Small but Fast Fleet for First Isla Navidad Race

LONG BEACH---Seven of the hottest ocean racers on the West Coast are among a fleet of 13 boats scheduled to start the first Isla Navidad International Yacht Race to the upscale resort near Manzanillo Oct. 30, 31 and Nov. 1. The smaller boats will start first, the largest ones last.

Competitors include Roy Disney's Pyewacket, Bob McNeil's Zephyrus V, Philippe Kahn's Pegasus and Doug Baker's Magnitude---all recent winners of prestigious races.

At 1,178 nautical miles, the race will be the longest of the races from Southern California to mainland Mexico. The Long Beach and Newport Harbor YCs are co-organizers. The starts will be west of the Alamitos Bay jetty, and race headquarters will be at the Grand Hotel Resort and Marina at Isla Navidad, just offshore from the village of Barra de Navidad.

Pyewacket, a 74-foot Reichel/Pugh maxi sled, climaxed a triumphant Caribbean tour last summer by setting a record in the Newport-to-Bermuda Race to plant alongside the Transpacific Yacht Race mark it established in 1999.

Zephyrus V, first of the new maxZ86s, won this year's West Marine Pacific Cup in its maiden effort. Pegasus, a stretched 77-foot maxi sled, defeated Pyewacket by 63 minutes in last year's 41st Transpac, although not in record time, and Magnitude, a 68 1/2-foot turbo sled, broke Pyewacket's Newport-to-Ensenada record last April while the latter was campaigning in the Caribbean.

Also looking for first-to-finish honors, should the anticipated light-wind conditions offer the opportunity, will be the Transpac 52s Victoria 5, with owner/skipper Mike Campbell, Long Beach, and J-Bird III, with David Janes, Newport Beach.

Bob Lane's "turbocharged" Andrews 61, Medicine Man, is also rated an outside threat after finishing the Ensenada race second only to Magnitude.

The entries:

Magnitude, Doug Baker, Long Beach YC, turbo sled 68 1/2

Pegasus, Philippe Kahn, Waikiki YC, maxi sled 77

Pyewacket, Roy E. Disney, Los Angeles YC, maxi sled 74

Zephyrus V, Bob McNeil, St. Francis YC, maxZ86

Medicine Man, Bob Lane, Long Beach YC, Andrews 61

J-Bird III, David Janes, Bahia Corinthian YC, Transpac 52

Victoria 5, Mike Campbell Long Beach YC, Transpac 52

Chicken Little, Brad Thorson, Newport Harbor YC, S/C 50

Bay Wolf, Kirk Wilson, Cabrillo Beach YC, S/C 50

Adrenalin, David Clark, Newport Harbor YC, S/C 50

Stealth Chicken, Timothy Beatty, Kona Kai International YC, Custom 56

Patriot, Paul Stemler, Newport Harbor YC, J/44

Bolt, Craig Reynolds, Balboa YC, Olson 40