Tough Sledding for Field in Puerto Vallarta Run

Are some sailors superstitious?

If so, they might think twice about competing in the Del Rey Yacht Club’s 12th biennial race from Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 5. One dropout left the race with 13 entries.

That’s not the smallest fleet for one of the several races to Mexico each year, but it reflects a collision between commitment and the economy. Ten of the entries are ULDB (ultralight displacement boat) 70-raters, or “sleds,” the elite of any West Coast offshore race. Only three smaller boats are entered.

Other regular competitors are saving their limited time and funds for the biennial Transpac race to Hawaii in July or waiting for one of the shorter races to Mexico later this year. Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta is 1,125 nautical miles--the longest.

“There are so many races to Mexico that the smaller boats find it easy to opt for the shorter races, to Cabo San Lucas,” said Tom Leweck, director of the ULDB 70 fleet, who has sailed in nearly 50 events to Mexico. “Puerto Vallarta (on the mainland) adds 300 miles and two days from Cabo.”

The sled owners also are concerned about costs. They voted to limit new sails to four this year and to ban expensive materials and boat construction techniques.

But Puerto Vallarta has its points, Leweck added: “Beautiful marina, nice facilities--a tropical paradise.”

The race also has some strategic challenges in the constant search for the best wind, such as which way to sail around Santa Catalina Island on the first day, how close to cut the tip of Baja California entering the Sea of Cortez and how best to approach Bahia de Banderos, where Puerto Vallarta is situated.

The record is held not by a sled but by the MacGregor 65, Joss, owned by Long Beach doctors Dick and Camille Daniels, who sailed to Puerto Vallarta in 4 days 23 hours 14 seconds in 1985.

The ’91 winner was Jano, Bob Kahn’s Frers 43 from California Yacht Club, which corrected out in handicap time over all the sleds but isn’t entered this year. First to finish was Roy Disney’s Santa Cruz 70, Pyewacket, which recently returned from a misadventure in the Route of Discovery Race from Cadiz, Spain, to Miami.

The most interesting aspect of this event is that, except for the three smaller boats, it is essentially a one-design race among the sleds, without the handicap factor to figure out who wins. The fleet is so competitive that several of the finishers are often separated by minutes. One boat has drifted helplessly as its crew watched another get a puff of wind at the end that made a difference.

That’s where luck--and superstition--come in.

Pyewacket is entered in the race to Puerto Vallarta after getting a new rudder. Disney’s boat dropped out of the Route of Discovery after 3,350 of the 4,100 miles when the bottom two-thirds of its rudder broke off. The wind was from head-on at 40-plus knots at the time, and when the emergency steering system also failed, it was time to turn and run downwind to Grand Turk Island for repairs.

Earlier, the wind was so light, Disney said, that “we gave serious thoughts to dropping out at the Canary Islands.”

First to Miami was Publiespana, the former Fisher & Paykel Whitbread Round-the-World maxi.

Dennis Conner remains the only official American entry in the Whitbread Round-the-World Race, starting Sept. 23 at Southampton, and it’s questionable how American his entry is.

The boat was designed by a New Zealander, Bruce Farr, and is being built in Italy. The skipper of record is New Zealand’s Brad Butterworth, and the crew so far includes six Kiwis, an Italian, a Frenchman, a Dutchman and an Irishman.

Conner is the only American, and he doesn’t plan to sail more than one or two of the six legs.

Sailing Notes

GLOBAL--The first boat to start an attempt to sail around the world in 80 days returned after only one day. France’s Olivier de Kersuason, dubbed “the pirate” by the French media, tried to get a jump on the official entries in the Trophee Jules Verne event but returned because of light winds. The first official starter probably will be Peter Blake’s 85-foot catamaran, ENZA New Zealand, after its promising sea trials at speeds to 25 knots. One observer said ENZA looked like “two maxi ocean racer hulls with a tennis court strung between them.” U.S. veteran Cam Lewis has joined Bruno Peyron’s French team for the attempt.

AMERICA’S CUP--Bill Koch still hasn’t committed to defending the trophy. “I’m trying to be as noncommittal as possible to give myself as many options as possible,” he said. Koch announced an agreement between his America3 Foundation and US Sailing’s Olympic Yachting Committee to support the U.S. team in ’96 with transportation, equipment and fund-raising.

WOMEN--The fourth annual Women’s Sailing Convention, hailed as a success for offering hands-on instruction, is scheduled Feb. 6 at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Newport Beach. It’s open to all women from novice to expert. Fee: $50. Details: (714) 730-1797.

INSTRUCTION--L.A. Harbor College is offering certified sailing instruction programs--”Coastal Navigation” on five successive Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m., starting Feb. 10 (fee $52) and “Beginning Celestial Navigation” on six Thursdays, 7-9 p.m., starting Feb. 11 (fee $55). The combined fee for both classes is $89. Also, big sailboat handling will be taught on the water on seven Saturdays, 1-3 p.m., starting Feb. 20, aboard 22- to 26-foot boats at the Long Beach Marina. Details: (310) 518-3510. . . . The U.S. Formula One Yachting Grand Prix, won by Newport Beach’s John Bertrand off San Diego last month, will be shown on ESPN Sunday at 9:30 a.m. . . . The Southern California Yachting Assn.’s series of five Race Management Seminars is scheduled Saturday at the Anacapa YC in Santa Barbara. Others: Jan. 30 at Alamitos Bay YC, Feb. 6 at Newport Harbor YC, Feb. 7 at Del Rey YC and Feb. 20 at Southwestern YC in San Diego. Details: (310) 427-8504.