In December of 2021 I called Kjeld Hestehave and asked if he wanted to do the PV2022 Race.  Kjeld and I have a long history of racing together on Velos and his Etchells.  I knew he wanted to sell the boat and that there may not be many more opportunities for us to offshore racing together, and his love of doing them is unmatched.

Distance ocean races come in all different shapes and sizes. There’s a point where it goes from an event you can grit your teeth and battle through, to a length of time on the boat where you need to establish a flow for the on/off watch periods and cycle of racing day and night. The average time on the course in this year’s Puerto Vallarta Race was 5 days, 2 hours, which needs that flow to succeed.

Stan Fleming, J/125 Nereid, shared why the race to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico needs a different mentality than shorter races.

“What you’re trying to do is get to an equilibrium…a balance between performance and self care. Once you get into that equilibrium, you can sail as long as you want. In this race, at San Cedros on about the third day, for the evening then night watches, I got to do exactly the same thing regardless, and I lost that conventional vision of time. That’s kind of a good feeling when offshore. The Cabo Race is barely enough time to get in that flow. But this race was really a long distance race… you have to get into that equilibrium. That’s where experience is key, being able to manage yourself.”

Overall Winners of the 2022 Puerto Vallarta Race, hosted by San Diego Yacht Club are John Raymont and the crew of his Ker-51 Fast Exit II. John along with navigator Brad Wheeler gave us the story of setting the boat up for success and have they sailed the winning track in this year's 1000nm race to Puerto Vallarta.

Friday's recap will feature a brief of tactical and class specific choices made during the regatta... all the stuff you'll want to know to do well in the 2024 PV Race. But tonight in Puerto Vallarta there are a lot of crews celebrating camaraderie and the conclusion of a great experience. Some years are faster (better?) than others and this will rank as a really good one.

Like spectators peering over each other to get a glimpse of a racer approaching from far away, the Race Committee studied the YB tracker through the afternoon yesterday trying to anticipate when the first boat would cross the line. That honor went to Pyewacket 70! In fact, both Pyewacket 70 and Rio100 eclipsed the 2016 monohull course record (Rio100); Pyewacket 70 by an hour, Rio100 by 25 mins.

As the sun comes up Tuesday on the 2022 Puerto Vallarta race track, the YB tracker reveals some great stuff. If you believe the Windy.com weather overlay, you might notice a little river of green with white lines flowing south out of the Sea of Cortez. THAT IS MONEY! First, the more ‘northerly’ direction the wind, the better for sailors reaching to the east on a port gybe. Second, the green-ish tint indicates wind strength of 10-ish knots. The wind strength key is across the bottom of the screen. While it is not a vibrant green (high teens), it is not covered in the dreaded ‘blue bayou’ that indicates wind of 5 kts or less. The Tuesday 0800 roll calls are reporting a few lulls in the ‘green’ winds, but Race Committee expects that as the daily thermals mature, the winds will develop and help the fleet stay compressed and on a fast track to the finish.

As the competitors in the 2022 Vallarta race continue south in what is being reported as “great sailing conditions”, it is worth taking a moment to look at how this game has played out in the past. 

To start, Rio100 owns the elapsed time record set in 2016 at 3 ds, 5 hrs, 42 min, 43 sec. Both she and Pyewacket have been rolling through the fleet like they’re in a car chase. The trackers are currently projecting both of them to finish ahead of the record, with Pyewacket edging out Rio by about an hour, and knocking a little more than 4 hours off the Elapsed Time Record. In fact, there could be as many as five Class 1 boats and even Fast Exit in Class 2 breaking the tape in record time. Race Time 18:02:42 on Tuesday is the time to beat to be on that podium.

After three days of really nice conditions at the start of the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race, all boats are on the course! It has been called the “pleasant depart” - a reference to boats sailing to Mexico starting the race with spinnakers as opposed to the edgier initial course for boats sailing to Hawaii which typically involves some upwind sailing for the first day or two. So while it wouldn’t be fair to say we saved the best for last, it would be accurate to say the last got the best… start conditions. As a whole, the middle of the Saturday Class 1 and 2 fleet have already sprinted 270 miles down the course in the first 20 hours. 

If Friday’s summary word-of-the race was “angles”, Saturday’s words are “VMC or Velocity Made on Course.” Watching the Thursday Class 6 boats beat their way out of San Diego Bay in a southerly wind was a tough way to start a distance race. At 0800 Roll Call Saturday, they were generally passing San Carlos/Turtle Bay. By contrast, the Friday Class 5, 4, and 3 boats got a nice westerly breeze that built through the evening and allowed them to fast reach directly toward the finish 1050nm away. Their 0800 boat positions are less than 100nm astern, about parallel to Guadalupe Island. Watching the YB Tracker, you can see the dramatic difference in course choices. By 0400 or 0500, the Friday boats started to gybe back toward the Baja coast and stay closer to the rhumbline, the most direct course to the finish.

San Diego Yacht Club’s race to Puerto Vallarta, Day 1 is in the books for Class 6 (Thursday start) and to sum up their race so far: angles. Twenty hours into their 2022 Puerto Vallarta Race at the 0800 morning, email check-in had the three Class 6 boats 120-135 miles down the course. White Cloud and Envolee were within a half mile of each other having morning coffee (or their equivalent). Such Fast stands only a few miles behind the other two in terms of distance to finish, but in a more offshore position. Clearly different pages from the Mexico Race play book.

Nathalie Criou, Envolee skipper: 

“Awesome sailing last night - 17 to 20 knots of breeze which has turned into s**t about a hundred miles from Cedros. Battling it out with White Cloud but we’ve lost track of Such Fast. Team morale is good and we are all rested as the weather tests our patience."

The 2022 Puerto Vallarta Race hosted by San Diego Yacht Club is the 36th running of the biennial yacht race from San Diego to the Mexican mainland. The previous edition in March 2020 took place in the last waning days prior to the wide-scale Covid 19 shutdown in the US, which literally broke while the competitors were racing to Puerto Vallarta. Two years later, a strong fleet of 30 boats set sail on the 1000nm course, some as their first distance race of the last two years.

Teams drawing mostly from the US west coast, but as far as Australia, are looking forward to the competition of this race, but also the picturesque, springtime destination of Puerto Vallarta. Those from the colder climates in Northern California and Washington see this race as the perfect winter getaway with temperatures in the 80s awaiting in Puerto Vallarta.

SDYC KICK OFF PARTY
Thursday, March 10, 2022, 1800

Skippers and crew of participating PV Race boats are invited to attend the Kick Off Party at San Diego Yacht Club, included with the entry fee. Additional party tickets can be purchased for family and friends and SDYC members.

BUY EXTRA KICK OFF PARTY TICKETS

AWARDS PARTY IN PV

Friday, March 18, 2022, Time TBD
Terraza Arrecifes at the Westin Hotel & Marina Puerto Vallarta, (same outdoor venue as previous years)

1 Ticket per race crew included at no charge. Additional guests will be able to buy tickets online or at the party for $30.

BUY EXTRA AWARDS PARTY TICKETS

A variety of official 2022 PV Race shirts and hats are available for order online now. Merchandise will be available for pickup at SDYC March 10-12.

ORDER FORM

Thirty-two boats are already registered for the 2022 Puerto Vallarta (PV) Race scheduled for March 10-18, 2022. Although there is still time for new boats to pop up on the entry list, the current list of 32 makes the 2022 running of the biennial event the largest since 2000. So, what keeps intriguing sailors to gather their crews for multiple nights of offshore racing down the pacific coast?