Wind speeds Ensenada race to finish line

Deirdre Newman

A local racer snagged second place in his class in the Tommy Bahama

Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race this weekend.

Peter Bretschger, his wife, Kari, and their crew navigated Karisma

to its best showing in four years. The time it took them to finish,

including their handicap, was 23 hours and 3 1/2 minutes, Peter

Bretschger said.

The final, complete list of winners was unavailable Monday but

would be put together today, race officials said.

The wind conditions were conducive to sailing at high speeds for

most of the race, Peter Bretschger said.

“We had phenomenal wind at the start of the race and it took us

off at an extremely fast pace,” he said. “We just sailed into a hole

off of the Coronado Islands. And it took us about two hours to get

through it and after that, the sailing was pretty good.”

Peter Bretschger, 49, named Karisma after Kari, although his

mother-in-law sees the name as “Kari’s Ma” in her honor, he joked.

The first two years in the race, Karisma came in fourth. Last year,

it came in 10th, he said.

This time, second place tasted sweet, especially based on the

competition, he said.

“We’re just elated we took second because the fellow who beat us

is the one who designed and built our boat,” he said.

And the Irvine couple only got beat by 1 1/2 minutes, he said. He

and his crew opted to run their engine for about two hours to get

through the hole off the Coronado Islands, as they are allowed to do

in their class, as long as they don’t mind getting penalized for it.

For this race, Peter Bretschger was joined by his brother and one

of his nephews, Kari, their son Peter Jr., and three other crew

members. The magical experience of sailing at night remains one of

the most cherished experiences of the race, Peter Bretschger said.

“In cruising class, we leave toward the end of the fleet,” he

said. “When you’re sailing along, by 6 p.m. that evening, you’re

surrounded by about 200 boats. You know there’s an armada of boats

out there.”

Mary and Richard Compton’s yacht was the first Monohull to cross

the finish line. The Santa Barbara couple and their 15-member crew

also earned two other trophies based on the type and class of their

boat.

“It was great,” said Richard Compton, 63. “We loved it.”

He has raced in 36 Newport to Ensenada races. His wife has joined

him on about 10 of those, he said. For this one, they sailed their

new boat, Alchemy, named after Richard’s profession as a chemist.

Richard Compton called this year’s run a “typical” race and said

he finished in about 18 hours, including their handicap.

The exciting part was beating another new boat, he added.

“We went the right places and stayed in front of them,” he said.

“They were the only boat rated faster than we were.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.