Junior sailors learn the ropes on big fast yacht as it preps for Newport to Ensenada race

A group of junior sailors left their dinghies behind Wednesday to take positions on the deck of a sleek and sophisticated 60-foot trimaran called the Mighty Merloe.

The Merloe, expected to be one of the elite vessels in Friday’s Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race, took about 20 elementary- and middle school-age sailors from the Newport Harbor Yacht Club on tune-up runs around the harbor entrance. They tacked, jibed and manned the helm and grinders, feeling the power of a brisk breeze sailing at 15 knots.

With a beam of 57.7 feet, the Merloe is almost as wide as it is long. It has a maximum draft of 15.7 feet and an upwind sail area of 300 square meters, or 3,229 square feet. This is no Sabot.

But the kids were up for it.

An overalls-clad adult crew member asked the youngsters who was the strongest. The four who thought they fit that description went to work grinding the daggerboard down, keeping the Merloe straight.

Claire Wiley, 13, was one of the grinders, cranking the winches to keep the Merloe gliding along like an elegant sea gull. Her twin sister, Elsa, took a turn in the egg-shaped helmsman’s chair.

“My arms are kinda short, so it was a little bit hard,” said Claire, who said she had fun despite punching herself in the chest keeping up with the winches.

She and Elsa have been sailing since they were 4. They agreed that being out on the ocean with friends is the best part of the sport.

“It’s really pretty out there in the summer,” Claire said.

The Merloe’s owner, H.L. Enloe, sat in a cozy captain’s chair secured to the “trampoline” webbing of the starboard outer hull, watching the children scurry about with a winsome smile of his own.

Enloe, 82, spent decades as the owner and skipper of a fishing boat in the Sea of Cortez, but he got tired of baiting other people’s hooks. So at age 60, he learned to run a sailboat.

Enloe is based in El Paso, Texas, where he owns a medical transport company. The Merloe enters five or six races a year and often leads the pack.

The boat holds records in the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta, SoCal 300, Islands Race, Newport to Cabo and Transpac regattas. At the last Transpac in July, the Merloe smashed a 20-year-old record by more than a day, covering the 2,225 nautical miles from San Pedro to Honolulu in four days, six hours, 33 minutes and 30 seconds.

“That was nice,” Enloe said.

Last year, the Merloe covered the 125-nautical-mile Newport to Ensenada course in 5:49:28. In 2016, it dueled the 70-foot trimaran Orion to the finish, crossing in 5:37:18. The Orion finished about 20 minutes ahead, setting an “N2E” record that Enloe thinks the weather probably won’t let his crew topple this year.

But on Wednesday, it was about generations of sailors having fun on a mighty craft.

The young sailors’ faces were Enloe’s favorite part of the day.

“The smiles,” he said. “Never stops.”

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD