Friends and Competitors: These octegenerians are still sailing

OXNARD — Richard (Dick) McNish and Walter Russakoff have been friends and competitors for 45 years. The 89-year-old sailors still race their boats against each other and teamed up on McNish’s Cheerio II in the annual Newport to Ensenada Race, where this year they took first in class. “We met 45 years ago or so at Anacapa Isle Marina, (in Channel Islands Harbor), and we’re still friends on and off our boats,” said McNish. “He is a great helmsman. I usually start the Ensenada race and then Walter takes over. He knows where we’re going.” To date, Russakoff has sailed each of the 38 McNish races on Vignette II, coming in second overall in the first year of the regatta with three first place wins since. “I sail the Newport to Ensenada Race every year aboard Cheerio II with Dick and crew, and in the Yesteryear and One More Time classic regattas as well. I plan to race on my boat again in this year’s McNish,” he said. Russakoff, a master craftsman who built his own sloop Vignette II, said his first experience “sailing” at the age of 9 was in the Los Angeles Pond, a swamp at City Terrace. The boat was a...