PV Race: Sizzle is the little big winner

Puerto Vallarta, MEX (March 13, 2020) – The 2020 San Diego to Vallarta International Yacht Race is nearly over. After the 1000nm course from San Diego, CA to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, there remain just a couple of ORR Class 6 competitors on the course. For those teams taking full ownership of their commitment to sail the course with no time limit…congratulations!

But the results are firm and tables set for tonight’s awards presentation. Here are the celebrants:

The bright lights are on ORR Class 6 which had the Overall winner, Bill Hardesty’s Hobie 33 Sizzle, likely generating the best performance per dollar.

“It was not an easy seven day trip with lots of changing conditions and even a few breakages that we managed to fix on-the-fly!” said Hardesty. “I owe a huge thanks to the team, veteran Tom Holthus and youngsters Chuck Eaton and Parker Mitchel. I’m pretty sure we managed to avoid the coronavirus while at sea but now in Puerto Vallarta we’ll try to be as safe as possible! I hope …”

In ORR Class 5, with one of the last finishes today is White Cloud, a Cookson 12M / Farr 39 owned by Paul Grossman. It is always refreshing in handicap racing to see the smallest boat in a Class, actually correct out on larger faster boats.

In ORR Class 4, the venerable Santa Cruz 50/52vfleet, half the fleet fell prey to time commitments or other maladies that caused them to drop out. Of the remaining three, PV veteran and former overall winner (2016) John Shulze’s Santa Cruz 50 Horizon finished first and held that spot on corrected time, although the rating differences are minuscule.

In ORR Class 3, another PV veteran and former overall winner (2014), Bob Pethick’s Rodgers 46 Bretwalda 3 finished first in class and held on for the corrected win as well.

In ORR Class 2, the ‘sled’ class, David Clark’s Santa Cruz 70 Grand Illusion sailed well through some really varied weather to finish ahead of, and correct out over second place Mr. Bill, an Andrews 70, and third place Good Call was a Swan 60 each with nearly identical ratings.

And in ORR Class 1, Roy Disney’s modified Volvo 70 Pyewacket 70 utilized all the tricks built into his incredible ocean racing machine. They went bow to bow down the course with the larger faster Cabron, and saved their time over the smaller VO65 Viva Mexico.

Reading the competitor comments from each day provided a full range of emotions, competitive spirit, and appreciations for life at sea. It reminds one that if you have a chance to participate in an ocean race, you should make every effort to go.

Lately, compared to the complexity of life, and like few other opportunities – ocean racing allows you to feel the rhythm of the sea, and hear your inner voice. It might be asking you why are you here, but it’s better than hearing it ashore saying you should have gone. Everyone wins offshore!

Event Details – Results – Tracker – Facebook – Photos

The 2020 San Diego to Puerto Vallarta International Yacht Race got underway on March 5 for five teams in ORR-6 as they began the 1,000nm course from San Diego, USA to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Staggered starts continued on March 6 for 16 teams in ORR-3,4,5 and March 7 for eight entrants in ORR-1,2.

The multihull race record of 02:03:48 was set in 2018 by H.L. Enloe’s ORMA 60 Mighty Merloe. The monohull race record of 03:05:41 was set by Manouch Moshayedi’s Rio100 in 2016.

Source: Jeff Johnson, SDYC