Ker 51 Fast Exit II at the start of the Puerto Vallarta Race off San Diego
The 36th running of the Puerto Vallarta Race finished in March with 29 boats crossing the finish line out of fleet of 30, with one boat retiring. Ocean Navigator was one of the PV 2022 race sponsors. In terms of fastest overall, Roy P. Disney’s sled Pyewacket 70, set a new monohull course record with a time of 03:04:38:02. The overall winner on corrected time was John Raymont and crew aboard his Ker 51 Fast Exit II.
Raymont wrote on the race website, “The goals for the Ker 51 Fast Exit II full-on racer are the same as they were for my prior boat and its namesake, the wonderful racer-cruiser Andrews 40: take a boat with good bones and make it better. Success with the Andrews 40 was achieved by some modest design updates, sail development program and assembling a great team to execute; which is the program we are following today.”
Fast Exit II’s navigator Brad Wheeler commented on strategy: “From a navigation point of view, the PV 2022 was really a race of outlasting competitors. We took our meteorological input over the last week and built a game plan for the race and it pretty much held. We knew we had a wicked fast boat so our goal was to minimize miles and any high risk decisions. There were a few key decision points, and those who chose wrong were quickly peeled out of the leading group with no real opportunity to catch back up.”
In his comments, Steve White, a member of the crew on the Cookson 12/Farr 39 White Cloud seemed to sum up the race for many participants. “This was an amazing race for White Cloud. Lot’s of different decisions to contend with and tactical decisions to be made…. We all had a great time and really appreciate the efforts of the organizers to successfully put on such a complex event.”
After the race, the Puerto Vallarta Race team looked at the satellite tracking data and came up with some numbers on miles sailed. The boat that sailed the most miles was Disney’s new monohull elapsed time record holder Pyewacket 70, which clocked a total of 1,223 nautical miles. The second on elapsed time, Manouch Moshayedi’s Bakewell-White 100 Rio100, reeled off 1,136 miles — only 10 less miles than her record run in 2016, while still breaking her record time this year. Meanwhile, Class 6 second place finisher Akaw!, an Olson 40 owned by Michael T. Ewens, sailed the fewest total miles at 1,075. In general, the average number of miles sailed by boats in the fleet was 1,153 miles. The grand total miles sailed by the fleet was 33,425.
The race team also thanked the Marina Vallarta harbormaster, Mexican immigrations and customs officers and the Mexican Navy for their help in making things run smoothly in Puerto Vallarta.