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.
JOHN RAYMONT, OWNER:
"The goals for the Ker 51 Fast Exit II full on racer are the same as they were for my prior boat and its namesake, the wonderful racer-cruiser Andrews 40: take a boat with “good bones” and make it better. Success with the Andrews 40 was achieved by some modest design updates, sail development program and assembling a great team to execute; which is the program we are following today.
Fast Exit II started life in 2012 as a German IRC-focused racer and successfully competed under that format winning her class or overall in events such as Sydney to Hobart, Cowes Week, Key West Race Week, and the UK IRC National Championship. By demonstrating “good bones” by her ability to win on a global basis, she made for an attractive acquisition. But optimizing a yacht for an IRC rating results in design decisions that slow the boat but are offset by other IRC allowances such as water tank and crew placement not possible or practical under ORR. So we have been working on modernizing the boat based on ten years of yacht design advancement to improve performance in an ORR world. In 2020 we extended her bow to straighten the rocker, forward waterlines and add buoyancy to offset her very tall rig. In 2021 we added a J0 to offset her small fore triangle that works well in a North Sea environment but not in light to moderate conditions on the US West Coast. In the 2021/2022 winter we moved the keel bulb aft by 220-cm so she now naturally sits on her design lines to help get her bow up in fast planing conditions.
Despite shortened sailing seasons in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions, we have been developing and refining the boat polars and sail charts. As weaknesses are discovered, sail replacements or additions are implemented. An increasing focus on data driven sailing has been raising our game.
Putting a great crew together is a balancing act of recruiting great skills to cover all the racing needs plus finding personalities that fits with the culture of the boat. Those with a different agenda are allowed to go their own way. As a result, our exceptional team respects each other, wants to sail with each other and they have fun doing so.
We started building the Fast Exit II core team with trusted members of the Fast Exit crew that included Alan Andrews (Watch Captain, Tactician and design management), Pike Harris (North Sails and mainsail Trimmer), Steve Mader (backup Pit and Grind). To that we expanded strength by adding Brad Wheeler (Navigator), Randy Moreno (boat management and Pit), Clément Maestri (Bow and boat preparation), Tyler Wolk (dockside management and backup Bow), Garrett Brown (headsail Trimmer) and Tom O’Keefe (headsail Trimmer). Hendrik Reidel (North sails and Grind) was a great and late addition.
A key relationship that continues to grow is with the boat designer, Jason Ker, and the trust and respect that Jason, Alan Andrews and myself have developed to openly discuss and evaluate effective design modifications. Execution of modifications is led by Randy Moreno, who has been tireless in getting it done right and sweating the details.
A key improvement in 2022 was improved communications by the Navigator with the Skipper, Watch Captain and balance of crew. Brad Wheeler is not only a talented Navigator, but has an “even keel” can-do disposition that makes working with him a joy for the entire team. Information flows well back and forth without an interfering ego, which allows us to vet routing recommendations in a constructive manner; a key ingredient in quickly getting to the right solution and motivating the team.
This is the third PV Race for me with my prior experience in 2018 on Fast Exit and 2020 on Fast Exit II. Both were sufficiently fun and rewarding to pull me back again in 2022. What was especially rewarding this year were the course conditions and the ability to see the efficacy of our 2021/2022 winter modifications unimpeded. “Unimpeded” because during the Islands Race two weeks earlier we ran into a large island of kelp about 01:00 Saturday that took us from leading and extending on ORR-B boats and many ORR-A boats, to trailing by miles."
BRAD WHEELER, NAVIGATOR:
"From a navigation point of view, the PV 2022 was really a race of outlasting the competitors. We took our meteorological input over the last week, and built a game plan for the race and it pretty much held. We knew we had a wicked fast boat so our goal was to minimize miles and any high risk decisions. There were a few key decision points, and those who chose wrong were quickly peeled out of the leading group with no real opportunity to catch back up.
We knew from before our start that the day 1 & 2 starters would have a slower start to the race and the Saturday starters would be bringing in a new NW breeze. The first third of the race was fast and very standard. A few competitors strayed from rhumb and paid the price. The middle third - Cedros to Cabo - was the most interesting and again a number of competitors took themselves out. We lost an hour or so by trying a more conservative approach of Lazaro, but our lead allowed us to absorb that mistake.
With the NW breeze, we had fairly standard Cabo lee conditions setup. The timing was that we were crossing the lee in the late evening/early morning, so we knew that any boats that attempted to shortcut our 50nm waypoint to the inside would be severely penalized, but none of the top 4 fell into that trap.
The final leg was the gulf crossing, and it was relatively stable and no positions or distances were changed during the 250 nm crossing. The breeze died early in the morning and with 35 miles to go after BadPak finished, it was a nail biting waiting game to see how early the seabreeze would fill - early and we win, late and we lose. It filled about 8:30 am and we were able to get moving again, thereby salvaging 90 minutes of our 4 hour lead for the win.
In short, we didn’t think there were any outstanding decisions on our part, but rather a set of decisions by others that didn’t pan out and they were penalized by being dropped from the lead group. Of course, having a wicked fast boat doesn’t hurt and speed covers any number of bad decisions we might have made!"