Magnitude Beats Pyewacket to Ensenada

End runs by Magnitude and Cantata paid off with victories over boats that took more direct routes to Baja California in the 53rd Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race.

Magnitude, an Andrews 70 turbo sled owned by Doug Baker of Long Beach, was first among 441 entries to finish Saturday. Coming in second, four minutes back, was Roy Disney’s Pyewacket, the record holder.

Magnitude’s elapsed time was 15 hours 57 minutes 50 seconds, well off Pyewacket’s wind-blown record of 11:54:00 in 1998.

Cantata, an Andrews 53 owned by Ron Kuntz, a service station operator from Oceanside, finished 32 minutes later but was the overall winner on corrected handicap time--meaning, theoretically, that Kuntz’s crew sailed their smaller boat better and smarter than anybody else, regardless of speed potential.

That entailed sailing more than the straight-line 125 nautical miles to find stronger winds offshore. Both boats were designed by Alan Andrews of Long Beach.

“I have no idea what happened,” a joyous Kuntz said, joking.

“There was a [pre-race] gale warning out to San Nicolas Island,” he said. “We didn’t want a gale, but it was one of those times when we had a game plan and stuck to it. To me, it looked like a sucker play to go down the beach.”

Cantata thrived in winds of 20-22 knots, while boats closer to shore--especially those that took the rhumb (direct) line inside the Coronado Islands past the border--suffered in a heavy swell with winds as light as three knots.

Arriving at Todos Santos Bay early Saturday morning, Kuntz said, “It was starting to get light and you see all these [larger] boats--Magnitude, Pyewacket, Merlin, Taxi Dancer--and you think, ‘Man, this can’t be right.’ It seemed like a dream.”

Cantata’s handicap time computed to 16:54:46.

Baker didn’t take Magnitude as far out as Cantata but had steady 10-knot breezes that kept him close behind Pyewacket.

“They’re faster,” Baker said. “It was dark and we couldn’t see them most of the time, and when we got into the bay [the wind] got shifty. We caught a shift that they didn’t.”

It was the first time Magnitude had beaten Pyewacket, although both broke the latter’s record in the Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii last year.

“They’re the best,” Baker said. “When you beat them, you’ve beaten somebody.”

Friday’s start was delayed for an hour and 20 minutes while the race committee struggled to stabilize an inflatable marker buoy that was drifting in an eight-foot swell.

Following Magnitude and Pyewacket across the line were, in order, Bob Saielli’s Mongoose, San Diego; Don Hughes’ Taxi Dancer, Santa Barbara; James McDowell’s Grand Illusion, Lahaina; and Fred Preiss’ Christine, Marina del Rey. Boats were expected to be finishing through this morning.