Designer Alan Andrews (second from left) and wife Molly are toasted
by happy clients Doug Baker (left) and David Janes, who finished first and
third. Andrews sailed on Bob Lane's Medicine Man, which finished a close
second---all beating Pyewacket's 1998 record.

A brief wrapup report on the 55th Tommy Bahama Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race:

ENSENADA, B.C.---Doug Baker's sleek Andrews 70, Magnitude, led the way in
the epochal 55th Tommy Bahama Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race as the first
of six monohulls to break Pyewacket's record of 11 hours 54 minutes set in
1998.

Magnitude, with an elapsed time of 11:23:53, was less than four minutes
ahead of Bob Lane's Medicine Man, 11:27:47, followed by David Janes's
J-Bird III, 11:30:24; Bill Turpin's Alta Vita, 11:34:52; Al and Vicki
Schultz's Vicki, 11:36:02, and Mike Campbell's Victoria 5, 11:41:53.

Magnitude, Medicine Man, Vicki and Victoria 5 represent Long Beach yacht
clubs. J-Bird III is from Newport Beach and Alta Vita from San Francisco.
Magnitude and Vicki are ULDB 70 "sleds"; J-Bird III, Alta Vita and Victoria
5 are Transpac 52s, and Medicine Man is a one-of-a-kind Andrews 62.

Alan Andrews, who sailed on Medicine Man, designed all of the
record-breaking boats except Alta Vita, a Laurie Dsvidson creation. He
described the conditions as "perfect wind."

"A record is produced not only by having fast boats but perfect
conditions," he said. "We had the wind off our beam the whole way, which is
the ideal point of sail for maximum speed."

James McDowell's Santa Cruz 70, Grand Illusion, from Redondo Beach missed
the old record by 3 1/2 minutes.

The first actual finisher was Bill Gibbs's 52-foot catamaran Afterburner
from Ventura, which started 20 minutes after the largest monohulls but
finished about 6 1/2 minutes ahead of Magnitude with an elapsed time of 11
hours 17 minutes 27 seconds.
However, that missed the race's multihull record by 4 1/2 hours.

Disney, vice president of the Walt Disney Co., didn't sail in the race this
year while campaigning Pyewacket in the Caribbean.

The 452 boats that started at noon Friday soon sailed into a strong breeze
of 15 knots that built to as high as 24 knots into the overcast night. The
wind strength and westerly wind angle allowed the boats the rare advantage
of following the direct "rhumb" line for the 125-nautical mile
course---inside the Coronado Islands at the international border instead of
the long way around outside the islands.

Bill Gibbs drives his 52-foot catamaran off the starting line.
Afterburner was the race's first finisher but onbly 6 1/2 minutres ahead of
the first monohull, Magnitude.