They’ve Seen Sea of Changes : Old-timers remember when it was a lazy sail to Mexico. Now it attracts hundreds of entrants--and serious ones at that.

Bud Desenberg remembers when the wind blew 35 knots from the south, turning a simple downwind yacht race into an endurance contest in 1961. “There were two collisions at the starting line and 163 boats dropped out,” he says.

Ed Carpenter remembers when the race committee experimented with something new and used a computer to tally results in 1971.

And Michael Kane remembers when one of the largest fleets ever--nearly 600 boats--crossed the starting line in 1987.

During different decades, all three men have been responsible for running the massive Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race, one of Orange County’s best-known--and biggest--boating events.

This year that responsibility falls on the shoulders of Rod Woods, who expects about 500 boats to cross the starting line at noon Friday in the waters just off Newport Beach.

The race has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1948 when 97 boats sailed across the starting line and headed 125 miles south to the then-sleepy little Mexican fishing village. Since then, both the town and the race have grown considerably. The race has become one of the world’s largest international sailing competitions, attracting hundreds of boats each year.

Things have changed, says Bud Desenberg, who wrote a history of the race 15 years ago. “It was more simple then,” he says, citing as an example the tremendous changes in the city of Ensenada. “It is no longer a little village, but an urban center.”

To find out how much the race has changed, just ask one of the former presidents of the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn., sponsor of the race.

Desenberg, Carpenter and Kane are among 20 men, all former presidents, who will be honored tonight at a reception at the Newport Nautical Heritage Museum. In all, NOSA has had 34 presidents--some served more than one term. And of those 34, only 20 are still living.

Desenberg, 79, served two terms as president in 1961 and ’62. But, as a sailor, he says his most memorable year was 1963, when 86 boats tried to squeeze through a finish line made to accommodate 15.

“Within 160 seconds, 83 contestants were clocked in,” he says, still in awe. “On the committee boat, they grabbed a tape recorder and just recorded them as best they could. There were lots of accidents because the boats were so close together.”

Ed Carpenter, also 79, was president in 1970 and ’71. Under his leadership, the race committee turned to what was then a relatively new way to compute results. “We experimented with computer calculations,” he says. “That was very early on. They had tried it on the East Coast with no success, but it worked fine (here).”

Another big change occurred during Michael Kane’s term as president in 1987. That was the year the race began to recruit commercial sponsors so that entry fees for sailors could be kept down. “Without a doubt, sponsorship has totally changed the race,” he says. “Before that it was run strictly from entry fees.”

But Kane wanted to keep the fees down and the only way to do that, he believed, was to sign up corporate sponsors. “Sponsorships allowed us to add more activities, while lowering the cost to racers.”

Kane and others believed that if entry fees--which in 1987 were about $75 or $80--kept rising, boaters would stop participating in the race and its popularity would fade. Fees now run $70 and have remained fairly consistent thanks to such sponsors as Independence One Bank of California, Coca-Cola, Bohemia Beer and others.

Rod Woods, who has sailed in the race for 20 years, says that he believes the biggest change has been in the image of the race itself. “Before, it was the Tequila Derby,” he says. “People didn’t take it as seriously. It used to be, ‘Let’s throw it together and have a big party.’ Those days are pretty much over. Now, it is taking on a more serious tone.”

To prove his point, Woods says that America’s Cup skipper Dennis Conner has entered the race again this year. “We’re talking big boats of international reputation,” Woods says.

But one thing about the race has not changed: the start. With hundreds of sailboats jockeying for position, it’s still is a breathtaking sight, drawing spectators on land and at sea.

The best place to watch the start is from the bluff above Corona State Park in Corona del Mar, according to Woods’ wife, Jiffy, who is hospitality chairwoman. Don’t go to the beach itself because at water level the jetty blocks your view, says Jiffy, who has watched every start since 1977.

Another way to view the race is from the sea, and for $25 you can watch from the NOSA-authorized spectator boat, the Newport Clipper. The 150-passenger vessel will leave the dock at 10 a.m., returning about 2:30 p.m. For information, call (714) 722-9200.

Jiffy Woods, who is responsible for taking the Mexican dignitaries out to see the start, says: “At sea you really feel like you are part of the excitement. There is something about being on the water with all these hundreds of boats. It is quite startling but beautiful.”

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A true Starr. Caroline Starr won’t be sailing in the Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race Friday. In fact, Starr doesn’t care much for boating. “I get deathly seasick,” she says. Even though Starr has never sailed a single race, she has a trophy named in her honor. That’s because for 20 years, she has served as executive secretary for the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn., sponsor of the event.

But this year, at age 86, Starr is retiring. “I thought maybe I’d rather leave while I’m still on my feet,” she jokes.

Tonight Starr will be honored along with past presidents of the sailing association at a reception at the Newport Nautical Heritage Museum.

She will probably be the only non-boater at the event.

“She really is NOSA,” says Rod Woods, current president of the association. “She really runs the place. The rest of us go down there and say, ‘What should we do now?’ ”

Starr’s duties include sorting through hundreds of entries each year, fielding dozens of phone calls and doing the bookkeeping for the organization. She has also relayed messages to sailors at sea about babies being born and loved ones dying.

Starr has come a long way for a woman who admits that when she moved from Wyoming to California in 1952 she “didn’t know a boat from a washtub.”

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Sailing seminars. Olympics sailor J.J. Isler, women’s bronze medalist, will be among the instructors for a series of women’s racing seminars May 13 through May 16 in Long Beach.

Topics to be covered include everything from boat handling to weather conditions. Enrollment is limited and registration information is available by calling Stephen Grillon at (310) 446-9400.