32 • March 11 - 24, 2016 • The Log


Vallarta Race 2016 comes to an end with Horizon on top


Pictured left to right: The crew of Blue Blazestakes the lead to win Division 4. Sin Dudacompetes in the annual race that experienced both strong and non- existent winds. Mighty Merloefinished the race in 67.83 hours.


mile race. J World’s Hula Girl was the second of the four Santa Cruz 50s to finish the race. San Diego YC’s Dennis Pennell and


PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — The 2016 edition of the Vallarta Race was a tale of two races. As sailors reached the dock in Marina Vallarta their stories emphasized the contrast between the two. The first race is the run from San Diego to Cabo, which this year was like none other. The second race involves attempting to avoid the holes and min- imize the light air most boats encoun- tered crossing the Sea of Cortez and approach to Puerto Vallarta. While this diversity is expected on any Vallarta Race the extremes seen in 2016 were unique. Boats like Gordon Leon’s Farr 40 Flyer reached 22 knots and were rocking and rolling on the first half,


while even the trimaran Mighty Merloe fell victim to the shutdown of breeze on the second half approach to the fin- ish, floating along at 2-3 knots at times. For those following the Vallarta


Race it was hard to focus on anything else when Mighty Merloe was on the course. Watching the race tracker, you’d see the trimaran skip ahead nearly twice as fast as the rest of the fleet. HL Enloe’s Mighty Merloe com- pleted the race in 67.82 hours and as the only Tuesday finisher. Rio100, a 100-foot super maxi, with


its crew of 19 set the monohull course record, sailing the course in 77.7 hours, which eclipsed the 2010 record of 80.87


hours set by Bill Turpin’s R/P 75 Akela. Owner Manouch Moshayedi and Capt. Keith Kilpatrick have been sailing the boat since November 2014, when they started with a crew of 26 and have been optimizing it over the years to a typical crew of 18. Yet even with a record-breaking performance, Rio100 owed too much time to fellow Division 1 boats and finished fourth in class. The overall regatta winner came


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down to two sleds: The Santa Cruz 50 Horizon who finished just after 2 a.m. on Feb. 24, and Roy Disney’s Pyewacket who powered across the line at 2:50 p.m. With the last miles of the race stretched out in front of the Andrews 70 the crew of Pyewacket thought they might get enough wind during the approach to the finish, but ended up less than two corrected hours behind Horizon, finishing second overall. Congratulations to John Schulze and the crew of Horizon (Santa Cruz 50), overall and Division 3 winners. Horizon sailed the course in four days, 13 hours, 52 minutes, 19 seconds. Sailing with owner John Schulze were Len Bose, John Busch, Craig Chamberlain, Stan Gibbs, Jeff Thorpe, Gunnar Torre and Grant Wooden. Schulze has sailed Horizon in the


recent Transpac, Newport to Ensenada Race and Cabo races, and this was his first experience sailing the Puerto Vallarta Race. In Division 1 Steve Meheen’s Aszhou was the top in class, completing the course in the third fastest time of three days, 14 hours, 53 minutes, 58 sec- onds; Meheen is a new San Diego Yacht Club member and new owner of the R/P 63 previously known as Invisible Hand. This year’s Vallarta Race provided


Roy Disney with his latest opportunity to continue his lifelong passion for off- shore racing, as he sailed the event for the seventh time. Pyewacket finished first in Division 2 against four other sleds: Runaway (Hector Velarde), Grand Illusion (James McDowell), Holua (Peter Isler) and Condor (Lindy Thomas). Division 3 consisted of four Santa


Cruz 50s (including overall winner Horizon) and two Santa Cruz 52s. Half of the fleet finished within minutes of each other in a rare site after 1,000-


the crew of Blue Blazes won division 4. Pennell is a two-time overall winner of the Vallarta Race, with many of his reg- ular crew aboard the R/P 50 and was the third boat to finish. Also in Division 4 were the two Farr 40s, Flyer (Roberto Vulling) and Foil (Gordon Leon). Vulling bought the boat just a month ago and had it ready to race in San Diego with a quick delivery and prep. Flyer’s crew spent nearly six days on board in racing to Puerto Vallarta including a tough stretch with the fin- ish line in sight for more than just a couple hours, and not a puff of wind to be found to push them across until mid day Feb. 25. Also in Division 4 was Viggo Torbensen’s J/125 Timeshaver, who bet big on their close pass of the Cabo peninsula, but couldn’t make up the time to catch Blue Blazes for top class honors. San Diego YC has a year full of West


Coast offshore racing including the upcoming Islands Race, the newly founded California Offshore Race Week, and the fall’s Rum Runner regat- ta. And of course, San Diego YC looks forward to 2018, presenting what will be the 33rd edition of the Vallarta Race.


Attorney From page 19


vided in this column should not be regarded as individual legal advice, and readers should not act upon this information without seeking the opin- ion of an attorney in their home state.


David Weil is the managing attorney at Weil & Associates (weilmaritime.com) in Long Beach. He is an adjunct profes- sor of Admiralty Law at Loyola University Law School, is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States and is former legal coun- sel to the California Yacht Brokers Association. He is also one of a small group of attorneys to be certified as an Admiralty and Maritime Law Specialist by the State Bar of California. If you have a maritime law question for Weil, he can be contacted at 562-438-8149 or at dweil@weilmar- itime.com.


Ask your question online at thelog.com.


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Bronny Daniels — Joysailing.com


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