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Mar 11, 2010, 6:41 PM
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Regatta Copa Mexico 2010
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HOLA SAILORS… From USA 5208-Bogus!
By Chuck Allen, North Sails One Design
Hey everyone - our North Sails J/24 Team is down in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, México this week sailing The Regatta Copa Mexico. Observed top J/24 skipper Mike Ingham from Rochester, NY, “When the government wants to promote something, watch out! The President of Mexico has decided Nuevo Vallarta is a great place to run a regatta and he is right. Rumor has it that Mexico has invested 2 million dollars into this multifaceted event, and from what I have seen so far I believe it. Each night there is a different sponsor treating us all very well.”
It is Thursday, March 11th, and we just completed Day 3 of the event. I have found sailing here is much like Valle de Bravo: the real breeze does not form until 12:30pm and the R/C knows the drill, so the mornings are relaxing with a late morning boat arrival, 1:00pm starts are the normal in these parts. You do not get in from sailing until 6:00pm but that seems to be just fine as everyone here eats dinner around 9:00pm or later… Most of the teams are housed at The Hotel Marival where you can basically live, eat, swim, etc… without a worry. They provide busses to the sailing facility about 15 minutes away each day running on the half hour-great set-up! The weather here is mid 80’s most of the day, lots of sun block and UV Protective are in order, we are sporting some UV Henri Lloyd Gear, which is working out nicely.
Sailing has been challenging to say the least… the normal sea breeze direction here is 260 degrees at around 15 knots and we have been racing in the 290-330 degree direction which puts us right off the land or mountains. We have seen some large shifts approaching the firsts marks, as they are close to land, in the tune of 50 degree gains and/or drop outs-crazy-you really have to keep your head out of the boat and the yacht hauling (you know what) to connect to the next auto tack. Basically, we would start a race fully hiked, as we approach the top a mile later- two, if not one, person is all that is left on deck-turning at the offsets in light conditions and we would watch it build as we got to the bottom gates, fully hiked and do it all over again as every race is a 5 Legger. It is really fun sailing don’t get me wrong-we race all day in 8-15 knots sailing in shorts and shirts-tough to beat.
There are around 55 boats sailing in the regatta and we have found ourselves fortunate enough to be in the top group. The results were not posted yet but I believe we are tied with Mauricio Santa Cruz and another Brazilian Team (BRA 33) for the front lead. There seems to be a gap from the top three boats to the next grouping, but there is tons of sailing left to go… we are off to one of the famous Mexican Dinners, cannot wait, remember: Cerveza Good-Agua Bad… More later!
Go to the link below for results and Tim Wilke’s Photos:
Website: http://www.j24mex.com/copamexico/
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