Vic Stern

The engines are turned off and there's not a sound, save the water lapping at the hull. The sails are unfurled, and suddenly, the boat surges. It's the briny sea breeze and the wind in his face. It's a sense of power that Vic Stern said transcends mere words. And he keeps coming back for more. At 80, Stern plans to compete today in his 42nd consecutive Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race. He's sailing the same boat this year, the Imi Loa, as he did in 1963.

The engines are turned off and there's not a sound, save the water lapping at the hull. The sails are unfurled, and suddenly, the boat surges. It's the briny sea breeze and the wind in his face. It's a sense of power that Vic Stern said transcends mere words. And he keeps coming back for more. At 80, Stern plans to compete today in his 42nd consecutive Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race. He's sailing the same boat this year, the Imi Loa, as he did in 1963.

Steve Hansen, 32, admits he's probably too old to be competing in the Jeep Pacific 1,000 catamaran race, a 12-day, masochistic adventure along the Southern California coast, beginning July 21. "I'm old relative to the rest of the field," says Hansen, the senior manager of an accounting firm. "Guys 23 and 24 have nothing better to do than go out and beat themselves up for two weeks." So where does that place Vic Stern, his crew? Stern, who has a Ph.D in astrophysics, is 65.

Steve Hansen, 32, admits he's probably too old to be competing in the Jeep Pacific 1,000 catamaran race, a 12-day, masochistic adventure along the Southern California coast, beginning July 21. "I'm old relative to the rest of the field," says Hansen, the senior manager of an accounting firm. "Guys 23 and 24 have nothing better to do than go out and beat themselves up for two weeks." So where does that place Vic Stern, his crew? Stern, who has a Ph.D in astrophysics, is 65.

Dennis Conner will sail one of the controversial Stars & Stripes catamarans in the 42nd Newport-Ensenada race starting Friday, April 28, and this time nobody objects. Vic Stern, secretary-treasurer of the Ocean Racing Catamaran Assn., said Tuesday that the organization had approved the conventional, "soft-sail" rig that was the backup boat to the airfoil-wing craft Conner used to trounce New Zealand's larger monohull in a two-race defense of the America's Cup at San Diego last September.

Runners tired of pounding the same pavement in the same road races can take a different trail Saturday at the Southern California Hillsea race at Central Park West in Huntington Beach. The Hillsea is a cross-country race that is handicapped by age group to give everyone a chance at being the first across the finish line. For instance, last year's winner was 56-year-old Sally Adam of Huntington Beach, who beat 52-year-old John Hunter of Torrance by 28 seconds.

It will be two months Monday since the New York Supreme Court hearing on whether San Diego will be permitted to sail a catamaran against New Zealand's monohull in the America's Cup. Meanwhile, both sides are proceeding as if there is really going to be an event in September. The big boat has a new mast--still 150 feet but lighter and stronger than the first--and a longer bowsprit, stretching the vessel's overall length by 9 feet, to 132 feet, and giving the headsail a shot of fresher air.

Lorin Weiss has been associated with the Newport-Ensenada International Yacht Race race since 1952--almost from the beginning. But he has never seen it because he has always been in the middle of it--"racing or on the committee," he said. Weiss is general chairman of the 42nd event this year, and he marvels at how it has changed in becoming the world's largest international sailboat race. "In '52, you could get a complete lobster dinner in Ensenada for $2, and a bottle of tequila was 50 cents," he recalled.

If you want to learn how to sail the Newport-to-Ensenada yacht race, ask Vic Stern. He has not missed a single race in the past 29 years. And when the fleet sets sail Saturday, Stern plans to be on the starting line. "Other people have sailed more races, but not consecutively and in the same boat," says Stern, whose 43-foot catamaran is the first--and only--boat he has ever owned.

It's a rite of spring, like digging out the cutoff jeans, and it recharges the spirit with an electricity of tradition that once turned a dusty little Mexican village upside down. It's Hussong's Cantina and Humphrey Bogart, topsails and topless women, hard sailing and afterward, for some, harder drinking.

It was a year and two days ago that Dennis Conner sailed the big, blue 12-meter Stars & Stripes '87 across the final finish line at Fremantle, Australia, to reclaim the America's Cup. Who would have dreamed that his first defense would be less than two years later? And at Long Beach. In a catamaran. The event has changed more in that year than in all the years since World War II.