Soaring Hopes for Eagle Dashed Once Race Began

I motored a brother-in-law from Canada recently on a tour of Newport Harbor in my Herald Bird. On passing that venerable Newport Harbor Yacht Club I suggested we observe a moment of silence for our poor Eagle Syndicate.

The 12-meter Eagle, on which so many local hopes and millions of dollars were lavished, lies near the bottom of the list of also-rans in the America’s Cup race off Fremantle, Australia.

I’ve tried not to show my prejudice for Eagle, but I suppose there’s no harm now. She was a lovely vessel that somehow failed to race as well as she should.

She is good for nothing more than racing. Her hull, as with all America’s Cup 12-meters, is nothing more than a container for sails and lines. There is no galley, not even a head. All civilized amenities that we common sailors expect have been subordinated to the single-minded objective of speed in order to bring the ornate, old America’s silver cup to the clubhouse on the Balboa Peninsula.

Oh, how I yearned to see that Victorian relic resting here in a NHYC showcase. How I had pinned my wishful hopes on Eagle to outsail the Aussies and proudly carry home the Cup.

Nautical second-guessers are sitting around yacht club bars espousing theories about what ailed Eagle: She didn’t fly right because of poor tactics; her keel had a hump or valley in the wrong places; it was set too far forward or too far astern; her rudder was hung a bit too high or too low; her sails were cut wrong, or her crew hadn’t put it all together. The obvious fact is Eagle’s flight was aborted somehow. I shall leave the reasons for her failure to the designers and those who sailed her. They know, profiting by the knowledge to be put to good use for another attempt, if there is money in the coffers to do so.

All I can say is I’m deeply sorry.

The challenge contenders have been reduced to four--New Zealand, Stars & Stripes, USA and French Kiss. The top boat is New Zealand, which had assured herself a place in the semifinals by the middle of the series. Even the prestigious New York Yacht Club’s America II is out in the cold, for the first time in more than a century. If I had to predict the outcome of the final Cup race, I’d probably favor New Zealand, with perhaps a little hedging for the Aussies’ Kookaburra.

Still, that old campaigner, Dennis Conner, may surprise us and bring the Cup home to the San Diego Yacht Club with his Stars & Stripes. That wouldn’t displease me at all. I’d like to see the Cup on the West Coast for a welcome change, even if it won’t be at NHYC.

Sailing Notes

Boardsailer David Stanger of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has won the men’s heavyweight division of the 1986 Volkswagen Alpha World Championships. Luke Baldauf of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, has won the men’s lightweight class. Jorunn Horgen of Lyngun, Norway, has won the women’s title. Hobie president, Doug Campbell of Oceanside, said next year’s boardsailing world championship will be at the Canary Islands off northwest Africa.

Ten pleasure boats with a total value of more than $60,000 will be given away during the 31st annual Southern California Boat Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center Jan. 30 through Feb. 8. The show is produced by the Southern California Marine Assn., headquartered in Orange.

The first vanguards of the California gray whales are passing our coast on their way to the warm calving lagoons of Baja California. For information on whale-watching trips, which begin Dec. 26 and run through April 2, call (213) 832-4444.