Locals race to Ensenada

When Tim Martin sets sail with his team in the annual Newport to Ensenada race today he knows he’ll have a tough time winning a trophy. But that’s OK. He’s more about teaching than competing.

Martin is shipping out with a crew of five boys and one girl, all between 14 and 21 years old. All are Boy and Girl Scouts, and most are relatively new to sailing.

For Martin and his crew, the race is less about winning — though he’s confident they may just take home the trophy — and more about grooming future yachtsmen and women.

“You don’t see many teenagers racing the big guys — the little people taking on the big people,” Martin said.

Martin, skipper of the Sea Scouts Ship 90 Renegades, compares his crew’s task to David battling Goliath, the kids vs. the veterans.

In its first years, the 125-nautical-mile race from Newport Harbor to Ensenada, Mexico represented for many just a chance to get away, race spokesman Peter Bretschger said. Ensenada was just a sleepy little harbor that seemed a good place to race to, he said.

The enthusiasm around the annual trek — now in its 60th year — grew, and so did the crowds. The race peaked in 1983 with a record 675 boats entering the race.

“There’s a lot of work done to get ready for this race. The big thing about this race is you get the highs and lows,” Bretschger said. “You’ve got your damn-near professional sailors out here hitting the line thinking, ‘I can win this thing.’

“Others are thinking, ‘Maybe I can win my class.’ And others thinking, ‘Well, I’d like to just get to Ensenada.’”

For the sailors, the start may be the most hectic part. Imagine nearly 400 boats rushing out of the harbor at once.

For the racers, though, the beginning is only one of three hot-spots they have to push through, Commodore Gator Cook said. The race can be won or lost under the moon, he said, when dedicated sailors are as equally attentive as they were in the beginning.

And at the end, when there’s a mad scramble to cross the line first, he said.

Cook has been talking about other people’s Newport to Ensenada racing stories for the last eight years, when he last raced in it.

Next year, he plans on being part of the competition.

“I’m going to try to sneak away and go play,” he said, chuckling.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.