacht Race in particular have shown seamanship skills equal to those of the racers in dealing with gear problems and sometimes difficult conditions - hence, it's the "Salsa" and "Aloha" divisions, not just a mundane "cruising" class.
For the PV race, the Salsa division is attractive to skippers and crews who want to mix racing with opportunities to fish and explore some of the beautiful bays along the Baja California coast.
In 2003 after Ross Pearlman of Marina del Rey sailed his dark blue Beneteau 52.2, Between the Sheets, to first overall in the Salsa division, his only complaint was that "we couldn't get any lobsters over three pounds in Turtle Bay." Now Pearlman wants to try the other side.
Next February, forget the lobsters. For the 19th version of the race Pearlman is going for overall honors in the Racing division, something a "cruising" class boat has never won. Never mind that Pearlman and his pals will race in relative comfort on what hardcore racers might call a "furniture boat."
"Most of the local races we now do in the racing division," he says - and why not? In last spring's Balboa Yacht Club race to Cabo San Lucas that had no cruising class Between the Sheets more than held its own: first in class and fifth overall among 19 boats in Americap handicap scoring and third overall in PHRF among 23 boats.
That followed the 2005 Transpacific Yacht Race to
Hawaii when Between the Sheets scored first overall in the Aloha division and was the first of 75 boats to finish, although with a four-day head start on the bigger, faster boats.
Pearlman hasn't modified his six-year-old boat at all to compete in the racing divisions, and it won't challenge Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 in a its bid for Joss's 22-year-old elapsed time record.
"It's still the same 36,000-pound boat," he said, "and, by the way, although it's a Beneteau 52.2 it's really only 49 feet long."
But pretty fast for a furniture boat.
Vallarta Race Week and other PV news & notes...
Following the race, PV Sailing will introduce Vallarta Race Week March 11-16, scheduled to take the place of the traditional MEXORC competition in odd-numbered years.
Vallarta Race Week will be a distance-oriented regatta with daily courses of a minimum of 20 nautical miles set in various parts of Banderas Bay. Starts and finishes will be within 30 minutes' sailing of Marina Vallarta. . . .
The race to Puerto Vallarta will be truly international in course and composition with Mexico, Canada and the U.S. represented. Manuel Villarreal of the Acapulco Yacht Club has entered his J/145, Raincloud, while Ken Reath of Canada's Royal Vancouver YC will sail Something Wicked, a Beneteau 40.7. Both are entered in the Racing division, which currently counts 22 preliminary entries. . .
Also, FIS Tracking Services will provide satellite tracking of all boats for automatic scoring and the opportunity for non-participants to follow the race on the Internet (see New for PV07).
That feature with serve the new format for the race that will incorporate the scope of several other popular races to Mexico. The approximate finishing points of those races at Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas and Punta Mita at the entrance to Banderas Bay will be marked with navigational “crossing lines” where the boat's satellite transponders will transmit each vessel's date and exact time of crossing. Winners of each segment will be recognized at the awards dinner in Puerto Vallarta, where the traditional trophies and Corum watches will be awarded as usual to the top overall finishers. . . .
Boats will be able to dock at a new "Vallarta Row" across the street from the Regina Westin Hotel & Resort where most of the racers stay. The Opequimar Centro Marino boat yard has been expanded and modernized into a yacht club with indoor and outdoor facilities, including a 24-hour hangout for racers with meal service, flat-screen satellite TV and free use of computers with high-speed Internet connection.
Racers will be offered complimentary guest memberships during their stay in Puerto Vallarta, providing them shoreside access to their boats without the necessity of a water shuttle or a long walk to and from more distant slips. All slip fees are waived for participants.
Social events and other amenities at both ends of the 19th regatta remain part of the entry package.
Race entry packets are available online on the new race Web site at www.pv07.com
Corum is an independent, family owned company producing high-quality and prestigious Swiss watches since 1955. The Admiral's Cup Trophy 41, with a 41mm stainless steel case and nautical pennants instead of numerals to indicate the hours, was just introduced by Corum last year. The watch, along with the complete Corum line, may be seen at www.corum.ch More information at www.pv07.com. |
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