Sailing : Race to Puerta Vallarta Starts Today

Twenty of the fastest off-shore racing yachts on the West Coast will start Del Rey Yacht Club’s 1,125-mile Marina del Rey-to-Puerta Vallarta race today at 1 p.m.

The race is divided into two divisions, with nine boats in the International Offshore Rule (IOR) and 11 in the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF). Most of the entries in either division are 50 feet or longer.

Class A yachts in IOR include Jake Wood’s Mull-82 Sorcery, from Pacific Mariners Yacht Club; James Feuerstein’s Nelson-Marek 68 Prima, from the host club; Paul Simonson’s Santa Cruz-70 Kathmandu, Stillwater Yacht Club; John Graham’s Farr-55 Whistlewind, Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, and Lucian Taylor’s Santa Cruz-50 Racy II, St. Francis Yacht Club.

PHRF speedsters are Fred Preiss’ Custom-84 Christine, PMYC; Pat Farrah’s Santa Cruz-70 Blondie, Long Beach YC; Citius, a SC-70 under charter to a Del Rey YC syndicate; Hal Ward’s MacGregor-65 Cheval, California YC; Dick Pennington’s Peterson-66 Cheetah, LBYC; Dick Daniels’ MacGregor-65 Joss, LBYC, and John Grindley’s MacGregor-65 Shenanigan, Capistrano Bay YC.

Any of the above yachts could break the elapsed time record of 4 days 23 hours, set by the MacGregor-65 Joss in the 1985 race.

The race is the first in a series of long-distance races scheduled on the West Coast this year, including Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s race to Cabo San Lucas in March, the 2,225-mile Transpac event from Los Angeles to Honolulu in July, and the Long Beach-to-Cabo San Lucas in November.