The Banderas Bay Blast, a three-day, absolutely-nothing-serious series of fun cruiser races on the warm and smooth waters of the bay between members of the Vallarta YC and Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club — and anyone else who wants to participate — is on for December 7, 8 and 9. And it looks like there will be a good turnout, particularly of bigger multihulls, the owners of which will be happy to take guests who have made contributions to the event’s charities.

Part of the event will be a headline match race between John Haste’s Perry 52 cat Little Wing from San Diego, and Latitude‘s Surfin’ 63 cat Profligate from Colony Emiliano Zapata, Mexico. Other multihulls expected to participate are Dave Crowe’s San Jose-based Morrelli & Melvin 70 Humu-Humu, Jim Forquer’s Newport Beach-based Catana 521 Legato, and Lupe and JR’s Nuevo Vallarta-based Catana 47 Moon ‘n Stars. In addition, John Moore will be on hand with his new little F-27, and Tom Brown with his F-31. North Sail’s Mike says that he expects eight to 10 monohulls from the Vallarta area, while Dave and Merry Wallace’s Redwood City-based Amel Maramu Air Ops is just one of the Ha-Ha boats expected to show.

What will all these folks be doing? There will be a pre-event skipper’s meeting/party at the Vallarta YC — which has now been expanded out over the pool — on Thursday at 6 p.m., followed by a Paradise Marina to Marina Riviera Nayarit La Cruz race the next afternoon. Christian Mancebo, manager of the new marina, says he’ll have plenty of slips available, and Philo says his music hall and restaurant will be ready for everyone.

Saturday will feature a race up to Punta Mita for some late afternoon surfing fun followed by the grand reopening of the Punta Mita Yacht & Surf Club at Margarita Restaurant. Hector, the owner, is already laying in extra sleep to prepare.

The final race will be the Pirates for Pupils Spinnaker Run for Charity on Sunday afternoon from Punta Mita back to Paradise Marina and the Vallarta YC. You won’t find a sweeter spinnaker run anywhere.

This event is all about fun and giving to worthy charities, so if you’re not  going to be in a fun-loving and charitable mood, we suggest you spend the weekend fishing or watching television. To get the charitable aspect off to a good start, Ha-Ha Honcho Lauren Spindler has authorized a $1,000 donation in the name of everyone who participated in the recent Ha-Ha.

Need to become a member of a yacht club? It only costs $1 to join the prestigious Punta Mita Yacht and Surf Club — surf kings Kelly Slater and Rob Machado are members, as is Tour de France winner Greg Lamond — but membership is only available to people who have sailed there. It’s true that you only have to sail from seven mile distant La Cruz, but we do have to have standards.

One of the most delightful and unspoiled places in the Cook Islands is Suwarrow. Located in the far north of the Cook Islands, this atoll lies halfway between Bora Bora in French Polynesia and Samoa, and has always been a favorite stop for cruising boats crossing the central Pacific.

Several years ago the Cook Island government proposed opening Suwarrow Island to commercial enterprises. That proposal was met with outcries from concerned cruisers around the world and was stopped before any changes were implemented. Now the same proposal is again beginning to resurface. It includes opening up Suwarrow to commercial pearl farming and other types of for-profit businesses. Suwarrow became infested with termites years ago so copra export is prohibited.

A New Zealander, Tom Neal, lived alone on Suwarrow from 1952 until he died in 1977 and wrote An Island To Oneself about his experiences there. Suwarrow is currently a National Park and a nesting site for thousands of sea birds and turtles. Frigates, tropic birds, petrels and other sea birds have nesting sites on the motus around the lagoon.

Cruisers are charged a flat fee of $50 to anchor in the lagoon. This fee helps defray the cost of having the caretakers stay on Suwarrow during the cruising season. The current caretakers, John and Veronica and their three boys, have been on Suwarrow over the past three seasons. They greet cruisers and explain the rules of the preserve. The rules, developed with cruisers over the years, help keep Suwarrow as pristine as possible. John and Veronica also put tours together to take cruisers to outlying islands to see the nesting sites. Usually evenings are spent with beach gatherings, potlucks, and entertainment provided by cruisers, with John playing his guitar. Snorkeling inside the lagoon is fantastic and scuba diving on the outside reef is memorable. The caretaker must give his permission for scuba diving trips.

It would be a shame to loose this National Park to commercial businesses. Concerned cruisers can send their views to Cook Island National Environmental Service, Attn: Vavia Vavia, PO Box 371, Rarotonga, Cook Islands or via email.
 
Once lost, these pristine islands can never be regained and brought back to their natural state.

"Last week I hauled my 22-ft Falmouth Channel Cutter Narwhal at Singlar’s big new boatyard facility next door to Marina Mazatlan," reports Mike Latta. "I hauled to complete a new engine installation plus take care of the usual list of maintenance items.

"The yard has been open and hauling boats for about two months, has seemed to work out the early kinks, and is now running smoothly. The physical plant and associated equipment are absolutely first class, and I’ve found the workers to be professional, open, and always ready to help.

"The Supervisor of both Operations and Administration is Jared Martinez, who, along with Administrations head Alma Magro, run a well-oiled ship. The paperwork for my haul and launch was almost non-existent. By the way, it cost me just under $180 for both ways, which I think is reasonable. The only way I could have done it cheaper was to careen on a tidal flat. For boats from 31 to over 51 feet, the price is between $7.14 and $8.82 a foot, but doesn’t include tax.

"The old ‘build it and they will come’ adage seems to be true here, as several major marine repair and general maintenance organizations have leased workshop space in the Singlar facility, and more will be arriving soon. Bob Buchanan’s Total Yacht Services was selected by Singlar to move in as a kind of ‘anchor’ tenant. As the biggest Yanmar dealer on the Pacific coast of Mexico, Canandian Buchanan — who is well-known to many cruisers  — and his business have become a magnet for engine repair and services. His installation of my new Yanmar two-cylinder is almost complete, and I hope to start giving waterskiing lessons as soon as I’m back in the water.

"C&C Marine Services is another company that is very busy and doing good work. They just completed a tough blister job on Narwhal, and will be doing all the barrier coats and bottom paint, too. The folks at Grupo Naval are available for fiberglass and bottom jobs, as well as other maintenance work. So the resources are here for just about any fix-it problem a sailor might have. Also coming to the boatyard are a chandlery, strainless steel fabrication business, sail loft, grocery store, cafe and restaurant. Singlar also has inside storage space rentals, wet and dry outside boat storage, a token-operated laundromat, and free Wi-Fi.

"In addition, the Pemex fuel dock is now open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays. You just need to call Claudia, the manager, for an appointment. The fuel dock is an easy in and out, and has 10 feet of water at low tide.

"My favorite Singlar feature? Whenever I get tired of working in the hot sun — which is most of the time — I can simply climb the steps to the roof-top swimming pool and Jacuzzi, and hop in. There’s nothing like looking over the edge of a pool while supervising work on your boat.

"Jared tells me that Fonatur, the Mexican tourist development agency that is also their parent, has been in contact with the government to widen and deepen the main harbor entrance that leads to Marina El Cid, Marina Mazatlan and Singlar. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Sure, it would make it much safer in bad weather, but it would also mean that the richy-rich folks with their 100 and 200-ft boats could get in, and there would go the neighborhood — not to mention the berth rates."