Newport to Cabo Race Preview
Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s 800-mile Newport to Cabo Race was first run in 1971 and has sailed down the coast to the sunny climes of southern Baja in most odd-numbered years ever since. After 1991 the event took a break, reappearing in 2002. It’s been back on its odd-year biennial track since 2005.
The competitors gathered last night at NHYC for their mandatory check-in and meeting, with food, drinks and music. In anticipation of light winds, a Notice to Competitors was announced that allows the race committee to extend the time limit.
ORR starts begin tomorrow at 1 p.m.; the multihulls start on Sunday. Everyone will meet up at Cabo San Lucas to enjoy official happy hours at the Baja Cantina on Tuesday and Wednesday, 4-6 p.m. Originally scheduled for Thursday, the awards ceremony has been tentatively moved to Friday, March 17, at 4 p.m., location TBA.
The three multihulls are John Gallagher’s Gunboat 62 catamaran Chim Chim and the trimarans Mighty Merloe (ORMA 60) and Phaedo3 (MOD70). Nineteen monohulls make up the ORR fleet, the largest boat being Manouch Moshayedi’s Rio100, the smallest Rufus Sjoberg’s Richmond YC-based Melges 32 Rufless.
Armchair sailors can track the race here. We’ll have more in the April issue of Latitude 38.