Rudolph had done the Newport-to-Ensenada race three times, his wife said.
"There is nobody like him," Leslie Rudolph said from their Manhattan Beach home. "He's special, he brought joy to everyone."
The San Diego County medical examiner identified two of the victims as Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla., and William Reed Johnson, 57, of Torrance.
Mavromatis' family declined to speak to a reporter inquiring whether he was aboard his boat.
The Aegean crew members had been uploading pictures and posts to a website so that friends and family members could trace their progress. Organizers had an online tracking system to keep them apprised of the boats, which had left Newport on Friday amid festivities.
When the Aegean's image vanished from the system early Saturday morning, organizers contacted the Coast Guard.
By mid-morning, a debris field was located, including the rear transom with the boat's name on it. Two of the three bodies were found by civilian boaters. The bodies were airlifted to the San Diego County medical examiner's office for identification.
The Coast Guard and Mexican navy continued searching through Saturday night, joined at daybreak by Coast Guard aircraft. Civilian boaters reported the debris field, which consisted of small chunks of wood, suggesting that the Aegean had been rammed and demolished.
Eric Lamb, who works for Vessel Assist, a private maritime assistance firm, was one of the first on scene, spotting a small refrigerator, a seat cushion and some food containers in the water. The two bodies, he said, had cuts and bruises and looked as if they had been dragged along the hull of the boat.
He said the debris "looked like it had gone through a blender."
