It s better late than never for the 2013 April Acapulco Race Report

I am in Acapulco with out access to the photos and normal format for the report, so I hope you like reading with no hyper links and hi gloss pictures.
While some yachts in North America are just getting their boats in the water and regattas started for the first time this year, Club de Yates Acapulco hosted their fourth regatta of the 2013 season. No cold weather here. The only thing cold in Acapulco is the drink in your hand!

Acapulco racers enjoyed perfect spring conditions with light winds that built through the day with 10+ knots at the end of each day. The April regatta was truly a "Chamber of Commerce" weekend in Acapulco Bay.

Class had all three TP-52's racing against the formidable fleet of Farr 40's and the various 40+ foot boats. I sailed with Jorge Ripstein on Patches with some regular crew and some new crew. how is it into start your sailing career on a TP-52?! It would be the same as learning not drive a car for the first time in a Ferrari! Well, the speed of the big three boats is impressive, but what is more impressive is the expert crew work of Vincitore and the quick learning of the Kayue 52 crew. Patches and Vincitore need to keep an eye out for Kayue 52.

Good crew work is always needed to perform well in any boat and race. Bernard Minkow's Farr 40 Flojito y Cooperando proved that again at the April regatta winning all three races on corrected time against the big three and the rest of class A. But, winning isn't always as easy as it looks for Flojito y Cooperando. Julian Fernandez, a long time crew on Flojito, explained, "the Sunday race was a tricky race with lots of strange wind and stop and go sailing. This made the racing very tricky (and lucky) tactically". -More on this later- Julian also commented on the windward turning mark had huge potential for a right a way conflict on the approach and exit crossing paths putting boats bow to bow. But, he said he was happy and relieved the situation managed not to be too bad and it worked fine.

In class B the NM40 Iemanja showed up with her old time ship mates Pablo and Javier Fernandez proving that good experienced crew equals speed and good results. Iemanja sailed to an impressive 2nd place behind the J-133 Veloce II for the weekend. Also sailing very fast was the CM-1200 Velocity who tied for 3rd with the Peterson 40 Piet Hein but slipped to 4th on a tie breaker. If you weren't watching close, Velocity was over three minutes late to Sunday's start after being delayed in an incident with Knitissima while exiting the harbor. Francisco Villar as aid,"we were motoring out next to the orange boat when all of a sudden they turned in our path to go pick up crew, we moved over to avoid a collision and we ran over a mooring line in the harbor. It got tangled in the propellor stopping the engine and forcing someone to go in the water to cut it loose, that is why Velocity was late". I guess no harm= no foul.

As mentioned earlier, Sunday's race was tricky and lucky, especially the first leg from the start to the el presidente buoy. The Class B boat OLE sailed into an expanding area of no wind in the middle of the bay between the beach and elephants. Mat Reid from OLE explained,"we had a great start but when the spinnaker went up it was wrapped. After we fixed it and took off we were definitely back in the race until we found a huge hole and needed up doing four sail changes in10 minutes while on moving forward 10 boat lengths". Even Patches and Ruahatu got stuck in this no wind zone and watched their fleet sail away, but for sure OLE got the worse of it.

So, whether you ended up at the front of the race or the back of the race...remember your are truly blessed to be sailing all year in beautiful Acapulco Bay!

R#1
Class A: FyC, Nitemare, Vincitore
Class B: Veloce II, Velocity, Iemanja
R#2
Class A: FyC, Vincitore, Patches
Class B: Veloce II, Bandido, Iemanja
R#3
Class A: FYC, Kayue 52, Vincitore
Class B: Piet Hein, Veloce II, Knitissima

Overall
Class A: FyC, Vincitore, Nitemare, Patches, Kayue 52
Class B: Veloce II, Iemanja, Piet Hein, Velocity, Bandido

If you are in Acapulco this weekend, I will see you on the course or at the bar!
If not, safe journey's and see you next race.
Bruce Cooper / Ullman Sails



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