Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The Vallarta Yacht Club's 2012 Vallarta Cup was a success by any measure, but the most important gauge was the smiles on the faces of all the participants. For the last race of the series, Primary Race Officer Randy Hough and Assistant Race Officer Janet Coburn did their usual spectacular job managing the race and providing ongoing commentary on VHF 63 for those who weren't fortunate enough to be on the water.

The fleet was joined by a film crew from the Canadian travel series "Paradise Hunter," who got great shots of the unique way we do racing events here in beautiful Banderas Bay.

The winds for Saturday's event didn't disappoint: 8 knots at the start raising to over 15 knots by the end of the day. Competition was close and as Randy put it, "Everywhere you looked there were private battles going on. The close proximity of the finish times tells the tale."

In the Performance Cruising class, Paladin secured her first place in the series, narrowly beating Bright Star and Olas Lindas. After handicap correction, only 2 minutes 18 seconds separated the three boats. Bright Star's performance on Saturday gave her the second place podium spot for the series.

Paladin used every sail in their inventory during the day, and demonstrated to the rest of the fleet that it is possible to wash your spinnaker in sea water during the race and still win! For the series, Paladin was first and Bright Star second. Ken and Cheryl Sears' Blue did not race this week, but still took third overall.

In the Heavy Cruiser class, the McAssey family took first place again in Kenta Anae, in a sweep of that class. Rush Faville took second in Escape Velocity, finishing only two minutes behind after handicap correction. Finally VYC Treasurer Al Benaroya took third for the day in Sunseeker, in only his second time racing! The final standing for the series were Kenta Anae first, Escape Velocity second, and Dennis Brittain's Rapture took the series third position.

In the multihull class, the higher afternoon winds were just what these boats were looking for. Richard Spindler's wins in the first 3 races of the series guaranteed him the top spot, giving him the ability to use Profligate as camera boat for the Paradise Hunter film crew.

On this day, everyone was delighted that Brian Charette joined again in Cat2Fold, taking first place in his tandem-rigged folding cat. Jeff Parish took second in Nina May, and Roy Verdery was third in Damiana. For the series, Profligate took the top spot, Cat2Fold was second, and Nina May was third.

Vice Commodore Andy Barrow announced the winners during an after-race cocktail party at the VYC clubhouse. The top two place winners for each class will be engraved on the Vallarta Cup Perpetual Trophy, and each will also be presented with a take-home plaque next week. The host of Paradise Hunter, Ryan Van Duzer, was presented with a symbolic trophy, a painted anchor, with best wishes as he hunts the world for his paradise. We all hope that he decides to drop anchor in beautiful Banderas Bay again some day.

A lot of people contributed to making the Vallarta Cup the success it was, but special thanks goes out to Club Manager Rodolfo Pineda, who actually left his family at a concert to go offshore (in dress clothes) to retrieve marks after the third race. Also Janet Coburn, who closed her store in La Cruz on two Saturdays in order to be available to help. And Randy Hough, who spent hours writing documentation, setting courses, scoring, promoting, and just about everything else to make this event happen.