Banderas Bay Regatta Winners
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. . . Vallarta YC Commodore John Moore, whose club not only put on a fine ‘nothing serious’ regatta for 30 cruising boats, but got better performance out of his new Corsair 750 Sprint each day.
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. . . Jim Coggan, seen here hugging Sarah ‘spirit of the boat’ Google, of the Richmond-based Schumacher 40 Auspice, which took Class 1 after a hard fought battle with Jim Taylor aboard the San Francisco-based Beneteau 47.7 Sooner Magic.
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. . . David Crowe of the San Jose-based Morrelli & Choy 68 cat Humu Humu, who thanks to the help of crew from the SC52 Kokopelli2, the Farr 40 Astra, and the Valiant 50 Raptor Dance, finally got the sails trimmed right and the big cat really moving.
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. . . Patsy Verhoeven of the Portland-based Gulfstar 50 Talion, who came all the way down from her new homeport of La Paz to race. By the way, she’s been appointed the race committee chairperson of the April 1-6 Sea of Cortez Sailing Week.
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. . . . Bartz Schneider of the San Francisco-based Express 37 Expeditious, who not only ‘chartered’ Jim Casey’s Tahoe and P.V.-based Jeanneau 43 DS Tomatillo, but still managed to win his class despite literally not having a clew in the first race.
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. . . and Charles Naslund of the San Francisco-based Catalina 30 Saber Vivir, who won his class for the second year in a row with a crew consisting of two 60-year-olds and two 80-year-olds!
Unfortunately, there had to be some losers, too, such as
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. . . Jim Taylor of the San Francisco Beneteau 47.7 Sooner Magic, who, when attempting to be a good sport in defeat, said, "Coggan and the Auspice crew truly did deserve to win. I didn’t mind his cheating little boat, or even that Gordie ‘Buttercup’ Nash and other crew were yelling rules at us on the course, but the last straw for me was when they tried to steal my boat bunny."
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. . . and the victorious Patsy Verhoeven, who dropped her first place plaque only minutes after receving it. She looked almost as sad as the day her previous boat’s deck was separated from its hull by a propane explosion.
The Weekend’s Racing Report
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The weekend decided to thumb its nose at the National Weather Service and gave racers breeze, sun and generally pleasant weather. Over at Richmond YC on Saturday, 94 boats in 12 divisions sailed three races on three courses at the Big Daddy Regatta. Sunday’s 11-mile pursuit race got off to a late start as the day greeted everyone with a hazy, glassed-off Southampton Shoal, leaving the RC no choice but to postpone. After aborting a subsequent attempt, the breeze finally filled in from the south and the committee struck the AP at 1:49 p.m. The bulk of the fleet opted for the clockwise route, heading toward Alcatraz in what soon became a building, winding southwesterly. As of this writing, Saturday’s results were up on RYC’s site but Sunday’s weren’t yet. Check out www.richmondyc.org/cal2/EventShow.asp for full results later in the day.
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Over on the Cityfront, St. Francis YC’s Spring Dinghy had quality fleets enjoying the quality conditions. The 29ers, 505s, Finns, FDs Lasers and Radials sailed five races in breeze up to the high teens. Mike Martin and Jeff Nelson in The Black Boat turned in the performance of the regatta, throwing out a bullet — because, well, they had to throw out something. For full results visit www.stfyc.com/default.aspx.
Did you miss out on the fun this weekend? Don’t let it happen again, pick up a copy of the 2008 Northern California Sailing Calendar and YRA Master Schedule — it’s your complete guide to racing on the Bay and available at our world headquarters in Mill Valley or wherever you get your copy of Latitude 38. We’ll have more detailed reports on these two regattas in the April issue so stay tuned!
Sort of Looks Like the Skies Over Iraq
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While cruising along the mainland coast of Mexico, Heather Corsaro of the Monterey-based Cal 36 Eupsychia took this photo of a fleet of little rays. It kinda makes you wonder about the inspiration for the B-1 bomber. These rays are the cutest little things — unless you step on one and get barbed. Along the south shore of Banderas Bay, it’s not uncommon to see similar fleets of manta rays — but with wingspans of 10 to 15 feet.
But the marine life that’s really booming along the coast of Mexico has been turtles. One woman told us she counted nearly 100 large ones — two feet across or more — during a single watch. Maybe there is something to protecting wildlife.
Circumnavigators, A Little Help Please
As keepers of the ‘official’ West Coast Circumnavigators List, we’ve been scratching our heads lately as we attempt to update the roster with missing information.
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If you are among that lucky group of West Coast sailors who’ve made a lap around the planet please have a look at the list online and supply us with any additions or corrections. We’d also love to have contact info for any sailors on the list that you have in your address book. We promise not to share that info with any commercial entity — we’d just like to be able to contact them for editorial purposes. Many thanks for the help.