Newport to Ensenada Race - A Wimpy Start

NEWPORT BEACH, California - The brisk breeze anticipated didn't make the start of the Newport Ocean Sailing Association’s 61st race to Ensenada today, and neither did the famous eBay boat.

Instead, as nearly 400 boats started the 125 nautical miles in only 6 knots of winds dropping to 4, John Haupt and his crew aboard Fantasma de Navidad, the 36-foot Ferro-cement schooner he bought for $780, waited to join the race unofficially as it passed by San Diego later in the day. A leak in the engine compartment and delays in bringing the boat north through Customs from Haupt's Mexican home left them too short of time the reach the start line.

"We won't get in anybody's way," Haupt said, "but we wanted to sail along with them and enjoy the time in Ensenada. We'll have our sombreros and other stuff, just like we planned."

Dennis Conner, sailing his Farr 60, Stars & Stripes, led the largest and fastest Maxi boats off the line first. With a southwesterly breeze blowing straight down the line, he read the conditions well and started at the committee boat (right) end of the line, while some of his rivals---notably Doug Baker's record-seeking Magnitude 80 and Jim Madden's dark blue Stark Raving Mad III---crossed at the opposite end near shore.

With the beam-reaching wind angle, most were flying spinnakers before they were out of sight, unlike last year's slow race when Mag 80 and SRM III never raised a chute at all.

Reynolds' Nelson/Marek 55, Bolt, was hoisting a spinnaker as it crossed the line in a later start and quickly moved away from the rest of its fleet.

There was hope that the wind would improve. Haupt, phoning from off Point Loma, said, "Tell those guys it will probably get better. It's blowing 10 to 15 knots down here with gusts to 25."

That didn't matter much to some of the competitors in the Cruising classes, like Nelson Willis on his Catalina 42 II named Peter Cooper. More serious racers spent the week trying to plot the weather conditions on various Internet programs, but Willis said, "I tried to and couldn't log in. It's OK. It's gonna be what it's gonna be. I have a life."

He also has a famous cousin---and, no, it isn't Willie Nelson but John McCain, the Republican nominee for President.

"Our mothers are twin sisters," Willis said.

As for his boat's name, the namesake has been dead a hundred years. Peter Cooper was a philanthropist who founded the Cooper School in New York for gifted students, offering free scholarships to those accepted, including Willis' son, saving Willis $40,000 in tuition.

"He—Peter Cooper---bought my boat," Willis said, so the least he could do was name his boat after him.

The Newport to Ensenada race records are held by Roy E. Disney’s Pyewacket for monohulls (10 hours 44 minutes 54 seconds in 2003) and by the late Steve Fossett's for multihulls (6 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds in 1998), the only boat ever to finish before sundown.

All boats in the Newport to Ensenada race must finish before the deadline at 11 a.m. Sunday to be officially scored as finishing.

Photo: Dennis Conner (l.) nailing the Maxi start in the Newport to Ensenada Race by YachtPals own Rich Roberts, thanks Rich!

Video: Last Years Ensenada Race