What it takes to win

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT HARBOR -- Many will shoot for 24 hours. Some might take more

than twice as long and a few are likely to get there in less than a day.

But one common goal unites the 430-plus skippers that will line up to

race in the 54th annual Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race

today. And that’s to get to the finish as soon as they can.

With 27 different racing categories this year, including a so-called

“cruising class” that lets skippers use their motors for up to 12 hours

during the race, it’s clear that not everyone’s competing on the same

level. By handing out 144 trophies during the festivities in Ensenada,

the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn., which organizes the race, clearly

recognizes that fact.

After all, there are boats up to 100 feet long and others that stretch

for just 25 feet. And size does matter, according to some.

“The biggest boats get there the quickest,” said Mike Wathen, who used

to compete with his own boats years ago and will race as a crew member on

It’s OK this year.

That’s pretty much because they’ve got a longer water line, said

Wathen. The longer the boat is, the faster it can go through the water.

With the right winds, that’s led to incredible records. In 1998, Steve

Fosset’s Stars and Stripes made it to Ensenada in six hours, 46 minutes

and 40 seconds and Roy Disney set the monohull record with his Pyewacket

at 11 hours and 54 minutes.

The way wind forecasts looked Thursday, such times were unlikely to be

repeated this year.

“Right now it’s not looking too good,” Wathen said. “It doesn’t look

too promising to be a fast one. If we had had it last weekend, it would

have been terrific, with winds blowing at 25 knots.”

But while winds or their absence still remain the single most

important factor for the speed of the race, experience, hard work and

state-of-the-art equipment can go a long way as well.

Skippers have to decide whether to head out to the ocean or sail along

the coast, for example. That also involves some luck in reading the winds

correctly and predicting which direction they’ll blow.

“If you guess right, you do OK,” Wathen said. “If you don’t, you’re

dead. [The other boats] will be ahead by such a margin that you can’t

catch up to them.”

So what about any favorites? Craig Reynolds, who will skipper his

40-foot Bolt, said Dennis Conner, with Stars and Stripes, and Allan

Andrews, with Doubletime, are forces to be reckoned with.

“They sail real hard all night,” he said, adding that this is the real

key to winning the race as far as he’s concerned.

“A lot of people don’t sail the boat hard between midnight and four or

five in the morning,” Reynolds said. “It’s hard to sail a boat in the

pitch dark.”

But that’s what’s needed to excel.

“The old adage of following the beer cans to Ensenada” just doesn’t

hold up any more, Reynolds said. “People who work real hard and those who

have good equipment, will win.”

FYI

The race send-off is scheduled to start at noon today. The Newport

Ocean Sailing Assn. will have a narrator explaining the event at Lookout

Point on the bluffs above Corona del Mar State Beach beginning at 11:30

a.m.

FUN FACT

If skippers have had problems fining the finishing line in Ensenada in

the past, they don’t have to worry about it this year. Race organizers

will light up the sky with a laser beacon to make sure that everyone gets

in safely.