MEXORC FINAL STANDINGS

hanks for following the action at MEXORC 2012! Watch for the final wrap up sent later for amazing stories of the week.

We appreciate your passion in sailing, you should be here at the next Regatta!

The results below are the class and overall finishes for the MEXORC 2012 with only 1st-3rd places. The complete results will be posted when available...hopefully soon!

Final Class A

1st Andrews 70 Alchemy  1-2-2-2-1-2-2= 12

2nd TP-52 Patches 2-1-4-4-2-1-1= 15

3rd  TP-52 Cazador 3-3-6-3-1-5.5-6-?= 27.5

Class B

1st  1D48 Trigarante 2-1-3-1-2-1-1= 11

 2nd RP-50 Blue Blazes 2-1-2-1-1-2-2= 11

 3rd  NM46 Insurgente 1-2-3-2-3-3-3= 17

Class C

1st  Farr 40 Flojito y Cooperando 1-1-1-1-1-3-2= 10

2nd J133 Paladin 2-3-3-2-4-1-1= 16

3rd J133 Veloce II  3-2-4-3-2-2-3= 19

Class D

1st  Peterson 40 Piet Hein 1-2-1-1-1-3-1= 10

2nd Bandido 5-1-2-2-1-4-2= 17

3rd  Capri 37 Azteca 4-5-4-4-5-2-3= 27

FLEET OVERALL - Regatta Copa Mexico Trophy!

1st: Andrews 70 ALCHEMY*

2nd: Farr 40 Flojito y Cooperando

3rd: TP-52 PATCHES*

*sailing with Ullman Sails inventory

+all Photos from STRANGE BIRD PHOTOS

Read More

MEXORC Day #6 "Exciting times on the 1d48"

Saturday set up to be a terrific day of sailing on the Gold Cup Course for the racers at the MEXORC with a little more wind than everyone expected and a well set race course with a true upwind, triangle, upwind layout. As mentioned in earlier reports two of the classes had near locks on who was going to place first, the Andrews 70 ALCHEMY in class A and the Farr 40 Flojito y Cooperando in class C, but class B and Class D were still up for grabs.

Class A started with no over earlys with all the boats tacking almost immediately to the right side of the course for a favorable wind shift, Class B followed suit with Blue Blazes and Ruahatu getting a slight edge off the start line. Trigarante started at the committee boat end with a slight delay to guarantee an early tack to tack to the right and get to the wind shift. The regatta is using time on time scoring, so during the race you can check/estimate your time ahead our behind your competitors that are all sailing at different speeds according to their individual rating handicap. At the first buoy, Blue Blazes was first boat  already had about a 12-15 second advantage over Trigarante who rounded second! The Farr 46 Wasabi was up in the hunt in third place with their all Saturday local Mexican crew closely followed by the Concordia 47 Ruahatu.

Blue Blazes was sailing clean and fast to all the buoys with their time on Trigarante getting slightly bigger at each turn. Trigarante was watching Class B victory slowly sail away as Blue Blazes made great tacks, great gybes, great spinnaker sets and douses, the Trigarante team kept their heads in the game knowing something special was needed to catch Blue blazes.

Class A had already rounded the last buoy for a spinnaker run to the finish. Patches was launched and "on the step" leaving the last buoy on a plane while the rest of class A hoisted their spinnaker and tried to catch the speedy Patches. All the other boats on the race course can go to school about what the wind is doing ahead of them by watching the boats ahead when they put up their spinnakers and bear away set of gybe soon, indicating either the wind is constant or changing direction and/or speed. Well, Alchemy showed Trigarante the something special she was going to need to get back some time on Blue Blazes. Watching Alchemy set their spinnaker back in the pack of class A boats and gybe across the top of the course with their spinnaker clearly pulling harder with more wind, showed Trigarante the wind was stronger on the top half of the course and more toward the left side while sailing to the finish mark.

Alchemy nailed it and passed 3 boats to the finish coming in second boat for boat behind Patches! The discussion on Trigarante was clear and simple. Get to the buoy, hoist the spinnaker, set the pole with the spinnaker very open, build speed and gybe to follow a similar path of Alchemy. Blue Blazes had already rounded about three minutes ahead and was almost sailing off to victory, but stayed in line with the class A boats that were sailing the opposite side of the race course than Alchemy and in apparently less wind. Trigarante hoisted the spinnaker, square the pole, picked up speed and gybe, so far so good.

