SAILING : Conner Is First in Record Time Despite Having to Restart Race

Dennis Conner, sailing the 60-foot catamaran Stars & Stripes, recovered from a glitch at the start to break his own record in the 47th 125-mile Newport-Ensenada International Yacht Race.

Conner finished in 8 hours 29 minutes--38 minutes under the record--despite losing 8 minutes 15 seconds Friday when he used the wrong starting line and had to restart. As the winds built from 6 to 12 knots, he soon overtook the rest of the fleet and even arrived half an hour ahead of the engine-powered committee boats.

Stars & Stripes is the soft-sail sister boat of the hard-sail catamaran built for the 1988 America’s Cup defense. It sailed much of the race at 20 knots. However, its speed potential is rated so high that it still might not claim the trophy for the Ocean Racing Catamaran class, which is based on corrected handicap time. Stars & Stripes’ handicap is minus 199, meaning it must spot its rivals upward of four minutes per mile.

Mike Campbell’s Andrews 70 Victoria was the first monohull to finish for the second consecutive year, crossing the line after 2 a.m. Saturday in 14 hours 12 minutes. More than 150 of the 400 entries had finished by 2 p.m. Saturday.

Lanee Butler, the 23-year-old Aliso Viejo woman who joined the race unofficially on a sailboard to promote her Olympic campaign, arrived in Ensenada exhausted at 6:15 p.m. Saturday night after spending 29 1/2 hours under sail.