Anonymous - 4-25-2005 at 05:23 AM
http://www.mickeynews.com/News/DisplayPressRelease.asp_Q_id_...
Roy E. Disney, 75, in his last year of competitive sailing, was first among the elite Maxi-class boats in the Lexus Newport-to-Ensenada Yacht Race but
failed to break the record he set in 2003.
Sailing the 86-foot Pyewacket in mostly light winds, Disney and crew crossed the finish line at 4:24 a.m. Saturday for an elapsed time of 16 hours 24
minutes 12 seconds. The record is 10:44:54.
In race to Ensenada, crew of two makes do
Anonymous - 4-26-2005 at 07:00 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20050426-9999-lz1s26boa...
By Bill Center
April 26, 2005
Tim Coker will never forget the first time he went sailing with David England.
"He told his wife we'd be back in 48 hours," Coker said yesterday. "When we didn't show up precisely at 48 hours, she called the Coast Guard. All of a
sudden, there are reports that Masquerade has been lost at sea."
Masquerade is Coker's venerable Choate 40 sloop.
And last weekend, skipper Coker and crewman England were not lost at sea. They won at sea.
The pair claimed the double-handed title in the 58th annual Lexus Newport to Ensenada yacht race. Masquerade also finished sixth in Class E of the
premier Performance Handicap Racing Fleet division against fully crewed boats.
The 125-mile Newport-Ensenada derby marked the 10th time that Coker has raced Masquerade in a double-handed division. His previous win came in a race
to Catalina Island. He has also sailed the boat in several solo offshore races.
"A full crew is too much work and money," said Coker. "This time we spent the money on beer. Actually, David and I sailed this race together because
he paid the entry fee.
"Honestly, I'm flabbergasted we won. But we didn't make any mistakes. No foulups. Nothing cost us any time."
Not only that, the tandem successfully negotiated seven mid-race gybes and a late-race spinnaker peel that probably resulted in the victory.
The winning margin after 27 hours at sea ? yes, it was another slow race, but no one called the Coast Guard this time ? was 68 seconds.
"This race had the most bizarre shifts I've ever seen in an Ensenada race," said Coker, who won a PHRF class title in this event years ago while
sailing a Catalina 27 and now has hit every spot between first and seventh with Masquerade.
"It was light at the start and light at the finish with good winds and a squall in between. And usually, this is a starboard tack race. We were on
port almost the whole way down.
"We started the race figuring 20 hours."
Normally, a Choate 40 sails with a six-man crew. The spinnaker on Masquerade is a thousand square feet. The boat has 10 winches.
Which made Coker and England feel right at home on their Silver Gate Yacht Club entry.
The 55-year-old Coker is a lineman for an electrical company. England works for San Diego Gas & Electric as a trouble shooter.
"Linemen make good sailors," said Coker, pointing out that one of the area's top ocean racers, Tim Batcher, is also a lineman.
"Line work has to do with physics and the forces of nature. There are a lot of things going on at the same time and usually you're up off the ground
with not much of a platform. Perfect place to learn sailing."
During their one pre-Ensenada test, England went up the mast in a stiff wind.
But when it came to actual l sailboat racing going into the Ensenada race, England's lack of experience was counterbalanced by Coker's extensive
background.
Coker sailed Masquerade in the 1993 Transpacific race. Six years later, he was a class champion of the San Diego PHRF's offshore series.
But the extent of England's career with Coker was that lost-at-sea episode.
"He was a novice," said Coker. "But David is a good friend of mine. When he said he wanted to do this and knew he could do this, we were going to do
it.
"He kept the spinnaker from collapsing throughout the race. I had the wheel and the halyard. David handled the rest."
Coker was one of two class champions from San Diego.
Carolyn and Sandra Sherman's Sea Maiden from Southwestern was third overall in the PHRF fleet and won Class I.
Runner-up class finishes went to Paul Scripps' famed 89-foot ketch Miramar (Ancient Mariners), Cliff Thompson's Super Gnat (PHRF-D), Clive Hardaker's
Sojourn (PHRF-L) and Jed Olenick's Dr. No (Sprit-A).
Disney to lead way to Ensenada
Anonymous - 4-28-2005 at 02:27 AM
http://www.sail-world.com/news.cfm?Nid=17175&RequestTime...
Thu, 28 Apr 2005
The marquee for the First Team Real Estate Invitational Regatta May 19-22 proclaims ?The World's Biggest, Fastest Sail boats,? and they showed it last
weekend in the world's largest international yacht race. Led by Roy Disney's maxZ86, Pyewacket, the first 10 monohulls to finish the 58th
Newport-to-Ensenada contest were boats that will be racing around the buoys off Newport Beach next month.
Pyewacket was followed closely by Doug Baker's Magnitude 80, Mike Campbell and Dale Williams' new Peligroso and Randall Pittman's 90-foot Genuine
Risk.
Within the next two and a half hours came David Janes sailing the Newport Sea Base's Scout Spirit, Paul Sharp's Taxi Dancer, Bob Lane's Medicine Man,
Mark Jones's Flash, Ed McDowell's Grand Illusion and John MacLaurin's Pendragon IV.
Though winds to Ensenada were generally light, depriving him of an opportunity to attack his own record, Disney said Pyewacket and the others made the
most of what breeze they had.
?These boats go so fast it's amazing,? he said. ?We saw 14 and 15 knots [on the speed instruments] at times.
'They're astonishing boats because they don't make a fuss doing it. You look up and you're doing 15 knots and you say, 'How are we doing that?'
'There's not a bow wave, there's no wake behind us. At times we were over double the wind speed with the Code Zero. We'd be doing 10 and the wind
speed would be 4.8.?
Magnitude 80's runner-up effort against larger boats followed line honors in two previous races to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. Peligroso,
smallest of the four leaders, was declared overall winner among the 466 entries on corrected handicap time. Also, Lew Beery's It's OK and Craig
Reynolds' Bolt were second and third in PHRF-A class - altogether a strong outing for 12 of the 20 boats currently entered in the First Team Real
Estate Invitational Regatta.
Disney, 75, has said he will retire from racing after this year, and he is bent on going out on top. On a boat loaded with professional sailors and
other veterans, he drove much of the 125 nautical miles himself.
Anonymous - 4-28-2005 at 03:05 AM
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics...
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Two power boats carrying illegal immigrants were apparently trying to blend into the Newport to Ensenada yacht race when they were
stopped by federal agents.
Eight Mexicans nationals and one U.S. citizen were arrested over the weekend in two separate incidents, according to authorities.
On Saturday, a 27-year-old American driving an 18-foot Bayliner with four illegal immigrants was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents
near San Diego's Harbor Island fuel pier.
On Sunday, a 34-year-old Mexican man with three illegal immigrants on board a small power boat was arrested in San Diego Bay.
Three of the individuals possessed counterfeit documents, authorities said.
The U.S. attorney declined to file charges against the U.S. citizen and one of her Mexican passengers.
The Mexican nationals will be deported.