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San Diego Yacht Club’s Third Hot Rum Race Concludes the Series

Bob Betancourt was out on the water again last weekend, this time photographing the third and last race in San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC)’s Hot Rum Series. As Bob said, there wasn’t much wind, but he still took some beautiful photos, which we share in the gallery below.

Despite the lack of wind on this final race day, SDYC considered this year’s Hot Rum Series to be a “hallmark event,” with the following report.

There is an old wise [wise wives’?] tale that the three-race Hot Rum Series will feature one “perfect weather race” with sun, no clouds, flat seas and a perfect westerly breeze in which boats can reach/run around the course; a second race with stormy conditions not limited to blustery southerly winds, significant swell/waves, and maybe some rain to make it really miserable; and a third race that has little to no wind.

Hot Rum Series races 1 and 2 were nearly identical, featuring the most desirable “perfect weather” conditions. Winds were in the mid- to high teens from that sweet westerly direction. Consider the finish times for Jim Madden’s (Stark Raving Mad) consistent top-level performance: Race 1 finish at 1411 and Race 2 finish even faster at 1407. Race 1 enjoyed 110 finishers in about 32 minutes, while Race 2 clocked 114 finishers in about one hour.

And so, while the morning of Race 3 dawned bright, it was also warm and dry, suggesting light Santa Ana conditions — and so it was. The Race Committee administered a 20-minute AP (postponement) due to the absolute lack of wind across the start area and a flood current that would have caused boats attempting to start to pile up within the first few hundred feet of the course. By 1230, there was enough wind to get boats moving down the course toward mark 1, with marginally better wind outside the harbor.

Hot Rum #3 was the anticipated “little to no wind” race.
© 2024 Mark Albertazzi

But there wasn’t enough for most sailors. By the time the race clock ran out at the 4:30 p.m. time limit (Sailing Instruction 14, if you want to have a peek), 34 boats had finished in the preceding 30 minutes, with Jim Madden’s third-place Stark Raving Mad crossing the line at 1558. Even subtracting the 20-minute postponement, his finish time would have been 1538, around an hour and a half longer than his Race 1 or Race 2 elapsed time. Race 3’s first-to-finish boat Still 2 Crazy, owned/sailed by the trio of son/father Erik and Jon Shampain and Robert Plant, made up for their unfortunate Race 1 score of DNF that involved a mark tangle.

Jim Madden’s Stark Raving Mad finished the series Overall First Place winner.
© 2024 Mark Albertazzi

In the overall series scores, Class 6 was the winner. The top three boats were J boats that do especially well on a powerful reaching course. Third place was awarded to J/105 J Almighty, skippered by Mike Hatch. Second place went to J/105 Perseverance, owned and driven by Bennet Greenwald and Dave Vieregg. And first place went to defending Overall winner, Jim Madden and crew aboard his J/100 Stark Raving Mad.

When the racing is as much fun as the Hot Rum Series, everyone’s a winner.
© 2024 Mark Albertazzi

Thank you to perennial event supporter Mt. Gay Barbados Rum, and to the volunteers serving on the Protest Committee arbitrating knowledge and experiences on the race course, and to the Race Committee volunteers who manage the starts, mind the buoys, and score this winter hallmark event.

See more results at sdyc.org.

1 Comments

  1. Christine Weaver 2 months ago

    For more photos from the Hot Rum Series as well as top scores, check out Racing Sheet in the January issue of Latitude 38, coming out on Monday, December 30.

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