The two-year-old Pyewacket led the way in 17 hours 8 minutes 20 seconds – well off the record of 10:44:54 set by its predecessor, Pyewacket 77, in 2003 but impressive by the nearly three-hour margin of its victory over owner-skipper Doug Baker’s runner-up, Magnitude 80 from Long Beach. Pyewacket is the Reichel/Pugh maxZ86 that Roy Disney donated to the Orange Coast College of Sailing & Seamanship when he retired from sailboat racing after last summer’s Transpac to Hawaii. Although one of the fastest monohulls in the world when Disney owned it, Pyewacket was an unknown factor for this race after reducing its ballast and sail area and taking on a new crew of mostly non-professionals. The crew of 23 men and 3 women was composed mainly of top local recreational sailors and others who tried out for the team. Brad Avery, the school’s director and co-skipper with Keith Kilpatrick, said, “The good news is that with the changes we made it’s still a very quick boat. It’s also the first major trophy for the college, so we’re very happy.”

Scout Spirit, a 75-foot turbosled entered by the Newport Sea Base, was the third monohull to finish behind Pyewacket and Magnitude 80. David Janes was the skipper with a crew that included nine Sea Scouts, three Scout adults, a few friends and only two pros.

One of the non-finishers was Windquest, Doug DeVos’ maxZ86 from Michigan, the early leader off the starting line with an eye on the race record. Windquest came within three miles of the finish line inside Ensenada’s Todos Santos Bay before firing up its engine, turning around and returning to San Diego. At the time – about 8 o'clock Saturday morning – the wind was almost imperceptible. Other notable non-finishers were 83-year-old Vic Stern of Long Beach, sailing the venerable catamaran Imi Loa in its 44th race to Baja California, and Dennis Conner, who skippered the 78-year-old, 82-foot Kelpie, a wooden schooner.

Billed as “the world’s largest international yacht race,” the 125-nautical-mile Newport Beach to Ensenada event featured 23 classes of boats that started at 10-minute intervals beginning at noon on Friday. There is no prize money but there are more than 150 trophies. For complete race results, visit the Newport Ocean Sailing Association (NOSA) web site.

The race record for monohulls remains at 10 hours 44 minutes 54 seconds set by Roy Disney’s third Pyewacket, a Reichel/Pugh 77, in 2003. The record for multihulls is 6 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds set in 1998 by Steve Fossett’s 60-foot Stars & Stripes catamaran, still the only boat to finish in Baja California before sundown in one of the race’s windiest years.
 
 

At the start in Newport Beach, CA on Friday, April 28, 2006

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