2014 News

The San Diego Yacht Club biennial Puerto Vallarta Race finished its 32nd edition with great success and positive feedback from race competitors and sponsors alike. Although winds were light for the majority of the race, the weather showcased southern California and Mexico’s near perfect conditions with sunny skies and warm temperatures for the 1,000 NM race from Point Loma to Puerto Vallarta.
Most likely, the history books will show the 2014 San Diego to Vallarta race as not a particularly fast race, but it wasn’t a slow one either. We had two world class trimarans entered, and without a spectacular weather system to hurl them at once in a while speeds, both entries beat the flat out speed record from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta established by Steve Fossett aboard Lakota (size/type) in 1998. Tom Siebels MOD 70 established the new mark of 2 days, 8 hours, 33 mins, 0 sec. Almost 6 hours later, HL Enloe’s Orma 60 limped across the line (broken port foil), also just an hour under Fossetts benchmark time. Renamed ‘Mighty Merloe’, this tri dominated the maxi-trimaran circuit when it was built and was the design basis for the MOD 70.
Bob Pethick, the owner of the Rogers 46 Bretwalda was able to change his travel plans and stay for the Saturday awards ceremony now that there is some glory to be had. Congratulations to Bob and his crew. They correct out to 83.9 hours, 0.2 hours over Fritz Lanzinger’s J/125 Hamachi.
San Diego Yacht Club’s tradition of racing to the Mexican mainland is over 60 years old. This year, the 1,000nm race to Puerto Vallarta produced a new record finish time courtesy of Tom Siebiel’s MOD70 Trimaran Orion, with a finish time of 2 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes (56 hours, 33 minutes).
The 32nd edition of the biennial San Diego to Vallarta International Yacht Race started off Shelter Island, with Class 3 and 4 leaving on Friday (Mar. 14) and Class 1, 2, and Multihull departing on Saturday (Mar. 15). Both days provided summer-like conditions for the 23 entrants to begin their 1000 mile southerly slide toward beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
San Diego Yacht Club will send Class 3 and Class 4 boats off to Mexico today in the 52nd biennial Vallarta Race. Each boat is equipped with a Yellowbrick race tracker, which will allow spectators to follow along with the race progress, updated hourly. The positions are on a 4 hour delay to keep the boat positions a bit more mysterious to the competitors as they navigate down south.
On the eve of the 1,000 nm southern jaunt down Baja California from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta, we take a look at the history of, and the competition, and more specifically, the Nor Cal Boats entered this year and their crews.