In any handicap race, time is the measure of performance. An hour is a huge chunk of performance. So keeping track of ‘race time’ is important. One unique challenge for the 2020 PV Race is the time change that occurred in the US Sunday morning. All boats started the race in Pacific Standard Time (PST) which is measured 8 hours behind “coordinated universal time (UTC -8), the US changed to Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) 7 hours behind UTC (UTC-7), and PV is on UTC-6 time. Making sure the tracker stays on PST time communicating with the racers in PST time, estimating when boats will arrive at the marina in PV time, and chatting with families back home in US time is a whirlwind. So when looking at estimates of finish times, consider the source and check to make sure you understand what time zone is being referenced. 

Daily commentary from John Shulze' Santa Cruz 50 Horizon as they compete from Class 4 in the 2020 PV Race.

We had a near perfect Kodak moment start of the 2020 PV race thanks to Gary Weisman. 12 knots of wind straight up the bay made for a 12 to 14knot fetch out to sea.
That wind did not stop for the first 24 hours of the race. By 11am we were nearly abeam of Cedros Island. Amazing! Then, it turned in to a more typical Mexican race and we drifted for the next 10 hours. Finally we are moving again under mostly cloudy skies and cold weather about 100 miles offshore abeam Punta Lazarro.

Boat life has been good. Gary Weisman and Ben Mitchell bought a bunch of bricks of Parmesan Cheese but turns out we have no grater so the guys have been breaking off chunks of cheese ever since. Expecting some more tricky weather in the next few hours. We are hoping  to come out of it ok and head to PV.

On Day 3 of San Diego Yacht Club’s 2020 Puerto Vallarta Race, 21 of 29 boats had spent at least one night on the course. As of 0600 Saturday, Class 6 boats from the Thursday start had come to the vicinity of Cedros Island which is 275 miles down the course. The leader the first group has been Bill Hardesty’s Hobie 33 Sizzle since the opening moments of the race, and their lead had extended to 15 miles over the nearest boat 1D35 Such Fast, and as much as 55 miles over Cal 40 Nalu V. Sizzle appears to have maintained a consistent 6-8kts of speed throughout the night.

Looking back up the course at the 3 Classes of Friday starters there is a second grouping of 16 boats. As might be expected by the wide variety of boats in the class, Class 5 split up with many different paths, while the Santa Cruz 50/52 class hung tight together. Horizon and Triumph were the 0600 leaders in Class 4 in site of each other no doubt within a mile or two much of the way. Rogers 46 Bretwalda3 made the most distance down the course from the Friday starting group. Multiple reports of shifty overnight conditions made for busy crews keeping up with the sail changes.

Day 2 of San Diego Yacht Club’s 35^th Puerto Vallarta Race started with a review of the race tracker to check on the progress of the Class 6 boats who started on Thursday. Over the first 18 hours of the race, Bill Hardesty’s Hobie 33 Sizzle led the pack, cutting over 150 miles off the course with an average of 8.5kts boat speed over course.

Aboard the Cal 40 Nalu V, the crew loved the start delivered to them on Thursday. “Great start to the race! Much windier than expected – only one roundup! Excellent ‘skippers lasagna’ for dinner. Champagne sailing all the way.”

Sailonline is again partnering with San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) for the 2020 running of the Puerto Vallarta Race. SDYC has been racing to the Mexican Mainland since 1953, and in 2016, was the first USA West Coast yacht club to bring virtual sailing navigation to its members and the west coast sailing community. The Puerto Vallarta Race is 1,020 mile race down the baja coast, across to the mainland and the entrance to Banderas Bay. Three days of starts, Thursday - Saturday March 5-7, 2020.

Sailonline will be going head to head with the real fleet – it is intended to bring the tracks of the real racers on-screen – and as we are racing our Volvo 70 polar, similar to the Pyewacket entry.

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