America’s Cup Update : Trials Will Become Round-Robin Match Races
In past America’s Cup trials, eliminating contenders was a matter of judgment calls.
After a few races or partial races of no fixed number, the New York Yacht Club committee boat would pull alongside the doomed craft, and the officials would doff their skimmers and thank the crew for participating.
No more. The 1986-87 eliminations off Perth to select both the challenger and the Australian defender will be based strictly on competition. Nothing arbitrary. No bias. No ambiguous “observation trials.” Rather than trying to impress the committee, the only aim will be to win races.
The format for the challenger elimination races will award one point for each win in the first round of round-robin match races starting Oct. 5, five points for each win in the second round starting Nov. 2 and 12 points for each win in the third and last round starting Dec. 2. The top four boats in points accumulated through the three rounds will go into the semifinals Dec. 28. The others can go home.
The only gimmick in the scheme is that a contender will be permitted to switch boats after the first round but would have to forfeit any points won by his first boat.
Some of the multi-boat syndicates are considering taking their two best boats to Perth and, if things go badly in the first round, switching in the second round and going for the bigger points.
Eagle’s skipper, Rod Davis, said he wouldn’t like that idea, even if he had a choice. There is only one Eagle to sail.
“I think it’s a dangerous thing to do,” Davis said. “I’d rather go full blast in the first trials and find out how you do. If you put your best foot forward and it’s not good enough, then you can make some changes to fix it. But if you say, ‘Oh, that’s my experimental boat,’ you open up a ton of variables.
“The other thing is, those points could be real important. You’re going to be scrambling for points to be in the top four and, boy, you take six points over from the original series, that’s a big deal. If you find you’re six points up on the group, it’s a keeper.”
Another consideration is having only 12 days between rounds to get the backup boat going again.
“It’s difficult to switch boats,” Davis said. “You’d have to have a very organized program.
“Even if I had two boats down there, I’d pick the best boat to sail in those trials, and if it turned out to be dog slow, OK, I’d switch. If it turned out to be about the same as everybody else’s, I’d keep sailing that boat, rather than open up a can of worms.”
Italia II, the boat that sank when a crane broke while lowering it into the water at La Spezia last weekend belongs to the crew that sailed against Eagle off Long Beach in practice last year.
Davis was tactician on Italia I in the last two 12-meter worlds. Before Eagle is shipped to Australia in mid-July, it is scheduled to sail against the other Italian syndicate, Azzurra, for a couple of weeks starting late this month.
The Azzurra crew, whose effort is backed by the Aga Khan, will sail Eagle’s trial boat, Magic, with the same skipper--Lorenzo Bortolotti--that Italia had last year. Bortolotti has jumped ships.
Italia II is being salvaged and will compete at Perth, but Davis thinks its chances--already slim--will diminish.
“Not only will they lose time getting the boat ready again,” Davis said, “but the accident has to be a blow to their confidence and morale and everything else.”
America’s Cup Notes
Jeff Spranger’s authoritative America’s Cup Report favors Eagle as one of the four syndicates to survive the three rounds of challenger eliminations that will run from October into December. The others, with their skippers, are Sail America, Dennis Conner; merica II, John Kolius, and New Zealand, Chris Dickson. Spranger gives an outside chance to Heart of America, with Buddy Melges, and the merged Canadian effort, with Terry Neilson. Golden Gate, with Tom Blackaller and its new outer space boat, doesn’t get a call, but that syndicate carries on its campaign with a flair for publicity. Its christening Tuesday is expected to include consul generals from six competing countries, to be followed by an “America’s Cup Festival” with various boating events next Saturday. . . . The Eagle people towed their boat from Long Beach to Newport--12-meters don’t have engines--for a pep rally-type party last week. A slide and sound show whipped up enough patriotic enthusiasm to bring in a few more checks toward the $8.5-million budget, which is about $3 million shy. . . . Chicago’s Heart of America has recruited a new tactician, Bill Shore of Shore Sails, to replace Gary Jobson, who resigned to do ESPN’s coverage of the America’s Cup.