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 News from Around the Americas | May 2006 
Success is Charted Territory for this Crew
 Matt Szabo - Daily Pilot
For more than 20 years, the Richley family has raced its boat Amante in the Newport to Ensenada race in late April.
This year was one of the best.
Amante won the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) C Boat Class at the race from April 28-30, beating 18 other boats with its elapsed time of 26 hours, 39 minutes and 13 seconds. The 48-foot boat also won the Jack Bailee perpetual trophy for the fastest Newport Beach-based boat in corrected time, clocking in at 25:24:13.
"Our family has owned the boat since 1982," said Bud Richley, whose father, Mel Richley, started competing in the race in the early 1960s. "We've been doing it a very long time."
Richley's brothers, Tim and Steve, rotate steering duties with Bud, truly making it a family affair. Newport Beach lawyer Michael Lawler also is part of Amante's crew.
"All boats have handicaps," said Lawler, explaining the Class C designation. "It's like a golf handicap. The cool thing about our position in the class [this year] is that there were 19 boats in Class C and we finished 45 minutes ahead of the second-place boat."
"That's like a golfer winning by eight strokes," Lawler added.
Amante, which the Richleys race through the Lido Isle Yacht Club, has seen plenty of action heading out of Newport Beach. Bud Richley said he's raced it in the Trans-Pacific [Newport to Honolulu] and Corona del Mar to Cabo San Lucas races in the past, winning the Cabo competition. Amante has also raced around Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
"Our [handicap] rating is pretty dialed in, since our boat is so old," Richley said. "The boat's got a lot of miles on it. People tell me that they think our boat's one of the most used boats in the bay. It's always either out racing or out cruising."
The Richley family won the 125 nautical-mile Newport to Ensenada race back-to-back in 1989 and 1990. Amante was also the winner of the prestigious "President of Mexico" trophy in 1993 for taking first place overall under International Measuring System rules.
This year, Richley said the race was pretty straightforward for himself and the 11 other crewmembers on-board.
"During the night was when we won the race," he said. "We put up a jib top [sail] for two hours. That stabilized the boat and we passed everyone up. When it got light again, they were behind us, and we kept it that way. It was a team effort to keep it going through the night."
But few stories could compare to Amante's exploits in the Newport-Ensenada race in 2003.
"We hit a whale in the middle of the night," Lawler said. "We ended up breaking our rudder in half, but we were still able to finish the race."
"I think we got some award for the most carnage caused."
Tradition characterizes the boat and its crew. Lawler, who has been sailing on Amante for about 10 years, said he's probably still one of the newer members. But he quickly learned how to celebrate a victory.
"It's fun to go on stage and collect the trophy," Lawler said. "Then, of course, you have to party like a rock star."
That partying probably won't stop with the current generation of Richleys. This year marked the first Ensenada race for 12-year-old twins Maxson and Addison Richley, Bud's children. The twins are also actively involved in the Lido Isle Yacht Club junior sailing program.
"They're actually both doing very well in sabots (eight-foot, single-person boats)," Bud Richley said. |
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