The 2014 Bishop Rock Yacht Race, hosted by San Diego Yacht Club, was billed as the "Dare to Take the Challenge" race. The fleet sails from Two Harbors, Catalina Island, around Santa Barbara Island, then continues south to round Bishop Rock at the Cortez Bank, the place made famous by big wave surfers and a certain aircraft carrier, followed by a final leg directly back to San Diego. The race totals approximately 200 nautical miles, a course full of big wind and large waves.
This years’ race was certainly no let down. Winds in excess of 23 knots and very large swells it made for an exciting competition. A multi hull, “Mighty Merloe”, skippered by HL Enloe, was allowed to race in the Turbo Fleet joined by a high performance 65' monohull "Bad Pak", skippered by Tom Holthus.
The larger boats, Bad Pak, Mighty Merloe and Second Wind, a Swan 651, took early leads and with the rough conditions thrived throughout the night. “It was a challenging race this year. After being subjected to unrelenting wind, swells and chop for the first 24 hours, we then had to shift gears to battle light air as we approached San Diego Bay”, commented Fargo and Chamberlain. “This challenged everyone to conquer a wide range of conditions.”
In the end it was the Multi Hull "Mighty Merloe" taking line honors and setting a new course record of less than 12 hours. When the scores were finalized, Second Wind, owned and skippered by long time Solana Beach residents John Chamberlain and Dean Fargo, came out on top of all of the monohull boats by over 2 hours, winning both 1st in class and overall.
Both boats will be added to the Port Captains Trophy displayed at San Diego Yacht Club.