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 Thursday night SDYC hosted a lively kick off party with live music, a taco bar, tequila girls and lots of talented sailors (view photo gallery).

Class 3 and 4 competitors met in the main dining room Friday morning for breakfast and a Competitors Meeting presented by SDYC Regatta Manager Jeff Johnson. Sailing Instructions were reviewed and questions answered. Peter Isler shared his knowledge on weather reports and analysis in a 30 minute tutorial. Isler will be sailing aboard the trimaran Orion, starting on Saturday and looking to be the first-to-finish while competing against the other trimaran Mighty Merloe.

Spectators are invited to join SDYC on Shelter Island to watch the 2 starts scheduled for 12:00 and 12:20 Friday and give the sailors a great send off on the 1,000nm race to Puerto Vallarta.