Is It a Party or a Competition? Those Who’ve Seen Newport-Ensenada Run Evolve in 50 Years Might Say It’s Both

Something’s wrong here.

Most of the 50 or so people crowded into this room at the Balboa Yacht Club seem genuinely interested in all this nautical nonsense about equipment, navigation, safety, weather, starting-line tactics, race strategy and sail selection.

Everybody knows preparation is an important part of the Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race, which begins at noon Friday, and, clearly, hard decisions must be made. But what’s all this stuff about seamanship? Planning for this race means trying to decide which Chardonnay to serve with the Belgian endive salad, right?

Equipment? Some people like to bring a backup blender. Just don’t forget the corkscrew.

Navigation? Any Ensenada taxi driver can take you to Hussong’s. While at sea, remember to keep heading south and avoid the fate of John Peters, who mistakenly steered his 32-foot sloop into Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island in 1965.

Safety? Take off your shoes. A guy almost drowned when he fell overboard one year with all his clothes on. Asked why he hadn’t at least kicked off his shoes, the soggy sailor replied: “New Topsiders.”

Weather? Well, if it isn’t very windy, you’ll need two more cases of beer.

It never used to matter what the breeze was like, but is there a change in the weather?

“The numbers [of competitors] may have gone down a little in the past few years, but it seems like there are a lot more people who take the racing seriously,” said Huntington Beach’s Bill Murray, who has skippered or been a crew member in 20 Newport-to-Ensenada events.

“There have always been serious racers, but it was still a different kind of race. I was crewing in ‘94, and we were the fifth boat in the harbor. But we had pancakes with Jack Daniels over them instead of syrup for breakfast.”

Many of these new-age Newport-to-Ensenada sailors seem more interested in bobbing on the high seas than weaving high and dry through Papas & Beer, the thrill of the race having surpassed the kicks of wild shore leave.

Will the 50th anniversary of the race once known as the Tequila Derby mark the beginning of a new era of seamanship and sobriety?

Not if sailors like Ron Clark of Diamond Bar and his crew can help it.

“This is the 50th anniversary of a classic event,” Clark said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And we’re there for the party.”

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Fifty years ago, the founding members of the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn. met to discuss plans of reviving pre-World War II offshore cruising races. They decided to host a race from Newport to Ensenada, named it the Governor’s Cup and found 117 crews willing to part with the $22.50 entry fee.

“The emphasis was on fellowship rather than cutthroat competition,” association historian Doug Wall said.

Over the years, Ensenada grew from a tiny fishing village to a tourism bonanza where Southern Californians flock. Newport Beach matured from a sleepy coastal town to a suburban oasis crushed against the ocean by urban pressures. And the race, it seems, has progressed from the Spanish Armada of cocktail cruises to simply the world’s largest international yacht competition.

And this is progress?

Dennis Conner may have set the first-to-finish record--8 hours, 29 minutes--with the catamaran Stars & Stripes in 1994, but the most famous skippers in Newport-to-Ensenada lore are guys like James Arness, Buddy Ebsen and Humphrey Bogart, who almost ran aground in the fog in 1951 while following the lights of a Mexican produce truck he had mistaken for a committee-boat beacon.

And Walter Cronkite, who was at the helm of a boat with a Newport Beach crew in 1989 when he was asked about his replacement, Dan Rather. “He’s OK,” the skipper said, “but he’s no Walter Cronkite.”

Anyway, sailing too fast can take all the fun out of it. Just ask the crew of the Seabird, one of the first experimental ultralight multi-hull boats to compete.

“We did 93 miles in three hours,” owner Bob Hanel said of the 1971 race. “John Conser was at the helm and we were going so fast, he couldn’t let go long enough to be relieved. It was so hairy, we had to stay put or crash.”

Today’s high-tech is always tomorrow’s old news. Yesterday’s hi-jinks only get better with age. Over the years, competitors have employed all sorts of strategies to distract and confuse their opponents, but they aren’t the kinds of tactics you’ll see in America’s Cup.

Crews have played tapes of waves crashing to panic nearby boats. Others have pasted progressive layers of toilet tissue over their stern lights at night to give the impression they are pulling away from the boats behind them. One crew used a hibachi and a towel to send smoke signals that made another crew believe they were giving up and starting their engine.

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In the old days, you weren’t worried about your satellite-guided navigation system or your on-board microwave. All you had to do was make sure you had enough ice to keep the beer cold.

And when you finally made it to the anchorage in Todos Santos Bay, waiting onshore were impromptu bullfights, beach campfires with whole sides of beef roasting on spits, and dancing in the streets with the townspeople until dawn.

In 1949, a six-course dinner at the Casa del Sol, including lobster cocktail and a choice of lobster or filet mignon as the entree, cost $2. And tequila was 50 cents a quart.

In the early years, the townspeople of Ensenada were an integral part of the party equation at the race’s conclusion. While Ensenada still embraces the race, it’s the owners of the bars, restaurants, shops and hotels who profit . . . and they don’t have any time for dancing in the streets.

After the first race in April 1948, the event was moved to coincide with Cinco de Mayo celebrations, but Ensenada on May 5 during the ‘60s was a little too uninhibited for even this party flotilla. The race was moved to an earlier weekend.

Improvements in Ensenada over the last decade or so have also played a part in giving the race a more respectable image, according to Bill McNeely, a contributing editor for the sailing magazine Santana.

“The new harbor, the facilities in town, the generally improved hospitality toward the whole program has just gotten better and better,” he said. “It’s a lot more conducive to a family atmosphere.”

Dave Kenyon of Alta Loma has competed in the race twice. His 11-year-old son, Matt, will be making his first 125-mile trek from Newport to Ensenada. They’ll be maneuvering around the starting line with about 550 other boats Friday on a 24-footer--the minimum-length boat allowed--that Dave built in his backyard.

They don’t exactly have their sights set on flying past Stars & Stripes, but they don’t want to finish last in their class, either. They’re gearing up for fast and then fun, the best of both worlds.

“You want to get there as quickly as you can and do as well as you can against the other boats like yours,” the elder Kenyon said. “So you take it seriously, until you get there.

“There’s plenty of time to party after the race.”

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Newport-to-Ensenada Race

The 50th anniversary of the event, considered the world’s largest international yachting race, will feature more than 10,000 participants in 550 yachts in 17 classes. Among the celebrities are honorary skipper Roy Disney aboard Pyewacket II and Dennis Conner aboard Stars & Stripes, which he skippered to the course record of 8 hours, 29 minutes in 1994.

* When: Race begins at noon Friday; officially ends at sunset Sunday.

* Where: Begins in breakwater off Newport Harbor, ends 125 miles south in Todos Santos Bay, Ensenada.

* Viewing: If you can see the ocean from a boat, the Newport Harbor jetty or the bluffs of Corona del Mar, you can see the race. Parking could be a problem, so arrive early. Boating activity begins at 10 a.m.