For Fun, Just Add Water

Gray skies and sprinkles greeted more than 3,000 sailors Friday for the start of the Newport-to-Ensenada Yacht Race, but to them it was a glorious morning.

A fresh breeze blew steadily from the west, lifting spirits already buoyed by weeks of preparation, the previous night’s kickoff celebration and, of course, the prospects ahead.

Rollicking good times were still at hand. And as the 467 vessels began to congregate near the starting line outside Newport Harbor, their mainsails tall and bulging, it became apparent that the world’s largest international regatta must also be one of its largest waterborne parties, a floating fiesta in which the grand prize might as well be a case of cold Mexican beer.

“It’s sort of Southern California’s version of Woodstock,” said Roy E. Disney, nephew of the late Walt Disney and a renowned yacht racer. “It’s a bloody zoo.”

Though the Newport-to-Ensenada race is taken seriously to some degree by most, it has been regarded largely as a fun fest since its inception after World War II. The first was held in 1948, when 65 of 117 entries finished in a wild competition in 25- to 30-knot winds.

Celebrity participants such as Humphrey Bogart, Walter Cronkite and Buddy Ebsen helped bring notoriety. Anyone could enter the 125-mile jaunt, which generally features light winds and safe sailing conditions. The fleet has been as large as 675 and boats have ranged from 24 to 96 feet.

Barring severe doldrums, most of this year’s competitors, who were sent across the starting line in waves and according to class, will require only one night at sea, if that.

The catamaran Stars & Stripes, with Steve Fossett at the helm, recorded the fastest time -- 6 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds -- in 1998. Pyewacket, owned and raced by Disney, has the fastest time for a single-hull vessel: 10:44:54 in 2003.

“I once made it to Ensenada before the bars closed,” boasted Richard McCredie, 55, a Newport Beach consultant for a sail maker, before heading out as crew aboard Freestyle, a 42-foot catamaran. “We had 23 knots for over three hours. It was the best wind ever.”

Stories about the race are legendary, none more so than that of a crew that aired a midnight showing of the X-rated movie “Deep Throat” on one of its larger sails, attracting a crowd from out of the darkness.

“Whether it’s true or not we all want to believe it’s true,” said Craig Reynolds, 52, the Newport Beach captain of Bolt, a 55-footer.

“Oh, it’s true,” assured McCredie, recalling that the crew of that vessel wore tuxedo jackets, white shorts and tennis shoes. “But I can’t remember the name of that boat.”

The vessel’s name was Miramar, according to Disney, 75, the biggest celebrity in this year’s regatta. Before crossing the line to begin what figured to be a duel with Randal Pitman’s 90-foot Genuine Risk and Doug Baker’s Magnitude 80, Disney recalled using a Shell road map to find his way during his first race in the late 1950s.

“There was enough of the Pacific Ocean on the map to where we could stay close to the coast and say, ‘There’s San Diego’ or there’s this or that,’ ” he said.

That was aboard a 30-footer. He now races in a new 86-foot Pyewacket he hopes will help him finish his racing career with a speed record in both this race and the last race he will run, the 2,225-mile Transpacific Yacht Race. After that, he plans to sell his yacht and sail into the sunset with his wife, Patty, aboard a much smaller cruiser the couple will use to travel the world.

“Most people don’t take it seriously,” he said of this weekend’s race. “But there are a few of us who really like to beat each other.”

Friday morning, in front of the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club where vessels were rafted together two or three deep in places, weight did not seem an issue as beer by the caseload looked to be the provision of choice.

“For most of us it’s the social camaraderie and bonding that we really enjoy,” said Patrick Magers, skipper of the 46-foot Misjudged II.

Magers, 55, is a superior court judge in Riverside County. His crew includes a fellow judge, a prominent obstetrician, a high-profile attorney and a real estate executive.

To them, he said, justice will be served in the form of a brilliant sunrise over Baja California as they make their way south.