DNF

Wind disappears in Newport-Ensenada race but not before Pyewacket picks up line honours

The maxZ86 Pyewacket brought joy to its former owner and a Hobie 33 named Mad Max set the bar for efficiency among 461 boats, but accounts of the wind-starved 59th Lexus Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race also addressed some who were scored DNF - did not finish.

The latter included Windquest, Doug DeVos' maxZ86 from Michigan that started well with an eye on the race record; 83-year-old Vic Stern of Long Beach, sailing the venerable catamaran Imi Loa in its 44th race to Baja California, and Dennis Conner, who has turned nostalgically to wooden boats in the wake of his America's Cup days.

Meanwhile, Roy Disney, who donated Pyewacket to the Orange Coast College School of Sailing & Seamanship last year, was in Baltimore over the weekend racing on Paul Cayard's Pirates of the Caribbean in Saturday's Volvo Ocean Race in-port race. Pyewacket, although one of the fastest monohulls in the world when Disney owned it, was an unknown factor for this race after reducing its ballast and sail area and taking on a new crew of mostly non-professionals.

But the two-year-old boat, sailing faster than what little wind there was, led the way in 17 hours 8 minutes 20 seconds - well off the record of 10:44:54 set by its predecessor Pyewacket 77 in 2003 but impressive by the nearly three-hour margin of its victory over Doug Baker's runner-up Magnitude 80.

"Oh, I couldn't be more pleased," Disney said by phone Sunday. "First I'd read the report that Windquest was leading at the start and I thought, 'Gee, maybe we slowed that boat too much.' But I see now it's still very fast."

Below: Max Rosenberg receives first prize for overall corrected handicap time on his Hobie 33, Mad Max .



Windquest, Imi Loa and Conner's chartered schooner, the 78-year-old 82-foot Kelpie, dropped out, as did 106 others who either saw they weren't going to make Sunday's 11 a.m. deadline for finishing or finish in time to get to work Monday morning. Specific reasons weren't immediately known.

Even some who did complete the 125 nautical miles were not official finishers, including cruising class boats that finished under motor power in daylight, a violation of the class rules, and were resignedly scored THWI---the hell with it.

Max Rosenberg's Mad Max, with a rating of 69 seconds per mile, was the overall winner in corrected handicap time. For perspective, Pyewacket's rating was minus-270, meaning it owed Mad Max 339 seconds per mile or almost 12 hours for the race. The Hobie 33 from the King Harbor YC in Redondo Beach sailed in PHRF Class D with a crew of Jack Lemaire, Tim Harris and Paul Wren. They were one of the smallest D boats but the first to finish in just under 25 hours that corrected out to 22:26:41.

"We were shooting for this," said Rosenberg, a corporate jet pilot. "We had some specialty light-air sails that Kevin Miller made just for this race."

Did Rosenberg know something others didn't? "I'm a pilot so I check the weather a lot," he said, smiling. "It's an inherent advantage I have. We put all the ingredients in place. We practiced because you know you're going to change sails a lot in this race."

They flew spinnakers from 90 minutes after the start until the finish - reachers first, then a runner in Todos Santos Bay.

Because of the slow pace of the race - 7 to 8 knots at the Friday start, peaks of perhaps 12 knots and pits as low as zero - most of the visitors in town before Sunday were friends and families who drove here or tourists from two large cruise ships.

But the vibes accelerated Saturday night into Sunday morning in pre-awards activity in the courtyard of the headquarters Bahia Hotel where sailors told their tales. Those included Valkyrie, a Cal 25 that Stan Albrecht of the Shoreline YC in Newport Beach has sailed for 33 years - 16 times in this race, with four class wins, including this one in PHRF-L for the lowest and slowest.

Valkyrie finished at 1:51 a.m. Sunday after 36.5 hours of sailing at an average speed of 3.4 knots and blessed by a fortuitous accident. Bowman Paul Self said, "One of our guys hit the MOB [man overboard] button on the GPS [global positioning system instrument] and sent us eight miles outside the rhumb [direct] line."

"But it turned out to be a good thing," Eric Taylor said, "because it found us some wind." The fourth crew member was Frank Martin, who took credit for the helpful fluke.

Albrecht said, "That enabled us to set a straight course for Salsipuedes [headland]. We set the spinnaker off La Jolla and flew it all the way to the bay here before we made our only jibe." Valkyrie's rating of 222 cut its elapsed time of 36:31:58 to a corrected time of 28:49:28.

Scout Spirit, a 75ft turbosled entered by the Newport Sea Base, was the third monohull to finish behind only Pyewacket and Magnitude 80. David Janes was the skipper with a crew that included nine Sea Scouts, three Scout adults, a few friends and only two pros.

Pyewacket also had few pros among its crew of 26, about 8 or 10 over its usual complement. Brad Avery, the school's director and co-skipper with Keith Kilpatrick, said, "We wanted to rotate a lot of people. We had a really good group of guys" - and three women. The good news is that with the changes we made it's still a very quick boat. It's also the first major trophy for the college, so we're very happy."

After battling early headwinds, Pyewacket hoisted a close-reaching asymmetrical spinnaker before the Coronado Islands at the border and alternated it with a large Code Zero headsail on roller furl and finished with a chute in the last pre-dawn gasps of an onshore breeze. Kilpatrick said, "It could not have gone better. We had a great start and were always going 2 knots faster than the wind."

As for Magnitude 80, Avery said, "We're just glad they were there to give us a great race."

First 10 monohull finishers :

1. Pyewacket (R/P 86), Brady Avery/Keith Kilpatrick, OCC School of Sailing and Seamanship, elapsed time 17 hours 8 minutes 20 seconds.
2. Magnitude 80 (Andrews 80), Doug Baker, Long Beach YC, 20:05:01.
3. Scout Spirit (R/P 75), David Janes, Newport Sea Base YC, 21:26:46.
4. Peligroso (Dencho 70), Mike Campbell/Dale Williams, LBYC, 22:26:33. .
5. Pendragon IV (Davidson 52), John MacLaurin, California YC, 23:23:53.
6. Grand Illusion (SC 70), Ed McDowell, King Harbor YC, 23:12:39.
7. Staghound (R/P 50), Alec Oberschmidt, Southwestern YC, 23:25:53.
8. Medicine Man (Andrews 61), Bob Lane, LBYC, 23:24:56.
9. Taxi Dancer (R/P 68), Paul and Laura Sharp, Newport Harbor YC, 24:51:59.
10. Ragtime (Stewart 65), Chris Welsh, NHYC, 25:22:01.

First ORCA (multihull) finishers):

1. Loe Real (Jeanneau 60), H.L. Enloe, Silver Gate YC, 21:06:24.
2. Afterburner (Tennant 42), Bill Gibbs, Pierpont Bay YC, 23:12:11.
3. Delta Vee (Corsair 31), Michael Leneman, Fairwind YC, 23:21:00.

Below: Co-skipper Keith Kilpatrick receives Pyewacket 's first-to-finish trophy