17TH
MARINA DEL REY TO PUERTO VALLARTA INTERNATIONAL
YACHT RACE
Del Rey Yacht Club / Starts Feb. 7-14, 2003
Feb. 11, 2003 For Immediate Release
RACERS
START NEXT 3 DAYS; PYEWACKET TARGETS JOSS RECORD
MARINA
DEL REY, Calif.---It's party time for the Salsa
Division boats in Turtle Bay, but the mood will
be serious when nine Racing Division competitors
cross the starting line in Del Rey Yacht Club's
17th biennial race to Puerto Vallarta the next
three days.
Six
PHRF B boats will start at 1 p.m. Wednesday, followed
by two PHRF A boats Thursday and Roy Disney's
Pyewacket in an all-out assault on the 18-year-old
race record on Friday. Disney's sailing director,
Robbie Haines, has said, "There will be two
boats on the line Friday---Pyewacket and Joss."
The
latter is a phantom opponent: Richard and Camille
Daniels' MacGregor 65 that raced the 1,125 nautical
miles of the longest enduring race to Mexico in
4 days 23 hours 0 minutes 4 seconds in 1985. Conditions
may be ripe for Pyewacket, Disney's Reichel/Pugh
75 ultralight maxi sled that holds the Transpac
record and last year added the Newport-Bermuda
and Chicago Mac race records to its portfolio.
Camille
Daniels recalled that, like this week, the race
started in a low pressure system that Joss---which
means "karma" or "luck"---rode
all the way, with steady following winds of 15
to 25 knots.
"It
was honkin' right out of [Marina] del Rey,"
she said. "We'd had a storm the night before
and we actually set a spinnaker right off the
starting line. Then we went out around San Clemente
Island . . . and crashed a bunch of times. Blew
the wind point off the Windex.
"We
slowed down a little bit at Cabo [San Lucas] for
half an hour, and then we didn't stop again until
Punta de Mita [at the entrance to Banderas Bay].
There was a really tight close reach across the
gulf. We had like a number two blast reacher,
and the end of the boom was hanging in the water.
It was quite a ride."
The
crew included Linda Elias, who died last month
after a nine-year battle with cancer. She was
one of the principal drivers. Others on board
were Mike Elias, Chris Sellars, Wally Gordon,
Mark Daniels, Pat McCormick, Jim Robinson and
Greg Heath.
"That
was when we had the boat right out of the box,"
Camille Daniels said. "We didn't know anything
about it. It had too much sail area.
"When
we got into Punta de Mita and the wind stopped,
we all started peeling off our foul-weather gear---literally.
Nobody could even change their clothes for the
whole time. We were literally hanging on."
The
record has withstood the onslaught of the West
Coast's fastest ocean racers for nearly two decades.
"I
couldn't believe that Silver Bullet didn't break
it, or Pegasus or these enormously fast boats,"
Daniels said. "But it has to be the right
conditions. I wish them luck on Pyewacket. Somebody's
going to beat it."
Meanwhile,
the 14 Salsa boats' departure from Turtle Bay
for the second of three stops at Bahia Santa Maria
was delayed until Wednesday because of late arrivals.
The fleet also had to change its mooring location
overnight Monday when the wind shifted, exposing
them to a 20-knot breeze.
Immediately after the completion of the race,
North Sails and the Mexican Sailing Association
are sponsoring a new five-day regatta in Banderas
Bay called Vallarta Race Week. All Marina del
Rey-Puerto Vallarta participants were invited
to take part.
More
information and photos: www.dryc.org.
RACING
DIVISION
(Boat/Type,
Sail Number, Skipper, Yacht Club, Rating/Time
Allowance)
PHRF
AA (starts Feb. 14)
Pyewacket
(R/P 75), USA-4, Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles, -153/-47:48:45
PHRF
A (starts Feb. 13)
Locomotion
(Andrews 45), US-46860, Keith Kilpatrick, South
Shore, -45/-14:03:45
Sorcery
(Mull 82), US-1777, Jacob Wood, California, -48/-15:00:00
PHRF
B (starts Feb. 12)
Atalanta
(Tripp 74 ketch), US-69581, Richard Hedreen, Corinthian,
0/0:00:00
Black
Knight (Farr 39ML ), US-83400, Phillip Friedman,
Del Rey, 15/4:41:15
Bay
Wolf (S/C 50), Richard Parlette, Cabrillo Beach,
-3/0:56:15
Ghost
II (Farr 395), US-7077, Al Berg, Santa Monica
Windjammers, 30/9:22:30
Horizon
(S/CD 50M), US-18926, Jack Taylor, Dana Point,
-3/0:56:15
Zamazaan
(Farr 52C), US-3883, Charles Weghorn, St. Francis,
6/1:52:30
SALSA
DIVISION (started Feb. 7)
Order
of finish on corrected time, Leg 1 (includes handicaps
and engine time penalties)
SPINNAKER
Between
the Sheets (Jeanneau 52.2), Ross Pearlman, Santa
Monica Windjammers YC.
Gold Digger (N/M 50), David Fell, Seal Beach YC.
Misty (Cal 39-2), Harold Alexander, Seal Beach
YC.
Broadway Babe (C&C 110), Jim Maslon, Del Rey
YC.
Amazing Grace (Farr 55), Allen Puckett, California
YC.
Cheyenne (Whiting 49), Alan Blunt/David Fox, California/Santa
Cruz YCs.
NON-SPINNAKER A
1.
Quamichan (Davidson 44), Sandy Clark, South Coast
Corinthian YC.
2.
Quest (Davidson 53), Scott/Jean Adam, Del Rey/California
YCs.
3.
Sunseeker (Tayana 55), Alfred Benaroya, Seattle
YC.
NON-SPINNAKER
B
Principessa
(Newport 41S), Gregory Daley, Del Rey YC.
Fly'n Bry'n (Catalina 42), Jerry Bryan, American
Legion YC.
Firelight (Catalina 470T), Patrick Mickle, Dana
Point YC.
Seaker II (Farr 33), Wes Stone, Cabrillo Beach
YC.
Valerie K (Columbia 43), Ron Hoskin, Hawaii YC.
NOTE: In Salsa Division, time allowance is computed
at end of each leg for distance sailed. Engine
use permitted with penalty applied. In Spinnaker
class, all boats race with PHRF off-wind course
(OWC) rating on all legs. In Non-Spinnaker class,
initial "cruising" ratings are adjusted
after each leg.
RACE
CHAIRMAN
Ron
Jacobs
(310)
274-7200
rj2sail@pacbell.net
ENTRY
CHAIRMAN
Mike
Guccione
(818)
731-1030
innov8@pacbell.net
PRESS
OFFICER
Rich
Roberts
(310)
835-2526
cell:
(310) 766-6547
richsail@earthlink.net
