The Party--and Race--to Begin, With 1 Yacht in a Class by Itself : Sailing: Some of the 550 Newport Beach-to-Ensenada participants look at the race as fiesta on the water, but others will wait until after the competition to celebrate.

On board the Scoris, a 24-foot sloop moored near the Balboa Yacht Club, preparations were nearly complete early Thursday afternoon.

“Flares?” barked the inspector. “Fire extinguisher? First-aid kit?”

“Yes, yes and yes,” answered Gerardo de la Mora Duenas patiently, his fingers twitching slightly as he waited to unfurl the Scoris’ official battle flag.

“OK,” replied the inspector, mollified. “Great. Good luck.”

The official left--and up went the red cloth flag with the bold white letters. “Hussongs,” it read. De la Mora grinned at this invocation of the famous Mexican cantina.

The 37-year-old dermatologist from Ensenada and the rest of the crew on the Scoris make up one of 550 entrants in today’s 44th annual Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race. One part fierce competition and one part floating fiesta, the event is the largest of its kind in the world, organizers say.

The first wave of the armada is scheduled to sail at noon today, starting just off Balboa Pier, to begin the 125-mile route to the Mexican port.

By Thursday dozens of boats, from small schooners to 70-foot yachts, were already docked in Balboa to get ready for the race. Among them was de la Mora’s sloop, one of the few entrants to boast a crew entirely from Mexico.

“This is my second time,” the Ensenada native said, zipping up his sailor’s jumpsuit and squinting into the afternoon sun. “I was born near the sea. I live for sailing, though I work in medicine.”

Beneath the hull, sandwiches were packed and ready for eating, and life jackets lined the side. But a symbol of the real reason of the weekend race sat on the Scoris’ deck--an inflatable six-foot replica of a Corona beer bottle.

De la Mora grinned again. “We’ll have a bunch of friends waiting for us in Hussongs.”

Entrants in this year’s race hail from throughout California, including Dennis Conner, who will sail the catamaran that won him the America’s Cup in 1989. While some of the entrants, like de la Mora’s crew, come to eat, drink and be merry, others feel the keen edge of competition and forswear the fun until the finish line is crossed.

“We’re not opposed to partying, but we’re not going to drink till we get there,” said Rachael Waters, 52, who came down from Ojai on Tuesday. She and four friends--all women--make up the crew of Group Therapy, a 24-foot boat well-stocked with bottled water, toilet paper, instant soup and Shake-and-Bake chicken.

The alcohol “tires you out and screws up your head,” she said. “You gotta pay attention.”

But the event isn’t dubbed the “tequila derby” for nothing. Pre-race merrymaking, facilitated by a liberal flow of alcohol, has been a tradition. That may not sit well with the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn.--the organizer of the event--but runs back to the race’s inception in 1947.

During the night before the race last year, “we had drunks falling all over our boat, trying to get to their boats,” Waters recalled. “It was hard getting any sleep.”

For a lot of sailors, “this is their big ocean adventure of the year, and they take a week off to do it,” said Peter Huston, sailing director at the Balboa Yacht Club.

Hundreds of spectators also are expected to watch the opening ceremonies and picnic along the bluffs at Corona del Mar as the boats glide by. Good vantage points also can be had along the Balboa Peninsula, on the Balboa Pier or in the hills above Laguna Beach and Dana Point.

Weather forecasts for today painted ideal conditions for the race, with sunny skies and gusty winds of up to 40 m.p.h.

That was good news to Tim Coker of San Diego, competing on his boat, the Windbreaker, for the third year. Last year he and his crew labored with fitful puffs of wind that prolonged the trip into a 40-hour ordeal.

One of his crew members, Bill Ramacciotti, a 25-year-old college student from San Diego who is skipping business classes for today’s race, came prepared with protection against the specter of seasickness--two cloth wristbands that squeeze acupressure points that theoretically help maintain equilibrium.

“I don’t liking taking Dramamine,” he explained, then added mischievously, “It puts me to sleep, and I can’t drink enough beer.”