71st Annual Newport-2-Ensenada Race Starts Friday!

Mike Glenn April 24, 2018

Newport is having a busy week! Tomorrow is the first day of the 26th annual Balboa Film Festival, and the next day will be the race will begin at the Balboa Pier at 11:00 a.m– so if you want to see a huge cluster of world-class sailboats, head on down to Balboa Pier before lunch on Friday, the 27th!

The race typically lasts overnight, with people arriving in Ensenada throughout Saturday. Sunday a bus leaves for those too exhausted to make a round-trip for a mere $50/head, and those who want to stay a little longer are able to stay until the following Saturday at Hotel Coral & Marina for the same rate as the rest of the club. If you are at that Hotel/Marina at 6pm on Saturday, you’ll be experiencing a great NOSA-hosted party.

But not all boats do an overnight trip: in 1998, the multi-hull vessel called Stars and Stripes finished the trip before sundown, setting an astounding record of 6 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds, actually finishing before sundown!

This will be the 71st year of the club and the 70th annual race following the original on April 23, 1948. Despite overnight sailing, it has had a remarkable record of success. In 2012, a boat went missing and four people lost their lives, resulting in the tragic first casualties of the race. Autopilot is now banned during both day and nighttime sailing, as a result.

This year, you can keep track of the boats LIVE on our site, by following the links at: http://savenewport.com/race-boat-tracking/

We wish everyone a swift and safe journey, and if you’d like to see a few hundred sailboats lining our city’s beaches, then join us all for an awesome show on Balboa Pier at 11am Friday!

Here’s a photo of the second annual Newport to Ensenada race pamphlet from 1949: