PV Fleet Making Tracks

The San Diego Yacht Club’s race to Puerto Vallarta got underway Saturday for Divisions 1, 2, and 3 in a 10- to 12-kt southwesterly. The boats started off Shelter Island, serenaded by a Mariachi band, before settling in for some upwind sailing that lasted into Sunday morning. Division 4 and the lone performance cruising division entrant, Beowulf, started on Thursday and were expected to be passed by the big boats last night.

"It was a pretty tactical, tough night," Holua navigator Mark Rudiger reported of the race’s first night at sea, adding that it had been light at times and shifty. Rudiger’s report from 2:30 Sunday afternoon indicated they were 200 miles south of San Diego with the breeze filling in from the northwest, and the pack they were in were all flying spinnakers. "Right now we’re all looking to pick our jibe to go into Cedros (Island)."

Jim Gregory’s Pt. Richmond-homeported Schumacher 50 Morpheus appeared to be in fifth place overall on corrected time as of yesterday’s standings. The big boats are now even with Bahia Magdalena and making tracks towards Cabo San Lucas and the tactical choices it will present. Updated standings hadn’t yet been posted as of this writing, but you can follow the race’s only NorCal entry and all the others on the tracking web-site at http://trackinfo.fistracking.com/pv2008 which is also accessible from the race’s homepage at www.sdyc.org/pv/.