Santa Cruz 50 'Horizon' Wins Vallarta Race 2016 Sailing Scuttlebutt
go to original February 26, 2016

John Schulze’s Horizon (SC50) won the 32nd running of the Vallarta Race, a 1000nm course from San Diego, USA to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Finishing yesterday, their elapsed time of 4 days, 13 hour, 52 minutes, 19 seconds earned them the Division 3 and Overall title. Second overall was Division 2 winner Roy Disney’s Pyewacket (Andrews 70) with Dave MacEwan’s Lucky Duck (SC52) finishing second in Division 3 and third Overall.

Winning team on Santa Cruz 50 Horizon

The 2016 edition of the Vallarta Race was a tale of two races. As sailors reached the dock in Marina Vallarta, their stories were told with similar emphasis on the contrast between the two halves. A run from San Diego to Cabo like none other, and then attempting to avoid the holes and minimize the light air that most boats encountered in the Sea of Cortez crossing and approach to PV.

While this may be the typical conditions to be expected on any Vallarta Race, the extremes which were seen in 2016 were unique. Boats like Gordon Leon’s Farr 40 Flyer reached 22 knots and were rocking and rolling on the first half, while even the trimaran Mighty Merloe fell victim to the shutdown of breeze on the second half approach to the finish, floating along at 2-3 knots at times.

Rio100 with its crew of 19 set the monohull course record, sailing the course in 77.7 hours, which eclipsed the 2010 record of 80.67 hours set by Bill Turpin’s Akela. Owner Manouch Moshayedi and captain Keith Kilpatrick have been sailing the boat since November 2014 where they started with a crew of 26 and have been optimizing it over the years to a typical 18. Yet even with a record-breaking performance, Rio100 owed too much time to fellow Division 1 boats and finished 4th in class.

The overall regatta winner came down to the John Schulze’s Santa Cruz 50 Horizon who finished just after 2:00 AM on Wednesday (Feb 24) as the third monohull and second Friday starter across the line, and Roy Disney’s Pyewacket. With the last miles of the race stretched out in front of the Andrews 70, the crew of Pyewacket thought they had enough to finish in time but didn’t quite find enough wind during the approach to the finish, and ended up just under 2 corrected hours behind Horizon, finishing second overall.

Horizon was sailed by owner John Schulze, Len Bose, John Busch, Craig Chamberlain, Stan Gibbs, Jeff Thorpe, Gunnar Torre, and Grant Wooden.

Schulze has sailed Horizon in the recent Transpac, Newport to Ensenada Race and Cabo races, and described his first experience sailing the Puerto Vallarta Race.

“Well it was an excellent race. We had really great crew work and had good navigation, and good conditions all the way down. It was my first Puerto Vallarta Race and I really liked it. We’re definitely thanking the Mexican authorities for allowing us to race to Puerto Vallarta.

Read the rest at Sailing Scuttlebutt.