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6 | Año 2011, núm. 8 Around Culebra Race By Jaime Torres Sailing vessel Smile & Wave What a fun little race around Culebra! BrISA and the rest of the crew did a great job putting this event together at the last-minute. Perfect weather and great times for the 8 or 9 boats that participated! It was great to see Sergio Sagramoso’s Lazy Dog, a beautiful new J/122 in action! This boat brings welcome competition to us that up to now was seriously lacking in PR. It will be fun to race against this very fast boat for years to come in the local and Caribbean races. A stormy forecast weather kept lots of sailboats from the 20-mile upwind trek to Culebra. It’s too bad because, although the weather on Saturday was stormy, Sunday’s weather was a sailor’s dream. Steady wind 15 to 20 knots and clear skies were perfect for the race around the island. Our Sunday started with massive bottom cleaning that left the crew exhausted. It continued with a comedy of errors as we tried to get the boat going for a short practice with a mostly new crew. At 12:30 we got the start warning. The line was short with shallows just few yards from the port pin. Because the fi rst leg was a port tack fetch to the fi rst mark, we decided on a port tack start near the pin. With a 1:30 to go we found ourselves being hunted by Lazy Dog as we sailed away from the line near the port end. Our gybe back was thwarted by a Starboard call from Lazy Dog so we tacked instead and headed at full speed towards the line with 35 to go. The J/122s aggressive tactics at the start may have cost them the race as they failed to tack with us and soon were chasing us back to the line from behind and to leeward. At 10 seconds we were still 15 seconds away from the line facing a wall of starboard tackers approaching the pin end. At the line we began a tack to avoid a J/24 but they tacked as we started tacking and we just came back down for speed. We found ourselves in clear air with a nice lane to the mark above and ahead of everybody. Lazy Dog and few other port tackers barely avoided a massive jam at the pin. I totally expected the nasty sound of crunching fi berglass but thankfully we just heard lots of yelling behind us. The 122 and we took no time in leaving the rest of fl eet behind. We covered Lazy Dog up the fi rst beat and after about 8 minutes of racing had about 45 sec on them. I never get tired of sailing in the beautiful waters of Culebra. We sailed upwind in 18 knots short tacking up reef of bright colors under vodka clear water. We rounded the southeast point of Culebra with about a minute lead. It would have been nice to have the JT up for this 2 or 3-minute close reach to next point. Lazy Dog hoisted their huge A-kite behind us but it was too windy and tight to be effective. They ran into trouble with the hoist and that added about another 15/20 sec to our lead. We hoisted under control a minute after and bore off into a beautiful Fotos Archivo / Benito Pinto Rodríguez Viento y trapo 5 mile downwinder down the northeast coast of Culebra. We fully expected Lazy Dog to take off in breeze but it never happened. I think they are still trying to fi gure out the angles. When they do… oooffff! We had some mechanical problems with the pole during the gybes but the cockpit crew
Viento y trapo kept the chute full the whole time and the foredeck girls recovered nicely. We gybed a few times, and rounded the northwest point with about 2.5 minutes of lead. We set up for gusty and shifty long upwind leg that required almost no tacking but lots of trim and helming concentration. It was tough as we got 20 degree lifting 20 knots puffs followed by 5-knot lulls for 30 minutes. The grinding was a real bitch! Lazy Dog managed this leg better than we did; consistently pointing a little higher and gained back about 30 seconds by time we rounded Punta Soldado, the southernmost point in Culebra. All that remained of this race was short beat to the entrance of Ensenada Honda and quick run to the fi nish. 2:01 was the delta with Lazy Dog and that corrected to about a 1:30 sec lead for us. Good stuff. After the race we were hosted by Milton Cofresí Sr. at this beautiful ranch overlooking Ensenada Honda. An amazing BBQ and even better company. We missed the awards because we just could not get ourselves dragged out of that magnifi cent setting. Año 2011, núm. 8 | The next day we did a record-setting delivery to San Juan. 6 hours exactly from Dewey to El Morro under gennaker and awning. No fi shing! Next? Practice, lots of it in San Juan. Crew: Carlos, Yoyo, George, Maritere, Gretchen, Carlos F., Keyla, Milton, Milton Sr., Javier. You guys rocked it. 7
Page 1 and 2: Búscanos en AÑO 14 • NÚM. 8 ¡
Page 3 and 4: Editor-Director Benito Pinto Rodrí
Page 5: Viento y trapo INTERNACIONAL Rolex
Page 9 and 10: A la segura TU OLFATO PODRÍA SALVA
Page 11 and 12: Notas del surf Kitesurfers aportan
Page 13 and 14: Medioambiente Torneo Interclub del
Page 15 and 16: Por Juan Carlos Torruella “Algún
Page 17 and 18: primer y segundo lugar. El domingo,
Page 19 and 20: Otro Emperador Por Alfredo Rodrígu
Page 21 and 22: EY MARINA anish Virgin Islands w @
Page 23 and 24: Torneo Club Náutico Boquerón Por
Page 25 and 26: SANCOCHO Por Juan Carlos Torruella
Page 27 and 28: Capacitación de agentes de segurid
Page 29 and 30: Medioambiente Adoptan la playa Mont
Page 31 and 32: Kayaqueando Conquista kayaquera @ C
Page 33 and 34: Medioambiente Los MANATÍES en REHA
Page 35 and 36: Aparatos Embarcaciones ARCE Por Enz
Page 37 and 38: Servicios Especializados Botes Nuev
Page 39 and 40: Año 2011, núm. 8 | 39

Centro de Convenciones Dr. Pedro J. Rosselló HORA ... - La Regata

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