When multihulls took over west coast racing

Offshore racing in California invariably means two things: you finish in a tropical setting, and you sail mostly offwind angles to get there. Both good things.

Whether aiming for Hawaii or Mexico, getting their fast led to the development of boats that sail well downwind. Handicap limits in the 80s led to the growth of 70-foot ULDBs (ultra-light displacement boats), which later spawned several generations of sled-type boats. These ‘fast is fun’ monohulls have been the glamour rides for west coast offshore racing.

That is, until now. The 32nd edition of the biennial San Diego to Vallarta International Yacht Race may be known as the moment when multihulls took over.

Starting as official entries among ORR Division 1 and 2 on Saturday, Tom Siebel’s MOD70 trimaran Orion and H.L. Enloe’s Orma 60 trimaran Mighty Merloe have blitzed the 2014 edition of this 1000nm race to Puerto Vallarta.

“I’ve sailed on some fast monohulls, but this MOD 70 is a whole other animal,” declared Orion navigator Peter Isler. “With the speedo at 30 knots, inside the boat you really feel like you are on the inside of a roller coaster. Quick twists and turns can send you flying all five feet from the left side of the boat to the right side.”

Orion finished the race at 21:13:00 PDT on Monday (March 17), with their elapsed time of 2 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes eclipsing the 1998 record set by Steve Fossett’s Lakota, a 60-foot trimaran. As an unofficial entry in an ‘exhibition’ class, Lakota completed the course in 2d, 14h, 20m, 17s.

Also beating the 16 year old record was Mighty Merloe, crossing the finish line Tuesday (March 18) at 02:21:00 PDT for an elapsed time of 2 days, 13 hours, 41 minutes.

Next in line among the remaining 20 teams to finish are two ORR Division 3 entrants which started on Friday. As of 1400 PDT on March 18, Bob Pethick’s Rogers 46 Bretwalda 3 had 124.6 nm remaining, while Fritz Lanzinger’s J/125 Hamachi, the current overall leader, had 175.0 nm to go.

Event website – Tracker