America’s Cup Notebook : Syndicates at Odds While Getting to Core of Things

The Eagle upheaval and dry-land sparring among America’s Cup challengers has kept things interesting until the second round of trials starts Sunday off Fremantle, Australia.

Dennis Conner, who has a sailor’s knack for finding the center of a storm, said last week that the vote to take core samples of New Zealand’s fiberglass boat was 8-3 in favor, one short of the two-thirds needed from the 13 challengers. USA’s Tom Blackaller was absent, and one syndicate was believed to have abstained.

But Tom Ehman, executive director of Sail America, disputes Conner’s count.

“I don’t know how they could know that,” Ehman said by phone after returning home to Newport, R.I. “It was a secret ballot and the votes were counted in secret and never announced.”

The only announcement was that the measure hadn’t passed. Without saying how America II voted, Ehman mentioned that Buddy Melges’ Heart of America and Canada II had both said publicly that they would vote against it, and it’s assumed New Zealand did. Ron Young, Golden Gate general manager, indicated that Blackaller did have conflicting business but didn’t go out of his way to get there, either.

“Tom’s not going to stand up for anything Dennis Conner is doing,” Young said. “Everybody fights their own battles.”

Once the second round starts, nobody is allowed to change boats so, legal or not, New Zealand will continue to campaign KZ7.

A San Francisco TV station did a special program on Blackaller’s boat, titled, “USA, the Secret Down Under.”

The secret is supposedly the underside of the boat, but it’s the worst-kept secret in Fremantle. Everybody knows the boat has rudders fore and aft. They just aren’t sure how they work.

So far, they seem to be working quite well. USA was 8-4 and won its last seven races in the first round, although Blackaller kept complaining about steering problems.

Ehman said: “You wonder how much is smoke and how much is a problem.”

Conner said that USA was putting on a deeper forward rudder between rounds because the original has been lifting out of the water going upwind in a chop.

“We haven’t said we’re doing anything like that,” Young said from Golden Gate Challenge headquarters in San Francisco. “We are changing the steering mechanism, (but) he’s wrong about it coming out of the water. He doesn’t understand the physics of it. A lot of people misunderstand our concept. People are guessing about what the boat does.”

When turning, the aft rudder angles in the opposite direction, like any conventional rudder, while the forward rudder turns the other way to lead the boat through the tack. But Young was evasive when asked whether the rudders are controlled independently or in unison through a complex linkage.

He did say, though, that it was something like steering a hook-and-ladder fire truck, which requires a separate driver in the rear.

What rivals do know is that USA is the only 12-meter in Fremantle without a winged keel. And they also concede that USA may be the fastest boat downwind.

“Remember, this is not a sailboat race,” Young said. “It is enterprise and technology.”

Ehman said America II is sending a new keel to Fremantle from Connecticut at a cost of $100,000, including shipping and handling, but it’s only experimental.

They’ll try it out on one of their two backup boats “as part of an ongoing process,” Ehman said. “We’re extremely happy with the posture of (US) 46.”

America II never considered selling one of its extras, US 42 and 44, to forlorn Courageous, which quit after the first round.

“We need all three boats,” Ehman said. “It wouldn’t be fair to our guys that worked up those boats to go out and sail against them. Besides, you’ve got to have two boats to tune up against.”

Courageous IV, the proud protector of the America’s Cup in 1974 and ‘77, suffered its lowest blow yet Thursday when bailiffs in Fremantle seized it because of unpaid bills.

The same fate may await other 12-meters that prove too slow in the challenger trials. The West Australian Supreme Court announced that Courageous IV had been seized under a warrant issued to a company claiming it is owed $15,600 in charter and towing fees.

Courageous IV, which was withdrawn from further competition after losing 11 of 12 races in the first round, is sitting on a hoist on the America’s Cup dock.

Syndicate executives have returned to the United States, and no representative was available to comment.