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Update: May 12th 2005

R33 Ensenada Race 2005 Winner!
An article by Pat Reynolds (no relation) for Multihull Magazine

As Goliath said "choose a man from among you to come fight me," the Orca class in this year's Lexus Newport to Ensenada Race felt the same unspoken sentiment coming from the camp of the catamaran giant Afterburner, who has dominated the race for the past three years. On the start line, the 52-foot monster moved through the pack like a recently fed great white shark, sizing up his prey for a late midnight snack.

However, this year, the Orca class would crown a new and unlikely champion for this storied 125 mile race from Newport California to Ensenada Mexico. Designer Randy Reynolds of Huntington Beach California, assembled a team of five Reynolds 33 catamarans to compete in the race. He knew that if the wind topped 15 knots, based on Afterburner's inherent design and waterline length, she would lead the pack and arrive in Ensenada well ahead of the fleet. But in an 8-10 knot window, Reynolds felt that one of his small but very fast cats might stand a chance. It didn't hurt that some very prominent sailors volunteered to pilot a few of his boats for the competition. Olympic Tornado cat medallist and number one world ranked Johnny Lovell, world champion A-Class Cat sailor Pete Melvin and world champion 505 sailor and United States number one ranked sailor in 18-foot skiffs, Howard Hamlin were all eager to experience what the Reynolds 33 was capable of. In the end, it was Reynolds himself and three other crewmen, Russ Turk, Larry McDowell and Pat Reynolds who would cross the line first on Randy's own Cat Attack.

Cat Attack, Afterburner and the other four R-33’s all got great starts, enjoying 8-knots of breeze and led the pack of multihulls for the next few hours. Later in the day, the breeze picked up to 10 knots enabling the boats to lift a hull, reaching speeds of up to 18 knots. At that point, it was Reynolds, the other four R-33’s and Afterburner in front with no other multihulls on the horizon. Without factoring in the importance of the rhumbline, all six boats were sailing neck and neck. The boats that traveled inside were closer to the finish line if the wind prevailed. At that time, it was anybody's race, so it would all hinge on which way the wind would blow through the night.

When nightfall came the wind direction and speed changed for the worse. The crew of Cat Attack decided to follow the wind, which meant traveling farther off shore. They went approximately 15 miles off of the Coronados to catch more wind and eventually it paid off. After crossing a few miles into international waters and deeper offshore, winds began to appear and Cat Attack was on the move. The decision as to when to jibe and head for the finish line was the most important one of the race and collectively the crew sought to be patient. After a good amount of analysis, they jibed and were subsequently greeted by stronger winds and a perfect lay line course to the finish. Under main and spinnaker Cat Attack made a steady 12-15 knots peaking at 18 in 8-10 knots of breeze all the way to Ensenada Bay where fluky winds were sure to prevail.

Once in the bay, Reynolds and company knew they were in good shape when they saw 70 foot keelboats just ahead. With the finish line in sight, they were able to pass the monohulls using tactics and boat speed. "What was encouraging," said Reynolds, "was that we beat Medicine Man and Taxi Dancer to weather in the zero to three knots of light air. Although it was frustrating to have just sailed 50 miles in under 4 hours only to sail the last 4 miles to the finish in over 2 hours."

In 17 hours and 52 minutes the quartet reached the end line winning on both elapsed and corrected time in the Orca class and were the 6th boat overall in the 471 boat fleet. In this race the question/gamble always lies in whether or not to stick close to the rhumb line, inside the Coronado Islands or to travel offshore, outside the islands looking for higher winds. Since the R-33 does well in lighter winds, Reynolds' inclination was to stick close to the rhumb line, but crewman Larry McDowell had researched the weather data all week and felt convinced that traveling outside the islands was imperative. "He made a good argument for going outside, so I bit my lip." said Reynolds.

The next multihull to reach the finish was Afterburner. Skipper Bill Gibbs observed that through the race he kept seeing R-33s everywhere he looked. When the two skippers spoke, Gibbs said to Reynolds with a smile, "Yeah, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a Reynolds 33."

As for the rest of the Reynolds fleet, Johnny Lovell, Pete Melvin with Howard Hamlin and Eric Fracker finished just 13 minutes apart about 4 hours later. Hamlin enjoyed the R-33 experience saying, "I'm very critical about how a boat should function. Usually I step off any boat, including my own, with a long list of things to change or fix. But not on this boat." Melvin was also satisfied saying, "Our boat was flawless, we sailed it on its maiden voyage the day before the race and nothing needed to be fixed after sailing for 200 + miles." Fortunately for the Cat Attack crew, they were able to find wind for the bulk of the course, for the talk amongst many of the sailors at the Hotel Bahia after the race was how horribly dead and calm the wind had become.

At the end of the day, Reynolds walked away with 3 trophies including ORCA’s best corrected time and ORCA’s best elapsed time. However, what's more important to Reynolds than the hardware, is that he leaves Ensenada with the satisfaction that his design can overcome the odds and that he can not only compete with giant monohulls and rocketships like Afterburner, but can win.

More News!

While the R33 was winning the Ensenada Race, the same weekend Boat #10 with Dave Calvert at the helm was debuting the R33 on the East coast in her first race against 50 multihulls and 150 monohulls in the Miami to Key Largo race. They finished 2nd overall elapsed just behind the 900 lb RC 30 daysailing D class boat yet ahead of all other boats including F31's, Marstom 20's, inter 20's, RC 27 and a huge assortment of multihulls. They won first elapsed in class and first on corrected in class. Congratulations Dave Calvert and crew!

Also, since Feb we have signed up 4 more dealers to help spread the word of the R33 Cat. We now have 8 dealers ... Miami Fl, Annapolis MD, Houston TX, San Diego CA, Newport Beach Ca, Detroit MI, Toledo Ohio and Long Beach Ca. Be watching for an updated dealer locator page soon to come.

Also we have finished and sold boats #14, 15, 16 and 17. Be watching soon... an owner update with locations and photos will be up shortly.

Lastly, be watching for a more detailed News Update for May on progress on the R44, foiler and powercat.

Fast Sailing!
Randy Reynolds