By Chuck Skewes Ullman Sails
Day 3 of MEXORC lived up to its great history with the race to Las Caletas, a dinner resort in the jungle on the south side of Banderas Bay, with great wind and a great show. The race is a pursuit start with all fleets. Class A with Cazador starting first of the big boats was over early and had to return. Alchemy started second followed by Katana, Patches, Rio, Vincitori, and last starter Peligroso. The wind followed the predictions almost to a tee with a huge right shift at the turning mark and light winds at the finish.
In class A Alchemy passed Cazador on the reach out towards the turning mark with Katana and the TP 52's close in behind. The transition to the right shift had a hole that was very difficult to manage and Cazador gained back the lead by 3 boat lengths at the weather mark. Peligroso also did a great job of getting through the transition but Katana, Patches, Rio and Vincitori were too far towards the beach and spent a considerable amount of time in very light air and were left behind by the 3 leaders.
As the fleet reached across the bay Alchemy and Peligroso performed cleaner sail changes and passed Cazador. Near the finish Alchemy was unable to hold off Peligroso for the win. Peligroso won the overall followed by Alchemy. Today's result put Alchemy with a commanding lead in the series and a good chance at the overall for the Copa Mexico trophy.
Class A MEXORC day 3 report from TP-52 PATCHES
By Erik Shampain Ullman Sails
It was a tricky day for the 'A' fleet as large hole developed low on the the first long beat out of the bay. The fleet got very spread out with Peligroso finally finishing first after a long run to the finish that turned into a tight reach as we neared the south shore of Banderas bay. Alchemy finished second in class followed by Cazador. Patches finished fourth with not enough race course to catch Cazador and Alchemy. The teams were greeted by a great dinner and drinks followed by an evening show on the beach before power cats brought the sailors home the Marina in La Cruz.
Class B MEXORC day 3 report from 1D-48 Trigarante
By Bruce Cooper Ullman Sails
The Las Caletas
race is a simple pursuit race with only one turning mark, but oh boy what tactical and strategy plays into your results! When you race to both shores of the second largest bay in the Northern Hemisphere, the wind is going to change dramatically at each shore edge. On Trigarante we planned on using the boats that started ahead of us as "wind indicators" to show where and how deep the transition from the bay breeze to the Punta Mita breeze was. In class B the two Navy boats Insurgente and Trigarante played the transition perfectly with Blue Blazes, Ruahatu, Wasabi, Hula Girl and Ocelot getting a little more pain with less wind and more tacking to get the new wind. All eyes were on the front boats from Class C&D to see when the first spinnaker was hoisted to tell us where the mark was. Piet Hein was first spinnaker up and his location matched our GPS range and bearing perfect. Perfect we were on course and closing gage with Insurgente!
race is a simple pursuit race with only one turning mark, but oh boy what tactical and strategy plays into your results! When you race to both shores of the second largest bay in the Northern Hemisphere, the wind is going to change dramatically at each shore edge. On Trigarante we planned on using the boats that started ahead of us as "wind indicators" to show where and how deep the transition from the bay breeze to the Punta Mita breeze was. In class B the two Navy boats Insurgente and Trigarante played the transition perfectly with Blue Blazes, Ruahatu, Wasabi, Hula Girl and Ocelot getting a little more pain with less wind and more tacking to get the new wind. All eyes were on the front boats from Class C&D to see when the first spinnaker was hoisted to tell us where the mark was. Piet Hein was first spinnaker up and his location matched our GPS range and bearing perfect. Perfect we were on course and closing gage with Insurgente!With spinnakers billowing and catching the wind for the final push to Las Caletas, Trigarante set the new "big" code 2A to catch Class B leader Insurgente and started to immediately close the distance. A race winning strategy is to jibe after the buoy and sail in the land breeze from Punta Mita until the sind starts to change back to the Bay breeze. The Punta Mita wind was short lived as most of the fleet jibed from port back to starboard for the pole on the headstay reach across the bay. The Class A boats were very spread out and it looked like only Peligroso and Alchemy would be near us as we closed in on race leaders Piet Hein and Bandido. The approach strategy to the southern shore is know the wind will go forward and slow down, so go low on approach and reach up to the finish line when the wind drops. This is the exact same strategy used in the finish of the Santa Barbara to King Harbor race in SoCal, it works EVERY time!
Trigarante played the approach perfect getting past Insurgente for the lead in Class B while slipping ahead of the Farr 40's, J-133's and other Class D&C boats. Peligroso crossed first with Alchemy right behind, then Piet Hein was third and Trigarante crossing fourth "by a nose" ahead of Bandido. Blue Blazes made a big rally and made her approach very similar to Trigarant's and passed Insurgente moments before the finish line. A big disappointment for Insurgente who sailed such a good race!
The Las Caletas hospitality was super and the catamaran boat ride home was epic with music, drinks, some people dancing really well and others dancing really drunk! All of us are looking forward to the day off on Wednesday with leisure and relaxation before the racing gets going again manana!
MEXORC 2012 Preliminary Results Race #4 Las Caletas: *all photos by Strange Bird Photos
Class A: 1st Peligroso (1st fleet), 2nd Alchemy (2nd fleet), 3rd Cazador
Class B: 1st Trigarante (4th fleet), 2nd Blue Blazes, 3rd Insurgente
Class C: 1st Flojito y Cooperando, 2nd French Kiss, 3rd Paladin
Class D: 1st Piet Hein (3rd fleet), 2nd Bandido (5th fleet),
Class B MEXORC day report from Concordia 47 Ruahatu
By SoCal stud sailor and Deisgner Mike Hatch
-More report from Monday's W-L racing-
Day 2 of racing for Ruahatu Concordia 47 started off with a favorable start in race number one holding off the fast Navy boats Insurgente and Trigarante to the right side of the course. We made good tacticle decisions to put ourselves in contention for a race one victory when our spinnaker halyard outer core failed and dropped 6 feet of our chute in the water...we limped in for a respectable 3rd.
Race 2 started with a building breeze.
Our start was slow and a clearing tack was needed immediately, before long we found ourselves competing yet again.
We had an opportunity to lee bow or duck the NM 46 on the first weather leg and felt we could lay the mark by tacking just under them. This proved to kill our momentum as none of the lead yachts made the mark and the extra tacks pushed us back yet again. Race 3 is in our rear view mirror and we are anticipating favorable conditions for the powerful Ruahatu. Our new Ullman 2A has shown great speed and race 4 shall really enable us to open her up.
Kelly Mckeown has to be crew member of day 2. Muscling the massive spiniker in a fresh breeze. Bad jibes, a belly retrieval line that doubled as a boa constricter and a broking halyard core that only an experienced bowman can solve.
Day 2 of Mexorc ended at the epic party on the beach with great food and endless coronitas! So much fun...this event rocks!!
Race 2 started with a building breeze.
Our start was slow and a clearing tack was needed immediately, before long we found ourselves competing yet again.
We had an opportunity to lee bow or duck the NM 46 on the first weather leg and felt we could lay the mark by tacking just under them. This proved to kill our momentum as none of the lead yachts made the mark and the extra tacks pushed us back yet again. Race 3 is in our rear view mirror and we are anticipating favorable conditions for the powerful Ruahatu. Our new Ullman 2A has shown great speed and race 4 shall really enable us to open her up.
Kelly Mckeown has to be crew member of day 2. Muscling the massive spiniker in a fresh breeze. Bad jibes, a belly retrieval line that doubled as a boa constricter and a broking halyard core that only an experienced bowman can solve.
Day 2 of Mexorc ended at the epic party on the beach with great food and endless coronitas! So much fun...this event rocks!!
