California’s Cup?

If the America’s Cup should come back to the United States in 1987, it will come to California and not to its accustomed berth at the New York Yacht Club. The first three rounds have been raced by the sleek 12-meter boats in the Indian Ocean off Fremantle, Australia, and the list of America’s Cup challengers has been reduced to four. Conspicuously not among them was New York’s America II, eliminated with a 15-second loss to New Zealand on Dec. 14.

Semifinals will begin Sunday, and the surviving challenger then will try to wrest the cup back from the Australian boat chosen to defend the cup.

The four remaining challengers are Stars & Stripes from the San Diego Yacht Club, USA of San Francisco’s St. Francis Yacht Club, New Zealand and the French boat Kiss. A third California boat, Eagle, which is sponsored by the Newport Harbor Yacht Club and did its early training out of Alamitos Bay in Long Beach, was eliminated after the first two rounds ended Dec. 15.

The semifinals will consist of best-of-seven series matching the two California boats while New Zealand sails against Kiss. The California match-up will pit old rival skippers: Stars & Stripes’ Dennis Connor and USA’s Tom Blackaller. Connor lost the cup to the Aussies at Newport, R.I., in 1983. Remember the secret winged keel?

But bringing the cup back from Down Under will be no easy task. New Zealand, the only fiberglass entry, is the early favorite after compiling a 32-1 record in the first rounds. Its only loss was to Connor’s San Diego boat (27-7). The San Francisco entry was 23-11.

Few tears were shed for the New York Yacht Club because of the relatively imperious manner in which the club ran America’s Cup races, and selected U.S. defenders, in the past. The NYYC was perhaps the best-prepared challenge syndicate, and few expected America II not to make the semifinals. But all the preparations just could not make the boat go fast enough.

So America’s hopes for America’s Cup rest with California teams. But there is plenty of racing ahead. For now, we’ll just ask for fair winds and good sailing.