Newport to Ensenada Race - Day 1 - Ragtime joins the slow start

by Rich Roberts on 24 Apr 2010 The wind wasn't overpowering for Friday's start of the Newport Ocean Sailing Association's 63rd Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race, but it stood to be the best that the 215 boats would see over the 125.5 nautical miles.

Although only 6 to 9 knots under a cloudless sky, at least it blew from an ideal southwest direction that allowed everybody to sail a starboard tack parallel to the beach, many on a beat or close reach as they slid out of sight of spectators on Balboa Pier.

H.L. Enloe's LoeReal, a 60-foot trimaran, set the pace as expected, while Dennis Conner's dark blue Farr 60, Stars & Stripes, had the strongest start among the big monohulls, sliding by the middle committee boat on the outside of the split start line as LoeReal flew off the inside line.

LoeReal owns the second fastest time ever by a multihull of 8 hours 45 minutes 3 seconds, but the record of 6:46:40 set by the late Steve Fossett on the Stars & Stripes catamaran in 1998 would seem out of reach this year.

Since the multihulls and monohulls aren't officially racing one another, Conner's challenge is to hold off Lorenzo Berho's Kernan 70, Peligroso, flying the Mexican tri-color flag off ifs transom. Peligroso, with the fastest monohull rating of minus-123 seconds per mile, owes Stars & Stripes (-63) exactly one minute per mile, so both boats will be watching the clock and doing the math.

Magnitude 80, which set the monohull record of 10 hours 37 minutes 20 seconds last year, is not competing but there was a surprising very late entry Friday. Ragtime, the legendary 44-year-old wooden wonder from Down Under now owned by Chris Welsh, showed up unannounced at the starting line hoping to add to its recent glory of handicap victories in the 2008 Los Angeles to Tahiti race and the Sydney-Hobart Race.

How all of this would play out would be known sometime Saturday. Earlier, forecasts from Weather Routing, Inc. co-sponsored by North Sails and Southern Spars indicated that it was the best breeze the boats would see, and it didn't appear to be a record year.

Jesse Cartee agreed. The offshore sailing coach at California Maritime Academy in Northern California is skipper of the 1D48 Chayah, competing in PHRF-A with a crew of students and alumni. 'I did some research and it didn't look too good,' Cartee said.

WRI's calculation was that the winds that fluttered through the 90-minute mid-day starting sequence would drop to 7 knots and less and switch to east-southeast, an offshore breeze, late Friday night and fade as low as 3-4 knots or less after midnight.

'I'd sure like to be in Ensenada by then,' Cartee said. 'I'm thinking by 10 o'clock [Friday] night we should be somewhere between Point Loma and the Coronado Islands. I'm guessing we'll get absolute dead calm from midnight to 3 in the morning, but if we can get down below the Coronados by midnight that would be really good.'

It looked like a year to sail inside the Coronados, not outside. 'It's always a tough call, but what I've always tried to do is stick to that rhumb [direct] line,' Cartee said. 'But looking at what we're seeing right now is that it's probably going to be more inshore to get that land breeze coming off the shoreline.

'There's no reason not to get in there within a mile or so of shore. There are some land masses farther south that we'll avoid because the wind will lift up, but in the places where there's a gradual rise from the beach we'll be fairly close.'

Finally, there is the last 25-mile challenge into Todos Santos Bay, which is 'always sort of a crapshoot,' Cartee said. 'Especially in the morning there are tiny little puffs of air that come down and you can either catch one or not . a quarter-mile away it can go right by you. My guess is we'll probably play the middle of the bay. We'll watch the clouds real close . and the water and the current.'

For many participants, winning is wonderful, but another incentive is a weekend in the seaside resort town with family and friends climaxed by the boisterous awards ceremony in the grassy courtyard of the Bahia Hotel on Sunday afternoon.

NOSA Commodore Doug Jones, who has sailed several races himself, said, 'I was blessed to walk up on that stage and receive a winner's trophy. Oh, what a feeling! That is why this year's theme is The Thrill of Victory.

'I would like everyone to know how hard the Mexican officials work and plan so that everything possible is done for a fun and safe race. The work and coordination with U.S. Customs and Immigration with the governments of Mexico and the U.S. helps makes the official paperwork as carefree as the law allows. Support from the cities of Newport Beach and Ensenada makes this race possible.

'Many thanks must be given to both the racers and the NOSA volunteers who keep this great event going by extending a hand of friendship across the border.'

www.nosa.org