Record smashed!
Here we are in beautiful Puerto Vallarta at the finish of the 2014 San Diego to PV Race. The breeze lightened up coming across the Gulf from Cabo to the mainland… compressing the fleet, but it wasn’t enough to slow down the trimarans. The ultra-fast trimarans, Orion and Mighty Merloe hot footed it down the coast line (going 30 knots is "ho hum" on the tri's) arriving at the Punta Mita finish line on Monday (they started Saturday!). Amazing! Both the tri's beat the long standing record for the run from SDYC to Puerto Vallarta set by Steve Fosset. Congrats!
Race Chairman Steve Malowney and his PV '14 team have delivered a huge success with this year's race… the racers are thrilled, the numbers are up and our friends from mainland Mexico are all smiles. Steve and his team have worked so hard to make this year's race a success and they have hit it out of the park. Steve is in full court press mode… but the fantastic planning is all coming together.
HUGE kudos and thanks to Bob Shinn for donating his Grand Banks Andante to handle the finish line duties. This is a job with MANY hours spent on the hook waiting for the racers to make their way to PV.
The SDYC Race Office staff (Jeff and Jared) are doing a marvelous job handling the logistics, communications and all the inter-workings of handling Mexican Customs and "glitches" that come up with managing a regatta in a foreign country 1,100 miles from home. Sleep is a luxury but Jeff and Jared just keep pushing through all with a calm demeanor and cool decision making. Great job.
Our "secret weapon" is Gabby Pacheco who has been invaluable with our interactions with everything Mexico… from pointing us towards great food and good deals, to communications with our friends from Acapulco Yacht Club and the local support network... all with very little sleep as the boats are arriving round the clock. Thank you Gabby!
Lastly, a big thanks to my wife Lynn. Thank you for all your help and support this week sweetheart. You rock. Xoxo.
Prize giving is this Saturday evening, and that will wrap up the 32nd SDYC race to mainland Mexico.
Adios from PV!
Chuck Sinks
SDYC Commodore