62nd NEWPORT TO ENSENADA INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACE:

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NEWPORT BEACH — Someone on the 59-foot Marquis spotted Dr. Laura Schlessinger not talking, rather getting advice from one of the best yacht racers.

The conservative commentator needed help Friday as part of the crew of the Stars & Stripes’ Farr 60. Dennis Conner, a four-time America’s Cup winner, is the right skipper to give Schlessinger direction.

“With a professional like him on board, she couldn’t make a mistake,” J.R. Means said, while steering a 72,000-pound yacht worth $2 million. “She couldn’t make a mistake. He’ll push her right to the edge.”

Stars & Stripes turned a little left, probably a first for Dr. Laura, and off it was to the best start in the 62nd Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race.

“Welcome amigos!” someone yelled from a nearby boat, a small one, which from the sound of it made you believe it had a better shot at sinking than winning.

Play-by-play action, if there ever is such a thing in boat racing, began at the start. The call ended soon, because this is a 125-nautical-mile race, down the Southern California coast to Baja California, a couple of tequila shots, some margaritas in between, you get the picture.

This is Cinco de Mayo on water, a fiesta for the last weekend in April.

The piñatas are the crew members. Their heads will spin for the next few days, probably until Sunday, a day of rest for most. For the crews, it’s a grind all the way home.

“That’s if they make it!” said Bill Long, the spokesperson for the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Corona del Mar, not far from where the race began under the gray skies around noon.

Whether it would rain wasn’t the only uncertainty people had. The start line moved a half mile up the beach from the entrance to the Newport Bay. Fans at the beach and Balboa Pier still showed up to cheer the sailors and saw some action before a gentle breeze sent the boats south.

A lot has changed in the storied event, first run in 1948. The number of competitors is down to 272, from 388 the year before. Long said blame for the low numbers is everywhere, from the sinking economy, to the drug wars in Mexico, effecting Ensenada and nearby Tijuana and Rosarito Beach.

Another contributing factor to the lack of interest is competition, as in another race was scheduled on the same day.

The inaugural race is called the “Border Run.” Competitors made a run for it well before those for the Newport to Ensenada race.

More than 100 boats for the Border Run lined up and took off for their race, their separate party, an hour earlier. No sharing kegs. The event, calling itself an alternative to the Ensenada race, wraps up in San Diego, away from the unpredictability on the other side of the border.

Long and Ralph Rodheim, the marketing person for the Newport to Ensenada race, talked about the new race and why it happened before getting on the 59 Marquis.

Some see the start-up race as a slap in the face to tradition after Randy Reynolds, a Huntington Beach boat designer, began the Border Run after not being able to race in the Newport to Ensenada event in his R33 twin-hulled catamaran, considered unsafe by the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn., which organizes the world’s largest boat race.

Long just laughed, saying the new race gave the old one publicity.

In the past, the Newport to Ensenada race attracted big names, actor Humphrey Bogart, to journalist Walter Cronkite, considered the most trusted man in America during his prime as a broadcaster.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].