Ensenada Race: Just for the Fun of It

The nice thing about sailing is that even when more than 500 boats go to the starting line, with luck and a fat handicap anybody can win.

Theoretically.

Realistically, much of the fleet in the 40th Newport-to-Ensenada race starting at noon today will have a magnificent view of the event as it disappears over the horizon.

There are 596 entries in the world’s largest international sailboat race, although on past performance about 10% will be no-shows. They break down into 16 classes and three mind sets: (1) win; (2) try to win and have a good time; (3) have a good time.

This year there was not only a prerace send-off party at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club Thursday night, but a prerace luncheon at the Balboa Yacht Club Thursday.

At the other end, they’re pitching an Ensenada party revival of 25 years ago . . . beach barbecue Sunday before trophies, food and folk dancers.

The start was moved up from Saturday to Friday this year, organizers said, to allow competitors to return to work on time Monday morning. But it also gives them all day Sunday to party, which might reduce their chances of returning to work on time Monday.

Race chairman Lorin Weiss, who has been involved in 35 of the 40 events as racer, organizer or both, said: “We hope that the Ensenada race is fun and, certainly, there are a number of competitors just going for the fun.

“On the other hand, when boats like Merlin, Cheetah, Christine, Blondie and Ragtime are running, you know they aren’t going for fun.”

Those are the elite of the fleet, the leaders of the ultralight group contending for first-to-finish among the multihulls and, in this odd-numbered year, using the Ensenada to tune up for the Transpac race to Honolulu in July. Downwind, they’ll outrun anything except the big catamarans.

Their only concern may be that the Ensenada isn’t always a downwind race.

“Every six or seven years there’s a time during the race when you get strong southerlies,” Weiss said, meaning the ultralights would be struggling into heavy seas.

While the leaders are seriously considering such possibilities, others will be resting up for the fiesta. Nobody has more fun than the Ancient Mariner fleet of old wooden boats with limited go-fast gear, and now they’ll have a chance to arrive before the party even starts.

Last year, when the wind died, only 381 of the 550 entries were able to finish under sail--a record number of dropouts--but the others just turned on their auxiliary engines and motored into Mexico.

The Prospectors, a 54-footer chartered by John Roveda of the St. Francis Yacht Club, is back, presumably equipped as before with tuxedos for the crew, a string quartet at the starting line and a professional chef whipping up gourmet delights below.

There have been a few broken bones and wrenched backs but no loss of life, and all boats have been accounted for within, oh, a couple of weeks after the race. Thirteen safety vessels escort the fleet from one end to the other.

The most serious incident last year was an encounter with a whale by Balboa’s Jack Mallinckrodt, sailing a Newport 41. The whale, apparently objecting to the intrusion of his migratory route, rammed the boat three times, destroying the rudder.

For Mallinckrodt, it ruined the race but not the fun.

The United States Yacht Racing Union recently inaugurated two annual awards, and the first recipients will be tough acts to follow.

One, for sportsmanship, was given to Buddy Melges, skipper for the Heart of America America’s Cup effort.

The other, for public service, went to ESPN for its America’s Cup coverage.

Accessible and amiable, Melges was among the most popular personalities in Fremantle, but the award--officially, the Van Alan Clark Jr. Trophy--goes beyond his America’s Cup participation. In nominating Melges, both his hometown Lake Geneva (Wis.) Yacht Club and the Chicago Yacht Club cited his upbeat image and the assistance and encouragement he has given to fellow sailors, including competitors, over many years.

Melges, 56, lives on the shore of Lake Geneva. One winter day at 15, he noticed a neighbor’s ice boat was missing and, realizing that the other end of the lake was open water, went to check. The neighbor had run off the ice into the water, and Melges pulled him out.

Bill Lynn, racing union president, said: “That may not win a sportsmanship award, but it says a lot about Buddy.”

Melges went on to win world championships in three classes and the Olympic Soling gold medal in 1972. He has been known to help rivals tune their boats before racing against them and usually manages to laugh off his own misfortunes, of which he had a few in Fremantle.

Melges takes his sailing seriously, but he always seems to enjoy it. Come to think of it, he has never sailed in the Ensenada, but it’s his kind of event.

After Heart of America was eliminated, Melges worked as a TV commentator for Perth’s Channel 7 for the rest of the races.

He was the only thing missing from ESPN’s coverage, which took its live racing picture feeds from Perth’s Channel 9, with its own voice-over commentary and feature fillers.

ESPN bid $650,000 for the U.S. rights--a risk back in 1984 but a bargain by ’87 when the coverage reached 2.4 million homes at its peak.

The award noted that sailing “was seen as an accessible and exciting spectator sport for the first time.”

Could anyone have done it better? Nobody ever tried.

Sailing Notes Peter de Savary, who headed Britain’s America’s Cup program in 1983 but was not involved in the ’87 White Horse Challenge, is director of a new Blue Arrow Challenge for 1990-91. Blue Arrow PLC is an international employment services group. Apparently, it hasn’t hired a skipper. . . . Andy Kostanecki, chairman of the United States Yacht Racing Union’s Olympic Yachting Committee, says an “economic crisis has necessitated some hard priorities.” Funding for international travel to events will be concentrated on “classes in which we have medal potential,” Kostanecki said, citing Finn, 470 men and women, Tornado and Flying Dutchman. Soling and Star, where the United States is already strong, will come next, and boardsailing, “where the U.S. is off the international pace,” will get anything left over. . . . The committee also ruled that any sailor failing a U.S. Olympic Committee drug test will be banned from the team for six months.