Lack of Wind Keeps Cheetah at Bay in Cabo San Lucas Race

Cheetah’s sprint to the finish in the 13th biennial race from Long Beach to Cabo San Lucas turned to a crawl Wednesday night when the wind died near the tip of Baja California.

The Peterson 66 ultralight, co-skippered by Dick Pennington and Phil Murray of the Long Beach Yacht Club, held a lead of about 25 miles over second-place Grand Illusion, a Santa Cruz 70 skippered by Ed McDowell of the King Harbor Yacht Club.

Cheetah, which has led the race since last Saturday’s start, radioed an estimate that she was two hours from the finish at 8:30 Wednesday night--still in position to claim first-to-finish honors as well as victory in both of her handicap classes.

Mitchell Rouse’s Taxi Dancer from Long Beach Yacht Club had the previous day’s longest run with 232.3 miles as the wind freshened to 15 knots. Cheetah logged 214.3.