(Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)- Banderas Bay offers some of the finest sailing anywhere in the world. Winds 10-18 knots, water temp of 75 degrees, flat water, and clear blue cloudless skies. Plus, the hosts like Vallarta YC are simply amazing, treating you like family and kids simply love it. It's not hard to figure out why the BBR event continues to grow in popularity every year. This year's version was the largest ever Banderas Bay Regatta with over 50 boats racing a three day event. Three J's in Division A raced against a competitive class of 10 boats. The J/160 BLUE sailed by Ken and Cheryl Sears and two J/130s, SCIROCCO owned by Lee Pryor and Cathy Sweet and SCEPTRE owned by Bob Musor. BLUE is berthed in the Puerto Vallarta; SCIROCCO is based in Oceanside California and SCEPTRE is based in San Francisco. In addition, three J/80s from J/World were racing in Class D.
The
race on Thursday was a 20 mile distance race taking the fleet up
beating to Punta De Mita setting up a nice 10-12 mile mile spinnaker run
around a mark and back to a downwind finish in Nuevo Vallarta. The
J/160 BLUE finished second while the two J/130s battled it out until
SCEPTRE blew a tack line in the last mark rounding. SCIROCCO finished
3rd and SCEPTRE finished 5th.Unfortunately, Friday's racing was canceled due to the tsunami that originated in Japan. The waves that hit the marinas in Banderas Bay made entering and exiting the three main marinas too dangerous to go sailing on Friday. In fact, most boats put out to sea to avoid any possible damage.
The race on Saturday was a triangle and two windward-leewards in ideal conditions. Winds 14-18 knots shifting from the SW to W. Bo Musor exclaimed, "It has been a long time since I have lined up against another J/130 and it was great fun. SCIROCCO and SCEPTRE were neck and neck around the course with SCEPTRE prevailing at the finish. SCEPTRE finished 4th but only 10 seconds out of second. SCIROCCO finished 6th."
Final overall placings for Class A in the regatta were the Sear's J/160 BLUE in second, Pryor and Sweets J/130 SCIROCCO in third and Musor's SCEPTRE tied for fourth.
In
the J/80 group sailing in Class D, it was a horse race between all
three J/80s to determine where you finished in the top three. In the
end, the Team J/World #4 won with a 2-1 followed by Team J/World #5 with
a 1-2 and third was Team J/World #2 with a 3-3. Bob reports that "SCIROCCO is heading up to the Sea of Cortez for 6 weeks of cruising while SCEPTRE will be returning to San Francisco via Cabo St Lucas in June. She will stay in San Diego for a month and then head back to SF Bay." Sailing photos by Strange Bird Photos For more Banderas Bay Regatta sailing information.