As Trigarante sailed across the top of the course to the left side lay line to gybe for the finish, it was very clear that we were closing in on Blue Blazes who had gybe to follow our path, but three minutes too late and were losing distance gained by sailing closer to Trigarante than the finish to match the same speed of Trigarante. When we made our last gybe of the regatta to turn to the finish I told the Trigarante crew make this a good one, we have a chance of winning the regatta if hold our speed and close in on Blue Blazes who also had gybed for their final approach.

Blue Blazes crossed the finish line first, but owed Trigarante about 2 minutes and 42 seconds, hold your breathe......Trigarante crossed 2 minutes and 32 seconds behind! The Mexican Navy and Trigarante placed 1st in race #8, forcing a tie on points with Blue Races for 7 races scored and wins the tie breaker with 4 first to Blue Blazes 3 first places! I can not tell you how excited the Trigarante crew was! In the wrap up I will tell you more about what the Navy did to get their boats ready for this regatta, it is a terrific story!

In Class C, The Jboats were thriving on this race course with the J-125 Timeshaver leading the pack, closely chased by two J-133's Paladin and Veloce II and the Farr 40 Flojito y Cooperando.

Class D looked a little spread out, with Bandido leading the pack and chased by the Peterson 40 Piet Hein and a gaggle of Capri 37's. The interesting thing about this fleet is the colors of the hulls give away who is where on the race course, no one can hide! Bandido is bright red and there are two very orange boats, Nitisssima and Pershephone, both Reichel Pugh boats that are very easy to see on the race course!

The results were only announce at the super prize giving dinner ceremony, so all I can report on were who was first, second and third in today's race and the series. I will post complete results when they are available.

Class A Race #8

1st TP-52 Patches

2nd Andrews 70 Alchemy

3rd SCR-52 Vincitore

Class B Race #8

1st  1D48 Trigarante

 2nd RP-50 Blue Blazes

3rd  NM46 Insurgente

Class C Race #8

1st  J133 Paladin

2nd J133 Veloce II 

3rd Farr 40 Flojito y Cooperando

Class D Race #8

1st  Peterson 40 Piet Hein

2nd Bandido

3rd  Capri 37 Azteca

*all Photos from STRANGE BIRD PHOTOS

Back to Ullman Sails Newport Beach

MEXORC 2012 Facebook

Muchas Gracias por velear con Ullman Sails,

Tomas Span

Ricky Brockmann

Bruce Cooper

Read More

MEXORC Day 5 Report

Andrews 70 Alchemy by Chuck Skewes Ullman Sails

Today was the Las Marieta’s race, a 26 mile race where all the boats start at the same time. The winds were 9 knots at the start and built to 18 at one point in the race. The line was square to the course making it necessary to start on port. 

Alchemy, Patches, and Vincitore all had great starts and got out in front of the smaller boats right away and off to the favored right side of the race course.  Half way up the beat Patches was able to sail up under both Alchemy and Vincitore taking an early lead.  4 miles from the weather mark there was a 40 degree shift that Alchemy and Katana took advantage of sailing shorter distance allowing Alchemy to follow Peligroso and Patches around the weather mark ahead of Rio, Vincitore, Katana and Cazador.

On the run the north side of the bay proved to have a few knots more wind allowing Patches, Vincitore and Rio to make gains.  It the end Patches won with Alchemy in second.  This finish secured Alchemy's first in class for the regatta regardless of what happens tomorrow in the last race.

Tomorrow’s race is the Gold Cup Race.  This is a windward leeward, triangle, windward, leeward race of about 12 miles total.  The regatta organizers are getting ready for the big awards celebration and a visit from the President of Mexico to award the Copa Mexico trophy for the overall winner of MEXORC.

