Day 1 of the 19th Annual Banderas Bay Regatta

The first day of racing dawned warm, bright and beautiful and hopefully is a sign that some of the strange weather that the Banderas Bay area has been experiencing this winter will leave us for awhile.

In any regatta there are always a few casualties, some even before the race starts. Although 60 boats registered 3 had to drop out even before the first race started due mechanical or rigging problems. Even with the drop outs a record 57 boats joined in the Boat Parade and made it to the start line and what a start it was.

With 7 divisions and split over 2 courses with the staggered start times based on boat speeds. In 'A Class' Cirque, Sirocco and Bright Star finished the race 1, 2 and 3. There are some pretty fast boats in the class with Sirocco and Blue sailing at average speeds of just under 7 knots per hour.

In 'Class B' Dream Chaser outdistanced the field by almost 20 seconds to finish in the top spot for Day One. In 'Class C' Tapatai, Valerie K finished 1, 2 less than a second apart in both elapsed time corrected time. This one looks like a dual between a couple of fast boats with knowledgeable captains and crew.

Keep an eye too on the competition between J/World #5 and J/World #4 in 'D Class.' These are identical boats so it really comes down solely to the skipper and crew and they finished less than 3 seconds apart.

In 'Class E' there was less than a second (corrected time) between Just Right and Wave Goodbye. Same thing in 'Class F' with Salty Feet winning today's race handily but there seems to be a real cat-fight taking place between Poco Loco Dos and Liberty for 2nd place honors.

Finally, 'Class G' consists of a male / female couple (Jack and Jill) and it looks like some really fun sailing took place with Piko, Mita Pizza and Karpesa rounding out the top 3 places.

In sailing "stuff" happens and sometimes it good and sometimes it not. A torn sail, a minor misstep in a jibe or a second of inattention can take you out of first place and even take you out of the race. Stay tuned because there are two more days of racing and anything can, and usually does, happen.

Race Day 2 - 2011 Banderas Bay Regatta

Race Day 2 of the 2011 Banderas Bay Regatta was cancelled due to the tsunami generated by a powerful earthquake in Japan. The access to and from the marinas at Paradise Village and Nuevo Vallarta were closed that morning because of the anticipated surge that was expected to arrive at approximately 1:30 pm. Shore line residents experienced rapid fluctuations in water level of up to 3 feet and several whirlpools were reported near and at the entrance to the harbor.

It is anticipated that races will take place as planned on Saturday March 12, and that the winners will be determined using the results of 2 races rather than 3.

For complete race results and information about activities and race times, go to the Banderas Bay Regatta website at BanderasBayRegatta.com.