Salsa division underway

Rich Roberts reports from the first start of the Corum International Yacht Race

A dozen Salsa Division competitors sailed from the gloom of a rainy day in L.A. right into a small adventure on the high seas after their start in Del Rey Yacht Club's 18th biennial Corum International Yacht Race.

About 2.5 hours after the start the lead boat, Bob and Kathy Patterson's J/46, Lark, from Los Angeles, encountered a dismasted 35-foot sailboat - not a race entrant - in the middle of the 23 mile wide San Pedro Channel between Long Beach and Santa Catalina Island.

"We sailed right up to them," Lark navigator Tom Leweck reported by cell phone. "The mast was broken off clean at the deck. There were two people aboard, but they were okay and then a Coast Guard helicopter was hovering overhead and asked us to stand by." A Vessel Assist boat arrived in about 25 minutes to take the crippled but unidentified sailboat under tow.

"By then Cheyenne had come alongside us," Leweck continued referring to the Salsa rival from Venice entered by Alan Blunt and David Fox. "I'm sure we'll be credited for the time, though." Earlier Cheyenne, a Whiting 49, had difficulty with its jib halyard and sent a crew member up the forestay to fix it a couple of minutes before the start. Leweck, otherwise known as the 'Curmudgeon' who edits Scuttlebutt, the sailing e-mail newsletter, is sailing his 27th race to Mexico, not including Newport-to-Ensenada overnighters. "This is the first time I've ever run into something like this," he said.

Conditions Friday afternoon, he said, were less than ideal. "There are big seas out here . We've been slugging to weather in 19-22 knots [of wind], with an occasional 26, on a southeast course of 120 [degrees]. Our first stop is Cedros Island, which is southeast. We'll have to tack in another six miles or we'll hit Catalina."

Anybody else for tacking to Mexico?

At the start, as light sprinkles persisted, winds of 5-10 knots from the southeast instead of the normal southwesterlies ushered the Salsa spinnaker and non-spinnaker fleets across the line under the reversed landing pattern of jets to LAX from the sea.

Lark and Jim Maslon's C&C 110 Broadway Babe ran the line on port tack and headed up at the gun to win the spinnaker class start handily.

Bill Solberg's Tartan 380 Wind Dancer and Scott Adam's Davidson 53 Quest led the non-spinnaker start. Other boats - some with dodgers and canopies set against the elements - appeared less than anxious to hit the line on time.

The 10 Racing Division boats, including Roy Disney's maxZ86 Pyewacket and Randall Pittman's Dubois 90, Genuine Risk both making in their West Coast debuts, will start next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That pair is targeting the 20 year old record of 4 days 23 hours 0 minutes 14 seconds held by the MacGregor 65 Joss over the 1,125-nautical mile course.