Newport-Ensenada Yachting Race Starts Today
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NEWPORT BEACH — While Dennis Conner is preoccupied, two multihull boats among 419 entries will try to surpass his record in the 48th Newport Beach-to-Ensenada race starting at noon today.
Conner last year sailed his 60-foot Stars & Stripes catamaran to a record time of 8 hours 29 minutes for the 125-nautical mile race, despite losing about a half hour with a false start off the wrong line. He isn’t competing this year because of the America’s Cup; he won the defender trials Wednesday.
Steve Fossett’s 60-foot trimaran Lakota from Chicago and Bob Hanel’s 75-foot catamaran Double Bullet from Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club are the strongest threats to the record. Double Bullet recently defeated Lakota by about an hour in the Newport Beach-to-Puerto Vallarta race.
Monohull entries run from 22 to 82 feet. The monohull record is 12 hours 12 minutes set by the 68-foot sloop Saga skippered by Dennis Choate in 1983.
The event is billed as the world’s largest international yacht race.
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