¡Hola! From Vallarta Yacht Club in Stunning Banderas Bay

We just completed our 32nd Banderas Bay Regatta. We want you to know about it and hopefully be lucky enough to participate next year. To describe the conditions as a perfection of champagne sailing is, in this case, a massive understatement. We had the perfect mid-teen breezes for all three days of this year’s Captain Ron-themed event, and the folks who did get to compete were thrilled beyond measure. We even outdid ourselves by having the sistership to the yacht famously featured in the Captain Ron film, Chez Nous, owned by Al and JoLinda Garnier as our signal boat. Al was kind enough to be PRO as well. Here’s a picture of him at anchor, not being terrified that his lovely boat is going to get pasted by some hotshot in the performance fleet.

The famous cetaceans showed up daily, as evidenced by the image below of Mike Seth’s J/133 Lost Dragon with a humpback and dolphin playing in the foreground. The good times reverberated throughout the fleet for all three days. I think this sighting was a good omen for Lost Dragon because they were the winners of the Performance 1 division.

While John Matjczyk’s Jeanneau 54 Edwina was the victor in Performance 2 Division, Joe Heinzmann’s popular 1971 Swan 55 Swan Fun came in second in her class and was the big winner of the Terry O’Rourke trophy given to the skipper and the crew best representing the fun-loving, Corinthian spirit of this regatta. This is their third annual appearance as they keep moving that party around the globe. In true Captain Ron form, the skipper is so much fun that it took a minute or two to get his attention at the bar to tell him that he’d won this trophy! You rock, Joe! Shots, anyone?

The all-important Cruiser Division was dominated by J/27 Beep Beep, skillfully helmed by VYC member Greg Reaume. Multiple-time participant Patsy Verhoeven, on her gorgeous Gulfstar sloop Talion, swooped in for second, and first-time, last-minute entry Jim Schultz’s Ericson Quincy was right behind them in third place.

I wasn’t the only one with a tear in the eye when the Farrier F-22 Cricket, which was owned by our recently departed, beloved Commodore Randy Hough and helmed in Randy’s honor by VYC Afloat Director David Gould, not only won the multihull division but took home the Pantera Cup for the first place in the Multihull division as well.

Hijinx abounded during the regatta, as the driver of Andy Barrow’s Oceanis 390 Hey Ya, awarded the Captain Ron award for being the slowest boat, and notably the author and photographer’s husband, Tim, had the bad manners to shoot a raspberry after being brutally mocked, by me, for a painfully slow mark rounding.

You really had to have been here. Hope you will be with us next year!