Class A MEXORC 2012

TP-52 PATHCES by Erik Shampain Ullman Sails

It was a great day for the big boats. Sailing fast in the warm air and flat water really has its advantages. It was a race on port to the beach to meet the right shift and then a long starboard out into the bay to the first rounding mark. Peligroso rounded first, closely followed by Patches with Alchemy in third having passed Rio by tacking early and laying the weather mark from miles away. At the mark it was a gybe set followed by a tight reach on port back into the bay. The wind shifted back left as boats gybed back to starboard nearing the finish line. The wind shifted so far left that Peligroso was forced to drop her spinnaker to make the finish line. This allowed the Patches to not only win the 'A' class but to pass Peligroso just before the finish and cross the line first. Close behind fighting for 3rd and 4th across the line was Rio followed by Vincitore.

Class B MEXORC 2012

1D-48 Trigarante by Bruce Cooper Ullman Sails

Hola Amigos, today was shaping up to be a hand full with the boat getting out of the dock late and nearly missing the tide window to get out without struggle through the shallows at the harbor entrance and then the instruments magically were not working. We made it out of the harbor with all the crew weight on the end of the boom to tilt our keel away from any rocks and sand bars, we made it! The instruments did not make it. No knot meter, no digital compass, nada! This was going to be tough because Bruce’s Spanish is only limited to so few words and the majority of the Mexican Navy crew are limited to so few English words and the knot meter was the universal language on the boat. Bruce says siete punto cinco upwind speed is bueno, the whole crew knows we need to trim and hike to get 7.5 knots of speed! It works really good when the knot meter is working!

2 minutes before the start, I said forget trying to fix the instruments, lets go get the start and mix it up with the big boys (all one start with all the boats from all the classes).Trigarante was launched with the front Class A big boats and leading all the Class B boats with a great tow on Alchemy’s and Rios’s wake for about 15-20 minutes! It’s kind of like getting an extra pull from the speed wave from the bigger faster boats, kind of like drafting in auto racing!?!

Blue Blazes closed gauge and was equal to Trigarante as both boats started to tack near shore to gain angle to the new wind that Class A had already started to sail in. At this point it was getting much windier and many boats switched to smaller sails to handle the higher winds. Blue Blazes and Trigarante knew this was only a very local wind near the Marina La Cruz and stayed with the #1 genoas which proved to be a huge gain against their class. Only a mile past the shore of Marina La Cruz the wind dropped from 16-18 knots back down to 10-12 and all the boats that switched to smaller sails were now underpowered.

The rest of the race for Trigarante was stay close to Blue Blazes and beat her to have a chance of catching and passing her on points for the overall class victory in the final race on Saturday (race #8). Both boats had excellent gybe sets at the buoy and chased each other all the way back to the finish with Trigarante edging out BlueBlazes by 83 seconds on a 140 minute race! Very close!

Back to Ullman Sails Newport Beach

MEXORC 2012 Facebook

Muchas Gracias por velear con Ullman Sails,

Tomas Span

Ricky Brockmann

Bruce Cooper

Read More

Day 4: Pre Race Windward - Leeward Races #5 & #6

Day 4: Pre Race Windward - Leeward Races #5 & #6




Racing continues today for the MEXORC fleet as skippers and crews prepare for the windward-leeward races today. Wednesday was a layday with no racing so the competitors could take a mid-week rest to mend their bodies, sunburns, boats or whatever needs repair! Many people choose to stay and relax at the Marival Resort or Residence to use the pools and spa services, others played tourist and went into town for food and shopping, while others slept trying to recover


The wind forecast for today might be a little lighter wind than Monday's W-L races. I think we will see some very close racing when the wind is slightly lower, a majority of the boats can rely on their speed and not have to be burdened with sail and boat handling problems that occur when the wind is so strong!



Here are the standings with class C&D not complete, but the top 3 positions for those classes are reliable.



