J/145 RADIO FLYER, J/120 POLE DANCER & J/29 RUSH STREET Win Class(Newport Beach, CA)- The famous 125 nm drag race down the California-Mexican coastline, the proverbial "Border Run", was a quixotic event for many. While celebrating with friends the joy of sailing offshore and winning, others were a bit less fortunate. A 37 footer sailed by four guys had an unfortunate accident and should be remembered for their love for sailing offshore with friends-- our hearts and condolences go out to their families, friends & loved ones.
The sailing itself was nearly as close as the weathermen predicted. Light to moderate breezes with big decisions being made about whether to go further offshore or stay inshore. In the end, the J/Teams faired well overall. And, in particular one yacht club seemed to fair better than most- Santa Barbara YC's offshore teams took two Firsts in Class!
According
to the weather forecast, light swirling eddy effects following moderate
rainstorms Thursday were to be most noticeable near Newport Beach. They
would become less pronounced farther down the coast, especially south
of San Diego, and from the Coronado Islands south the northwesterly
gradient component reattaches to the coast. From there, other than
morning coastal cloud north of San Diego, mainly clear conditions were
expected to prevail, with seas of less than a 1m. swell near Newport
Beach, increasing to 1-2m. south of San Diego.How would the strategists deal with all this? Artie Means, a San Diegan who has been doing the race for nearly two decades, said, "I think some of the guys are a bit optimistic that we're going to have 18 knots [of wind]," Means said earlier. "With the pressure building on the backside of the front [that came through] Thursday it's going to have the eddy effect and keep the big breeze offshore and keep it fairly light on our course. Unless that breaks up we're not going to see much above 11 knots."
So where does one go from the start---offshore or along the coast? "It depends on the [wind] angle," Means said. "If you have the angle fully south to get offshore then it's a no-brainer. But if you get too much west component, it's too expensive to go offshore. Nobody in their right mind's going to do that, and it turns into pretty much a rhumb line drag race until the breeze starts to come around [from behind]."
Then, is it inside our outside the Coronado Islands at the border? The direct (rhumb) line to Todos Santos Bay is inside, but . . . "I've always felt that if you're within five miles of the Coronados you have a pretty big problem with a wind shadow," Means said, "so with a 6- or 7-knot race I'd say you want to be just outside and sailing as short a distance as possible without getting stuck in the lee [of the islands]."
Finally, the finish line has been moved to the north side of the bay offshore from the Hotel Coral and Marina, the new Ensenada headquarters for the race. "Finishing at the Coral takes a lot of stress out of our jobs this year," Means said. "It's inside the harbor but all the way to the north side, so you don't have to dig as far into the bay [where] there are a lot of big hills."
Sailing in Sprit A Class the ten J/120s had a helluva race. In what many see as a conspiracy, the POLE DANCER gang led by partners in crime Tom & Terri Manok took 1st in class and 14th overall (what are they doing we don't know about?). Second in class and 15th overall was Mike Hatch's silver-collecting J-ALMIGHTY. And, third was Jim Barber's HOT TAMALE.
In Sprit B Class an army of J/105s made the assault across the border, and managed as a fleet to take three of the top five. Not a bad showing for the world's "first a-sailed sprit boat"!! Tom Bollay's ARMIDA from Santa Barbara YC took 2nd and 5th Overall in fleet. Bill Moore's KESTREL was 4th and Mark Wyland's LUCKY STAR was 5th.
In the big boat PHRF A division the "big boys & girls" had an amazing race. Yet another Santa Barbara YC team took all the silverware- Carolyn Park's J/145 RADIO FLYER- sailed an amazing race and proved all the pundits wrong that another "girl" from SBYC had the gumption to beat the "big boys" at their own game ("good on ya Carol!"). Just off the pace and perhaps a few gybes the wrong direction from victory were the crew on Viggo Torbenson's J/125 TIMESHAVER, settling for 8th in class.
In PHRF B class Seth Hall on his J/124 MARISOL managed to hang in there despite the challenging conditions to bring home a 5th place.
PHRF D did, in fact, produce the "sleeper winner" in the event. Larry Leveille's incredibly well-sailed J/29 RUSH STREET from Santa Barbara YC proved again how fast a masthead J/29 can catch you in the craziest of conditions. And, these guys know how to do it. They not only won PHRF D, but finished 20th overall in fleet! Sailing photo credits- JOY Sailing For more Lexus Newport-Ensenada Race sailing information
