South by south east to Puerto Vallarta

The 2022 San Diego to Vallarta International Yacht Race divided the 30 entrants among three start dates on March 10-12 for the 1050 nm course. Here’s the update from March 13, 2022:

After three days of really nice conditions at the start, all boats are now on the course. It has been called the “pleasant depart” – a reference to boats sailing to Mexico starting the race with spinnakers as opposed to the edgier initial Transpac Race course to Hawaii which typically involves some upwind sailing for the first day or two.

But not all was even for the three starts as the first group got the worst of it with southerly winds that did require upwind work. The second group enjoyed a light westerly that offered reaching angles, which improved further for the final group.

However, there was one not-so-champagne moment on the course yesterday evening when Scott Grealish’s J/121 BlueFlash had a crew member fall into the cockpit during a gybe. They suffered a badly bruised torso and suspected broken ribs, but are otherwise stable and resting. BlueFlash diverted to Turtle Bay and offloaded the injured crew member and will be returning to San Diego.

Meanwhile, Class 6 White Cloud continues to be point boat down the course setting up for an inside position at Cabo, still 200 miles away. Also in Class 6 – Such Fast is almost 50 nm further out than White Cloud and starting to show their choice of tactics for passing Cabo San Lucas.

Classes 3, 4, and 5 are spread over a 50nm area with Lucky Duck leading the way past San Carlos, and boat speeds averaging 9-11 kts across the fleet. The Class 2 boats are also closing on San Carlos with fleet speeds in the mid-teens. The Class 1 boats are in another gear averaging high teens down the course with Pyewacket 70 posting almost 16 kt average from the start.

Wayne Zittel, J World’s Hula Girl, Santa Cruz 52:
“A little more sporty last night, but we are loving it… some good surfing. Knowing it won’t last *sigh*, but all grins for now!”

John Raymont, Fast Exit II, Ker 51:
“Good night, no issues. holding our own. good race between father and son with Bribon (Scott and Pike Harris). And yes, surfboards can be wet in 20kts! “

Lawrence Andrews, TooLoco, Riptide 35:
“Cracking night of sailing. 19.7 knots top speed peeling to the A-5 at 0300. Bowman not happy. Boat fell over a couple of times. No one happy. Trouble downloading gribs. Da Nav not happy. Otherwise all good on the TooLoco luxury cruise.”

Event information – Race details – Entry list – Tracking – March 13 roll call – Photos

Note: The tracking has a 4-hour delay.

Start schedule for 30 entrants:
March 10 – Division 6
March 11 – Division 3, 4, 5
March 12 – Division 1, 2

Source: SDYC