LA MANZANILLA CUP RACE WRAP UP

Posted by Lois Lane on February 29, 2012, 8:00 pm
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Thrills, chills and an almost spill were the order of the day for the 4th annual La Manzanilla Cup regatta on Tenacatita Bay. After Monday's postponement for want of wind, the race was afoot, or should that be asea, this afternoon at 1:15. There was a stirring sense of anticipation on the race deck at Don Raul's restaurant during the Captains´meeting earlier. Would the wind come up? Would they have to cancel the Cup this year because of scheduling conflicts among the contenders? Fortunately they waited out the calm. When some of the participants declared they could "see the wind," sailors quickly readied their respective vessels for the race. The colorful sail on Lew Liebowitz's Hobie Cat (with Bill Morgan crewing) was the first to emerge from the dense haze that settled over the bay and obscured the boats from sight as they crossed from Tenacatita to Tamarindo. Lew "dingleberried" (the race fans assured me that is an actual nautical term!) back and forth near the finish line until Joe and Grant pulled into sight, then rocketed across to win the race, for the third time in four years, in an hour and 19 minutes. The other four contenders, in order of their reappearance and times crossing the line were: Joe Hostetler and Grant Carrier (Cal 21) -- 1:24 Richard Rasmussen (Laser) -- 1:28 Tom Oberg and Oso (Santana) -- 1:50 David Rutherford (Sunfish) -- DNF, but gave it a helluva shot in the freshening wind. The boats were a lovely sight tacking back and forth across the bay until the last racer came in. Then something went amiss. (Since it happened on February 29, some would say that it never happened at all.) One of the boats, perhaps due to a sail malfunction that blew it sideways, ran aground in shallow water close to shore. Half a dozen or more onlookers ran into the surf and strained to wrestle the errant vessel, perilously close to wetting its sheets, far enough out for the keel to clear the bottom. They eventually caught a tow from a passing panga and were able to sail back to their anchorage. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for a photo op of Lew being awarded the shiny new plastic La Manzanilla Cup trophy. They were holding the presses for my column over in Guadalajara. I did, however, take a picture of it beside the original classic. (I hope it's attached in this post.) AK Barb's timing was perfect in bringing the new, but not necessarily improved award. The old one has almost disintegrated with rust. Perhaps the old Cup will be renamed the Rusty Shackle award, earned by the person in the race who screws up the worst. I swore I wouldn't name names, but knowing La Manzanilla, everybody in town probably already knows anyway.

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