MEXORC REPORT DAY THREE

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!

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),

Back to Ullman Sails Newport Beach

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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!!

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Newport To Cabo Race 2011

Newport To Cabo Race 2011

As seen aboard Alchemy
Fri, 25th Mar 2011

By Chuck Skewes

Going into and preparing for this race we knew what we were in for and did the best to prepare for this event.  We have a very experience crew and most of us have sailed all over the world including a couple of us that have sailed around the world including a Whitbread.  I have sailed in Force 10 and 11 in the English Chanel and fished in Alaska for 9 years.  I am sure I have seen more bad weather than most, so I feel that I can speak with more experience than most.

The race started with a different weather pattern than predicted but it was obvious that the depression rolling towards us was not a model but an actual living storm that was already developed and moving quickly.  There was going to be no chance that it would dissipate and little chance that we could get south of it before it ran us over.  With the wind light and upwind shortly after the start we knew that we were going to be much further North than the routing showed and we were going to hit more of the wind.
As we headed south the wind built slowly all day.  There was a large pacific swell running as well but in long periods so at this point the ride was less than ideal since we were beating in a typical running race but it was good sailing and we were monitoring the shifts and racing hard.  Around 3:30 am we put up the #3 and the wind waves were only a couple feet on the nose with a large westerly swell of 8-10’ on the beam.
As we travelled further south the wind increased and the waves built coming from the south.  The wind settled in at a solid 28-30 with higher gust and now the boat was taking lots of waves over the bow and with the side swell, made a very confused square waves.  As the hours ticked by the seas built more and more making it just plain uncomfortable.  We were healed over with the rail in the water with sails stacked on the weather rail with many waves coming over the bow.  The back sides of the waves were just plain square, there would be a silence for about 5 seconds and the boat would drop with a huge bang that send a reverberating vibration through the entire boat from bow to stern.  It made moving around slow and tricky.  It was very hard to sit and nearly impossible to stand.   Going straight upwind in these conditions it is not possible to stay dry.  The waves would hit you hard in the face and work all the way down into your boots.  I grew up sailing in the Northwest and it brought back memories of smaller boats in the winter racing.  The boat was doing 9 knots and although it sounded like it was coming apart it did not.
We continued to monitor weather and GRIB files looking for a right shift as the low went past.  This meant spending more time on port tack which was by far the worse tack.  The fun meter was pegged on 0 and we kept hearing of boats dropping out and as tracker reports from other boats showed them falling further behind we rightfully assumed they had dropped out as well.  At 3:30 the following morning we hit a 90 degree right shift in 2 minutes without the wind velocity change.  We went to an all hands tack to move the sail stack and get onto starboard and immediately were reaching still reefed but a much better angle to the waves.  At this point we knew we were through the worst of it and had something to look forward to.
As the night wore on we shook out the reef and eventually were in a Jib Top and now reaching much bigger speed and headed straight down the race track.  Within a few more hours we were into a spinnaker with 12 knots of breeze and much smoother sea state.  It quickly was becoming a more typical Mexico race and the wind was increasing every hour until it was blowing 20 knots again, but this time from the direction that is much more desirable.  We could see Grand Illusion and Mayhem on the horizon in the daylight hours and track Mayhem during the night with the tracker but lost track of our closest completion Grand Illusion when there tracker did not track during night hours on the last night.  We finished right after day break in light wind with the wind slowly building it brought Mayhem and Grand Illusion in with a little more wind.  We corrected 18 minutes out of first after a great race.
We did not break any gear or tear any sails.  There are a lot of critics of the amount of boats that dropped out of the race, for boats that are supposed to be ocean going boats.  I can tell you that it was definitely challenging, and for 36 hours just plain not fun.  I think everyone that dropped out did the correct thing.  We are in a recreational sport.  We do it for fun and lots of the people on the boats have families and other jobs outside the sailing world.  It is never a bad or poor choice to quit when it is no longer fun, or unsafe.  We would have dropped out if we had problems that brought safety into question.  We all take a certain amount of risk and that is what makes this a great sport.  I know many of the sailors that dropped out and I respect their decision.

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Ullman Sails Wins Again!

Ullman Sails Win Again
Mon, 25th Oct 2010
By Chuck Skewes

Image Credit: Bronny Joy Daniels

Alchemy 2010 Campbell Cup

The Campbell Cup 2010 named after the late Mike Campbell from Long Beach Yacht Club, a long time maxi sled racer, was held October 24th and 25th out of LBYC. This event is designed for the Maxi Sled fleet now West Coast 70’ fleet along with the Farr 40 fleet.
This year the conditions came in better than predicted with winds from 7-11 knots and mostly sunny skies. The race committee got off 3 races with tight racing. After day 1 OEX was in the lead and Alchemy was in 2nd followed by Grand Illusion in 3rd.

The second day the wind was out of the standard westerly direction and blowing a little harder than the previous day. Alchemy took off to a commanding lead in the first race only to get caught on corrected time by Grand Illusion when the wind filled in from behind on the last down wind leg to the finish. OEX had a bad start and could not recover well giving Alchemy the lead in the series. The last race was very similar to the first but with OEX pushing Alchemy around the course narrowly beating them across the line but giving Alchemy a 2nd and enough to become the 2010 Campbell Cup Champions. Per Peterson the owner of Alchemy was very pleased to win his first West Coast 70’ Championship since he started campaigning the boat 3 years ago. Per Peterson and the crew on Alchemy have had a great year coming off wins in the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race and MEXORC.
Alchemy now is heading off to do the Long Beach to Cabo Race on November 6th.

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