MEXORC 2012 Preliminary Results Fleet Standings Races 1-4:



Class A



1st Andrews 70 Alchemy 1-2-2-2= 7



2nd K 70 Peligroso 6-4-3-1= 14



3rd TP-52 Patches 2-1-7-4= 14



4th TP-52 Cazador 3-3-6-3= 15



5th K/C 49 Katana 4-7-4-5= 20



6th SCR-52 Vincitore 5-6-5-6= 22



7th TP-52 RIO 9-5-1-7= 22



Class B



1st 1D48 Trigarante 2-1-3-1= 7



2nd RP-50 Blue Blazes 3-2-1-2= 8



3rd NM46 Insurgente 1-5-2-3= 11



4th Concordia 47 Ruahatu 4-3-5-5= 17



5th Farr 46 Wasabi 6-7-4-4= 21



6th SC-50M Hula Girl 5-6-7-6= 24



7th FOX 44 Ocelot 7-4-6-7= 24



Class C



1st Farr 40 Flojito y Cooperando 3-1-1-1= 6



2nd J133 Veloce II 4-3-2-4= 13



3rd J133 Paladin 6-2-3-3= 14



4th CM1200 Velocity 2-6-5-5= 18



5th Farr 40 French Kiss 5-4-7-2= 18



6th J125 Timeshaver 1-5-4-8= 18



7th Farr 39ML Farr Out 7-7-6-7= 27



8th Serena 9-9-8-6= 32



Class D



1st Peterson 40 Piet Hein 1-2-1-1= 5



2nd Bandido 5-1-2-2= 10



3rd Capri 37 Dreadnought 2-4-3-4?=13



Capri 37 Azteca 3-3-7-?=



Capri 37 Chivos4-5-6-?=



RP43 Nitissima 6-8-8-?=



J120 Tatei-II 7-7-5-?=



RP 42 Persephone 10-6-4-?=



Back to Ullman Sails Newport Beach



MEXORC 2012 Facebook



Muchas Gracias por velear con Ullman Sails,

Tomas Span

Ricky Brockmann

Bruce Cooper

Read More

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

MEXORC 2012 Facebook

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!!

Read More

Class A MEXORC day 1 report from Andrews 70 Alchemy

By Chuck Skewes Ullman Sails

After an address by the President of Mexico and a sail by to greet him the first day of MEXORC was off to a great start.  Winds from 9-15 knots out of the south west made for great racing on the  Random Leg course that starts all MEXORC Regattas.  The starting order started with Class D and worked up to Class A.  As the starts went off the fleets got more and more aggressive until in class A 2 boats were called over early and had to return.  This allowed Alchemy to control the first half of the race out towards Punta Mita.  Under Genoa headsail conditions and some reaching to the second mark where a hole developed for a short while allowing class A boats to catch up to the smaller boats.  After rounding the Western most mark it was a combination of running and tight reaching in a building breeze.  Alchemy and Peligroso held off the TP 52's on the 3 reaches and last run giving Alchemy a great start on their quest to be repeat champions at MEXORC.  The middle reach of the race was 8 miles and boats went from running spinnakers to Code 0 and headsails reaching at 12-14 knots.  It was close bow to stern racing on this leg and the boats with cleaner headsail changes benefited.  Vincitory and Patches came close twice to passing Alchemy but could not get past before the turning marks.

Class B MEXORC day 1 report from SC-50 Hula Girl  by Wayne Zittel JWorld
Seriously.  I don’t get it.  For the life of me, I can’t fathom why this isn’t the most popular regatta in the world.  I absolutely love MEXORC!
Today was Day 1 of the 2012 MEXORC regatta in Banderas Bay.  The fine city of Puerto Vallarta is nestled into the southeastern corner of this glorious bay, but we were sailing our of Marina Riviera Nayarit in the fantastic town of La Cruz, which is just north of our J World Base in Nuevo Vallarta. 

For this event, we have a half dozen J World coaches and seven clients from the US and Canada aboard.  Our team is comprised of sailors who regularly sail boats ranging from 14 to 40 feet.  Almost all of them are J World alumni, and we are thrilled to have them all aboard.
Ok, back to the event.  Perfectly warm weather.  Not a long sleeve in sight (unless it’s for sun protection).  Great breeze.  Spectacular scenery.  A phenomenal fleet.   We hit the water toady for the Governor’s Cup race, and after a brief warm up were informed that the President of Mexico had arrived on the Race Committee boat and was going to address the fleet (as he did at the 2010 event).  Yes, that’s right the PRESIDENT of MEXICO!  Now that’s what I call supporting the sport of sailing! 

