Banderas Bay Regatta

March 26, 2010

The Bay Area's Jeff Zarwell, on busman's holiday in Nuevo Vallarta Mexico, files this report from the Banderas Bay Regatta, which was held on March 16-20:

Day One

On day one of the regatta, we saw the wind clock from 190 to 250 between 1200 and 1300. Fortunately the race wasn't scheduled to start until 1330 and at that time it had pretty much settled, with a few righties coming in and out throughout the day. Due to a couple of very minor timing issues, we had to go into postponement, but ended up being only 10 minutes late. Hey, it's a cruising regatta and we're in Mexico!

We had a total of 48 boats start out of 59 registered boats, with a huge turnout of multihulls this year: a total of 19 signed up.

Unfortunately one multi had some issues with the drop of their Pepto-Bismol pink kite at the leeward mark, began to shrimp and ended up with two smaller kites. All was fine though as this 68-footer loaded with experienced Bay Area sailors had an extra SC70 kite and made the best of the situation. It was the only shrimp job of the day though. Word has it that the club will now have an all-you-can-eat camarones special today.

Also of note: Alan Weaver, harbormaster at Alameda's Marina Village, is quite the dancer it seems. He does a catchy little two-step on the foredeck before the kite is dropped each time. I wonder if that could have caused a distraction?

With the temperature at 85, 45% humidity, wind 15-18 kts, flat seas and everyone basically on vacation, how could we not have a good time?

One of three J/80s raced by J/World, and four J/80s total. ©2010 Jay Ailworth

Day Two

It was a long day today, the OA selected a distance course that was a bit too long and three of the boats didn't make the 1800 hours time limit. Aside from that it was another beautiful day. At the start for division C, we had a pod of dolphins cross the line early, but despite hoisting the "X" flag and making a sound signal, they didn't clear themselves, so we had to score them OCS.

Bob Smith's Custom 44 catamaran Pantera is by far the fastest boat in the regatta. How fast is she? Well, she was in the second start, rounded the windward mark, sailed up to the reach mark at La Cruz, blasted down to the bell buoy in Puerto Vallarta. At that point he dropped anchor, swam ashore, ordered some ceviche, swam back to the boat, sailed the rest of the course and took line honors. Oh yeah, ALL of the boats in his start and the one before his were flying kites, except him. He used white sails the whole time.

Best part of the day? We got the green flash at sunset.

Close competition in Class F. ©2010 Jay Ailworth

Day Three

Today provided some nice viewing for the race committee as Blue (a J/160 owned by Cheryl and Ken Sears from Nashville, TN) drove down to the leeward mark a little too deep and then had to beam reach to the mark. What needed to be a clean peel-away take-down ended up being a messy stern shrimp job. They got it in without shredding it, but I wouldn't want to be sleeping on that boat tonight - it's going to be humid.

Next came the battle of the big cats. Humu Humu (a Morrelli 68 owned by David Crowe) was in the lead going into the leeward mark with the Surfin' 63 Profligate right on her stern, blocking her breeze. A jibe fest ensued, with Humu Humu dropping her kite and going white for more maneuverability. That gave Profligate less area to shadow and allowed them to move in even closer.

With less speed Humu Humu had to round wide just to keep the boat moving, which allowed Profligate to spin the mark (this is a relative term folks, we are talking big cats here) and stay above Humu Humu. In the end though Humu Humu took a commanding lead and finished well ahead of Profligate.

This was a fantastic series with absolutely perfect weather for sailing. Vallarta YC and Laurie Ailworth in particular did a fantastic job of organizing this whole event. From the on-the-water racing to sponsorship and the nightly parties, a lot of work went into planning this regatta and it showed.

- Jeff Zarwell, National Race Officer

For more, see www.banderasbayregatta.com.