March Offshore Racing Preview
The cruising division of the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race will start tomorrow, with additional starts on Friday and Saturday. Considered a large number by recent standards, 30 boats are entered to sail the 1,000 miles. The fleet ranges in size from the 1D35 Fractions to Rio100, and includes the ORMA 60 trimaran Mighty Merloe and Steve Meheen’s new-to-him 2014 Botin 80, El Cabrón, formerly Karl Kwok’s Beau Geste.
Many entries in the PV Race stick around for MEXORC, which will run March 10-14 on Banderas Bay. They include the 70-footers Peligroso and Runaway and 52-footers BadPak, Patches and Vincitore.
Traditionally a competition for cruisers, this year the Banderas Bay Regatta on March 20-24 will introduce a racing class for ORR-rated boats. They’ll continue to offer classes for cruisers and multihulls.
Like last year, the Bay Area Multihull Association’s Doublehanded Farallones Race will offer concurrent courses that stop short of the ultimate rounding ‘mark’. From the start at Golden Gate YC, the duos will have a choice of rounding:
- Southeast Farallon Island, 58-mile course
- The #46026 Weather Buoy, 39 miles
- Ship Channel Entrance Buoy G7, 15.5 miles
- The boundary line between Point Bonita and Mile Rock, 8 miles
Safety equipment and education requirements vary depending on the course chosen. The deadline to enter is Wednesday, March 21, and a skippers’ meeting will be held that evening at Oakland YC in Alameda. The race itself will be on March 24.
We’ll highlight some March inshore races in this space on Friday.