Congressional Cup : Davis Is Winner in Sailoff

As Rod Davis steered his Catalina 38 toward shore with his second Congressional Cup championship in tow Sunday, one of Italy’s America’s Cup boats passed him on its way out to practice.

“Wow, did you see that 12-meter going out?” Dave Perry asked after congratulating Davis for taking away the trophy Perry had won the last two years. “It was huge !”

That put matters in perspective. The Congressional Cup is sailing’s most prestigious match-racing series, except for one: the America’s Cup, in which Davis will skipper the Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s 12-meter Eagle.

“We’re practicing in the wind,” Davis said after sweeping a sudden-death sailoff from John Kolius and Perry in winds off Long Beach measured at 22 knots, with gusts to 27.

That is similar to conditions expected at Australia in 1987, but the boats will be considerably different.

“This is similar because it’s match racing,” Davis said, “but in 12-meter you bring your own boat.”

And for Davis, 29, that is even larger game. For the next three months off Long Beach, Davis and his crew will sail his test boat Magic against the dark blue Victory ’83 trial horse of Yacht Club Italiano, which is skippered by Flavio Scala.

They’ll get their campaign boats later, and then it’s full speed ahead to Fremantle.

Davis could find himself in a rematch with Kolius, the helmsman for the New York Yacht Club’s America II syndicate, whom he dispatched by 37 seconds in the first sailoff race Sunday.

Two hours later, with the wind piping up, Davis and Perry were ordered to reduce sail by reefing their mains, and Davis won by 13 seconds to claim a crimson blazer to match the one he won in 1981. He led at every mark in both races, favoring the strong southwesterlies on the right side of the course.

The three had finished the 10-boat, four-day, round-robin series tied with 7-2 records, each with a win and a loss against the other two, forcing the second sailoff in the event’s 21 years. Perry won the draw to sit out the first race, meaning that Davis had to do it the hard way.

“It’s real important that these guys get the proper credit,” Davis said, indicating crew members Doug Rastello, Skip Beck, Geoff Davis, Hank Stuart, Dave Miller and Rex Banks. “They busted their butts.”

Davis, who had beaten Kolius and lost to Perry by two seconds during the week, took command early in both races and sailed flawlessly, but hardly effortlessly. Perry especially kept the pressure on in the title race, which required exactly an hour to sail.

Both boats were over the starting line before the gun but Davis, to windward of Perry with a clear view of the committee boat, tacked to port, ducked back and re-started quicker for a 12-second advantage, leaving Perry to play catch-up.

Perry sailed about two boat lengths above the line before jibing to return. He said he wasn’t sure the recall gun was meant for him or only Davis until he saw both of their letter designations--”E” and “I”--posted on the committee boat.

“We couldn’t really see the other end,” he said. “We turned back as quickly as we could once we knew we were over.”

Davis led by as much as 24 seconds, but Perry closed to 8 seconds at the last leeward mark by jibing repeatedly onto Davis’ wind. But once Davis rounded the mark he was gone.

Earlier, Davis and Kolius started evenly at opposite ends, but Kolius made the race’s critical error the first time they met on opposite tacks.

Davis had the right of way on starboard tack (wind coming over his right side), so Kolius had to decide whether (a) to try to cross in front of him on port, (b) to tack on his leeward bow with Davis slightly behind and to windward or (c) to dip behind Davis’ stern.

Kolius and tactician John Bertrand determined that they couldn’t cross in front of Davis without getting T-boned, but they thought they could lee-bow him and fall into a commanding “safe leeward” position, dumping their disturbed air into Davis’ sails.

Instead, they came over directly alongside Davis, who drove his boat past them, spoiling their wind.