Vallarta Race: Greatest Night Ever

The 32nd running of the Vallarta Race, a 1000nm course from San Diego, USA to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, began with staggered starts on February 19 and 20 for the 21-boat field. Here’s an update on February 21 from Peter Isler on the Santa Cruz 70 Holua…

A beautiful 24 hours of sailing out here on the Pacific and the fleet is tearing up the ocean VMG running in 20+ knots of wind, 6 foot swells and beautiful skies. Last night was epic – (nearly) full moon running… you didn’t need a flashlight on deck it was so bright.

Everyone agreed it was one of the greatest nights of sailing ever. Tonight we are looking for another beautiful moonlight ride – as the winds are still over 20 and the temperature should be one notch warmer (there was definitely a chill to the air last night).

On this veteran Santa Cruz 70 we did a 293 mile day (point to point) which is getting us south quickly. The forecast for the last third of the race is firming up a bit with a bit better wind than we were expecting at the start.

Last night we had two sleds in sight – Grand illusion (SC70) and Pyewacket (Andrews 70) – but by morning only Pyewacket was in view. We’ve done a couple of jibes so far and both have been matched immediately by Roy Disney and his team. (Editor’s note: Tracker has Pyewacket leading Div 2 with Holua in second)

About 24 more hours of fun before the tricky bit comes up – the approach to Cabo and figuring out how to get through the sizeable windless hole that often stretches south from Cabo for up to 50 miles.

For now we’ll appreciate the good conditions and keep riding those waves.

Race website – Entry list – Tracking – Twitter

Background: The 32nd running of the Vallarta Race hosts 21 teams competing on the 1000nm course from San Diego, USA to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The biennial event in 2016 has staggered starts with Division 3 and 4 starting February 19 with Division 0, 1, and 2 starting February 20.

The fleet consists of six boats from Southern California while other boats hail from San Francisco Bay, Hawaii, Texas, Chicago, Mexico, and Peru.

The multihull race record of 02:08:33 was set in 2014 by Tom Siebel’s MOD70 trimaran Orion. The monohull race record of 03:08:52 was set in 2010 by Bill Turpin’s R/P 77 Akela.

Upon arrival in Puerto Vallarta, seven of the boats are planning to compete the following week on Banderas Bay in the MEXORC regatta on February 28 to March 5.