America’s Cup Trials : America II, New York Yacht Club Reach End of Their Challenge

Since 1851 when the clipper ship America brought a smallish silver ewer home from Britain, the New York Yacht Club has been as much as part of the America’s Cup as fish are a part of the sea.

No more.

The NYYC, often seen as imperious and overbearing in its conduct of cup defenses, lost its grip when Australia II removed the prize from its bolted-down base in 1983. On Sunday, the New Yorkers disappeared over the horizon with America II’s 15-second loss to New Zealand’s KZ7.

The result, coupled with USA’s defeat of French Kiss by 1:51, established the four semifinalists in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials: Currently in order, New Zealand, Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes, USA and French Kiss.

They will sail best-of-seven series starting Dec. 28. New Zealand, 32-1 and winner of its last 23 races, will meet the fourth-place boat, which will be determined when it sails against USA today.

USA skipper Tom Blackaller relishes a match against rival Conner, but he’ll have to beat the Kiwis today to arrange it, unless Italia upsets French Kiss on the final day of the trial rounds.

The irrepressible San Franciscan said: “We’d really like to meet big Dennis first.”

The Kiwis were in position to determine their own matchup and keep USA out of the semis by losing to America II. Blackaller had even bet them $5,000 that America II would win, just to discourage such a notion.

But skipper Chris Dickson, his blue eyes piercing at any suggestion to the contrary, said: “There’s never been any doubt in our minds about how we were going to handle that race, or any race in the past or future. We’re out there to win every race.”

Then he turned to Blackaller, seated next to him.

“Having won that race, Tom, there’s a little question of 5,000 U.S. dollars which BNZ Challenge would be more than happy to take off your hands.”

Actually, Blackaller had said “5,000 Aussie dollars (about $3,250 U.S.)” the night before, but he didn’t argue.

“I’m deeply indebted to the BNZ,” he told Dickson. “Happily so.”

Dickson: “We’d actually prefer that Tom wasn’t indebted to the challenge.”

In other words, pay up.

“I have a few dollars, Chris,” Blackaller said.

“How many dollars have you got?”

“Seven. You want that? No, I’ve got 12. Here’s the first 12.”

Dickson, accepting the down payment, was asked how he would like to face Blackaller and his fast, twin-ruddered boat in the semifinals.

“We’re actually gonna face each other tomorrow,” he replied.

Blackaller: “I’ve gotta win my money back.”

Dickson: “Is it double or nothing on tomorrow?”

Blackaller buried his head in his arms and surrendered, laughing.

“It’s not often you see Tom Blackaller back down, is it?” Dickson concluded triumphantly.

There weren’t many laughs until the America II people--skipper John Kolius, tactician John Bertrand and general manager Bill Packer--had departed the press conference. Nobody seemed to gloat a great deal over the New York Yacht Club’s demise. Those three in particular are respected, popular people among the sailing fraternity, and they took the loss hard.

An old Australian adversary, executive director Warren Jones of the Alan Bond syndicate, said earlier: “Well, quite frankly, I feel quite sad about it. It’s a cutthroat business and they’ve got to swallow their medicine, but who would have envisaged anytime up until the last week or two that they wouldn’t have made the semifinals?

“They are probably as well prepared a syndicate as anybody that is here. They’ve been here longer. They’ve prepared fastidiously, but obviously their boat simply wasn’t fast enough.”

The difference was that after the first two rounds, America II, the end product of a three-year, $15 million, three-boat development program, never got any better, slipping to 6-5 in the third round (with today’s walkover against withdrawn Challenge France) as Conner and Blackaller cranked up to 8 and 2 when the wins counted most: 12 points each.

“We were ready to sail when the first round started (Oct. 5) and we made the boat look better than it was,” Kolius said. “If I come back, I’m not gonna put near as much effort into it. I’m gonna be like Tom (Blackaller) and try to get a gimmick.”

Blackaller pounded the table in amusement. Kolius’ heart ached, but he still had his Texas dry wit.

So did Packer, a John Wayne-lookalike from Philadelphia who admitted that the syndicate’s exhaustive study of local conditions--expressly, the wind they call the “Fremantle Doctor”--failed to pay off.

“We’re gonna sue the doctor for malpractice,” Packer said.

But Kolius was poignant when he concluded: “The New York Yacht Club is not just an entity that’s running around like an ogre. There are a lot of people with hopes and dreams that came to an end tonight . . . real, live people that shed a lot of tears down at the dock tonight. They put in a lot of time and money and gave it their best shot.”

Blackaller sympathized but, like most old America’s Cup campaigners, was not sorry to see the NYYC fade away and with it an arbitrary system of selection that probably would have sunk his radical, slow-developing boat early on. Under the old NYYC system, the club would “observe” the Cup trials and excuse teams when and as its members say fit.

“That old system of the New York Yacht club is so awful and horrible and terrible that I hope it never happens again to any club ever,” Blackaller said.

“The difference between the New York Yacht Club defense trials and selection committee thing and this is like night and day. This is real honest-to-God racing. This (is) the fairest sailing series I’ve ever been in in my life, and I’ve been in some 4,000 sailboat races.”

With at least five more to go.

America’s Cup Notes In Sunday’s critical race, sailed in shifty winds of 8 to 20 knots, America II was a surprise leader by 22 seconds at the first mark and held on tenaciously against the faster New Zealand boat until the Kiwis powered ahead on the third windward leg. They were still tacking ferociously until the finish line. . . . Dennis Conner quietly won his fourth race in a row, 4:11 over Azzurra, to clinch second place.