Magnitude 80 first to finish - Newport to Ensenada

by Rich Roberts on 27 Apr 2008 Teased by winds as strong as 15 knots along the way, Magnitude 80 repeated its first-to-finish performance in the Newport Ocean Sailing Association’s 61st International Yacht Race to Ensenada Saturday but was denied another record for its résumé as the wind shut down in Todos Santos Bay.

When the breeze quit on Doug Baker's Andrews 80 from Long Beach and other line honor hopefuls it left Roy E. Disney’s Pyewacket record for monohulls (10 hours 44 minutes 54 seconds in 2003) safe for another year by more than six hours. Steve Fossett's standard for multihulls (6 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds in 1998) has never been seriously challenged.

Rival skipper Jim Madden on Stark Raving Mad III reported: 'We were 25 miles out at 9 p.m. [Friday] night and saw triple zeros [on the wind and boat speed instruments] for hours. Looks like Mag, Akela, OEX, Medicine Man all finished ahead. Oh, well.'

Mag 80 navigator Ernie Richau said, 'We had a great sail for the first 100 miles. A little reaching and lots of running in 10 to 15 knots of wind. The racing was very close among SRM, Akela and Magnitude 80. It all came to a quick stop at about 8 p.m. last night when we had the last 25 miles to go. We finished at 4:52 a.m. That’s about 9 hours to go 25 miles. . . . pretty slow going.'

Mag 80 finished about 11 1/2 minutes before David Janes and Bill Turpin's Akela, a Reichel/Pugh 75. Bob Lane's Medicine Man (Andrews 64), Peter Tong's OEX (Santa Cruz 70) and SMR III (R/P 66) followed in that order in a 17-minute cluster.

About two hours later another group---Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes (Farr 60), John MacLaurin's Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), Brack Duker's Holua (SC 70), Yabsley/Compton/Parker's Taxi Dancer (R/P 68) and Ed McDowell's Grand Illusion (SC 70) finished less than 11 minutes apart.

Was it pretty? If you love oil paintings. Was it painful? Try root canal. As Madden reported earlier: 'Beautiful day, but fickle breeze.'

Or, as Luis, driving a photographer on one of Botas Juanito's pangas, noted: 'It was blowing 30 knots here in the bay five days ago.'

The happiest faces belonged to Akela's Janes and Turpin of Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club and to Fifty-One-Fifty's Mike Warns of Channel Islands Yacht Club. Early returns had them looking like winners on corrected handicap time in the Maxi and PHRF-A classes, respectively. Results won't be official until 11 a.m. Sunday all boats must finish before the deadline at to be officially scored as finishing.

Timothy Beatty, sailing the Perry 56 Stealth Chicken in PHRF-A, noted, 'It was a challenging year. When I've sailed this race before it wasn't as tactical.'

Ask any sailor: tactics are hard work.

'We did about 200 jibes!' exclaimed John Alain, a member of Warns' crew.

Warns said they were enjoying 15-knot breeze off Oceanside when it started to go light.

'We split with the fleet and went in to get the breeze off the land. We felt the wins was gonna die outside. We changed our number one [jib] to a Code Zero, then put up a half-ounce spinnaker.'

Warns was sailing his 21st Newport-Ensenada race. The first 18 were on wooden boats in the Ancient Mariner class, which he won six times when Ernie Minney's Samarang didn't.

'I learned a lot about where to go from ol' Ernie and those guys on wooden boats,' Warns said.

Fastest elapsed times:

1. Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach YC, elapsed time 16 hours 52 minutes 20 seconds.
2. Akela (Reichel/Pugh 75), David Janes/Bill Turpin, Bahia Corinthian YC, 17:03:56.
3. *Loereal (Jenn), Loe Enlof, Silver Gate YC, 17:31:04.
4. Medicine Man (Andrews 64), Bob Lane, LBYC, 18:19:44.
5. OEX (SC 70), Peter Tong, LBYC, 18:27:42.
6. Stark Raving Mad III (R/P 66), Jim Madden, Newport Harbor YC, 18:36:49.
7. *Afterburner (Tennant), William Gibbs, PBYC, 18:56:17.
8. Stars & Stripes (Farr 60), Dennis Conner, San Diego YC, 20:35:00.
9. Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, California YC, 20:42:41.
10. Holua (SC 70), Brack Duker, California YC, 20:43:38.
11. Taxi Dancer (R/P 68), Yabsley/Compton/Parker, Santa Barbara YC, 20:45:31.
12. Grand Illusion (SC 70), Ed McDowell, King Harbor YC, 20:45:42.
13. Locomotion (Andrews 45), Ed Feo, LBYC, 20:56:47.
14. It's OK (Andrews 50), Tres Gordos Sailing LLC, Balboa YC, 20:59:37.

*---Multihull.

Event sponsors and supporters include Mount Gay Rum, the Balboa Bay Club, Vessel Assist, West Marine, Tommy Bahama, Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, Balboa Yacht Club, Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Ullman Sails, Bajabound.com and the city of Newport Beach.