We sailed in the Vallarta Yacht Club’s “Merietas Madness” ocean race, a 32-nautical mile race around the Meritas Islands on the west side of Banderas Bay. The race is designed to be a fun race and an excuse to spend the day sailing around the bay. We managed a respectable finish. Not bad for a boat that we are still learning to sail and a good showing by the yacht club’s newest members (us).
We were joined by our good friends and long-time boat partners Mike and Joan as crew. They have been down for the past several weeks visiting and sailing our old boat, Esperanza (which is tied up only a few slips away from Roam). As racers, Mike and I go way back. I served as the main trimmer on his old Santana 35 which we raced all around San Francisco Bay.
It took most of the day to get around the course. It starts with a long upwind sail out to the islands. I was impressed with the boat’s ability to go upwind — normally not a strength of cruising catamarans. But we easily outpointed the cruising monohulls and were able to hang with the racing monohulls.
Rounding the islands it took us some time to sort out the spinnaker rigging and get it hoisted. That delay pretty much killed us in the standings. But, this was all about going for a long sail and giving us more time to get to know the boat and how to sail her.
We weren’t last!
Click to enlarge photos
Hey, love the blog!! So glad I’ll be able to keep tabs on your amazing adventure!! Beautiful catamaran and awesome job getting ready!