He Zigged When He Should Have Zagged : After ’88 Problems, Ersin Konuk Will Seek a Better Way in Marina del Rey-San Diego Race

Sailor Ersin Konuk knows what his problem was during last year’s Marina del Rey-to-San Diego yacht race.

“We went out when we should have went in,” he said. “We got stuck at the Catalina Islands.”

Translation: When the race starts, skippers guide their boats toward the Point Fermin buoy. After rounding that, they head toward San Diego. If they cut sharply around the buoy, they’re afraid of the winds pulling them toward Long Beach. So many of them--including Konuk last year--instead round it farther out, toward San Clemente and Catalina islands.

“Last year, we got out there and the winds died down,” said Konuk, from San Diego.

So he spent some time near the islands. He doesn’t remember where his boat, Whiplash, finished. “Somewhere in the middle of the pack” is about as accurate as he says he can be.

But it’s a new year, and when the 22nd running of the race gets under way Saturday at 11 a.m., Konuk and his crew will attempt to correct last year’s mistakes and sail Whiplash toward the finish line at San Diego’s Southwestern Yacht Club ahead of the rest of the pack--in a sense.

Konuk says Whiplash, a Shock 35, won’t be the first sailboat across the line because there are several bigger boats entered. But final times are handicapped, so he figures he can still place first place overall.

Konuk left early last Saturday to prepare for his eighth Marina del Rey race as either skipper or crew member. He steered Whiplash away from its slip in the Southwestern Yacht Club dock at 6:30 a.m. and took it to Marina del Rey. He returned to San Diego this week to work and will return to Marina del Rey tonight in preparation for Saturday’s start.

Mitch Rappoport, chairman of the Southwestern Yacht Club, said he expects about 150 boats to be entered in the race, which he called “the largest off-shore yacht race held in the United States.”

As chairman of Southwestern Yacht Club, Rappoport will not be racing. He will be taking care of details on the San Diego end: manning the finish line, timing, transmitting the times of each boat to the data processing center. The first boats are expected to cross the line about 4 a.m. Sunday.

“We’re being penalized a little bit this year because of the TransPac (Trans Pacific, a race from Los Angeles to Hawaii that is held every other year) and San Francisco-to-Catalina races,” Rappoport said. “They’re both being held during this time, and some of the world class racing yachts are in those races this year.”

Still, the Marina del Rey-to-San Diego race remains popular. It’s strictly for amateurs--professional crews are not allowed, and the yacht’s owner must be at the helm while crossing the start and finish lines.

“It’s a nice race,” said Konuk, 47, who was born in Izmir, Turkey, and has lived in San Diego for 20 years. “Usually, you go up there the night before and there are festivities hosted by Windjammers Yacht Club (co-sponsor with Southwestern Yacht Club). It’s a nice downwind race if the prevailing winds are right. There have been times, though, when the wind was in our nose.

“It’s a fun race all the way down. You tell a lot of sea stories, and you tell a bunch of lies. You watch other boats, and you see who’s doing better and who’s doing worse. It’s a competitive race, but you always try to make a competitive race fun. Otherwise, what’s the fun of sailing?”

Konuk participates in 11 or 12 buoy races a year, and eight or nine ocean races. His crew for this year’s Marina del Rey-to-San Diego race is basically the same as last year’s.

“Once in a while there is a last-minute change,” he said. “Who knows? If one of their kids falls and breaks his front tooth . . . with crews, it’s touch and go. Especially since you don’t pay them.”

Konuk said the key part of the Marina del Rey-to-San Diego race is near La Jolla.

“Usually the people who win are the ones who don’t get stuck coming across La Jolla,” he said. “Usually, boats get there around 11 p.m. or midnight, and the winds usually die down about then. You just have to try to get in.”

To do that, Konuk calls on his 15 years of racing experience.

“There’s a lot of brain work behind sailing,” he said. “It’s not just getting behind a wheel. There’s an awful lot of strategy. The longer you’re at it, the better you get. You’ve got to know the winds, the sea condition . . . everything.”

You’ve also got to know when to come in, and when to go out. Especially Saturday morning, around the Point Fermin buoy.