Newport to Ensenada start features speedsters, cruisers

Marty Mitchell had fun during last year’s Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race.

How much fun? Well, he says he can’t remember how Amante, the boat he was on, did in the race.

Amante, captained by the Richley family of Newport Beach, has been “competing” in the race to Mexico since the 1980s. Amante has won several trophies and has been known to set sail with “Mr. Irrelevant,” the last pick in the NFL draft, during Irrelevant Week.

This year, Amante is in the shop, Mitchell said, and was not entered in the 69th annual Newport to Ensenada race. Mitchell had to find something else to do Friday morning as the race began.

Mitchell, an amateur drone operator, had his drone as people packed the end of the Balboa Pier to view the 212 boats, cruising and competitive, as they set sail in the 125-nautical-mile event.

“I’ve been in the sailing community for a long time and I always enjoy the Newport to Ensenada race,” Mitchell said. “It brings the whole sailing community together in one big race.”

Mitchell was excited to catch a different perspective of the race’s start. His drone hovered high above the action and picturesque scenery, but not too high — he had to maneuver under 400 feet.

The drone caught different angles of the boats, including the trimarans that grabbed the majority of the attention: Orion (Tom Siebel), Mighty Merloe (H.C. Enloe) and Tritum (John Sangmeister). They’ll likely reach 40 knots on their journey and have a chance to break race speed records, N2E organizers said.

The official elapsed-time record is 6 hours, 46 minutes, 40 seconds, set by Steve Fossett on Stars and Stripes in 1998. There’s also the 2009 monohull record of 10:37.50 set by Doug Baker’s Magnitude.

Jerry Moulton, the race’s vice commodore who announced the start from the roof of Ruby’s Diner, said Orion has a good shot to break the elapsed-time record.

“I talked to [tactician] Charlie Ogletree with Orion on Wednesday and he was fairly confident,” Moulton said. “But on Thursday, not so confident. He said there might be some holes along the way, and if they get caught in those they won’t. … All these records can be broken. And that’s great because that keeps them coming back. They want to break it again and again.”

The race also features famed America’s Cup sailor Dennis Connor aboard Splendor.

Moulton has been involved with Newport to Ensenada since 1974. He has sailed in it at least 10 times, including winning the President of the United States Trophy for Best Corrected Time overall in the PHRF class. That was aboard Tigress.

“That was fun,” Moulton said. “We decided we couldn’t do any better than that, so we drive down now to have fun.”

Moulton saw N2E at its height, when there were more than 500 boats in the race, including when he was commodore in 1991. More recently, the numbers have dwindled because of crime and violence in Mexico and the recession of a few years ago, Moulton said.

“That went away, though it takes a long time to defeat a perception,” he said. “We’re coming out of it. The numbers are picking up. I don’t think we’ll ever have 500 boats again because I don’t think there are 500 boats around here. It’s just a lot of fun. The fun is bringing it back.”

Betty Farrell, 93, who has lived on Newport’s Lido Isle since 1961, went to the Balboa Pier on Friday to view the start with her daughter, Susan Bankhead, and son-in-law, Bruce Bankhead.

“The weather is gorgeous,” Farrell said as she watched the boats sail by. “It’s lovely out here. It’s just a beautiful day. … I wish them all very well.”