Canada II Trials Show It May Provide a Stiff Challenge

Buddy Melges, the affable skipper of Heart of America, was teasing rival Dennis Conner after some America’s Cup practice sailing off Perth, Australia.

“You’d better get Canada II,” Melges told Conner, joking. “You’d have a better chance to win.”

Conner, it is reported, did not laugh.

Competition will start a week from Saturday--it will be Sunday in Australia--and Canada II, with Terry Neilson as skipper, seems fast and loose as the surprise of the fleet.

Eagle skipper Rod Davis reported after sail-testing and practice skirmishes with Canada II that his new 12-meter and the updated ’83 campaigner are “very close in speed” and that Canada’s crew was sharper in reading the wind shifts on a 12- to 14-knot day.

Davis asked New Zealand’s Chris Dickson to practice with him, but Dickson--a surprise runner-up in the world 12-meter competition last February--declined. The Kiwis, like America II from New York, are standing off from their rivals until the real racing starts.

America’s Cup Notes Dennis Conner left the scene briefly to return to San Diego for a find-raising affair. He announced, as expected, that he will sail Stars & Stripes ‘87, the newest of his three new boats. . . . Although New York’s America II boats are sparring among themselves, a report around Fremantle is that in practice starts, trial boat helmsman Dennis Durgan of Newport Beach beat regular skipper John Kolius every time. Durgan, who was Conner’s tactician on the victorious Freedom in 1980, is helping America II tune up for the races. . . . Four Eagle crewmen, Mike Pentecost, Joe Dwyer, Riaz Latifullah and Mike Toppa, posed for a British sailing calendar. . . . John Bertrand, the skipper of Australia II in ‘83, is retired but has been sailing it again as Aussie IV’s trial boat. . . . Updated odds on U.S. boats by America’s Cup Report have America II favored at 5-2, followed by Conner 3-1, Eagle 16-1, Heart of America 20-1 and Golden Gate 25-1. Courageous is off the board. . . . Heart of America tucked up her stern to reduce waterline length so she could add sail area within the 12-meter formula. Skipper Buddy Melges is thinking that the wind might not blow as hard as anticipated.