When a boat is your full-time home, it’s not so easy to make the transition from cruiser to racer, especially once you start to hear all of your possessions aggressively shifting below. Unlike our Victory 21 Geronimo, which we spend our summers racing on Huntington Lake in California, we had only raced our Cheoy Lee 41 Avocet once before, and despite doing very well we hadn’t done it since. But the 31st Banderas Bay Regatta was special and an opportunity to get out on the water and have some fun with our friends, which is what sailing is all about, isn’t it? A nonprofit event organized by the Vallarta Yacht Club, the three-day Banderas Bay Regatta was created by cruisers for cruisers, attracting sailors of all kinds to enchanting Banderas Bay, Mexico, to sail under its pleasant March breezes. We were willing to give it a go, but I was adamant we take on more crew so I could focus on stowing whatever items were shaken out of place, tending to our ship’s cat, Cleo, and snapping lots of photos while Chris did what he has always dreamed of doing—finding Avocet’s limits.

Talion, SeaQuester, and Pendragon cross the start line. Day one was a pursuit start, while day two featured standard starts by class.
Avocet’s Banderas Bay Regatta crew, sponsored by the local bar Lusty on Land, get fired up for racing. Lured onto the boat with the promise of no-stress-just-fun-racing, they started to get the taste of winning as Avocet proved she was a worthy contestant and much more than just a liveaboard cruiser.
Crew Ethan takes the helm while Reid handles the jib trim. On day one, Avocet placed third in her class of six boats and second on days two and three. Throughout, Chris wore the biggest grin on his face, followed with, “My dad would have loved this.” Avocet’s unassuming image is what makes her such a good boat—she’s comfortable, but she can also be a racer in disguise.
One reason full-time cruisers don’t race often is because our boats are our homes, and it’s not much fun when your house gets thrown around. Our ship’s cat, Cleo, wasn’t too thrilled about all the action, either. Even though I was not directly contributing to Avocet’s performance on the racecourse, I noticed the familiar feeling of adrenaline flowing through my veins as we listened to the race committee count down the starts on the VHF.
Nic from Talion puts his race face on.“Race committee, race committee, this is Alegria protesting Talion,” was the first of many calls to the race committee we heard on day three but the least concerning of all, when two boats ended up colliding and another blew out their chute and landed on the beach. Who says cruiser racing doesn’t get intense!
Chris gets ready to set a chute, keeping his eyes on the prize. He grew up racing with his dad, who would have been immensely proud to see the race his youngest son had just competed in. It was a great regatta all around, and if you’re a cruising sailor given the opportunity to participate, we highly recommend it.
Chris is all grins as Avocet leads Talion, a Gulfstar 50, just after the start on day one. Despite being first over the line, we only held that position for a few minutes until we were passed by a handful of legitimate race boats, which did nothing to dim our enthusiasm.