Well, if El Presidente put all his political clout to bear, he couldn't have ordered up better sailing.  We had a reverse start, with the slower classes starting first, for a long tour of the Bay.  On board Hula Girl,  we got a glean start, charged the weather mark, had a great first reach, negotiated the light air at the close-to-the-beach second mark, took off on a great long reach across the bay, performed an excellent peel form the 2A to the 3A (the very first for many of our team!), and got to the line nice and smoothly.  While we are almost the slowest boat in our Class B, we thought we kept close enough to the leaders to have a respectable finish.
Then it was back to the dock, and off to the party tent.  Dinner and drinks are served with style to all the racers, and daily awards were give out.  While we were a bit disappointed with our 5th place corrected finish, the great atmosphere of the regatta eased the pain.  And the knowledge that we have 5 more glorious days of sailing here certainly gave us a lot to look forward to!
That’s what I got…  for today.  Tomorrow is W/L racing, and will be a huge test for our ‘young’ team.   But win, lose, or draw, I have little doubt that we will have a blast!

Check the story on ESPN Deportes   

       

MEXORC 2012 Preliminary Results:

Race 1 Governor's Cup

Class A

1st Andrews 70 Alchemy 1:44:01

2nd TP-52 Patches 1:47:29

3rd TP-52 Cazador 1:47:37

4th K/C 49 Katana 1:47:55

5th SCR-52 Vincitore 1:48:05

6th K 70 Peligroso 1:49:35

Class B

1st NM46 Insurgente 1:45:01

2nd 1D48 Trigarante 1:45:31

3rd RP-50 Blue Blazes 1:1:46:24

4th Concordia 47 Ruahatu 1:47:01

5th SC-50M Hula Girl 1:49:34

6th Farr 46 Wasabi 1:50:30

7th FOX 44 Ocelot 1:50:43

Class C

1st J125 Timeshaver 1:46:34

2nd CM1200 Velocity 1:47:49

3rd Farr 40 Flojito y Cooperando 1:48:20

4th J133 Veloce II 1:48:51

5th Farr 40 French Kiss 1:49:09

6th J133 Paladin 1:49:20

7th Farr 39ML Farr Out 1:55:35

Class D

1st Peterson 40 Piet Hein 1:46:26

2nd Capri 37 Dreadnought 1:47:33

3rd Capri 37 Azteca 1:49:13

4th Capri 37 Chivos 1:49:50

5th Bandido 1:50:09

6th J120 Tatei-II OCS

7th RP 42 Persephone DNF

Back to Ullman Sails Newport Beach

MEXORC 2012 Facebook

Read More

Day 1: Pre-Race Governor's Cup Long Distance Race

 MEXORC is the second part of the Regatta Copa Mexico Olympic Edition, following last weeks smaller boats competition. Boats from the United States and Mexico will race together here in the beautiful waters of Banderas Bay. The competitors will be racing out of the La Cruz Yacht Club in Marina Riveria Narayit that is hosting this great regatta for third straight time!

Skippers will receive their class assignments at the Captains meeting in the morning that will determine what boats are in their race division based on size and potential speed of the boats. The competition expects to be tight amongst the big boats in Class A with defending champion "Alchemy" back from a fresh win in the SD-PV race. Alchemy will be chased by the slightly fast "Peligroso" and the pesty 52'ers "Vincitore" and "Patches" both from Acapulco.

The Class B boats will have very close racing with he fastest boat probably being the RP-50 "Blue Blazes" who also is coming off a victory in her class from the SD-PV Race, but Blazes will be having to watch the new and improved 1D-48 "Trigarante". NM-46 "Insurgente", Farr 46 "Wasabi" and the Concordia 47 "Ruahatu".

I expect the Class C boats to have the Overall Champion of last MEXORC, the Farr 40 "Flojito y Cooperando", give the other Farr 40, J-125 and other 40'ers a real test of who has the ability to score well in every race to take the fleet overall victory crown away from last year's champion. We will know soon enough!

Class D boats will probably mainly consist of the Acapulco fleet. If the wind picks up this week, we will see some real good racing with "Bandido" sailing toward the front of the class being chased by the consistently sailed "Piet Hein". Maybe if there is a lot of spinnaker action, the J-120 "Tate-i" will score some low points and be in the hunt for a podium finish!?

Read More