Lakota Wins; Victoria Really Rules the Waves

In another year plagued by light winds, the results will show that Mike Campbell’s dark blue Victoria was the 13th boat to finish, but sailing purists know who won the 50th Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race on Saturday.

The Andrews 70 “turbo-sled” was the first monohull to sail all the way, trailing only Steve Fossett’s trimaran Lakota and a dozen of the 117 cruising-class sailboats that were permitted to use their engines and pay a penalty in corrected time.

As it was, Lakota averaged only nine knots over the 125 nautical miles--half the speed of its Newport-Ensenada course-record run of 7 1/2 hours (exclusive of the race) last year. Lakota finished just before 2 a.m. in 13 hours 47 minutes 54 seconds, about 70 minutes ahead of Carl Schopp’s MacGregor 65 Seven Seas III from Huntington Harbor Yacht Club, which ran most of the race under power.

Then came 11 more cruisers before Victoria crossed the line in 19:12:05, about seven hours slower than the race’s monohull record but five hours faster than its 1995 time, when wind conditions were even poorer. This time Victoria was an hour ahead of Roy Disney’s Pyewacket.

The golden anniversary race started slowly in a two-knot wind. While all 544 entries struggled, several of the cruisers drew protests for running their engines within 10 minutes of their start and 20 minutes afterward.

“The start was terrible for everybody,” said Mike Elias, a member of Victoria’s crew.

Richard Compton’s Dencho 70 Alchemy from Santa Barbara had the early lead among several boats that passed a temporarily becalmed Lakota off Laguna Beach. But Victoria sailed offshore to find more wind, then went in toward the shore to engage Pyewacket.

Many boats gave up and withdrew before reaching Ensenada. Others were expected to straggle in today.